“Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.”
You may have heard this quote before, and I’ve seen it mis-quoted as
imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
The idea is that by imitating a company, you are paying them a compliment. It could also mean you are trying to show them a better way to do something – and often, the imitator really does know more or do it better.
But how does all this relate to business? Here’s another quote that might be more apropos:
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”
- Pablo Picasso
If you want to make money at something, you can either be a great innovator or a great thief – but most likely you’ll be a little of both. If you look at all the great business leaders of the day, you’ll see that they took an existing idea and improved upon it’s original purpose or implementation.
Want an example? Apple is a prime example (Steve Jobs, specifically). There are many “improved” products from this company, but the most obvious is the iPod. MP3 players were around for quite some time before Apple decided to take all the best ideas, simplify them, and package all the existing ideas into a sleeker (sexier!) package. It became a best-seller.
There’s really nothing new under the sun (to quote Solomon). What sells is when you do the same thing as everyone else…better. Or make it seem new. It happens in everything from music (remember when Nirvana became popular?) to coffee (Starbucks) to clothing (styles often come back when a designer “refreshes” a look).
So what can you do? Stop trying to think of totally new concepts, and – instead – think of something that already exists and see if you can do anything to either…
- make it lookfresher
- make it sound fresher
- make it seem exotic
- make it more exclusive
- make it do more
It can simply become a matter of combining the functions of two or more products. Or, it could be a matter of simplifying a product to do only one thing – but do it well. (37signals is the master of doing this.)
So, next time you think “I should make one of those. I can do it better…” remember: Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
Stumble it!