First on market (was RE: radical revamping of techpubs)

[Technical Writer]

"Branding" also refers to "We are your friends and neighbors. You should pay me twice as much as Wal-Mart because we went to the same high school." The term is used to refer to an association between idea and product. Coke is a good example, as are crescent wrench, visegrips, and a dozen others--an automatic association between the concept and the brand.
 
The point is that customer service is not worth paying extra. It is nice if you can get it at the same price, but people seem more inclined to look at price first, then quality, then customer service.  The latter two are nice to have, but not at the expense of the first. Yes, there are exceptions. No, they don't change the basic scenario at all.
http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites> Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:55:25 -0700> To: tekwrytr at hotmail.com> From: john at hedtke.com> Subject: RE: First on market (was RE: radical revamping of techpubs)> > At 03:50 PM 10/19/2007, you wrote:> >Sony made buckets of money on beta. Their strategy is heavily > >weighted to the first mover advantage. THey are not particularly > >interested in the nickle and diming of the followers.> > That they did. The problem as I see it is that it was the cost of > their licensing agreements that led to the displacement of a higher > quality product (Beta) with the > poorer-but-more-accessible-and-affordable product, VHS.> > >Wal-Mart reference was that small businesses adjacent to Wal-Mart > >cannot survive on customer-centric service, high quality, and > >branding, not that Wal-Mart offered such.> > I'm not sure I quite understand this one. I would've thought that > these would be the only tools they'd have to compete with (well, > maybe not branding--the Wal-Mart brand's right up there with Coke for > recognizability) since they cannot compete for price. Would you > elaborate, please? > 
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