How do you guys handle Marketing Copy Cats and blatant plagiarists?

[Daniel J. Mondello]

I don't know about you guys, but my team and I work our asses off to get every possible digital marketing advantage. With one major exception, WE WILL NOT blatantly rip off one of our competitors. End of story. For me it comes down to respect and morals. I don't think it is fair to stand on the shoulders of others and whenever possible my team will try and stay 100% original. I wish I could say the same for the competition in the Boston Marketplace but I can't there are people stealing our ideas and it's spreading.

I am frustrated beyond belief on this topic and I am sure I am not the only one coming up against it. It's almost as if my entire playbook is being photocopied and implemented all over Massachusetts. While I do maintain that the stuff my team comes up with is night day when compared to most of our copy cat competition it upsets us to see our baby bastardized by others.

Not only are they copying our layout but they're copying aspects of our color scheme, design, content, etc. Even the freaking offer is almost entirely duplicated!!!!

So now that I've gotten that off my chest how do you guys and girls handle these kinds of situations? I can't be the only one experiencing this ongoing irritant, can I?

Here's an example of what I am talking about

 

[john.quinn]

I don't know about you guys, but my team and I work our asses off to get every possible digital marketing advantage. With one major exception, WE WILL NOT blatantly rip off one of our competitors. End of story. For me it comes down to respect and morals. I don't think it is fair to stand on the shoulders of others and whenever possible my team will try and stay 100% original. I wish I could say the same for the competition in the Boston Marketplace but I can't there are people stealing our ideas and it's spreading.

I am frustrated beyond belief on this topic and I am sure I am not the only one coming up against it. It's almost as if my entire playbook is being photocopied and implemented all over Massachusetts. While I do maintain that the stuff my team comes up with is night day when compared to most of our copy cat competition it upsets us to see our baby bastardized by others.

Not only are they copying our layout but they're copying aspects of our color scheme, design, content, etc. Even the freaking offer is almost entirely duplicated!!!!

So now that I've gotten that off my chest how do you guys and girls handle these kinds of situations? I can't be the only one experiencing this ongoing irritant, can I?

Here's an example of what I am talking aboutView attachment 1893

Hi Daniel. I feel your pain. The dealership from where I hail was the biggest fish in the local pond as well. At the end of they day, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Continue to document these efforts for both your own management and your OEM management -- there's a certain prestige and certain advantages associated with being the market leader. Keep up the good work!

 

[Daniel J. Mondello]

Hi Daniel. I feel your pain. The dealership from where I hail was the biggest fish in the local pond as well. At the end of they day, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Continue to document these efforts for both your own management and your OEM management -- there's a certain prestige and certain advantages associated with being the market leader. Keep up the good work!

Thanks John!

 

[cbdesign]

As a marketing coach and consultant, it's happened to me many times in the past and in a variety of industries. I have had competitors literally copy my seminar notes directly from the web to resell as local search marketing guides and also copy my offers word for word right down to price. I was also shocked to see this same competitor (after stealing several of my clients) using my customer testimonials for his business at a trade show. He then had the nerve to tell a customer of mine that he has the greatest respect for me (LOL) as he tried to wrestle that one away also.

Yes, it did bother me. There I admit it

however, as said above in another post... it's also flattery.

After some soul searching, and taking inventory of several of my ideas and technologies this competitor copied, I decided to dig in and really continue to develop new ideas and to reinvent what I do. I love innovation and saw this as a challenge to do even better. It reminds me of that show/series that came on years ago where the masked magician revealed other magician's tricks. I watched it fully believing that it would ruin my experience, but was surprised to see several new magicians emerge and making headlines as they pushed themselves to new heights developing newer and more exciting acts.

Keep doing what you do and keep pushing. Use the fact that your ideas are imitated as encouragement to continue growing and use this as an advantage in your ads for further innovation.

 

[Jason]

Hi Daniel!

As others have already mentioned, imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.

But why would someone blatantly copy your stuff? Perhaps it's because the person copying it thinks your stuff looks great and maybe doesn't have the artistic ability, skill-set and/or time to create something on their own.

Just like in any walk of life, there are leaders and there are followers. Congrats, you're a leader!

Another way to say it is that there are Artists, and there are Tracers. Can someone essentially "trace" your work? Absolutely. But just like with art, the reproduction is never quite as beautiful as the original.

Based on the screenshot comparison in your original post, it's easy to tell your piece has some artistic flair and the other is a copy.

Now I do think it's alright to look to others work for inspiration as there really are no original ideas left in this world. However, the key is once you're sufficiently inspired - you use your own ability to improve and embellish the original design or thought to make it your own.

So kick back, relax and enjoy your market position. But whatever you do, don't be a tracer

 

[Jlewis74]

As someon not really in the know with VW I would think this was a templete that they sent to dealers to use but they could change the color layout. Thats what it look like in how close they are. Gotta be fustrating.

 

[Daniel J. Mondello]

Most recent Copy cat findings. This is the same company I complained about in my original post. My team and I created the top special below is one built by a Local Marketing company. URL scheme, Title tags, Color Scheme (hell they even used some of the exact same hex color codes), and layout are a complete clone of our work... Should I send this company a bill?

I am I wrong to be mad as hell about this?

I guess I can't be too mad I mean look how much better our price is! We're $20/month cheaper and at that price you're getting four-wheel drive!

 

[joe.pistell]

Dan, I've been in retail since God made dirt. Plagiarism is a problem in academia, not in Retail. Hell, we have a cute name for it... "Benchmarking".

If you feel violated, copyright it. If you can't copyright it, don't fight it, find out who's copying you and serve his IP some Ling Love

 

[ddavis]

Joe, I'm sure that I saw Ling's website back in the 60's.

 

[ed.brooks]

View attachment 1929
Most recent Copy cat findings. This is the same company I complained about in my original post. My team and I created the top special below is one built by a Local Marketing company. URL scheme, Title tags, Color Scheme (hell they even used some of the exact same hex color codes), and layout are a complete clone of our work... Should I send this company a bill?

I am I wrong to be mad as hell about this?

I guess I can't be too mad I mean look how much better our price is! We're $20/month cheaper and at that price you're getting four-wheel drive!

Color scheme? Really?
Did Jeep.com copy you or is it more likely that you copied Jeep.com? I say move on with your life.