Law #9 The Law of the Opposite

The Law of the Opposite says that the #2 player should generally do the opposite of what the #1 player is doing. If you are #2 in your category, you want to be #1, right? Wrong.
You can't choose to be #1, but you can certainly choose to be #3 or #4. The worst thing you can do is to try and beat the #1 player at his own game. Instead, realize that not everyone in the market wants to play that game. Offer those people an alternative. This law is the reason that I humbly assert that Borland's strategy for Delphi is all wrong. For several years, Delphi had been doing a fine job playing Pepsi to Visual Basic's portrayal of Coke.
Delphi is a solid #2 in the market for RAD tools. People like Delphi. It's a highly respected tool. But something has gone terribly wrong. When Microsoft zigged, Delphi should have zagged. VB .NET is a huge discontinuous change from Visual Basic 6. Even now, around two years later, some VB developers are still mad. Not everyone wants to move onto the new .NET platform. Some people need to continue developing traditional Win32 applications for quite a while longer. I'm not saying that those angry VB6 people would have moved to Delphi. But the Law of the Opposite still applies here. Borland should have immediately shifted its message to be the opposite of the leader: "Delphi -- the Win32 RAD tool that isn't trying to force you into something you don't want to do." (Yes, yes, I know that Delphi 9 will still have support for native Win32 targets. The point remains: Borland is weakening itself and its message by refusing to focus.) Interestingly, Borland seems to have repeated this mistake throughout their product line.
The result is that I can't figure out what market position they are trying to have. Is Borland a .NET company or a Java company? Luckily, although their marketing strategy team is MIA, their marketing communications team has saved the day by coming up with "Excellence Endures". Surely a great tagline will take care of all their problems, eh?

Novell Case :

Novell and GroupWise as a #2

A secret to the Law of the Opposite is that you must study the company above you. And once you study it, you must find the weakness and then exploit that weakness.

GroupWise as a #2.

Another secret to the Law of the Opposite is to not attempt to be like the leader, instead attempt to be different.

In order for GroupWise to become the #2 collaboration product on the market, it needs to start acting like the #2. It should never attempt to compare itself as the same, instead it should publicly acknowledge the #1 strength and then use that strength against it.

A few years ago Novell brought me in to do some consulting. I wasn’t paid anything because of my involvement with other 3rd party vendors, but instead was given the opportunity to help craft the marketing message.

The first thing I told them was to start acting like the alternative. I even crafted their marketing message, The #1 Alternative to Exchange. They didn’t stick with it for very long. It wasn’t easy admitting to being #2 and it isn’t easy to sell to management that you are willing to acknowledge the position of the #1.

Marketing is a tough job. It takes courage because often the right course is not necessarily the most politically correct course. And with the position being a revolving door for many organizations it is hard to be consistent with a message.

Right now GroupWise doesn’t really have a message. It doesn’t have a position that is stated and defended. It is just kind of floating along, hoping that it lives without a strong reason for being.

The reason should be shouted from the roof tops. GroupWise is the #1 Alternative to Exchange, and for good reason.

First, to stake out a second place position you have to know the strengths of the leader. Here is where marketing people loose their nerve. You conceded to the enemy the strength of their position. Then you flip it to your advantage and make it work for you.