Catch of the Decade by Gabby Leibovich & Hezi Leibovich

Author:Gabby Leibovich & Hezi Leibovich [Leibovich, Gabby & Leibovich, Hezi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

The first mover advantage

The first one to take a product or service to market is known as the one who has the ‘first mover advantage’. The first mover has an edge and can take time to develop their brand and set up expectations for future competition. Is it better to be first or second to market? It depends. For example, when we launched EatNow, we were seven years behind Menulog, so they had a distinct advantage in that they had an established brand, customers and loyalty.

But second movers can leverage the good and the bad of the first mover's road to success, and can also build on what the first mover has started. We had an advantage in that Menulog had spent a lot of years and money educating vendors about online ordering. No easy feat. Also, we could rectify some of the mistakes they were making that were too difficult or expensive for them to correct.

For example, the machines they used to send orders to restaurants were quite expensive to purchase and the software on them was owned by the hardware company, which charged an expensive licensing fee. Also, only that software company could make any changes to the software, so releasing any new features would have been difficult for Menulog. The high price of the machine and software was being charged back to the merchant to pay for the machine. We saw this as a weakness for Menulog and an opportunity for us. It wasn't easy, and it required hundreds of hours and an unbelievable effort, but we managed to not only source the hardware direct from the manufacturer overseas at a fraction of the price of the local seller, but also to write and therefore own the entire operating software for the ordering machines. We built them so cheaply, we were now able to offer merchants the hardware and software for free, while Menulog was charging them hundreds!

There are other benefits to being second or even third—for example, it's easier to determine whether there's a market from which you can take a slice. Many markets are fragmented and shared among thousands of brands, retailers and sites, both online and bricks and mortar. There is a lot of power in being the first to market, so be first if you can.

If you can't be first, be second—but let's be honest, in many segments of the market if you're not in the top three, you don't really exist.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.