“Companies seek to counter their competition in a variety of
ways–pricing, packaging, branding, etc. There are a lot of options
and any good product manager will know them well. One of the
toughest situations to be in is that of competition, with the usual
responses, when you are up against a competitor using the natural
forces of the market place. Marketers refer to these tectonic
shifts as ‘shocks,’ because they are unusual events. They change
the way the game is played, and once that change is made, there is
usually no going back. The change is structural. Discerning whether
the change is strategic and a market force, or just a tactical move
by competitor can be difficult at first. The majority of the time
change is gradual. It often takes hindsight to reveal it as a
fundamental shift…”
Related Story:
Free
Software Magazine: Every Engineer’s Checklist for Justifying Free
Software(Jan 13, 2005)