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If one was to start from Connaught Place in New Delhi and drive down Panchkuin Marg towards the huge statue of Hanuman (the Monkey God) at the start of Karol Bagh, he couldn’t help but notice numerous sidewalk vendors selling two-wheeler helmets. When I first came to Delhi about 12 years ago, not knowing the name of the road, I used to refer to it as ‘Helmet Boulevard’.
When considering the ‘me too’ phenomenon that crops up in business the following scenario comes to mind with regard to all of those helmet vendors on one road: One small guy must have set up a stand selling helmets. Other vendors of the same passed by and saw people buying product from the initial vendor and decided that he had a good thing going. And it wasn’t long before twenty vendors of the same product (in this case helmets) were set up all along the road.
This happens in all sorts of industries, and the practice is not restricted to India. In essence, when a company creates great success, a lot of ‘me too’ companies pop up diluting the potential market. Take Amway for instance. Amway was established back in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard Devos. They introduced a unique method of direct sales called multi-level marketing (or network marketing) to the American public. Amway and the ‘me too’ companies that copied variations of the concept have taken the industry to over 100 countries worldwide. Many of the ‘me too’ companies are (or were) merely flashes in the pan; none, however, have experienced the longevity and success of Amway.
L.B. Associates (LBA), publishers of Diplomatist Magazine have spawned several ‘me too’ companies in the Delhi National Capital Region of India. We use the word ‘spawned’ because quite a few were established by former team members who used LBA as a springboard to launch their own companies. Dilution of the potential market is something that LBA accepts as part of doing business. It’s the trashy error-ridden quality of some of the publications that these companies put out that gets our goat. I even saw an African publication brought out in or around Year 2005 that displayed the wrong flag of Rwanda on the map of the continent. Rwanda changed her flag in Year 2002. And the poor quality of printing of some of these publications is pitiful. Trash in the market damages the image of the whole industry.
Don’t get me wrong. One of the ‘me toos’ (yes I know that’s not a real word) that LBA spawned is doing pretty well for themselves. They put out high quality glossies that even come pretty close to the proper use of English grammar. They are close to the crest of the national day publication wave that’s been sweeping over the capital since 1996, when L.B. Associates brought out Diplomatist Magazine and their first national day publication for the High Commission of Zambia, titled Zambia at 32. Three of the ‘me toos’ spawned by LBA, as with the Amway analogy, were merely flashes in the pan. They’ve simply disappeared, not having the required panache or staying power.
So what’s the LBA secret to longevity? How do you deal with the ‘me too’ surge? In a nutshell it’s ‘service to clients’ and ‘diversification’. Most of those who deal with LBA will vouch for the quality of service we provide, so I’ll just touch on the diversification aspect. Investment guru Peter Lynch invented the word ‘diworsification’ to describe companies that diversify into areas beyond their core competencies. The non-word ‘diworsification’ refers to the process of adding to one's portfolio in such a way that the risk/return trade off is worsened.
We didn’t need a business guru to tell us that it’s best to stick to core competencies though; our first area of diversification was still in the publishing sector with the launch of Creature Companion – a pet care magazine. Over the four years since its launch LBA has become the virtual voice of the Indian pet products industry. The next area of diversification came naturally. After achieving core competency in the pet industry, in 2007 LBA launched the India International Pet Trade Fair (IIPTF) – the first ever trade fair in South Asia dedicated to the entire pet industry. It was a raving success; the third edition will be held at the end of January 2009. In fact, while attending Interzoo 2008 (in Nuremberg Germany and the world’s largest pet trade fair) and interacting with their organizers, they said, “Yes, we know all about IIPTF”. They expressed interest in joining hands with IIPTF as joint-organizers in the future. We’ll see if that happens.
In the meantime we hope that the trashy ‘me toos’ will learn from the market leaders and clean up their acts for the betterment of the image of the entire industry.
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