Here are some of the best blog posts I’ve read in the last two weeks.
When Simple Is Stupid - by Robert Phillips
Is your marketing process overly simple? Are you open to being knocked off by a savvy competitor? In this post, Robert talks about th…

I abide by the K.I.S.S. principle and have a slightly different look at this: I don’t think that even if your business model is ’simple’ you have to be afraid it is copied easily. Expertise in the area of your trade, supplying spectacular customer service only you can do is hard to ’simply’ copy as a model no matter how simple your business model ’seems’.

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

[Karin,

Good point. I also made that same point in the article.

"...simple might be stupid. The exception being if you have some other competitive advantage that can’t easily be copied..."

That would include things such as expertise and spectacular customer service.

Robert]

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

[Andrew,

That makes sense...I think but I'm not exactly sure what it means. After all, I'm no Einstein. Don't overthink things?

Robert]

I’ve considered the whole idea of having a complex business model in my own copywriting business.

Of course, nobody can be me, so that’s one advantage right there. But there are other things I’ve done so as to be less duplicatable.

Growing up in KMart’s backyard here in SE Michigan we had an up close and personal experience with KMart’s demise. They might have been fat, happy and lazy at one time, but that was a very long time ago; at least 35 years.

The Blue Light’s decline was long, slow, and consistent. Along the way there were many, many internal reorganization plans proposed and implemented. And all of them failed.

And for some time WalMart wasn’t even in direct physical competition with KMart. In its early growth phases WalMart shunned major urban and suburban markets for America’s hinterlands, where land was cheap and competition weak.

By the time WalMart came to the cities KMart was already in the throes of death.

Heck, KMart was so badly run that I often think that it really didn’t matter WHO the competition was. The majority of its’ wounds were self-inflicted.

[Dave,

Thanks for the comment. Glad you like the blog. There was a K-Mart in the small town I grew up in (Valparaiso, IN) which I think is still open but I'm not certain. Wal-Mart came to town a few years ago so whenever I'm visiting I just go to Wal-Mart. I didn't give my example as much thought as you did but you're probably right.

Robert]