Marketing lesson from the Fugitive

In the opening scene of The Fugitive, Dr Kimble gets some advice or more like a threat from a fellow escapee. The advice is: “whatever you do, don’t follow me.” It struck me that us marketing people can learn from this escapee’s advice. So often all we do as marketers is follow our competition or the latest tactic of the market leader. And what does that do for us? Minus nothing. Not only does it not help us, but it might even help your competitor by reminding people about them. Because if a competitor owns a tactic in the mind, then anything you do with that tactic may work in their favor. The escapee in The Fugitive did not want to be followed because that might increase his chances of getting caught. When you follow your competition, you will get caught and your competitor will escape with market share.