strategy

Burger King’s new breakfast commercial names the exact McDonald’s product it’s copying. It’s a rare branding move: lean on your competitor’s brand equity and compete on the one difference that’s left — price.

Ante-in features are what the market expects, not what sets you apart. Sony’s PlayStation Move arrives nearly four years after the Wii with the same technology: a lesson in shouting “me, too!” instead of improving on a competitor.

How do you know a product launch has succeeded? When you reach critical mass. Two ways to measure it (share of the market and internal-versus-external customer ratios) and why, when they disagree, you should go with the larger number.

We think of two-sided markets as marketplaces like eBay. But Apple sells the iPhone to consumers and to AT&T, and sells its brand to the manufacturers that build its computers — the middle man between two sides that never meet.