Building a powerful company and creating a leading product or service brand is about something other than emulating the leader and being better. It's about going against the leader and doing something vastly and fundamentally different – often doing just the opposite and narrowing the focus.

Laura Ries on her Origin of Brands Blog wrote a great article about just this concpet, comparing some familiar social network sites.

MySpace vs. LinkedIn

Since the rise of MySpace, hundreds of copycat social networking websites have entered the scene. They all target the same youth demographic. They all work essentially the same way and offer their own spin on the same basic concept. MySpace is still, arguably, the front-runner in its category, due to its strong name and solid strategy, but with all the copycats, it's no longer, shall we say, "owning" its own space. That's business. When something works, everyone wants to copy it. Understandable – but not a good premise on which to build a business.

LinkedIn, on the other hand, took a much smarter approach. Instead of joining the crowd and targeting young, cool kids, it targeted seasoned business folks. By targeting a completely different audience of serious professional white collar workers who want to get ahead by staying in touch, it created its own category. And it built the concept on a refreshingly different design aesthetic and feeling. Unlike the six-things-happening-at-one-time aesthetic of MySpace, LinkedIn is intentionally simple and clean, with no video and a deliberate lack of photo images – it's all business.

Facebook

And how does Facebook fit in? Facebook had the wisdom to do the opposite of MySpace, too. Rather than being all-inclusive, Facebook narrowed its focus to a small exclusive market: college students. In fact, initially, if you weren't a college student you weren't allowed to be a Facebook member. (It's now open to all.) And Facebook's clean and simple design (more like LinkedIn) was a fresh contrast to MySpace's frenetic, cluttered look. Doing the opposite of what MySpace was doing worked well.

Being first to market

So many believe the magic bullet to success is being first to market. Sometimes, being first to market IS a winning proposition, but only if your product or service is both first to market AND a well thought-out idea with a strategy that works.

Let's face it – not all firsts-to-market are memorable. Do you remember the Creative Nomad Jukebox – the "true" first-to-market hard drive style MP3 player, or the superior product and perceived originator of the category, iPod? What was the first car to market? Ford? No, it was the Duryea. It's all about what clicks in the mind. Not first, not even best. But the idea that makes the best connection, has a great name and a strategy to back it up. •

Laura Ries' LinkedIn article can be found on her Origin of Brands Blog.