Sandip Bhattacharya wrote: <Snip>
To be fair to Billy the Gate, all marketing men round the world think the same way, and this practice (of making customers addicted to their products)is actually taught in some way or the other in marketing classes at business schools throughout the world. So while you are at blasting at Billy, take a look at business practices of FMCG companies in the brick and mortar world.
The difference is that in the FMCG world, no single company has created [or probably has been allowed to create] the kind of monopoly that Microsoft has. I can understand Procter & Gamble giving away free toothpaste to kids to get them "addicted", but the fact is that people have a choice, which P&G can't control. Here's how P&G would be anti-competitive:
-> Started threatening toothbrush manufacturers that they would not have access to early releases of the next version of their toothpaste and their brushes might not be compatible, forcing other manufacturers to make brushes which are not compatible with anything but P&Gs toothpastes. This might sound a bit exaggerated, but I think the point comes through.
-> Started threating it's distribution chain that they better stock just their toothpaste or else...
-> Spreads FUD about how other toothpastes are high maintenance, require exceptional technical skills to use and can lead to broken teeth if not used properly, thus leading to a higher TCO. There is fine line between claiming that your product is better and scaring people about other products.
The thing about anti-competitiveness is that, well, it's anti-competitive. It's when you stop improving your products/services in order to compete and start using any/all other pressure tactics to ensure a market position.
Note: I have nothing against P&G.
-- Regards, Varun Varma --------------------------------------- Mindframe Software & Services Pvt. Ltd. http://www.mindsw.com ---------------------------------------
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