“The Business Resource For Wedding Entrepreneurs”

The harsh yet inevitable truth is that when you create a unique, one-of-a-kind product or service, sooner or later someone might copy your idea. Rather than being offended, you should take this as a compliment. After all, your product or service is interesting and popular enough to be copied. However, it is time to show everyone that no other copy is better than the original. Follow these steps to ensure that your business continues to thrive, regardless of the increasing copy competitors.

1. Own Your Uniqueness, Maintain Quality

The way to keep customers remembering your brand is by creating a memorable logo or having an identity. For example, the well-known fast-food restaurant KFC has the face of Colonel Sanders as its logo and everyone is familiar with the logo even without the name 'KFC' in it. Or, you can also create distinctiveness for the products or services offered with the best quality. To give you an idea, as a wedding invitation vendor, you may use the letterpress technique, which is still rare, so that it becomes your brand's identity. For a reminder, make sure to maintain your quality, so that you don't "lose" to your copy competitors.

2. Continue Making Improvements and Innovations

Having your business idea copied doesn't mean limiting your motivation to create more great ideas. If there's one thing you can learn from being copied is that those, who copy you, don't have your originality. Surprise your customers with even more innovative products and services, and you can even add improvements to the existing product or service. Always pay attention to the feedback that your customers have been telling you, so that you can make the appropriate improvements. Since you already have a built-in market in front of you, you should always make use of this opportunity to make bigger and better products or services.

3. Build and Strengthen Brand Loyalty

The only thing that differentiates you and your copy competitors is the history and awareness that your brand has already established before theirs. This is the perfect time to strengthen your brand and reach out to customers in order to gain their loyalty. You can show off that you are the first one to establish the product or service that you are selling, and display the exact year of when your business started running to show that you have been here for longer than any of those copy competitors. To add, create a loyalty program with special discounts and promotions for loyal customers because maintaining them is, in fact, harder and even more challenging than acquiring new customers.

4. Trademark Your Product or Service

If you don't want your product or service to be copied by other business owners, you can get a patent and brand protection for what you have created. However, this might be a long and expensive process. Another way to protect your brand is to trademark your business logo. Since you are the original creator, customers should be familiar with your logo. By trademarking it, not only are you making it harder for copy competitors to build their brand awareness, you will also prevent any scamming from those creating fake products or services using your logo to lure in innocent customers.

In summary, having your products or services copied by another business is not a backward, it's a step forward. After all, business competition is normal and, in fact, positive. It urges you to be on your toes regarding your tapped market, and also pushes you to innovate and improve.