How do you treat your competition? Is your stance more adversarial or friendly?
I’ve noticed two main narratives in how companies view their competitors.
Either it’s a “fight to the death” approach – exactly like what we see between Replit and Lovable (though it seems Replit does more of the provoking 😄) – basically: “We speak badly about our competition.”
Or it’s more motivational: “We speak positively about our competition.” – Tho I do not know whether I have seen some example of this competition, I can see it only in terms of personal branding when people do not want to say bad things about someone, even when they are competitors.
How do you perceive your competition, and how do you approach it?
Is there any significant rivalry among major brands that sticks in your memory?
For me, it has always been Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi or Apple vs. BlackBerry and Microsoft. I try to learn as much as possible about their marketing communication, including how these companies handle their competitors. Feel free to share some good examples.
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@busmark_w_nika I tend to see competition through a systems lens… more like an ecosystem than a battlefield. In my doctoral research, I study how collaboration and information-sharing create what we call relational advantage… where even competitors benefit from collective learning.
When you’re building in emerging spaces like AI and automation… the real challenge isn’t beating someone else… it’s advancing the category as a whole. Sharing insights and approaches builds legitimacy for everyone involved.
I’ve found that healthy competition sharpens innovation… but openness and knowledge exchange sustain it. What starts as rivalry often becomes partnership or inspiration. In that sense… competition becomes a source of co-creation rather than conflict.
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@automations24 Interesting approach, it reminded me an economic topic – complementary competition. It is needed for healthy functioning of the markets :)
Visla
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@mogabr I also like a more friendly way of communication, especially when you try to be unique.
Klariqo AI Voice Assistants
We're friendly but realistic.
In voice AI, we compete with Vapi, Retell, Bland AI - but we also learn from them. They're solving similar problems, just different approaches. They focus on developers, we focus on actual SMBs and SAAS businesses as our end customer.
The "fight to the death" approach only makes sense if you're in a zero-sum game. Most markets aren't. There are enough SMBs who need voice AI that multiple solutions can win.
That said, I think the "motivational" approach can be fake if you're not careful. You don't have to trash-talk, but you also don't have to pretend competitors don't have weaknesses.
Our approach: respect what they do well, be honest about where we differ, focus on our customers.
The best rivalry I've seen lately is Linear vs. Jira. Linear doesn't trash-talk, but they're VERY clear about their philosophy (fast, opinionated, beautiful) vs. Jira's (customizable, enterprise, feature-bloated). That's competitive without being adversarial.
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@ansh_deb I like this one statement, also the example is quite enriching :) I am gonna check Linear :)
I actually think there’s no real competition. Focusing too much on competitors often means a company doesn’t have a clear vision of its own. At the end of the day, anyone in the same space is essentially working toward the same goal: Solving a specific problem in the industry or niche.
That’s why I personally lean more toward collaboration over competition. Sharing insights and finding ways to complement each other often creates more value than trying to “win” against someone.
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@felix_sattler + When you’re too focused on the competition, you can waste time that could be better spent on your own company.
@busmark_w_nika 100% agreed!
Dad Reply
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@prmack I think that ribbing is good for some commercials tho, you need to be very cautious. Borderline is thick.
In most cases, I am friendly with my competitors. At our core, we are trying to solve similar problems for similar people, and likely have similar beliefs and goals. I do not think we are in a zero-sum game. There is plenty of business to go around.
At least most of the time. Every now and again, it's an all-out war to win, but that is rare in most markets today.
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@harleyallaby Who are your competitors? Can you name them?
You can be in hard competition until you respect them, in the end, you didn't know who will buy your company ;)
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@stephane_paillard I need to remember this – be polite because you never know how things are gonna play out.
IXORD
Of course, I treat clients in a friendly manner. They implement in the product what appeals to their clients, and perhaps on the other side, they are also observing you to plan their next move XD
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@ixord Aaa, so you use their knowledge to enhance your product, neat neat :D
IXORD
@busmark_w_nika I am confident that they also use our knowledge to improve their product :)))
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@ixord It is mutual :)
Cal ID
I like friendly competition.
There’s plenty to learn from each other, and a rising tide lifts all boats. Making systems and processes better than your competitors always results in a better experience for users.
Collaboration > conflict any day.
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@sanskarix If competitors are good at you, there is no reason to bring them down. 😅
The "fight vs. friendly" debate is a great way to frame it. In my product strategy work (i.e. not marketing directly, but work that feeds into marketing), I help companies decide this by looking at market maturity and their strategic position. It's less a hard rule and more about choosing the right game to play.
The fight approach is often a calculated choice for a challenger in a mature market. The rules are set, and the goal is to displace the leader by forcing a direct comparison. Collaborative is usually smarter for growing a new category. Your real competitor here is inertia. Sharing insights helps expand the entire market for everyone.
One way I find helpful to look at this is to move beyond comparing features. Useful insights come from looking at how customers achieve their goals with a competitor's product and the reasons they chose it. Where is the process clumsy, confusing, or opaque? Then track that back to your own product to decide how to position it. IMHO, the most effective approach is to champion how you are better at solving those problems, without ever naming the alternative.
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@dorothy_m_danforth That's why I incline towards also companies that are okay to share some things open-source – especially because of the knowledge transfer that supports innovation :)
@busmark_w_nika Agree. That's the confident play. If you don't have sufficient moats to handle collaboration you might not have a long-term viable product. I don't have something to open source, but I'm trying to share things I learn as I go. We all need to pitch in to the set the table, IMO.
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@dorothy_m_danforth I will repeat some words I already used in one of the LinkedIn comments: we need competitors in terms of "increasing" our potential.
If we compete only with 2 or 3 people in our country, the bar can be pretty low in terms of skills, capabilities, etc.
If we compete with a broader sample, we can learn new things and improve ourselves. :)