Hyper-competitive? Your gene's going dormant

How are hypercompetitive companies just like political extremists? They identify themselves in terms of caricatures they've created of the counter extreme. In the corporate milieu, this means the competition. If you've ever tuned into Air America radio, then dialed over to any of the right-wing zealots bloviating on their talkshows, you know what I mean. For these blow-hards, left and right, the bozos on the "other side" are trying to "take our country away from us" and the "media" is aiding and abetting them. It's not the most persuasive technique. In marketing, the hypercompetitive vendor behaves similarly. It's obsessed with the competition -- the other side -- rather than the customer. First, it creates a ridiculous cartoon that depicts the hapless, inept, slightly shady competition. Then it proceeds to bash them as if this will cast it in a more favorable light. There is something vaguely primitive going on here. Like trying to make evil spirits go away by ridiculing them. The question is, what do customers think about this? Consider your own reaction when a competitor badmouths another. Are you disposed to buy a Toyota if you hear them blatantly disparage Ford or Honda? If IBM rolled out a campaign calling attention to H-P's stumbles, would you think the better of Big Blue? Not that any of the aforementioned are hypercompetitive. But many technology vendors fall into this trap. It's symptom of a marketing gene going bad. It's a total inside-out view of the world. It's a trait you need to purge as soon as you detect it. An active gene enables detection. But in full expression, the gene prevents hypercompetitiveness to begin with..