Copying Used To Be Hard, Now It's Easier Than Ever. Make Your Brand Stand Out, Not Blend In
While your competitors are using AI to copy faster than ever, the companies that will survive the next decade are the ones building what can't be replicated
For many years, copying has been hard; it's hard work.
There are many copycats who emerged, examining your code and then incorporating slight tweaks into their product. In a few months, everything looked the same, but sometimes it felt different.
What made it feel different - brand…
Proven Model
Small examples exist: I remember finding traffic being sent from a competitor site when they copied the code and forgot to rewrite the URLs on the buttons, it turned out that whole chunks of code were copied and pasted on a competitor's site.
Large examples exist every day: Copying is (financially and morally) cheap; it has been cheap for many global businesses. There are huge businesses from the US, Europe, and China that specialise in copying large businesses and localising them, and in some instances, beating out the major players.
Copy Social?
Look at recent trends, a makeup look, a hairstyle (the bob), wearing crocs in public, popular trainers/sneakers (Adidas Samba) or a popular product are copied at lightning speeds thanks to FYPs and algorithmic feeds.
Many copy their favourite Instagram account or copy TikTok videos and for a while it creates a level of popularity.
But…Why do so many people love creators, influencers and KOLs for prolonged periods of time, often it is their personality and, ultimately their brand.
Just Copy?
I vividly remember a former boss telling me just to copy a former competitor because he was told they run hundreds of tests per month and whatever they ship must be the best.
You know what he wasn’t entirely wrong but you know why copying wouldn’t have worked for us, their Product features and the approach didn’t fit with our brand, it often were surface-level changes, and it would negatively impacted the way we differentiated.
If you pay close attention to AI tools and major models they copy each other with every update, they are smart at enabling free features and gating features forcing you into their ecosystem.
Screenshot To App Store
Now you can upload screenshots, and in a short prompt, you can have an almost working replicator of almost any website.
You can build a clone app from a simple enough prompt and with some development, you could submit it to the app store for approval and start generating money.
It kind of works, pushing the app, ranking it and Marketing isn’t exactly easy, quicker maybe, but easy no (oh and apps are rarely downloaded anymore apart from a handful of utility-based apps)
Simple enough?
The AI Promise
Generative AI makes it even easier to copy than ever before, LLMs (Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude) do it already, Figma recently joined the trend, alongside loveable, cursor and v0 are making revenue from allowing screenshots and prompts to remix existing websites, apps and games within minutes.
AI is full of promise; it has accelerated many elements of development, enabling automation and in some PR instances, enabled many large rounds of layoffs, so the question I have been asked frequently is;
“What do we do now?”
AI is flooding industries with options, we know humans struggle with options and operate better with fewer options not more.
Some companies go too early (bad timing), some overly productise their company (they are known for a product and cheaper or faster alternatives replace them), some performance brands became one-and-done products that were replaced after one buy, and others simply can’t last the test of time - all of these will be true in the future, likely at a quicker pace.
AI is going to optimise everything, but what will stand the test of time, a feeling, an experience, random experiments, all these things will have an opportunity to build brands.
Don’t Stop Believing - Ways To Build Your Brand In The Age Of AI
Created a genuine (authentic is over-used) brand - create genuine experiences, embrace that you will be a taste to trust or touch to trust brand and create experiences around this, enrich experiences, be a brand not a bland!
Products you touch, wear or consume - this won’t be for every company, but products that will make you stand out and will be hard for your competitors to copy on top of what they do already, will help you to connect. Some smart companies have gone back in time and created highly produced magazines or physical books. If you can build an extension to your brand with something to wear and act like a billboard, that's an added bonus.
Gamify experiences - creating badges, mini awards and creating leaderboards are all ways you can stand out. Everything is circular, and we are still driven by gamification and small rewards.
Offline and IRL - micro-moments matter in our feed-driven world. Companies struggle to create micro-moments away from the purchase dopamine kick and opening of products or using/consuming the product. Many successful brands have spotted this and created their own moments through offline activities. What many companies struggle with is building events, connecting their customers and partners in offline communities. Some brands have created momentum with run clubs, unique dating events and awards.
Other brands have been successful with brand moments including: the opening of stores, immersive VR tournaments, loyalty card special events, pop-up members-only cafes, drops and customer-first product releases, developer events, conferences and unconferences and reimagined fashion shows.
Events can scale well and deliberately scale down well, from intimate events with a handful of invitees, to huge events with 10000+ people paying hundreds to thousands to be there.
Can your office become something that customers can leverage (Santandar is an example with their co-working space in London), could your office grounds be used for different events, could an used space become a podcast studio, a creator space, a place for tournaments…
Innovate - innovation should happen and go without saying, however, all too often it is overlooked and underappreciated. Keep building unique connective products. If you are a local or national brand, you should leverage this. If you are a long-standing brand with history, dip back into your archive, connect back with retro and nostalgia and create another cycle of cultural impact.
Scale the unscalable - It is rarely said anymore, but something that will make you stand above the crowd and reduce the ease of copycats is scaling something others see as unscalable. Maybe this is from customer support, maybe this is how you send personal messages, how you connected with a mascot or internal person (or persona) as a personal concierge…
Develop and stick to long-term strategy - my biggest bugbear of the last decade, is companies flip-flopping on their strategy, tactics can and should change regularly, channels should change and switch on and off, but strategy should rarely change. Be confident and stubborn on strategy, you can do this with rigour, my recommendation is to think (deeply) 5 years, plan 3 years ahead, and execute 1 year.
Yes, AI is a major disruptor, but you are making strategic bets with real thought, research, insight and data, AI shouldn’t disrupt this too much if you are keeping on top of data and know how to leverage AI features and developments in the right areas.
Build a story we want to invest in - products, SKUs, and companies are all different to brands, most large brands have had years headstart, and most are generational brands (based down from parents or grandparents from them using it or loving it - my nan used to get little cans of cokes for when we visited). Create a story and continued story of why we want to keep coming back, we want to buy in and invest our money into you. It will be incredibly easy to blend in and not to positively stand out.
Something business operators frequently overlook is human behaviour, consumers will gravitate back towards nostalgia, nostalgic brands and experiences, seeking comfort rather than innovation.
Listen and ignore feedback - we are told to be close to our customers and listen to them, what’s great about the current shape of the internet is being able to listen and see in rich formats what customers love and loathe about our products and services. Something you can do more easily than ever is see what customers of competitors are saying, and where they are failing and optimise your flow to incorporate this.
Then on the other hand, most users only talk about their unique and individual use case, when providing feedback it's prompted (and often paid) or in an unhappy situation and want to provide feedback - the best in Product and Marketing know when to listen and when to ignore. Dare to listen but dare to ignore and drive the product and business forward. A great brand should listen but know when to ignore or delete and build different experiences to improve their experiences.
A theme of question you should be saying in the boardroom:
When AI can replicate everything, what will make customers choose us?
Ways to think long-term and win
Many customers will be ok with not having the fanciest and shiniest features but the features and experience they want
Don’t chase every trend and every meme
Where possible, create art, not content - art makes you have an opinion, will stand the test of time and wants to be hung in a gallery, not just in another content card in a feed
When everyone is copying each other's AI features, make sure you are going to make it stand the test of time
Never stand still, keep building momentum, it's going to matter
Take your customers on a journey, ideally on a co-created journey and gamify it
Don’t be afraid to say “see you soon”, not goodbye to customers
The companies that will thrive aren't the ones with the fastest AI implementation or copying the competitors, they're the ones building what AI can't replicate: authentic human connection, building on cultural relevance, and experiences that create genuine connection and loyalty.
The choice you are going to have to make over the next quarter will likely define your competitive position for the next three years.
Remember, in a world where copying is free, being irreplaceable is priceless.
>> Share this article with your fellow C-Suite or leadership team to ensure you are building for long-term success.
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