I was talking with Jaynie Smith, a friend of mine about her new book. “There are all kinds of management books written by all kinds of people. Why is the subject of Competitive Advantage so important?”

“Just because you make a product, doesn’t mean you have a successful business. Just because you take out an ad or create a fancy brochure doesn’t mean you will win. Every company spends marketing dollars, but most of it underperforms. Most marketing doesn’t communicate what is truly important and gets caught up in the blather that sounds like every other company’s marketing stuff.

“And customers are smart. There is the saying that you can’t fool dogs or children. Well, you can’t fool customers either. Most marketing doesn’t connect or communicate anything real.”

“Give me an example?” I asked.

“At our company, quality is number one. We are in business to exceed our customer’s expectations. Please. It doesn’t mean anything.” Jaynie stopped. “But it is more important than that. This is not about fixing bad marketing. This is about competing head to head with worthy opponents who have the skills and resources to beat you, if you let them.

“I tell the story of JTECH, an on-site pager company in Boca Raton, Florida, who successfully brought to market local pagers, used by hundreds of restaurant and retail store chains across the country. It was such a great success that Motorola decided to get into the business. JTECH had to seriously answer two simple questions. Why should our customers do business with us? What do we offer that the other guy doesn’t?

“By making the right choices, JTECH fought off a devastating attack.”

If you are interested, you can read the rest of the story (pdf) and find out how they did it.

Jaynie Smith’s book Creating Competitive Advantage is available now from Barnes and Noble ($16), CEO Read ($16) and Amazon ($13). -TF