原文:http://www.sitepoint.com/article/dont-duplicate-differentiate

In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, the demand for specialized products and services has also increased. If your business sells everything to everyone, chances are that your audience will not see any reason (eg. greater value) to buy from you rather than anyone else. In an homogenous market, price becomes the only metric by which visitors can compare you to others.
当今市场竞争逐渐加大，对些特殊产品以及服务也随之增加。如果你的业务是将每样东西卖给每一个人，那么可能你的用户会找不到任何理由来买你的东西而不是别人的(那些更专业的)。在一个同质的市场中，价格成为了区别你和其他人的唯一尺度(东西相同拿价格来区分你我)

When Price is all That Matters…

当所有价格为准…

When you compare apples to apples, the only point of comparison is price, as this is the only real, visible distinction between the apples from two different suppliers. Thus, if your product’s value is perceived as equal to that of others, naturally the cheapest alternative will win.
当你比较两个苹果时，唯一的却别标准是价格，正如同两者来自不一样的供应商一样，都是很明显的区分。因此，如果你的产品价值被认为和其他供应商的产品同质，自然那个价格最便宜的供应商就会获胜。

Price in itself is not important – it’s merely an arbitrary figure that represents the value of an offering. It only becomes an issue when there’s no other factor that the customer can use to gauge your product’s value. Of course, price is not the only metric. But most people understand units of dollars more than they do value, which is a more subjective concept. Therefore, if your offering’s too similar to those of your competitors, price will always be an issue.
它自身的价格并不重要 – 这只不过是任意数字来代表它所能体现的价值。当没有其他可让客户用来估计你的产品价值时它才会成为问题。当然，价格不是唯一的价值衡量标准。但大多数人懂得价格往往会高出他们自身的价值。因此，如果你的东西与你的竞争者有太多的雷同，那么就可能出现价格问题(价格的竞争).

Economics shows us that these rules are true:
经济学将这些规律展现在我们的眼前:

  • The more unique you are, the less competition you will have.
    你的东西越独特，你所会遇到的竞争压力就越少
  • The less competition you have, the less substitutable you (or your product) is.
    你所遇到的竞争压力越少，那么你(或是你的产品)可能被替换的可能性就越少
  • The less substitutable you are, the less elastic the demand for your product will be and therefore, the less important price becomes.
    因此价格问题就不容易出现

So, if you’re copying your competition, or trying to promote your offering as one that’s better than those of competitors, you’re only reminding people of that which you are better than: your competition. So, don’t duplicate, differentiate! Or as Earl Nightingale once said, “Don’t copy, create!”
所以，如果你要效仿你的竞争对手，或是尝试去将你的产品比竞争对手做的更出色，那你所要做的就是仅仅是让人们意识到你比你的竞争对手更出色。因此不要复制而是应该有所突出点（和别人不同的地方）！就像夜莺伯爵说的那样“不要模仿，去创作！”

Homogenous Products Take More Work To Sell

同质产品在销售上会花更多的工作

Being all things to all people will probably help you to stumble upon a few potential customers who will visit your site and respond to your offer. It’s the law of averages. But the underlying problem is that, with such an approach, you must generate a substantial quantity of hits in order to produce an acceptable sales result.
使你的网站有尽可能多的内容，这样的话，你潜在客户就会出现并与你联系。但这样所带来的问题是，通过这样的一个途径，你就必须生产有实质性数量的产品来达到销售的目的。

Given that you want to appeal to as many people as possible, the greater the need will be to paint your Website, content and marketing messages with broad brushstrokes. And in the end, the traffic generated will be just as general or broad – and they probably won’t have particular characteristics (such as a strong need for your product).
既然你想吸引更多的人，那么你的网站就得花费更多的时间来充实其内容以及买卖的信息。最后，流量将趋于大众或是很一般 – 而且它们没有什么很特别的地方（如是这样你需要一个强有力的产品）

Even if your product is a perfect fit for some, it will only be perfect for a small percentage of potential customers. Also, the degree of “generalness” your marketing efforts will have to project in order to attract so many ‘prospects’ will probably convey that the value of your offering is equal to that of others – suggesting that there’s no added value in buying from you. In this case, price is the metric that your prospects will use to measure the value of your product.
虽然你的产品对于一些人群来说是完美的，但这样也仅仅对于一小部分潜在客户来说是完美的。