Nasty, disgusting, low-life slug!!!

[Vivid Color Zack]

Can you lay it all out for us without giving away too much?

I'm sure others are curious about exactly what happened.

[Patrysha]

I have no problems sharing the details of the campaign.

The campaign that was copied was quite basic. It's the simplicity of it that makes it work so well really.

And I personally think it is based on a great premise and I have no concerns about anyone taking the idea and making it their own. It is just this particular competitor using it that steams me because of the backstory behind the rivalry between my client and this particular competitor.

For every purchase made at the business, 2% of the sale goes to a community organization (charity/non-profit) of the buyers choice from a list of organizations registered with the business.

One of the challenges with being a small business owner of any type in a small town is the many community organizations who walk in wanting donations, sponsorship and so on. Of course, it's hard to decide which ones to give to and which ones to pass on and when to stop giving when it gets to be too much. So we set up this program so that my clients wouldn't have to say "No" but would be protected from giving away too much.

There were other strategic factors involved too...but that's the gist of it.

We launched the program at the local Trade Show and sent out press releases in advance of the announcement and included it in their advertising through the month of May to encourage non-profits to sign up and start getting clients used to telling them who they want the 2% donated to.

[Blessed]

One of my clients had something similar happen - she owns a Just Between Friends franchise in the area and some people thought she was making money hand over fist so decided to start their own consignment sale - copying most of the marketing and ideas behind the JBF franchise.

JBF's lawyers sent threatening letters and the copycats changed the wording enough to get past the copyright infringement stuff. But for my client the problem remained that they rented the same space, donated to the same charity and etc... so we found a better location and additional charities to benefit and some more marketing options and at the last sale she about a 30% increase in sales from the previous sale so I think it's working...

[KristineS]

I've had this kind of thing happen to me too in the past. It's always hard and my first instinct is always to get angry, but then I do what you did, Patrysha, and just figure out how to be better, and make things harder to steal, the next time. Unfortunately there will always be people who steal ideas and creative and content. It's too bad really, but that's they way it is.