Do you ever have potential clients who use a hugely-successful company as their frame of reference for what they want to achieve?
We're often approached with a request that goes something like this:
"We're starting a company that will sell widgets online. It's going to be revolutionary. How much would you charge to build our website? It doesn't need to be complicated. Kind of like an Amazon.com or something simple like that. We just need to sell the widgets."
Grand visions are great, but reality is too. Amazon.com had a little bigger budget than I think most clients that either you or I ever do work for. Additionally, if the client is truly trying to do a new thing, then imitating someone else doesn't position the client as a new thing. It positions the client as an imitator or a "kind of like Amazon" service.
It's helpful to look at a Google or an Apple and try to learn from what they've done, but it's a mistake to assume that because Apple has had huge successes selling a white iPod that consumers prefer all-white electronics. Take a look around, though, and it appears that some companies are thinking this way. I wonder what these companies are going to do now that Apple is selling black iPods.
This "do what the big successful company did and expect the same results" phenomenon shows up sometimes in user interface or website design. Google.com, for example, has a simple, utilitarian interface. Hard to be confused by an interface with one input box and a button, right? But would you say Google.com is very attractive? What about their logo? Will emulating their user interface design make a client's site equally successful? Doubtful.
I found a great article the other day that goes into more detail about this example and discusses Google.com's design. I think it's pretty insightful.
What do you think? How much should a designer or a client try to copy what a larger, more successful company has done?