It's About Learning Not Copying

In the 90s, a friend attended a stunningly lavish wedding in Lahore.

Towards the end of the spectacle which included wondrous décor & a stunning fireworks show, my friend caught sight of a big truck backing up from one of the entrances.

It slowly opened up.

And the kids went ballistic.

The truck had just rolled in a tidal wave of ice-cold "Feast" bars (chocolate ice cream) for everyone in attendance.

It was mayhem.

Since Wall's ice cream was all the rage at those times, the chic wedding soon turned into a free-for-all Call of Duty operation.

This friend quietly took note & decided to replicate it for a wedding for one of his family members.

When that wedding came around & the truck unloaded the goodies, the outcome was hardly the same.

The kids were too busy playing in another corner, the truck was bellowing smoke inside the tent which was annoying guests & since it was a much hotter day, the bars were melting into a goo.

See, feature-to-feature comparison during competitive research is an incomplete exercise.

You need to factor in the target audience the competitor serves, the needs that they fulfill, how that feature sits among their overall UX & nuances in the execution.

It's research after all.

It's about learning. Not copying.