how to make yourself better than the competition..

1. Change the bloody performance metric

If the competition beats you .. then simply report a different metric you are better at. Works amazingly well for research papers.. and recently I noticed that this holds true in the real world also.

e.g. Cingular the network with the fewest dropped calls -- of course if they dont connect you in the first place then the probability of dropping a call is going to be substantially lower than if you connected the call in the first place. Even within this narrowly defined metric, they still have the latitude to alter the definition as they please.

I have nothing particular against cingular just the first time that I have noticed this in mainstream advertising.

2. Put enough qualifiers so that you are the only one in the category ..

Get rid of the competition by defining your position in the market uniquely

examples in the auto industry -- e.g. the best entry-priced mid-size sedan in town, the best selling cars and trucks in north-western alaska etc etc