A Wider Net

Robert Scoble observed that Zooomr CEO Thomas Hawk regularly (and publicly) posts his personal photos on his competitor’s website, Flickr. The question is - is it better to acknowledge that you like and use your competitors products, or to stay loyal to your own products, at least in view of the public?

I remember when Saturn launched - they were forced to drive their competitors cars, but I don’t think they had a forum available to them where they could say that they actually liked them. But the fact that they were openly trying out the competition instead of having to drive their own vehicles was refreshing and made us believe that they may actually learn how to beat the foreign car makers. When Saturn initially launched, they featured the most progressive American car design in years.
These days our patience for corporate dishonesty and forced product loyalty is pretty much worn out. I certainly appreciate an executive who can openly recognize the strengths of their competitor, even to the point of using their products.

But one comment on Robert’s post brought up an interesting point - if the product isn’t meeting the executive’s needs, why doesn’t he improve his product? And does that send a message that their product is inferior? I used to know a guy who worked at Burger King who refused to eat there, dragging me to other joints - and for years that made me wary of eating at Burger King. Reverse brand loyalty is obviously a bad thing, too.
The thing I like about this Zooomr story is that Thomas uses both products personally, and by admitting it we learn he is personally engaged in the industry, aware of his competition and his own products strengths and weaknesses, and big enough to say so.