A Timely Treatise on "Coopetition"

Ever wonder why there is always a Lowe's Home Improvement store near a Home Depot? Or why CVS and Walgreens always seem to be across the street from each other? There is a term in marketing known as "coopetition" - in which stores or businesses that compete against one another will co-localize in the same area under the assumption that a potential customers that goes searching for a particular store in the area might be lured away to a competing store and vice versa, but ultimately both stores profit because the presence of both stores drives more foot traffic which in turn potentially drives more sales. Hence "coopetition" - business cooperate and compete with each other in the marketplace. And it's not just bricks and mortar - think of how both Coke and Pepsi seem to have identical product offerings, yet both brands continue to thrive.

So it is with my company BioResource International, small growing biotechnology company promoting a novel enzyme feed additive for the animal nutrition market and DSM, big multinational conglomerate marketing a similar enzyme feed additive. Both of us have a protease-based feed additive on the market (Versazyme in our case, ProAct in theirs), and I like to think that we are in some sense "coopetitors" as they educate potential customers that in the future could be our customers and we educate potential customers that they could sell to in the future. What doesn't sit real well with me however, is their claim to be the "first pure protease enzyme feed additive on market", when they well know we were selling product at least a year before their launch in April 2009. I'm all for coopetition and enlarging the pie for all to share, but let's play fair.