In the drive for innovation in the UK, imitation is definitely not the finest form of flattery
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We are in the midst of a global innovation crisis. There is certainly no lack of innovation coming from the UK, but it’s harder than ever for small business with new products to make it to market and succeed.
When they do succeed, they are often sabotaged left right and centre from larger, revenue-hungry businesses driven by a need to recover market share rather than improving industry, economy and working practices. Having these issues as drivers for bringing products to market not only suppresses innovative culture, it can be downright dangerous with cheaply made inferior products being offered as suitable alternatives undermining the reasons (which can be tragic events) that drive these products.
LINIAN have had experience of this since we developed and patented a product to prevent premature collapse of cable.
We have had our website and marketing blatantly and unashamedly copied and adapted to sell competitor products for so called “Market Leading” brands. Even using a copy of the famous image of our dad’s hand holding the products to show it off.
Finally, the inevitable has happened and LINIAN have been advised that we are "too small" to do anything about it. Be careful making those kinds of assumptions – our reputation remains intact as a family of born innovators who believe in bringing products to market designed solely with our end user customers in mind. Developed to satisfy an urgent need in our industry to “do things better” and prevent future tragedies.
Many people warned us that our particular product was ripe for offshore manufacturers to counterfeit. To discover that a UK company, priding itself on innovation themselves (until now) have launched a poor attempt at a similar product was somewhat disappointing. Not only that, the fact that it part opens when loose in the substrate goes against everything that we have worked towards for the last four years to prevent premature collapse of cables in the industry.
We could spend the rest of this blog detailing why the LINIAN product far excels imitators. It’s the original product of its kind, has been developed over many years by engineers with over 100 years of combined experience working solely on the functionality of the product or the fact that its design has been refined over and over again whilst being tested for performance and compliance to ensure that it won’t let you down when you need it the most.
Instead, LINIAN want to say thank you.
Not to the copycats who have run out of their own ideas or who just want to make money whilst literally strangling the UK’s chance of succeeding as we strive to secure our place as a world leader in innovation.
We say thanks to the installers who use LINIAN products and to our network of wholesalers who support us to sell it. Those who know why LINIAN is the market leading, single component fixing on the market and know the importance of selecting the best product for their installations safe in the knowledge that they have the full support and catalogue of testing readily available from the team at LINIAN.
LINIAN didn’t just take a product to market. We brought our innate ability and desire to solve real problems for our customers which came to fruition with the LINIAN Fireclips, Superclips and T&E Clips. We tested them, didn’t settle for the bare minimum to pass and appended our family name and reputation as engineers. Coming from a long line of shipbuilders, engineers, and specifiers, our mindset is always that of the installer. We have many more products to bring to market. Not just to trade off the back of the latest trend, but to solve the problems that you need solved. There’s a hidden innovator in all of us – if we could spend more time thinking about how to do things better and not just copying the latest products then our industry could be a remarkable place.
To our loyal supporters, early adopters, friends, installers and stockists. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting our business, to grow yours, our innovation-led products and for your shared vision of a quest to raise standards in the industry that we have grown up in and love. From our family to yours, we won’t let you down.
