The news that taiwanese company Acer is taking over Dell as the number two PC maker has some folks rattled because Acer’s quality is considered by many to be inferior. Even their main US web site is, mildly speaking, not the cream of the crop. It just doesn’t feel or function like a top PC maker’s web site.

Some people confuse making quality products with being number one or two but that’s simply not the case.

GM was the number one car maker for many, many years. But GM wasn’t exactly known for its stellar quality vehicles for the past 20 years or so.
Price and marketing matter far more than making the best quality product, unfortunately.

This matters to you if you are working for a company (or own one) and you don’t think you are currently producing the greatest/shiniest/sexiest/most advanced/…/ product or service possible.

It’s a noble thing to strive for perfection, or even “just” excellence. And it’s true that excellent products and services have a much better chance to thrive in the market place.

But even if you’re lacking somewhat don’t let this be an excuse to slack off and not put forward your best effort.

If you make a very good product, or offer a very good service, that may be enough to succeed, provided your marketing, tenacity, and (probably) pricing are top notch. Mediocre or even crappy doesn’t cut it. I’m talking truly, honest to goodness “good enough“. And the consumer decides if it is good enough, not you.*

If you do some digging, and I mean real, open minded research, you’ll discover how all top brands are quite flawed in one form or another. You have heard fanboi-ish accolades for virtually every Apple product, and many of its followers could truly be considered fanatics who would not dare to acknowledge any product faults, but then you’ll find there are about just as many problems with them than with its competitors.

Mercedes Benz has been getting mostly praise for the past, oh, 100 years or so but dig deeper and you’ll find some very interesting facts about recalls, shotty workmanship, and other “goodies” that are not very well known to the general public.

Same with Myspace, Twitter, BMW, and pretty much any other brand that currently enjoys top spot status.

Point is, don’t give up if you are not quite at the peak yet. Be as good as you can be, and then show your best, most tenacious marketing effort.

Learn about building a (fanatical) following (Apple), creating addictive/ viral worthy brands or services (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), and dominating distribution outlets (Acer, …Megan Fox).

You might just become the next Acer.

* Just be careful – GM was making vehicles that were “good enough” for a long time. So did Penthouse. So did Lehman Brothers. At one point your product or service may not be good enough any longer and before this happens you must adapt or die.