There are times where the imitator becomes the dominant entity in the marketplace. It has happened innumerable times throughout history.
I was surprised when I found out about Hydrox and Oreo’s. When I was a kid, I remember a time when my mother was home all day, taking care of the house so the house brand or cheap knockoffs where common items in my house. We were only kids; we should not have been able to tell the difference. If we did too bad.
As a kid Hydrox cookies were a cheap imitation of Oreo’s. Oreo’s were far better. Little did I know that Hydrox created the cookie in 1908. Oreo as a cookie did not come to be until 1912 as a knockoff of the Hydrox cookie.
But by at least the 1970’s Oreo was king and Hydrox was not desired by kids. Hydrox being the original cookie may be why older people kept buying Hydrox to serve to kids, maybe they though the original was the better cookie; or was it only because they were cheaper to buy. I think cost was the driver, because not many people in their 70’s were buying the cookies to serve at church or scout meetings.
Hydrox as a brand died after Sunshine was taken over by Keebler in 1999. They have brought the brand back for specialty sales. So the imitator is alive and well. First is not always the best in the long run.