Marketing is one of the most important aspects of running a business. Marketing could make or break a business. That's why it is important to get it right, especially if you’re on a limited marketing budget.

Perhaps the easiest way to get your marketing strategy right is to do what your most successful competitors do. But would you steal marketing ideas from your competitor? Is that ethical? There are patent laws, copyright laws, trademark laws, and other laws that make it illegal to steal or to use certain things that belong to another company. But there aren’t any laws that say you can’t use the same marketing techniques that your competitors use.

In fact, some of the most successful business start-ups use other people's marketing ideas. They use what's tried and true rather than thinking up new marketing ideas, which may have a higher probability of failure. A winning marketing plan of one form has a higher probability of being a winning marketing plan with a related firm.

Would you do it? Would you steal marketing ideas from a competitor? Perhaps it's a matter of business ethics for you? Maybe you consider yourself ethical and you don't steal no matter what. If so, your cognitive dissonance would probably prevent you from stealing marketing ideas. Or, perhaps stealing marketing ideas is not really stealing. Maybe marketing ideas have no ownership and all is fair in business competition. In the end, it’s up to you.