Ideally, marketers would just be able to sell the virtues of the product we represent, the products would fly off the shelves, the client would get “puff” interviews on CNN, and we’d win awards and kudos from the trade association for our creativity.
But remember the “Five Stages of a Project.” I first came in contact with the Five Stages at a military base. Bulletin boards at military bases are filled with that kind of sarcastic but realistic humor that nails the situation perfectly and often, bluntly.
The Five Stages of a Project
- Wild enthusiasm
- Hopeless despair
- Search for the guilty
- Blame of the innocent
- Praise and honors for non-participants.
In marketing, sometimes when things aren’t going so well, or when prodded by the client, we come up with the idea of “comparative marketing,” in which we’re not only going to extol the virtues of our product, but we’re going to talk about the opposition in ways that are less than flattering.
In politics, this is expected. The base message of many political campaigns is “my opponent is a dirty dog, vote for me.” Sure, a reasonable person might ask “If you want me to vote for you, why don’t you play up your assets,” but it’s a truism in politics that negative advertising works. Perhaps political purchases are based on negativity, so that once you know the product you want to avoid, you can vote for the other.
Marketing products is a different animal. In most instances, we don’t want to even mention the competition, because we are trying to create a world in which our product is the only one customers think about. But let’s say it’s too late for that. Let’s say the competition is Hertz, the well known, reliable brand, and we are Avis.
At Avis, “we try harder.” Everyone knows service in the car rental business is pretty bad, because the people one encounters in car rental land are largely disinterested. So Avis comes up with “we try harder.”
They don’t mention Hertz, but everyone knows who they mean. Plus, in three words, they’ve acknowledged and answered the “bad service”
objection. Great slogan if you can live up to it.
Another way to criticize the other guy is with humor. By now, everyone has seen Progressive Insurances‘ campaign featuring the irrepressible Flo and the insurance shoppers she runs into. Two of her shoppers turn out to be the unnamed employees of the other insurance company. They are slightly dim, wear wimpy-looking grey sport jackets, and they must not feel very good about their product, because they’re looking for a deal at Progressive.
Very rarely do commercial products mention the competitor by name. There are a bunch of reasons, and we’ve already mentioned that you don’t want to recognize their existence. Let’s say, for example, that you’re No. 2 Avis, and you’re going to criticize Hertz head on. First, you come off looking negative, and second, Hertz may decide to take you on mano a mano, and because they’re bigger, they have a bigger budget and a larger cannon. On the other hand, if you’re Hertz, you’re already number one, why demean yourself by rolling around in mud.
If you’re going “comparative,” perhaps the best route is to compare your product with an unmentioned “bad product” that says everything about the competitor, without mentioning them by name.
