{"id":267,"date":"2012-11-12T19:41:56","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T19:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/?p=267"},"modified":"2013-01-30T02:44:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T02:44:18","slug":"is-there-ever-a-good-time-to-go-negative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/2012\/11\/is-there-ever-a-good-time-to-go-negative\/","title":{"rendered":"Is There Ever a Good Time to Go Negative?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cpuff\u201d interviews on CNN, and we\u2019d win awards and kudos from the trade association for our creativity.<\/p>\n

\"Negative<\/a>But it doesn\u2019t always work that way. There may be a product that is no better, but more popular than yours. You may develop a personal distaste for your competitor, or wonder why consumers can\u2019t see that your product is light years better. Maybe we should spell it out for them. Thus, the urge to \u201cgo negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

In politics, this is expected. If you can get voters to loathe your opponent, they\u2019ll vote for you. It\u2019s an either-or kind of marketing decision. Marketing products<\/em> is a different animal. In most instances, we don\u2019t 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\u2019s say it\u2019s too late for that. Let\u2019s say the competition is Hertz, the well known, reliable brand, and we are Avis.<\/p>\n

Do It Nicely<\/h3>\n

We need to distinguish ourselves form the other guy. Thus, at Avis, \u201cwe try harder.\u201d They don\u2019t mention Hertz, but everyone knows who they mean. Plus, in three words, they\u2019ve acknowledged and answered the \u201cbad service\u201d objection. Great slogan if you can live up to it.<\/p>\n

Another way to criticize the other guy is with humor. By now, everyone has seen Progressive Insurances\u2018 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\u2019re looking for a deal at Progressive.<\/p>\n

Making Fun of \u201cThem\u201d<\/h3>\n

Very rarely do comparative commercials mention the competitor by name. There are a bunch of reasons, and we\u2019ve already mentioned that you don\u2019t want to recognize their existence. Let\u2019s say, for example, that you\u2019re No. 2 Avis, and you\u2019re 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\u2019re bigger, they have a bigger budget and a larger cannon.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going \u201ccomparative,\u201d perhaps the best route is to compare your product with an unmentioned \u201cbad product\u201d that says everything about the competitor, without mentioning them by name.<\/p>\n

Consumers don\u2019t need to be beaten over the head; creating an inside joke about a nameless competitor that can be shared around the water cooler is the more effective way to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cpuff\u201d interviews on CNN, and we\u2019d win awards and kudos from the trade association for our creativity. But it doesn\u2019t always work that way. There may be a product that is no better, but more popular than yours. You may develop a personal distaste for your competitor, or wonder why consumers can\u2019t see that your product is light years better. Maybe we should spell it out for them. Thus, the urge to \u201cgo negative.\u201d In politics, this is expected. If you can get voters to loathe your opponent, they\u2019ll vote for you. It\u2019s an either-or kind of marketing decision. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[88,87],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brand-management","tag-going-negative","tag-negative"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}