We’re all made of glue. (No wonder my space key keeps sticking!)
Back in the day of scuffed Keds, a popular comeback to any insult was the never-clever: ”I am rubber, you are glue. What bounces off me sticks to you.” Not exactly great poetry, but there’s a LOT of truth to this when it comes to our businesses.
I’ve had to remember this recently as I grow my business. There is another copywriter out there who is a mistress of sales pitches, reasonable in her prices and (curse her keyboard) clever as hell. I’ve never met her, but I’m sure she’s just a horrid person – or at least that’s why my fragile ego tells me.
So when I’m pondering my pitch or new marketing effort, there’s a part of me that I don’t particularly like that wants to get her, to seize upon a perceived weakness and go for the throat. And while I’d love to claim I’m a wonderful human being and would never stoop to such tactics, it’s really pure logic that prevents me from going negative in my marketing and advertising.
Here’s an illustration of the logic: You’re selling widgets and think a competitor is passing off inferior, off-brand widgets. So you create a campaign claiming YOURS are the real widgets and THEIRS are fake, so buyer beware. What have you just done? You likely haven’t destroyed their business, but you’ve introduced an element of doubt into your own!
See, people are pretty savvy, and they often have trouble believing what a business says about themselves, much less their competition. So you are unlikely to convince them of anything. But what you HAVE done is let them know that the possibility of getting scammed does exist. You’re making them cautious, slowing down their decision-making and causing them to do research. In essence, you’re encouraging them to go and learn more about the industry … and your competitors.That precious ad space you paid for SHOULD have been used in speeding up the decision-making process – in other words, getting them to say “yes” to you!
The recent elections reinforce this point. Exit polls showed that people voted FOR their candidate of choice vs. simply voting AGAINST the other candidate were above 90 percent. So those tens of millions of advertising dollars in negative ads did nothing but make a few agencies and a lot of TV and radio stations some money – and create a great deal of rancor.
So when your competition comes up with a great, new “why didn’t I think of that?” campaign, or undercuts your prices, or generally infuriates you, let it inspire you to greatness, to come up with your own “gotcha” moment. Focus on your customer, not your competition