I found a great post over at The Business Insider about how to promote your business while making enemies by Bianca Male. I think it’s a great post because she comes out and says some things that most of us would like to pretend don’t happen.
Sure, we’d all like to take the high road when it comes to marketing, but the fact is that in today’s market (or perhaps in the market always) nice guys finish last. In an ideal world, you and your business should be able to stand on your own merits, but in reality that’s not the way it works.
We have less time to make an impression and the fastest way to make an impression is to say what we aren’t. Humans are easily able to define things by saying what they aren’t. Why is AT&T better than Verizon, or vice-versa? Well, I don’t understand all that mumbo-jumbo, but if as spokesman shoots down one then I’ve got to think the other is better. It’s so much easier to say this is better than that. It’s not nearly as easy to say we are better because…
This is directly applicable to TopTechDog and lab testing. A lot of the testing we do at Sarrel Group is competitive analysis. Our clients then take that information and use it in their marketing materials to show they are better than the competition. And they can show exactly how they are better.
Speaking of showing how something is better, it’s important that the claim is legitimate. Other test labs regurgitate what marketing pays them to say. No one believes that anymore. Even the clients don’t believe it. And then the funny thing is that they fight about it. Juniper pays Tolly to demonstrate that their network gear is better. Tolly runs a specific set of tests that are designed around Juniper winning. Cisco gets mad so they hire Miercomm to prove they are better. And Miercomm runs specific tests dictated by Cisco in order to “prove” Cisco is faster.
The funny thing is that both Tolly and Miercomm have built their labs around that crap. It is crap. Cisco knows it, Juniper knows it, Tolly knows it, Miercomm knows it, and potential purchasers know it.
The thing is that when companies start slinging that crap the ones who really suffer are consumers. The companies can sue each other over “false claims”. The whole thing is a waste.
And here I am running a lab where we actually try to uncover results and tell the truth.
When you’re going to take on your competitors you’d better make sure to use facts in your attack or you’re going to come out of it covered in crap. The making enemies strategy falls apart when the entire market realizes you’ve doctored tests and lied about results.
See, wasn’t it easier to understand why Sarrel Group is better once I pointed out how bad the other guys are?
Related posts:
Follow the dog on Twitter 
Loading ...
Kommentz