Mention the Competition?
Under what circumstances should you (and shouldn't you) mention competitors in your marketing materials.
My thoughts:
- A friend of mine was accepted to Harvard and MIT for grad school so he visited each school. Harvard's recruiting approach was, "We're Harvard, congratulations on being accepted. If you want to go to the greatest school ever, here's your chance."
He then went down the road to MIT and their approach was, "We're as good as Harvard because of A, B, C, and D." My friend thought to himself, "If they're trying to justify why they're as good as the best, I'm just going to go to the best." He chose Harvard.
That makes me think, no, I shouldn't compare myself.
- When Samsung was smaller and trying to steal market share from Apple, their commercials always talked about why they were better (actually everyone's headline was "Is this the next iPhone killer?"). I bought Apple phones because based on Samsung's approach my mental picture was that they were inferior and trying to catch up.
So again I should not.
- However, I keep coming back to wanting to more effectively communicate how my product is different than the competition (2 specifically). I feel a product comparison is the most effective way of conveying this. But, I'm skeptical that I'm using that reason as a crutch instead of finding a different effective way to communicate the same.
I know every situation is different, but what do you think? What approaches have you taken? What feedback did you get?
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I have mixed approach for this. First, "Pick a fight" (https://basecamp.com/gettingreal/02.5-have-an-enemy), people take sides and why you're different from your competitor makes your product value clear. Second, recommend your competitor (totally opposite of the first one), why? because I want to solve my customer problem, I don't want to take their money when my product doesn't help them and solve their problem. If other product is what the customer need then I'll happily recommend them to the competitor. Most of the time I can't serve all the customer in a market, there is plenty of room. While this may sound counter intuitive but this will build trust with your customer that you truly want to serve them.
This is my viewpoint but use your judgement.
Great article. Love the initial approach of mentally having an "enemy" to do "combat" with.
Based on all the feedback (thanks everyone!!), now the variables I'm juggling (or fine lines to not cross) are:
And those 3 variables could intertwine as well.
Head spinning! 😆
Lots of companies take the approach of comparing their products with competitors. Helps them pitch themselves on their own terms, their customers are wondering about this anyways and it's probably good for SEO.
Here's an example: https://www.podia.com/podia-alternatives
Yep, having {{companyName}} vs {{competitorName}} pages is a common practice.
Also, blog posts with {{competitor}} alternatives
Awesome example. Thank you.
I hadn't considered the SEO aspect of it.
I guess my assumption is that if the user is on a website engaged in the sales copy, they're already being pitched on that company's terms.
Somewhat related, if they're on the site being pitched on that company's terms, why introduce them to a competitor they may not know exists? I need to ponder this a bit more.
I try to avoid mentioning competitors but there are times when it is necessary.
For example, when you enter a market that has a dominant player or players, your potential customers already know who they are whether your confirm it or not.
If someone makes a new phone right now, it is not like people do not know Apple and Samsung phones are the established market leaders.
Explaining why your product or service is better than those leaders can be a great selling point to many would-be customers who might otherwise ignore what you are offering.
Of course when it comes to lesser or completely unknown competitors, you should definitely try to avoid mentioning them as the last thing you want to do is turn into a marketing platform for those companies.
I did a whole post on Portabella vs. Trello. Plan on doing more soon as well.
Nice, thanks for the referral!
Do it for SEO and to highlight differentiation. And do it from the perspective of helping the customer figure out which choice will suit them the most. You'll win some, and maybe lose some... but the way I see it you win more of the "right" customers and help the wrong ones out the door.
That's an interesting point as well. Wonderful!
One good reason to mention the competition: https://slate.com/business/2013/08/hertz-vs-avis-advertising-wars-how-an-ad-firm-made-a-virtue-out-of-second-place.html
There's a creative spin. Awesome! I'll think about how to implement such an approach.
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.
Yes, definitely am not going to take the "hater" approach.