Negative Advertising – Stay away
Thought about negative advertising?
To attack a competitor is never a good way of advertising. Don’t point out others’ faults. It will come back one day and haunt you. The selfish purpose of a negative marketing campaign is apparent and will turn many consumers away from even looking at your products and services. It looks unfair and cheap – not professional. But if others do it – why shouldn’t you? This form of advertising just creates a feeling of mistrust.
Studies have shown that many people actually think that the company who runs negative ads does not have to show anything positive about the company itself. It creates the feeling that you are not proud about your products and rather hide behind a possible weakness of your competitor. Your audience wants to see positive things. Life is already tough and dirty enough. By pointing out negative things you are not really providing what everyone is looking for.
Do you have an idea why often movies who show the perfect life of perfect people in a perfect environment are so successful? These movies show what everyone is dreaming about. Most people know that it is just a movie but deep inside everyone is dreaming of this perfect world. It creates a positive feeling toward the movie. The same principles are true for advertising. Show the bright side of life, the happy and attractive side. Have people associate your products with these positive feelings – not with the dark and uninviting side of things in life.
If you are old enough – do you remember the Coca Cola TV spots of the 1980’s and early 90’s? Beautiful and successful people, great music, tons of fun – and right in the middle the product (Coke). It created the clear association that Coke was part of these fun times and that beautiful and successful people would only drink Coke. If you go the opposite way it rather creates negative association with your product – even if your product is superior and outperforms your competitor by 3 times. Compare the results of two ads, one negative, one positive. One going the negative route, one the positive route. One trashing your competitor, the other praising the strength and quality of your own products. You will be surprised. You will find that the positive ad out pulls the other four to one.
Think positive. Let your ads show it.
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