Monday Marketing Tip #3: The World's Greatest Marketing Tip

Are you ready for it? Here it is:

Avoid superlatives you can't easily prove.

What's a superlative? A superlative is a word that describes something as the ultimate of something: first, best, fastest, cheapest, only, etc.

There is a certain type of person who will buy based on those superlatives: the most expensive watch, the fastest computer, the first electric nose-hair remover, etc. But most people buy something because the product meets a real need for them, and those claims don't help them get those needs met any better.

Let's look at some of the problems that can occur with superlatives. All too often, superlatives can be...

Ambiguous - The taste test done by Coca-Cola says Coke is better. The one done by Pepsi says Pepsi is better. Which one can you trust? When people see things like this all the time, they develop a mistrust of any claims like this from any company.

False - This doesn't mean the company is lying about it, just that they haven't sufficiently done their homework on their competition. If you haven't done excruciatingly thorough market research, don't make the claim.

Short-lived - How long will you be able to lay claim to being "the fastest"? Or "the cheapest"? Or "the only"? It might work for one marketing campaign, but it's incredibly difficult to sustain that as your positioning forever. If there's a market for it, someone else will pass you up soon.

Just plain meaningless - This is my biggest marketing pet peeve. All too often marketers use words that are designed to make their company or product sound important when there's really no substance to it. Two of the worst offenders commonly used by startups are "leading" and "top", as in "a leading manufacturer of widgets" or "a top creator of productivity software". Yuck! Gag! Attention marketing copywriters: if I ever hire you for a job and you use either of those words, you're fired.

A big build-up for a let-down - This is perhaps the worst of all - when you build up a great expectation, and then the reality is a let-down. Even if your product is really good, the fact that it doesn't live up to the hype can actually work against you. Case in point - this blog may be good marketing advice, but "the world's greatest"?

So if you must use superlatives, make sure you:

• Do your homework on your competition.
• Support it with facts - Best to stick to things that are concrete and verifiable, like being the winner of a magazine's reader's poll or editor's choice (and include the month or year).
• Carefully consider whether it's part of your long-term positioning or just a single campaign.