Monday Marketing Tip #5: Cotton Candy Marketing
One of my pet peeves in marketing is the use of unsubstantiated superlatives. What's an unsubstantiated superlative? It's a claim to be "the best", or "a top" or "a leading" or "the #1" or "the most anything" that you can't back up with a specific independent research study. They're "puffy" words that try to make you sound important but have no real substance behind them -- taking a drop or two of something good and trying to spin it into something much more impressive than it really is -- kind of like cotton candy.
Entrepreneurs and marketers love to use these terms, especially when they really don't have anything to back up their claims. For example, a search on the phrase "a leading provider" turns up a whopping 5,230,000 results! There are over a million results for "a leading publisher"! Now obviously a lot of those results are duplicates referring to the same companies, but clearly, that many companies can't be "leading".
Blech! Is it even possible to be any more meaningless than that? Fair warning... if I ever hire you for marketing work and you put anything like that in front of me, you're fired!
This is a lesson entrepreneurs need to take from big public companies. See, public companies have learned that if you start making claims like that -- even simply saying you're "the best" -- and you don't have something to back it up, it can get you in trouble. If you watch carefully, you'll notice that even on TV ads, when a car company claims to be something like "the #1 truck in Texas", they'll show a message at the bottom of the ad saying something like "Based on model year 2006 new truck sales."
You have to be able to back up every claim you make with hard data, preferably from an independent source, but at least from your own quantitative research. Prospective customers are hungry for good information about you and your product. Use these "puffy" words and your whole message runs the risk of becoming empty and unsatisfying -- like cotton candy.
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Hi:
Not sure if you are interested in this, thought I’d pass along just in case. There’s a new (interactive) campaign for Microsoft that launched and targets potential entrepreneurs.
Synopsis is below.
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Microsoft Corp. has announced the Ultimate Challenge, a nationwide search for the most creative small-business idea in the country.
The contest, which is live at http://www.ideawins.com, has been designed to spur the imagination and spirit of entrepreneurism that drives small businesses.
Microsoft will review applications received through the website. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 31, 2007.
The winner - the business with the most innovative business idea - will receive $100,000 in business start up money, funding to Manhattan-area storefront for one year, and infrastructure and software to help run the business.
Cheers,
Brian
Hey Brian - yeah, I was aware of it and had already blogged about it here:
Microsoft Offers $100,000+ for Most Innovative Business Idea
I really like (not LOVE!) that term. I’ve been annoyed by the superlatives that flood the marketplace today. I just never knew anyone else noticed–and had a term for it.–thanks
hey…this is mitchelle smith from itt-tech insuite and i just wanted to say i like your idea and i would like to meet and talk to you about your idea and see can i help. well see ya later…!
a friend,mitchelle smith
According to the Federal Trade Commission for a product to called “The Best” it has to be at least “Average”. I think that pretty much sums up most Marketing.
Great Article
Thank you for this.