4 ms·

This is a lesson from Politics, if you focus all your energy into attacking your opponents it doesn't mean people will choose you, it just means people will cho

This is a lesson from Politics, if you focus all your energy into attacking your opponents it doesn't mean people will choose you, it just means people will choose not to choose. This tactic does not extend to business. You don't 'win' by having the most users, you win by making the most money, and having a wide open market is stupid and dangerous for a company. This is the major failure with Apples 'PC and Mac' advertisements, it doesn't tell us why we should buy a Mac, just why we shouldn't buy a PC. This tactic presently works for Apple because the people who know the difference between a PC and a Mac are likely aware of the pros for Apple, they just need to be overwhelmed by the cons of a PC. For a new product, your consumers have no knowledge of your pros, and slandering your opponents does nothing except clue them into their failures. The prime example here is again in politics, slander is a tactic always taken by the right-wing parties, however when your claims are hollow and see through they can fail by record numbers. This happened in the UK when Labour gained the majority with Tony Blair, the conservatives launched a slander campaign that not only alienated voters from the conservative party but had no effect on keeping liberal voters out of the polling booths, they essentially handed parliament to Labour. The conservatives here in Canada keep playing the same tactics and have yet to get a majority through their tactics. Again the same could be seen with tactics used against Obama, but they were baseless claims and liberal voters came out in force, conservative voters staid at relatively the same levels but decreased vastly in percentage.

barmstrong 17y ago
Great point. It works as a gimmick to get a click, but after that you need to focus on your benefits probably.
hugh_ 17y ago
The prime example here is again in politics, slander is a tactic always taken by the right-wing parties, however when your claims are hollow and see through they can fail by record numbers. This happened in the UK when Labour gained the majority with Tony Blair, the conservatives launched a slander campaign that not only alienated voters from the conservative party but had no effect on keeping liberal voters out of the polling booths, they essentially handed parliament to Labour. The conservatives here in Canada keep playing the same tactics and have yet to get a majority through their tactics. Again the same could be seen with tactics used against Obama, but they were baseless claims and liberal voters came out in force, conservative voters staid at relatively the same levels but decreased vastly in percentage. Oh come now, you can't think of any examples where left-wing parties have used slander against right-wing folks? I do seem to recall some negative, and frequently untrue, things being said about George W Bush, or Sarah Palin. Attacking the opposition is a common tactic among all political parties in all countries. If it goes too far it can turn off some moderate voters, but at reasonable levels it seems to work reasonably well. It's far less common when marketing products -- I'm not quite sure why this is, but possibly because it's easier to come up with positive things to say about your own product ("It has shiny new features X, Y and Z!") than to come up with positive things to say about a politician ("... uhhhh.... hope!")
- j_baker 17y ago
  I agree that the person you're responding to was a bit biased politically. However, I don't feel that the comment was meant to be a discourse on politics as much as it was to illustrate a point about business practices. Thus, I'm willing to let it go.
  - electromagnetic 17y ago
    I have seen left-wingers pull similar tactics, it isn't an exclusively right-wing tactic. I've likely only been through a fraction of the national elections that others on here have, I was only stating cases where I've exclusively seen the tactics (two conservative campaigns in the UK that both times helped plant Tony Blair in the PM seat, similarly I've seen the conservative campaigns for Canada that have ineffectively gained Stephen Harper seats by reducing opposition votes, but despite several elections hasn't gained him a majority and he keeps with the same tactics, and I was in Canada during the latest US elections and saw similar tactics being performed on a national scale, I have however see democratic senators and governors pulling similar tactics on channels broadcast in Ontario) I didn't mean to say this was an exclusively right-wing tactic by any means, I believe it's a moronic strategy and I've largely seen it performed by right-wing candidates who have high voter-loyalty, but I'm sure left-wingers with high voter-loyalty pull similar tactics when they can. I dislike bringing politics to HN, and that wasn't my intent, it was meant as an allegory for product marketing as essentially that's all politics is doing, advertising a 'candidate' product. Insulting your opponent only goes so far, and I know here in Canada the conservative campaign didn't drive up their votes (I believe on average they lost votes over last year, but gained in percentages) it did however drive down their opponents. Yet it actually delivered decisive control of government to the smaller parties like the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP who can cause a majority vote for anyone they side with. For example, if Apple enters the netbook market it can't follow the same advert campaign against Windows as Chrome OS will present a decisive third party that, like the NDP were pulling in the recent vote in Canada, can play the "well we don't suck, and we're not a complete ass" card of being 'the good guy'. I couldn't think of a better allegory for not insulting your opponent, I suppose the simplest reasoning is this: It's childish, and you're allegedly an adult.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

barmstrong 17y ago

Great point. It works as a gimmick to get a click, but after that you need to focus on your benefits probably.

hugh_ 17y ago

The prime example here is again in politics, slander is a tactic always taken by the right-wing parties, however when your claims are hollow and see through they can fail by record numbers. This happened in the UK when Labour gained the majority with Tony Blair, the conservatives launched a slander campaign that not only alienated voters from the conservative party but had no effect on keeping liberal voters out of the polling booths, they essentially handed parliament to Labour. The conservatives here in Canada keep playing the same tactics and have yet to get a majority through their tactics. Again the same could be seen with tactics used against Obama, but they were baseless claims and liberal voters came out in force, conservative voters staid at relatively the same levels but decreased vastly in percentage. Oh come now, you can't think of any examples where left-wing parties have used slander against right-wing folks? I do seem to recall some negative, and frequently untrue, things being said about George W Bush, or Sarah Palin. Attacking the opposition is a common tactic among all political parties in all countries. If it goes too far it can turn off some moderate voters, but at reasonable levels it seems to work reasonably well. It's far less common when marketing products -- I'm not quite sure why this is, but possibly because it's easier to come up with positive things to say about your own product ("It has shiny new features X, Y and Z!") than to come up with positive things to say about a politician ("... uhhhh.... hope!")

j_baker 17y ago
I agree that the person you're responding to was a bit biased politically. However, I don't feel that the comment was meant to be a discourse on politics as much as it was to illustrate a point about business practices. Thus, I'm willing to let it go.
- electromagnetic 17y ago
  I have seen left-wingers pull similar tactics, it isn't an exclusively right-wing tactic. I've likely only been through a fraction of the national elections that others on here have, I was only stating cases where I've exclusively seen the tactics (two conservative campaigns in the UK that both times helped plant Tony Blair in the PM seat, similarly I've seen the conservative campaigns for Canada that have ineffectively gained Stephen Harper seats by reducing opposition votes, but despite several elections hasn't gained him a majority and he keeps with the same tactics, and I was in Canada during the latest US elections and saw similar tactics being performed on a national scale, I have however see democratic senators and governors pulling similar tactics on channels broadcast in Ontario) I didn't mean to say this was an exclusively right-wing tactic by any means, I believe it's a moronic strategy and I've largely seen it performed by right-wing candidates who have high voter-loyalty, but I'm sure left-wingers with high voter-loyalty pull similar tactics when they can. I dislike bringing politics to HN, and that wasn't my intent, it was meant as an allegory for product marketing as essentially that's all politics is doing, advertising a 'candidate' product. Insulting your opponent only goes so far, and I know here in Canada the conservative campaign didn't drive up their votes (I believe on average they lost votes over last year, but gained in percentages) it did however drive down their opponents. Yet it actually delivered decisive control of government to the smaller parties like the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP who can cause a majority vote for anyone they side with. For example, if Apple enters the netbook market it can't follow the same advert campaign against Windows as Chrome OS will present a decisive third party that, like the NDP were pulling in the recent vote in Canada, can play the "well we don't suck, and we're not a complete ass" card of being 'the good guy'. I couldn't think of a better allegory for not insulting your opponent, I suppose the simplest reasoning is this: It's childish, and you're allegedly an adult.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]