4 ms·
Have personal attacks on a product's customers ever succeeded? People identify with the products they buy, whether it's a car, a computer, a phone, running sho
by jaysonelliot 15y ago
Have personal attacks on a product's customers ever succeeded?
People identify with the products they buy, whether it's a car, a computer, a phone, running shoes, etc.
Have you ever had an argument with someone over their favorite brand? Telling someone they bought the "wrong" brand is basically like telling them they're stupid. Not the best way to endear yourself to them.
SanDisk tried this in 2006 with their anti-iPod campaign "iDon't" that portrayed iPod owners as braying jackasses: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/sandisk-launches-idont-anti-ipod-campaign/ http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/sandisk-launc...
Sprint did something similar with the Palm Pre in 2009: http://jaysonelliot.com/blog/2009/06/27/the-wrong-way-to-sell-me-a-palm-pre/ http://jaysonelliot.com/blog/2009/06/27/the-wrong-way-to-sel...
People want to think of themselves as smart, savvy consumers. When they buy a big-ticket item, they spend time with the advertising AFTER they've already bought it, as a way of reaffirming their choice.
When I worked on the Land Rover website from 2008-2010, we found that a significant amount of traffic was from recent buyers. They were coming to the site to feel good about the money they'd just spent.
Negative ads only work in political campaigns, where the goal is to suppress your competitor's turnout.
If you want to beat the competition, focus on your own positives. You can compare yourself to the competitor, but never tell their customers that they're stupid. You might get sales from people that already dislike Apple, but you'll never make a convert with an insult.
- DilipJ 15y agodo you consider the "mac vs. pc" ads effective? Apple made the PC guy look stuffy and naive (although I found him endearing).
- jaysonelliot 15y agoThe Mac vs. PC ads certainly polarized people. They seem to be very popular among people who already own Macs, while PC owners tend to find them smug and off-putting. The ads seem to be more about attacking the competition than the competition's customers, but they still come off as attack ads, sometimes rather nasty ones. It's hard to say exactly how effective they were. Mac sales saw a boost during that campaign, but other factors, such as the iPod "halo effect" and much-publicized Windows Vista problems, could be credited as well. Who knows? Maybe they would have sold more Macs with a more positive campaign. I agree, though, John Hodgman was the more endearing of the two. Maybe one way to judge the effectiveness of the ads is to look at the careers of Justin Long and John Hodgman—it seems like "PC" came out on top, in their case.
- bradleyland 15y agoI know plenty of PC users who weren't put off by the Mac & PC ads. The characterization was completely different. In the Mac & PC ads, PC users weren't mocked. The characters weren't Mac users and PC users, they were literally a Mac and a PC (the devices) personified. In this way, it's possible to positively identify with the ad as a PC user: "OMG, my PC has totally done that to me." I felt a tremendous amount of contempt in this Samsung ad: "Hey, idiot, check out our new phone." I really have a hard time feeling that Samsung, in any way, understands why I buy an iPhone, so how could they possibly build a device that I would appreciate?
- fpgeek 15y agoI think Verizon's "Droid Does" campaign was reasonably successful (though I suppose that mixed negative and positive since each iDon't was matched with a Droid Does).
- fpgeek 15y agoSeparately, I don't think this ad is targeted at existing Apple customers. I think it is targeted at people deciding whether or not to "go Apple". The ad's message is don't because then you'll be a lemming (and can't get a bigger screen, 4G, etc.).