How are Comparisons Used in Marketing?
“My dog is smarter than your honor student.”
dog > honor student
We do get tired of comparisons. We get so tired of them we make fun of them. But what if we made comparisons with nothing on the right side. My dog is smarter. In math, that would look like dog > and nothing more.
And yet, advertisements do that all the time. Words like fast, most-efficient, cheapest, most luxurious, etc, are all comparisons, but they have left off what they are comparing too. In other words, they cannot be validated or quantified. They cannot be pointed out as a lie because they don’t say anything. So, why do marketers keep using them? Maybe it’s because we are so used to seeing them, we don’t even think about it as marketing blather.
Meaningless Comparison Words in Software Descriptions
I ran into this very thing today in a software training course for a specific development language, “a fast, 2D rendering engine.” 2D rendering engine is a noun with meaning by definition, but fast? What is the base line metric we are comparing this to?
Several of my clients would recognize this theme; data driven requires data. My mantra is to only make assertions you can back up with data, ie. measurements. Otherwise, your competitors can call you a liar with their own comparisons.
How I Encourage my Clients to Implement Comparisons
If your product has measurements, show them on your website. If you already went to the trouble to create charts for print materials for a trade show, put those same charts on your website.
Demonstrate the small things that you do for your customers. If you are an art gallery, have photos of how you wrap purchases.