Negative Marketing – when it's a Positive
Have you ever thought about your job in the negative sense being positive?
I can here you saying to your screens now over your latte’s “Becki, lay off the sauce”. Hey, I’m serious here!
Let’s take a look at some recent examples then you tell me, are negatives in marketing really positive in disguise, or do they go too far to get attention?
Culprit #1
As reported in the June 12, 2006 Wall Street Journal, the Dixie Chicks are postponing as many as half the 42 dates announced for their coming “Accidents and Accusations” concert tour that was reported to start on June 21st. The article digs into some apparent disagreement that the band is having with it’s traditional fan base (country music) as it finds it is having more broad appeal, in Europe of all things. The key thing I want to highlight though from the article is this; they are getting press and visibility and that for free due to the bands friction. I wonder how many people are being reached to think about or to investigate the Dixie Chicks who might not otherwise have? Sounds like a negative win to me.
Culprit #2
Who would think the “Fresh Maker”(TM)“, Mento’s Candy, would cause such a stir. As if you didn’t get enough zip from your rum and cock, two enterprising “inventors” have come up with a mentos and coke for a smashing good time (see story about them at the Boston Globe here). In a nutshell, the two invented a way to make geysers out of combining Mentos the candy with Coca-Cola. The result is quite explosive as you can see on this video of the event at this link HERE. Do you know what Mento’s did when they heard of this rather unusual use of their famed candy? They put the video up on the Mento’s main web site! That’s right. Instead of sueing the inventors or issuing a press release that such use of Mentos is improper, they highlighted it. Guess who’s got lots of sweet mindshare from what might have been a negative message on what to do with their candy? Mentos of course.
What does this all mean?
Well some types of negative marketing are good and working with it can actually draw more people, eyeballs, minds and money to you rather than push them away. So what negative things have happened to your company’s message that could actually be a positive? Have you reacted to embrace or embellish the negative to advantage your company, organization or group or have you tried to distance yourself, and why? These lessons work for non-profit and for-profit companies alike. Look carefully at those negative messages though. Like magnets with opposite polls set together the negative message may bring positive results to your bottom line.
(negative photo courtesy of Saudi Photo, via Creative Commons License)
