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Secret 4: Punch Above Your Weight Class

the fourth secret of viral marketing is to punch above your weight class. Most brands feel it's dirty to attack competitors and if you're in the market leader. That's true. But if you're an up and coming brand, that's a total mistake because you may think you're taking the high road, but in reality you're just getting stuck on the pavement Because here's the thing, controversy builds attention and everyone loves rooting for the underdog. A classic example of this is Apple's get a mac campaign which ran from 2006 to 2009 back then Apple wasn't a trillion dollar company. We know today they were an underdog to Microsoft for every computer that Apple sold, Microsoft was selling 60 at that time. So Apple ran these ads that punched Microsoft. They showed users why max were cooler and much more useful. Hello? I'm a Mac and I'm a pc. You know, we used a lot of the same kinds of programs like Microsoft office, but we retain a lot of what makes us us, but you should see what this guy can do the ...

spreadsheet. It's insane. Shut Yeah. And he knows that I'm better at life, stuff like music, pictures, movies, stuff like that. Well, what what, what exactly do you mean by better by better? I mean making a website or photo book is easy for me and for you, it's not that kind of better. Yeah, I was thinking of the other kind. Hello? I'm a Mac. Hello? I'm a pc we have a lot in common these days. We both run Microsoft office, we share files. It's great. We just get a lot Pc. Okay. Hi, I'm a Pc. Okay. We're past that. We've moved beyond that. Yeah, I had to restart their, you know how it is actually. I don't know what max. Don't have to adam. Then we lost him. I'm gonna go get I. T. Keep an eye on him. Hello, I'm a Mac and I'm a Pc. PC. What's with the suit? But what what's with the biohazard suit? The biohazard suit? Yeah. There's this major new pc viruses on the loose. Yeah, I heard about that scary Pc viruses and malware have tripled in the past year. Some estimates put 20,000 new ones are discovered every day. If you're lucky you don't have to deal with this stuff man. What about you? What are you gonna live in this suit forever? What are you going to live in that suit forever. I couldn't hear you through my virus proof mask. After just a month of running these ads, Apple sold 200, more max and after a year their sales had increased by 39% interestingly enough. These results are consistent with research from Professor J scott. Armstrong who discovered that ads are 22% more effective when they directly mentioned their competitor in it. This was especially true. Professor Armstrong found when smaller brands compared themselves to the market leaders. That's why this secret is all about punching above your weight. Class. Not below it. In other words, if you're the market leader, this marketing tactic won't be as effective if you're Goliath, don't fight with David. I mean, just take a look at how Microsoft fought back at Apple. I mean suddenly it felt like Microsoft who is still the market leader at this time was fighting from behind and don't even get me started about the terrible copyrighting. In some of these ads that ran as Microsoft tried to punch back at Apple. Here's the first one. I'm a pc and this is how I roll the second one. I'm a pc and I speak through film. I mean, I love the placement of the Sun glasses. By the way in this ad, it's almost like they were added last minute in an attempt to prove to the world that Microsoft users are actually cool and the last one has to be my favorite. I'm a pc And I share the truth. Well, I share the truth too. And the truth is these ads are terrible. I mean, you've done way better Microsoft. This is not your finest hour. And here's the thing. Years later. Once Apple finally did dethroning Microsoft as the world's most valuable tech company with a trillion dollar valuation. It's really interesting to see how the tables finally turned and lo and behold in 2018, what do we see? It's Samsung punching upward and the now market leader Apple with a series of ads that show why Samsung's Galaxy phones are better than the iphone right? It really comes full circle now in these ads, Samsung hired an actor to play an overconfident Apple genius. It was one of those employees of Apple store and this actor is trying way way too hard to sell an iphone to customers who prefer Samsung's Galaxy phones instead. So I want to show three examples of those ads here. Does the tank come with a fast charger? No, I hear the Galaxy S nine comes with a fast charger. Yeah, but you could just buy a USB C to lightning cable and then also get the fast charging adapter. You should do the job, have a great day. Rosie hey Okay so the 10 doesn't have the fastest download speeds. Well no but it is faster than the IPhone eight but the download speeds aren't faster than the Galaxy S nine but I thought it was the smart phone of the future. Look um can I still use these headphones with the tan? Yeah, but you'll need an adapter or as most people like to call it a dongle. What a dongle dongle dongle. It comes in the box. But what if I just need to charge at the same target then you're gonna need another type of dongle, like a double dongle. Yeah, double dongle. I guess that sounds explicit. Also notice the subtle wording at the end of each of those ads. Samsung is encouraging users to upgrade, upgrade being the key word to a galaxy phone meaning the iphone is a step below. So it's funny how Samsung is swinging so hard with their punches here that they made their entire slogan a jab at apple. Now, if Samsung ever becomes the market leader in smartphones, I wonder who will take punches at them. You see, that's why this tactic is always in favor of the underdog. That's why this cycle always continues and the underdog always stands a chance by getting more marketing attention by punching upwards and showing users why their product is better. Also, I want to really emphasize how this is all done in good taste and good fun. There's no slandering abusive attacks or mud slinking, It's a commentary that compares one product to the other. And again, this is why this principle is punch above your weight class. Again, it's not poking, you are punching, you're taking a forceful stance about the prize, but it's not find out where your competitor parks their car, slash their tires and say mean things about their grandmother, right? It's just punching, it's good natured competition, but it doesn't get to the point where it's mudslinging. So it's a really important nuance to keep in mind And I want to get into the nitty gritty of how we can finally apply this lesson to your work, but I want to go even deeper and provide one last example here because sometimes it doesn't mean that you have to punch your opponent in order to be successful with this tactic. It means that you can also challenge them. And a perfect example of this is way back in 2009 when actor Ashton kutcher challenged CNN to see who could reach one million followers on twitter first. That's right. Ashton kutcher, the same actor from Dude, where's my car challenge? One of the biggest players in media, an entire news network in CNN, who had much more credibility, brand awareness and a bigger twitter following at the time. In other words, Ashton punched upwards and he took to the airwaves to call CNN out and say that he was going to reach one million Twitter followers before them. Right? And lo and behold, I cannot believe this CNN took the bait. They responded, they said the challenges on and here's a clip of CNN's Larry King firing back playfully. Of course, at Ashton kutcher after Ashton took that first punch. Take a look. Hey kutcher, I got your message, It's Larry King. Do I have to tell you who I am, anyway, are you putting me on? Do you, do you? Are you kidding? Do you think you can take on an entire network. Do you know how big we are? Do you know what CNN is culture? You're playing out of your field, you're in, you're in, you're in another time zone. This ain't gonna work, CNN will bury you. Pay close attention to what Larry is saying at the end there. He's telling Ashton that he's playing out of his field. In other words, action is punching above his weight class. And by having CNN engage Ashton already won right from that point, both CNN Ashton traded jabs back and forth for months and each grew their twitter following by over 200,000 followers, which was a lot back then, and it's still a lot today. But again, way, way more back then. And Ashton, of course, being the underdog had so much more to gain and in fact he did. He ultimately beat CNN to reach one million followers on twitter. And to sum it up, it just goes to show you that example, the Samsung example, the Apple versus Microsoft example, that's all about finding the Goliath in your industry, no matter what industry you're in and taking a few swings at that. So with that, I want to pause and take a quick quiz. And let's say in this quiz, you're set to market a new brand of disposable whites so Children don't get sick when they inevitably chew on them. How exactly will you go about punching above your weight class? Would you a you know, not compare with any competitors and simply focus on your key strengths. Would you be compared to competitors, but never called out by name or see, find an established brand research or history of product defects and emphasize that in your marketing materials. The correct answer is c To illustrate why I want to share an example from my client go wipes. Their big competitor was Jessica Alba's the honest company, which was once valued at $1.7 billion. The honest company also sold wipes for Children but they weren't as safe as they claimed. Their wipes contain chemicals and underwent factory recalls. The gold wipes then exploited in their marketing. So we put together a marketing campaign called how honest is the honest company? We penned an open letter to Jessica Alba where we question the safety of her products. In other words, we punch above our weight class and this spurred a flurry of traffic and buzz that drastically increased go wipe sales. In terms of tools I recommend using the top of the list is a site called Spy Food, which lets you find your biggest competitors. You just go to Spy Food dot com, type in a website on their home page and you'll immediately see a list of competitors based on how closely aligned you are on search terms and keywords. Another tool I recommend using is google alerts which lets you monitor the web for interesting new content related to your industry. All you have to do is go to google dot com slash alerts type in the industry topic or competitor you want to hear more about and boom. You'll immediately get an alert in your inbox anytime someone posts an article about them or about that topic. So it keeps you up to speed without getting overwhelmed. And with that, you're done with four of the seven secrets, you're over halfway done and I can't wait to see you in the next video.