Every product needs an enemy and here’s why
People don’t change their behaviour unless their point of view is changed.
And we’re bloody stubborn at sticking to our opinions.
We carry a mental file with our fears, desires, assumptions, and knowledge of everyone and everything. And anytime we’re reminded of it, we quickly reach out for that file and make a decision based on what’s in it.
In the short run, our decisions are consistent with our existing beliefs. Over time, as the content in these files changes, so do our opinions, but that change is slow.
There’s a quicker way to get people to change their minds. Prompt them to create and test competing point-of-views aka Disrupt-Then-Reframe.
And for decades, marketers have been using this technique in advertising.
For example, in their longest-running ‘Priceless’ campaign, MasterCard disrupts viewing shopping on credit as buying things you can’t afford and reframes it as doing something special for the people you love.
And the whole planet went awwww!
It’s one of my favourites examples of creating a conflict (shopping on credit) and resolving it (doing something special).
Every campaign needs conflict.
Otherwise, your ads won’t get anyone to change their opinions. And you won’t get them to stop doing whatever they’re doing right now and buy your product.
Yet most marketing briefs purposefully stay away from conflict. God forbid we scare someone away.
And then we’re surprised why people don’t click our ads and those who do, don’t buy anything.
Your product needs an enemy.
It needs to save people from the tyranny of wasted time, hidden costs, harmful chemicals, plastic waste, vendor locking, uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness — literally anything that’s keeping them from moving forward.
Pick a fight. Playing it safe is nice, but safe doesn’t change minds. It doesn’t turn spectators into customers.
