FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Mick Torbay: Hey now, I’m Mick Torbay and this series is called 10 Marketing Mistakes Your Competitors are Making Right Now and How You Can Gain the Most From It. Catchy title, huh? Today’s talk is about mistake number two. Right now, with their marketing, your competitor is making this mistake in a huge way. He’s saying the same things as everyone else. Now, what does that look like? Well, consider these two car dealer ads. Now as you can see they are about as different as night and day. No, wait. They’re actually about as different as two things that are the same.
Why is he doing this? There are a number of reasons for that but here’s a big one. He’s doing it because everyone else is doing it. I know that seems a little bit redundant but if a bunch of different businesses are all saying the same things they will conclude that they must all be right. They’re not. If you’re saying the same thing as your competitor then by definition you’re not giving consumers a reason to choose your brand instead of the other one. You are in fact, wasting your money. Business owners spend hard-earned dollars to persuade consumers to choose them over the competition but then they say the same thing.
Quality, service, selection, price. They’ll use starbursts. They’ll use giant type. They’ll use exclamation points to create urgency. It doesn’t work. It never has worked. But the players in this category haven’t noticed this because they all do it. And most importantly nobody dares not to do it. This is the advantage you have. The more alike your competitors appear, the greater your opportunity to stand out.
Now our agency, Torbay Partners loves categories like this because we’re better able to position our client distinctly from all the other ones. It forces the consumer to choose between our client and one of these other guys. They’re all the same. They’re interchangeable but not this one, our client. It’s no wonder our client becomes a leader. So what have you got to say? Well if you were one of these car dealers over there then you’d say if you buy from me you’ll get a better deal than you will from the other car dealer. Consumers are not that dumb.
They know that this car dealer and that car dealer buy their cars from the same guy. So why should I buy from you because it’s not the price? Is it the car? No. The cars are the same too. Same factory. Ditto for the financing deal. There must be a good reason to choose your store but you’re just not telling anyone why. Is it because you haven’t thought of it? Is it because you’ve been too busy saying what everyone else is saying? Price, service, urgency. Congratulations. You’re one of this group over here. You need to abandon that strategy because it isn’t a strategy at all.
You’re just convincing people you’re the same as everyone else. Now, why would you spend money doing that? How do you take advantage of this very common mistake? Don’t do what they’re doing. Don’t say what they’re saying. Are they talking about price? Don’t talk about price. Are they boasting about their huge selection? Selection’s for suckers. Don’t bring it up. And if you want consumers to see your brand as different than be different and I don’t mean discover the difference. No. I mean actually be different. They’re all the same.
You’re different and now you’re on the short-list. You might not be on top of the list but now you’ve got a shot. Now you’ll be noticed and that’s half the battle. They’re all together over here and you’re over here. They’re all together over here and you’re over here. And this guy here will always get a disproportionate share of the market. Always. So who do you want to be? Our next video’s going to tackle mistake number three. I’m Michael Torbay from Wizard of Ads Toronto making the world a better place one commercial at a time.