Lets Say We Wanted to Sell Candy Bars
We're managing a candy shop and we'd love to attract customers to try our candy bars. Personally, we're a fan of them. We believe in the product. Let's assume the market is 100% women. Through all of this, we are assuming we will have at least one customer, no matter what strategy we choose. Also, don't forget that a customer could tell her friends about our candy bars if our candy bar compels her to do so.
Our marketing department presented three strategies to advertise our lovely candy bars:
A. We say that these candy bars are the best candy bars known to man. Considerable research was put into the recipe for these candy bars and the outcome is the greatest candy bar anyone will ever have in her life. A must-try for anyone.
B. We say that these candy bars are nothing special. They are no different from any other candy bar on the market. Eating our candy bar is a forgettable experience.
C. We say that these candy bars are terrible. We guarantee that anyone who tries one of our candy bars will hate it and never buy one again. We are confident these are the worst candy bars on the planet.
Okay, so which strategy is going to sell the most candy bars?
This is what I think.
If we go with Strategy A, we will attract the most customers. If we advertised our candy bars as the best on the planet, there will be more people willing to try them than if we go with the others. I feel a customer who tries a candy bar that was advertised with Strategy A will have one of two reactions: either it truly is the best candy bar the person has ever had and will be interested in buying more, or it will turn out that the customer has had a candy bar of equal or better quality in her lifetime. While the customer would be disappointed with the latter, and would be less likely to consume more candy bars, they will at least have purchased the one.
If we go with Strategy B, we will out-right have less customers than if we had gone with Strategy A. A customer who tries a candy bar after being exposed to Strategy B would either be pleasantly surprised because the candy bar was better than expected and is better than others she has consumed, disappointed because the candy bar was actually WORSE than others she's had in her past, or she would have a "meh" reaction because she got a mediocre experience while consuming a candy bar, but that's all our advertising would have led her to believe anyway.
Strategy C is interesting. If we advertised that our candy bar was so terrible and so badly tasting, maybe people would come try it as a novelty. Either they are pleasantly surprised and our candy bar is indeed not the worst they've ever had, maybe they consider it to be pretty good; it's not actually the worst they've ever had, but not the best either, just mediocre; or it is indeed the worst they've ever had, which is what Strategy C would have given them.
I think we should go with Strategy A because it gives us the most customers at the beginning.
[url=http://strawpoll.me/5166941/]Which strategy is going to sell the most candy bars?[/url]
7 Comments • Newest first
Strategy A, because being told that the candy is tasty will can cause the consumer to feel that the candy is tastier than it really is.
C is dumb because people will expect bad candy and they won't get bad candy. People who wanted a novelty won't get one and the ad will draw people who might have liked it away from the product.
I'm assuming the candy isn't a novelty product. If it is, then it should be marketed as such.
What kind of candy?
No publicity is bad publicity
@wall: dunno what you're talking about.
Nothing makes me want to go buy a candy bar more than the company telling me it's nothing special or it sucks. /s
bars <3
@wall an election campaign for a candy bar store would be "Those other candy bars often have razor blades hidden in them so buy ours".
You will probably never see Strategy B or C marketing in the real world.