The Slander Campaign Strategy

Slander is usually a dangerous play for marketers and a profitable play for lawyers. If successful however, it can pay off huge dividends, but tread softly—you wouldn't like it if it were played on you...

Although political smear campaigns made this strategy a household name, the Slander Play is a viable strategy if it's executed carefully.

In order for this strategy to succeed in more than making the lawyers rich, there are a few things you must keep in mind.

Mention your competition, don't promote them.
They say there is no such thing as bad publicity. There is a tendency to communicate entirely too much about your competition. This amounts to a promoting your competition. Instead, promote the fact that there exists a competition in marketplace. Mention the players, if you must, and move on.

Compare don't contrast
The heart of a good slander play is to compare yourself to the competition whom you've publicly named. Shy away from contrast, or showing your differences. If you are really so different, why are you competing at all. For example, Dyson and other vacuum manufacturers share many of the same focuses, but with one key difference--"Dyson doesn't loose suction". The one clear difference is your company's core value and should be the aim of your marketing message.

Contextualize your strengths
Slander plays can often focus on the negative. But the value really lies in this strategy's ability to showcase your strengths in the context of your competition. The key is context.

Don't lie—Identify
Identify, specifically, the weaknesses in your competition. The more specific you are and the more evidence you have to support it, the less room your competition has to retaliate. For example, "company X’s products are returned for service an astonishingly 56% of the time according to a recent Consumer Reports study".

The Slander Play as a Campaign Strategy is the only campaign strategy that can illicit a retaliation. Follow the guidelines above to limit your risk and maximize your opportunity, but consider your recourse if the strategy was focused on you.

Check out some more of JDM's campaign strategies online. Also, read about the lesser-known Counter-Slander Campaign.

Da Vinci versus Picasso

A lot of people think that designers charge too much money for something just to “look pretty”. Being a designer is very different from being an artist and the two are often confused.

So who do you look for when you need a website for your small business? You don’t want to pay an outrageous fee for something you don’t know if it will generate business, but you don’t want your business to look unprofessional. You are left with the questions: Can my website sell my product? Convey the integrity and expertise of my business?

A designer can be your best friend when it comes to the branding of your business. We are trained to think about all of these different aspects and keep them in the front of our mind when creating anything, from a logo to a website. We create for others. We develop products based on ideas brought forth by the client and implement techniques, ideals and principles to create a piece that achieves their marketing objectives whether they are generating new sales leads or promoting a new service offering.

As the Creative Director for Justin Downey Marketing , the idea of form versus function is always prevalent in my mind. I find beauty in the way a final product functions perfectly and smoothly, at the same time keeping aesthetic appeal. My artistic nature has benefited me greatly as a designer. I use artistic influences throughout my work by sketching preliminary ideas, using my background in color theory, alluding to great painters and artists in color palettes or styles, and utilizing my eye for great composition. My creative work is designed with the client and their business in mind and how it would most effectively be represented graphically.

Artists, on the other hand, create for themselves to elicit a response from others. The work produced is fueled by emotions, moods, or other personal inspirations. Designers can be fueled by these things, but use them to convey the concept originally presented by the client.

If you’re looking to brand your small business, utilize a graphic designer rather than a freelance artist. You will end up with a product that accurately represents your business, achieves your marketing objectives and ultimately a product that performs and doesn’t just “look pretty”.

Trouble Finding Marketing Best Practices?

At Justin Downey Marketing, we believe that an informed small business owner is a successful small business owner. That's why our website is filled to the brim with small business marketing best practices. From high-impact, low-cost campaign strategies to top secret marketing tactics and best practice white papers, our site has it all.

Problem is, that's a lot of content...

Thanks to Andy Boyd, Jenee Oxley and the Google Help Desk, we've just implemented search functionality into our website.

Give it a try: www.justindowneymarketing.com.

If you can't find the small business marketing information you're looking for, feel free to contact us and we'll be sure to put it in.

First came AOL, then Google, now Justin Downey Marketing...

Fed Cuts Rates, Small Business Holds Its Breath

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday slashed its key interest rate to a three-year low and signaled more reductions are likely, unloading heavy artillery in its effort to keep the credit crunch from triggering a prolonged recession.

The three-quarter-percentage-point rate cut, though extremely aggressive by any historical measure, was still seen as a pulled punch by Wall Street analysts who believe it will take a full percentage point cut. This is another sign of the severity of a situation that has already claimed Bear Stearns and forced Fed officials to use Depression-era tools.

In the wake of the Fed's decision, Wall Street brokers are cheering and small business holds its collective breath. The move’s consequence for small business owners is still unclear.

Asked about the possibility of a recession, Ben Bernanke, Fed Chairman, sidestepped the question. “You really cannot make a determination,” he said with a sly grin, “until well after the event.”

Really Alternative Media

Listen to the Audio Podcast of this posting here (runtime 1:54).

In small business marketing, a little lateral thinking goes a long way.

I say "lateral thinking" instead of "out-of-the-box" because when you're considering alternatives to traditional media like television, radio, or the die-hard yellow pages, you need not re-invent the wheel, just find a new use for it.

Look for "really alternative media" to cut through the barrage of other marketing messages and position your business squarely in the sights of your ideal buyer. You don't even have to look that hard, but rather think laterally.

Consider the following a vertically-hinged door to really alternative media:

Sponsored Highway Exits

Why not ask the city to allow you to 'sponsor' your freeway exit. "Exit 105, sponsored by Company X” is more interesting and most likely cheaper then purchasing a giant, gaudy arrow sign to point in your direction. The city could probably use the extra revenue as well.

Pizza Box Advertising

Why does pizza only come with coupons for more pizza? I got my pizza. Now, maybe I'm looking for a roofer or a pest control company to get rid of the bugs who have taken up residence in my last pizza box.

Delivery Menu Ads Everyone's front door comes standard with a Chinese take-out menu. Maybe the reason I'm ordering dinner to be delivered is because what I really need is a local auto parts store?

Backyard Toys

How often does a neighborhood kid’s ball or Frisbee end up in your back yard. Why not brand some Frisbees’ with your real estate business name and phone number? The companies who sell them can hardly give them away and what real estate agency wouldn’t like to get even a single piece of marketing material past the front doorknob?

If you’re looking for low cost, high impact media, you don’t have to rack your brain trying to "think outside-the-box". Rather, keep your eyes peeled and your mind open.

Why read when you can listen to this post? (runtime 1:54)

Strangely-related "Big Marketing Ideas for Small Business" posts:

• Stop Business Collateral Damage
• Over-Sized Sales Brochures
• No One Can Resist a Monkey

The Off-Peak Marketing Strategy

[ Listen to the Audio Podcast ]

For underdog businesses trying to compete with behemoths, the tendency is to increase their marketing spending and message frequency to match that of their larger competitors. This is, at best, inefficient, and at worst, a total waste.

When you're gigantic competition is most aggressively marketing, it’s often a total waste to try to compete with their equally gigantic marketing budget.

Consider, instead, an off-peak marketing strategy.

The off-peak marketing strategy is a little known tactic for incumbent businesses to increase their marketing message frequency when their larger, better known competition is taking a break.

Take, for example, a toy manufacturing company.

This little business has some gargantuan competition from titans like Mattel, but Mattel spends almost all their yearly marketing budget during Christmas time and saves very little of it during the off-season times.

Trying to compete with Mattel during their surge in the Christmas season is a losing competition. As illustrated above, back off your marketing expenditure during the toy rush season in November and December and surging in the middle months when the "big dog" is resting.

Think of it as the marketing equivalent of losing the battle to win the war.

Check out more marketing strategies on our website.

[ Listen to the Audio Podcast ]

Experienced Marketing Exec Joins the Team

A true business-builder, Bruce Benesh has joined Justin Downey Marketing looking to bring his immense experience to bear for our clients. The question has been raised, "What brought an experienced marketing executive, like Bruce, to Justin Downey Marketing?"

"Mr. Downey and I share the belief that large chunks of company’s marketing budgets are spent on marketing activities that are, at best, untraceable, and at worst, complete wastes of time. I want to help our clients fix that."

For more information on Bruce Benesh and his work with Justin Downey Marketing, visit our website: http://www.justindowneymarketing.com/bruce_benesh.html.

Learn more about the entire Justin Downey Marketing team on our "Meet the Team" page.