The law of Candor
When you admit a negative, the propect will give you a positive.
" THE TASTE YOU HATE TWICE A DAY"
It goes against corporate and human nature to admit a problem. For years, the power of positive thinking has been drummed into us. "Think positive" has been the subject of endless books and articles.
So it may come as a surprise to you that one of the most effective ways to get into a prospect's mind is to first admit a negative and then twist it into a positive.
"Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars."
"With a name like Smuckers, it ha 21321u2011v s to be good."
"The 1970 VW will stay ugly longer."
"Joy. The most expensive perfume in the world."
What's going on here? Why does a dose of honesty work so well in the marketing process?
First and foremost, candor is very disarming. Every negative statement you make about yourself is instantly accepted as truth. Positive statements, on the other hand, are looked at as dubious at best. Especially in an advertisement.
You have to prove a positive statement to the prospect's satisfaction. No proof is needed for a negative statement.
"The 1970 VW will stay ugly longer." A car that ugly must be reliable, thinks the prospect.
"Joy, The most expensive perfume in the world." It people are willing to pay $375 an ounce, it must be a sensational perfume.
"With a name like Smuckers, it ha 21321u2011v s to be good." Most companies, especially family companies, would never make fun of their own name. Yet the Smuckei family did, which is one reason why Smucker's is the No. 1 brand of Jams and jellies. If your name is bad, you have two choices: change the name or make fun of it. The one thing you can't do is to ignore a bad name. Which is one reason why you won't find beer brands like Gablinger's, Grolsch, and Gresedieck in your supermarket today.
"Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars." So why go with them? They must try harder. Everybody knew that Avis was second in rent-a-cars.
So why go with the obvious? Marketing is often a search for the obvious. Since you can't change a mind once it's made up, your marketing efforts have to be devoted to using ideas and concepts already installed in the brain. You have to use your marketing programs to "rub it in." No program did this as brilliantly as the Avis No. 2 program.
Positive thinking has been highly overrated. The explosive growth of communications in our society has made people defensive and cautious about companies trying to sell them anything. Admitting a problem is something that very few companies do.
When a company starts a message by admitting a problem, people tend to, almost instinctively, open their minds. Think about the times that someone came to you with a problem and how quickly you got involved and wanted to help. Now think about people starting off a conversation about some wonderful things they are doing. You probably were a lot less interested.
Now with that mind open, you're in a position to drive in the positive, which is your selling idea. Some years ago, Scope entered the mouthwash market with a "good-tasting" mouthwash, thus exploiting Listerine's truly terrible taste.
What should Listerine do? It certainly couldn't tell people that Listerine's taste "wasn't all that bad." That would raise a red flag that would reinforce a negative perception. Things could get worse. Instead, Listerine brilliantly invoked the law of candor: "The taste you hate twice a day."
Not only did the company admit the product tasted bad, it admitted that people actually hated it. (Now that's honesty.) This set up the selling idea that Listerine "kills a lot of germs."
The prospect figured that anything that tastes like disinfectant must indeed be a germ killer. A crisis passed with the help of a heavy dose of candor.
As another example, General Foods admitted that Grape-Nuts cereal was a "learned pleasure" and advised consumers to "try it for a week." Sales went up 23 percent.
One final note: The law of candor must be used carefully and with great skill. First, your "negative" must be widely perceived as a negative. It has to trigger an instant agreement with your prospects mind. If the negative doesn't register quickly, your prospect will be confused and will wonder, "What's this all about?"
Next, you have to shift quickly to the positive. The purpose of candor isn't to apologize. The purpose of candor is to set up a benefit that will convince your prospect.
This law only proves the old maxim: Honesty is the best policy.
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