Quick Marketing Tip: Duel

I am still on vacation but wrote this a little while ago.

If you ever want to get easy exposure for your product, service or website. Start a rivalry.

Not sure how I thought of this but it seems to work. Go criticize some other guys’ blog in his comments. Post an ad saying that other house cleaning service is just plain dirty. Write an article about how crappy some product is (I do these in a nice way) and will never succeed.

This is generally better if you are not first in your market and you can walk the walk if you know what I mean.

The original rivalry that started it all is the Pepsi Challenge, which really helped the company come up in the rankings. This may not be the right kind of attention or exposure you want for your company but for some it may be a nice thing to try.

It works well in music sales as well, remember the East vs. West coast thing. That really boiled down to millions of people buying music to hear the rivalry.

Even in the blog world this happens were I have seen a few times where Robert Scoble & Seth Godin link to people who have disagreed with their opinions.

Who can you challenge?

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12 Responses to “Quick Marketing Tip: Duel”

  • Magoo
    May 30th, 2006
    11:07 pm

    Noah, your blog sucks. I’ve seen better postings in the craigslist personals!

  • Jason
    May 31st, 2006
    6:15 am

    The problem is that you have to have a superior product or service because your rival company can counterstrike. The reason why Pepsi did so well with the Pepsi Challenge is because consumers really did prefer the taste of Pepsi over Coca Cola. Microsoft has crushed many oppents that have tried to take on the software giant. VEry few have come out ahead in that battle.

  • Scott Hurff
    May 31st, 2006
    9:44 am

    It certainly makes sense and there’s lots of evidence to back it up — I’m agreeing with Jason, too, that one has to actually have a superior product to take on an opponent like that.

    Interesting note about the Pepsi Challenge: it was really the first strike in what would become known as the “Cola wars.” After the Challenge, Coke and Pepsi would be forever locked in their eternal struggle for market share. I think they kicked it off in Texas or something.

    Pepsi is still better.

  • Andrew
    June 1st, 2006
    2:07 pm

    Who are you? Nerd Don King?

  • david askaripour
    June 1st, 2006
    2:12 pm

    Noah…you better watchout…my blog network is coming for yours!!! Now what punk!!!?? heheh….

  • Paul McEnany
    June 10th, 2006
    6:38 pm

    Noah, my blog totally tastes better than yours. I’d like to issue the Hee-Haw Challenge!

  • Anonymous
    June 17th, 2006
    10:54 pm

    Quick Marketing Tip: Duel…

    Noah Kagan has an unusual marketing tip If you ever want to get easy exposure for your product, service or website. Start a rivalry….

  • Jason Schramm
    June 18th, 2006
    9:00 am

    If you start a rivalry with another blog they should also have the type of audience that you want to attract, or their blog’s topic should be related to yours. For example: I wouldn’t argue with a purely marketing-oriented site, but you’ll do just fine.

    I also think there are just so many things that can go wrong with this type of marketing, and you can seriously hurt your brand if you aren’t careful.

  • noah
    June 18th, 2006
    11:38 am

    Jason,

    I totally agree with you on this. There is huge potential for this to backfire and hurt your brand. So choosing your battles carefully is extremrely important. I think a fun battle between friends can stir interest and get others in the discussion. Thanks for the comments.

  • Jason Blogs » Marketing Through Rivalry
    June 18th, 2006
    5:45 pm

    [...] I came across this interesting article on how starting a rivalry can be an easy source of exposure for your website or product. Now I won’t go into all the details (you’ll have to read the article for that), but I will explain how creating a rivalry can be disadvantageous. [...]

  • Jason Blogs » Marketing Through Rivalry
    June 18th, 2006
    5:45 pm

    [...] I came across this interesting article on how starting a rivalry can be an easy source of exposure for your website or product. Now I won’t go into all the details (you’ll have to read the article for that), but I will explain how creating a rivalry can be disadvantageous. [...]

  • Nick Bakewell
    September 13th, 2007
    8:24 pm

    Great post! And great promotion technique - I guess it is true that all media is good media.

    Well, that’s a little extreme. But still.

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