Copywriting Weapon: “Us and Them”
June 27th, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comThere are baaad people out there. Scoundrels, louses, hijackers, charlatans, spammers, losers, heartbreakers, love-takers and people who are ready to steal your soul, stuff it into a Hefty Cinch Sack and take it to Mexico to be sold on the black soul market.
But we are not those people. Nope… we are on the Us team– the good guys; the honest; the just; the well-meaninged and good-intentioned. The Evil Others are an invisible force of shortcut-taking, dirty-trick-having, loathsome individuals, and we don’t want to associate with their kind.
They are invisible because… well, we don’t know who they are.
At some point in your life, you’ve met someone who you considered to be on the “Them” Team, am I right? But then you had a chat and got to know said individual a bit better. Suddenly, they changed sides and moved from Them to Us status. Unbelievable! Next thing you knew, you were rallying this person up to incite fear and loathing in another stereotyped group of Bad People You Hopefully Will Never Meet.
We do this in our copywriting and marketing, but we don’t ever mention names. We only allude to Them with a kind of warning drumbeat. We’re playing marketing Cops and Robbers in our minds. The good shall prevail.
In advertising, what types of groups would give us cause to label them as our enemies? The kind that engage in practices which go against what our company or brand stands for. Of course!
If you’re a copywriter, maybe you have a beef against people who sell Instant Website Copy Kits. (Does anyone really sell that? I hope not - it sounds like a dreadful product).
If you’re an article marketer, maybe you spend your days preaching against Private Label Content salesmen. Icky poo! Private Label Content is EEVIL.
If you’re in the oil business, maybe you want to voice your concerns over the danger of electric cars.
Here’s how we feel about our business competition. If we don’t agree with their methods, then they must be defeated. Our mission: make their unsavoriness known to our allies while building a case for our own offerings. This particular psychological tactic has enough potential to provide years upon years of steady ad campaign and web content creation. It works well in the PR world, too. No kidding!
Suppose you sell homemade, all-natural prepared foods. By default, this would make your Natural Enemy anyone who offers convenience-based, artificial food products. Enter the “Us and Them” mentality. Any amount of your published content can be based around a “pro natural foods,” “anti artificial ingredients” argument in the name of rallying the troops.
Or let’s say you sell educational products - books, CD-ROMs and such. Your purpose is to enhance the homeschooling experience. Thus, if you want to pull your readers closer to your cause and your company, you can always take a few jabs at the Evil Axis of public education.
Apply this to your own niche market.
Who might you label the Arch Enemy of everything you stand for?
How many ways can you paint a picture of all the ways they’re wrong and you’re right, while rewarding your followers for playing on the Good Team?
Think of the endless fodder for ezine and blog content living here in Us and Them concept!
Regardless of what your chief product might consist of, the “Good Guys vs. Bad Guys” copywriting storyline serves multiple purposes. It does a wonderful job of recruiting future customers by inciting passion and fervor. And it also energizes existing customers into taking action on behalf of your firm. This is how marketing evangelists are born!
Stir up some Team Spirit and soon your audience of loyalists is primed not only to purchase but to spread the word about your company and all its virtue, wonder and glory! Additionally, people who catch your Us and Them fever make the absolute best product affiliates. Put some fire in the bellies of your fans and loyalists and you’re suited up for world domination!
Us = Good.
Them = Bad.
Live it. Love it. Use it to cement your professional associations and sell more product.
Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.
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