The Predatory Marketing Strategy Of Making People Think

This is the fifth post of ten in the Predatory Inspiration's series by Ashton Bishop, Head of Strategy at Step Change Marketing.

The theme of this series is Predatory Marketing.

Predatory Marketing is defined as: strike at the weaknesses that arise out of your competitor's greatest strength. If that sounds familiar, then read it again. It's not 'strike at your competitor's weakness' and it's not 'talk about what's different'. This is more powerful.

See, when you strike at the weaknesses that arise out of your competitor's greatest strength you strike at the part of your competitor that they are least willing to change. It also changes the conversation from the same marketing words that every other company in your category uses, to a conversation that leverages your relative advantages.

These case studies demonstrate how Predatory Marketing has been applied.

Whilst working at The BrandShop we had the privilege to work on The Australian, one of Australia’s greatest brands. Unfortunately, it was a brand under siege in a declining market. The campaign they needed (and we delivered) was the category standout in stemming the flow. We even had Australia’s Thought-Leaders lend their talents to the campaign - not for financial gain, but because they believed in it.

Target

The Tabloid(s) and trashy journalism

Greatest strength?

The audience would read them without thinking.

The weaknesses that arise from their strength?

Readers ended up losing the ability to think for themselves.

Relative advantages

The Australian offered balanced journalism to give the often conflicting points of view on a particular subject - they were effectively forcing the reader to form their own opinion on a subject.

Predatory recap

Strike at the weaknesses that arises out of your competitor’s greatest strength. This achieves greatest impact and makes response more difficult.

In the next post, Ashton talks about how the best product doesn't always win.