Will not turn pink in the can
once Upon a time
There is an apocryphal story about a tuna cannery in the early 20th century. Canned salmon was the dominant fish sold in most of the US A tuna cannery executive compared all the characteristics of his tuna to the characteristics of canned salmon. One of the biggest differences was the color. The tuna was white and the salmon pink.
Instead of trying to convince prospects why they should buy tuna instead of salmon, he simply added a great headline to all of his tuna ads: “The Can Won’t Turn Pink.”
Tell the truth
The beauty of this sentence was that the ad executive was making a factual statement. He left the reasoning for why it was factual for potential consumers. The salmon was pink when the can was opened. Did that mean something was wrong with the fish? The can? The whole process of getting salmon to consumers?
This story has been told in many different ways: tuna vs salmon, albacore vs sockeye salmon, even albacore vs pink tuna. It does not matter which version you have heard or which version counts. While the news of this story has been debunked several times, the TRUE of her remains So much so that for the past two decades, real marketing executives have used phrases like “A fat-free food” on packages loaded with sugar and carbohydrates (the human body stores them as fat), or “No added sugar” or ” No Salt Added” in foods naturally loaded with those ingredients.
These are simple examples, which are close at hand and which I can take and show you. However, not all examples have to have the negative potential that these phrases have.
be assertive
I bring this up because I have a potential customer who is looking for a way to differentiate their products from their competitors. You don’t need to come up with sentences that begin with “We are different because…” or “We are better because…”
Find something positive to say about your product or service, something that sets you apart from your competition, and present it loud and proud. Choose something irrefutable, something that cannot be proven to be false. Use this as your positioning statement and make sure it is true and sets you apart from the competition. After that, it’s up to you to tell prospects why that position is better or superior to the competition.