PR done right: Smack down your competitors!

Paul Boutin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:57:42 -0400

Personal finance service Rudder has a marketing problem: How can it differentiate itself from already popular software-as-a-service champ Quicken Online, and upstart favorite Mint?

The standard approach for marketers: Allude vaguely to your top competitors ("Unlike other online personal finance tools ...)" and then talk up some feature or benefit that makes your product unique.

By contrast, we jaded journalists at the Standard got a kick out of Rudder's approach to getting our attention via email:

While Rudder (www.rudder.com), a new, FREE personal finance tool, might look similar to others at first, this personal finance tool has a very different focus - a big reason why 45% of Rudder's users are ex-Quicken users and 35% are ex-Mint.com users!

Sure, all this statement really means is that a lot of Rudder users have tried other, much more popular personal finance tools before. But Rudder takes direct aim at specific brands, and backs it up with numbers that say, "People are choosing Rudder after trying our top competitors. It's not because they've never heard of Mint or Quicken."

Rudder touts the wisdom of the crowd, rather than the genius of its founder. It's a great example for marketing and PR people: Don't tell me your product has a unique feature. Tell me it's sucking users away from Quicken. Many execs and publicists will only do this covertly: "Can we go off the record here, Paul? Mint is doomed! We're stealing their base."

Wrong approach. Instead of whispering it to me, put it in your press release.

The Industry Standard - PR done right: Smack down your competitors! - Comments

PR done right: Smack down your competitors!