Find a Common Foe

Commonality breeds Unity

One way to gain the consumer's trust is to create a bond and what better way to do that than to find a common enemy.

By "enemy" I mean that "thing", pet peeve or thorn in their side. Find something that both your company and audience can unite against. By standing firmly with your audience and providing a solution, you are providing a theme with which your audience can identify and bond with. 

In this video, Career Builder, a job seeker's website, targets "the job you hate" as the common enemy and uses comedy to drive their point across.

Think your insurance covers all kinds of mishaps? There may be coverage gaps you aren't aware of. Farmer's Insurance exposes these gaps in the video below.

Apple did the same thing with a series of clever ads titled "Get a Mac". Because everybody hates a computer that doesn't function properly. Apple clearly feels our pain. Below is a compilation of only 10 of the 66 TV spots that aired during the campaign's run, from May 2006 to October 2009.

All three companies identified the common enemy and positioned themselves as the solution. Everyone who can relate to these ads will inevitably be drawn to these products. It's a powerful marketing approach that connects people and companies and gets your customer one step closer to ridding themselves of that disturbing, irritating, terribly annoying thing that pesters their life.

This next ad from Preparation H deserves kudos for it's simplicity and painful truth.

Here is a bonus video for you. Its funny and does a great job of conveying this article's message. Enjoy!

What common enemy do your customers have?

Morty Silber, CEO

Mad Strategies Inc.
a Wizard of Ads Partner