Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor® blog at Retaildoc.com

After living there for forty years, I consider myself a California boy and so was interested in today’s Los Angeles Times front page story about a new ad campaign from Nevada courting California businesses.  The state of Nevada created two 30-second spots gently poking at California business owners to relocate to Nevada and find no state income tax, no corporate taxes and low workers comp rates.

The office of  California Assemblyman Jose Solorio  has created a website where you can see California’s response as well as the Nevada ads at http://californiaisgolden.com/.

What is so compelling about the California ad is the tagline they came up with, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what happens in California makes the world go ’round.”  They then show a smattering of the major businesses that are located in California. Brilliant. Each state considers the other the devil to show how they are the angel.

If you are of a certain age, you may remember the Pepsi challenge from the mid-seventies where purported “average Joes” chose Pepsi in a blind taste-test over Coca-Cola. They were the angel to the devil Coke.

When I rescued a little coffee roaster in Long Beach, California and the story propelled me to national attention, one of the tactics I used was making Starbucks the Devil to our Angel.  For example, I’d have a tray of their French roast coffee with the word, “Theirs,” and our French roast with the word, “Ours.”  ”Theirs” had many beans that were broken and misshapen, ours were perfect.

The tagline, since we were 75 feet from them became, “Down the street from ordinary.”  An independent marketing study revealed 70% of shoppers on the street knew that tagline within six months of launch; sales went up 50% for the year.

Some coffee houses tried to fight Starbucks by relentlessly saying Starbucks beans were burned.  This turns customers off.  Even if some may believe it, it comes across as sniping. The secret to making angel/devil advertising work is to infer about the other business without saying the other guy is rotten.

The beauty of the California vs. Nevada media war right now is they both keep it light.  That’s because Angels know the limits of comparisons, show their virtue and infer the rest. Could this work for you? Sure, if you can pick a fight and keep it light.

Learn how I turned several businesses around.

Tweet This Post