Reframe your flaws as benefits

In #203, I talked about being honest about your flaws.

I want to continue that idea—but with a twist.

This is all about cleverly reframing your flaws as benefits.

Let's dive in 👩‍🎤

– Neal

Insight by us. Specifically, Neal, because he stares at ads all day.

Ironically, I won't waste time jumping into an example.

Guinness needs to be poured slower than every other beer (here’s why). Instead of figuring out a way to pour it faster, they’ve leaned into this slogan:

My personal favorite is how Stella Artois leans into a powerful psychological bias:

The more something costs, the more people value it.

This is why I love their slogan, “Reassuringly expensive,” and the clever ads that go along with it:

We all know Buckley’s famous line: “It tastes awful, but it works.”

This is clever because people are more likely to believe its claims of potency. After all, it tastes so weird and medicinal. (I’ve written previously about how Red Bull uses both the price and taste to its advantage.)

And lastly, Avis was famous for reframing their “number 2” position as a positive with “We try harder.”

They know people default to the market leader, so they decided to address that head-on and turn it into a benefit.

Here’s a swipe file of a bunch of their ads leaning into that concept.

To do this, you need to decide what you’re not

Stella decided they’re not a budget beer for the everyman.
Buckley’s decided to keep their product tasting terrible.
Nintendo decided to make the Switch portable (and slower), instead of competing directly with Xbox and Playstation on performance.
Tesla decided only to make electric vehicles. No hybrids. No gas cars. No fuel cell vehicles.