Don’t Tell Me What Your Product Isn’t
Promoting a product by focusing on what that product is not is a bad practice. When talking about your product, don’t say what your product is not – instead tell your prospect customers what your product is!
Instead of mentioning “no commitment required” try “you can cancel anytime” or something like that. Of course there are some exceptions but in most cases it’s a better, more open and useful strategy to describe your product in a positive way.
I see a lot of food chains promoting healthy food by mentioning what the product isn’t - like “no hormones”, “no animal by products”, or “no dangerous pesticides”. Well that doesn’t tell me a lot about what the product actually is… you may not use hormones and a long list of other “bad” things but you may very well use tons of other stuff I don’t want to eat. Stuff you don’t mention in your list of what your product doesn’t have. And I’ve notice that this is often the case: when a company focuses on what their product isn’t instead of openely describing what the product actually is, there’s often some hidden stuff.
When looking for a chicken, I’d like to see something clear that describes what the product is. Something like “humanely cared for chicken free to feed and pasture around our organic farm”.
Cheers!
People easily understand this type of message and you’ll reach an audience that may have had problems using your competitors’ products, or are anticipating issues out of bad experience in the market.
So I don’t think describing your product by saying what it isn’t is necessarily a bad practice.