The Strategic Enemy
Let’s begin with a brief discussion about the book which set off my new thinking. Here is what Laura Ries writes in her book, The Strategic Enemy:
A strategic enemy is an oppositional force that your brand or category stands against. It could be a competitor, convention, or concept. Having a strategic enemy will force you to clearly define what you are not, which will enable consumers to more easily understand what you are.
…When you define what you’re against, it becomes clear what you are for. Instead of making claims your brand is better, it’s better to contrast with a strategic enemy how your brand is different. The mind understands opposition faster than superiority. Positioning your brand against a strategic enemy elevates your brand from “just another choice” into the right choice. It forces your brand to sharpen its focus to become a brand worth fighting for. The enemy could be a competitor, but it could also be another category, convention, or concept.
…Finding an enemy forces your brand to focus on a specific idea. This focus will energize the company and consumers alike to rally around your cause. A strategic enemy must be instantly accepted as a worthy adversary. The contrast should be simple and clear. It is best done using an indisputable difference.
…Go out and pick your fight. Just remember, the concept of the strategic enemy is not about conflict for conflict’s sake. It’s about creating a contrast to bring clarity, focus, and commitment to your own brand. Positioning against a clearly defined enemy…will give your brand the sharpness and emotional charge necessary to cut through the clutter and be accepted into the mind of the prospect to become a brand worth fighting for.
Laura Ries added in an interview with John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing): “Here’s the biggest problem is most companies aren’t focused enough to have an enemy. They do too many things in too many markets and try to appeal to too many people. When you do that, you don’t have a focus and without a focus, you don’t have an enemy. So sometimes the first thing is looking at yourself and saying, what can we say no to? If you say no to something that tends to put you in a direction where you can find an enemy.”
A comment from The Financial Brand: “Her antidote is intentionally counterintuitive: stop trying to be “better,” and instead become unmistakably different by defining, and then defeating, a single, visible foe…Ries argues that when brands rally around an “enemy,” and reinforce the fight with a memorable “visual hammer,” they earn a permanent slot in the customer’s mind.”
