Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Should be avoided the comparison of services in landing page headline?

• posted by: anvd on 2016-10-14
• tagged: marketing, target-market, internet, competition
• score: 1

What I mean is, You have a startup that makes something. Then, to facilitate the understanding you compare your service to something well known.

Example:

• The best alternative to Dropbox.
• More simple than Xing.
• The easiest way of traveling, more than uber.

Well, you know, this type of sentences. For me this seems a pretty effective way of reduce noise in first stage of a service. What do you think? It’s an effective strategy or not?

Answer 11346

• posted by: Jeremy Parsons on 2016-10-14
• score: 3

It’s tricky making subjective claims about competitors on your website. There are ethical, legal and practical considerations. But sometimes, the only way to establish quickly what market you’re in is to name check the big guys - and communicate your distinctive value proposition, positioned against the incumbents.

Approaches that can work include:

1. Feature set comparisons listing major features, and being super careful to represent the market leaders fairly!

2. Individual feature comparisons choosing something (e.g. Storage included with free account, or Price per month of lowest paid plan)

3. Quoting customer testimonials - an individual can make a subjective claim based on their own personal experience

4. Quoting blogger reviews of your product mentioning the established competition

5. Quoting category reviews (you know the kind of thing, 20 top choices for folder sharing, 2016)

The stronger your claim, the more likely it is to be challenged. You may want to obtain qualified advice on anything you want to use, and how best to use disclaimers (in legalese, or plain terms like “Comparisons based on prices listed on XYZ website on M/N/O date).

Answer 11348

• posted by: Anonymous on 2016-10-14
• score: 0

Several things which come to my mind:

• this way you leverage already well known name, getting attention of existing customers of the company you mention;
• You may need to consult with lawyer on risks arising from using registered or/and copyrighted trademark. While you are under radar you may be allowed to use their name, when you become successful you may be sued including past periods of operation;
• if you will decide to have such slogan, it must contain why your solution is better, e.g. “Faster uploads than Dropbox”, so that people see your main proposition from the start. Avoid statements which may be considered as bold lie or subjective judging (about your capabilities, about your competitor, about features, about support quality etc) - people who are in the market will immediately see/feel it. Be as objective as possible, and better test what you are going to roll out on sample customer base.

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