Good cop or bad cop - which one works best

This is an interesting question posed by a marketing client who also happens to subscribe to my feed, so she will get her answer when this is posted. It deals with pricing, advertising and should one use negatives in ones ads. These marketing concepts often go hand in hand.

Let’s have a look at the background first. A real live case study in fact. Client has a self-catering business based in Cape Town. In fact it’s in the lovely suburb of Table View which is on the West Coast and the views, as one would expect with a name such as this, of Cape Town and the famous mountain, are fabulous.

To make the case study real, you can check the website. The accommodation consists of a string of options for people to choose from. Easy on the pocket prices, spotlessly maintained and wonderfully friendly supervision makes this a great place to stay over at. At Cheryl’s has been going for about five years already and has built its business on repeat visitors and referrals.

The situation gets interesting with the Football World Cup looming in the distance. In fact 2010 is not really that far away. Cape Town will of course host a fair number of games as well as a semi-final, I seem to remember reading. In any case Cape Town is pulling out all the stops with the building of an exceptional stadium.

So here’s the buzz. A FIFA-appointed booking agency Match has invited my client Cheryl to attend a meeting. FIFA has a 55 000 graded bed requirement which it has imposed on South Africa’s hospitality industry. The point of Match is to get the small bed and breakfast establishments and independent hotels to join, get graded and have their business marketed to the World Cup visitors.

In principle this does not sound such a bad idea. However, the joining up requires a fairly hefty fee, for small traders that is. The reason behind the fee seems to be the cost of a grading of the establishment. What else appears to be part of this deal is the setting of pricing.  With other words, if your business gets a grade C you may only charge X amount of money in fact the same rate as everybody else with the same grade.  No such thing as healthy competition then.

Of course one can understand that FIFA would want to know that there would be some standards set and that international visitors would not be ‘taken for a ride’.  On the other hand local small businesses who contribute substantially to job creation, often employing people with low or no qualifications, should not be sidelined or over controlled.

So what should my client do. Take a chance that she can nevertheless fill her accommodation, even if it is with local football fans, or sign up to an organisation which could end up costing her in joining fees and reduced accommodation rates and returns.

As a further point to consider, other major sporting events such as the Cricket World Cup and the 1995 Rugby World Cup did not in fact bring in the numbers of tourists to South Africa as had been anticipated. It could be that South Africa could just be too far away for the Football fans to travel to.

That’s the background. Now for the question posed.  In view of this kind of Big Brother tactic by FIFA, should my client advertise “At Cheryls is not a participant in pre-arranged World Cup packages - Come direct, choose your dates and pay less!” Or should she stick with the principle of avoiding any negative elements in ads and rather go with “At Cheryls is a fabulous place to stay at whether it’s the World Cup or just your regular holiday.”

Most good Marketing Schools will teach young aspiring marketers to avoid advertising that points out negative issues. One just needs to reflect on the example of the recent US political campaigns run by Obama and McCain and see what negative advertising can be all about. McCain took the most aggressively negative route in this combat. He didn’t win. Does that say something?

Question boils down to: sell yourself on the good stuff you can offer to people or the bad stuff other people are offering.

Jury could still be out on this particular marketing exercise. However, your jury shouldn’t be out whether you sign up to the RSS feed or my e-mail newsletters. Do so now! No spam, I promise.

If you have a marketing question, send it through on info at marketingfundi dot com. Weird way of writing an e-mail address I know but it seems to help fight unwanted spam.