It won’t get pink in the can

once upon a time

There is an apocryphal story about a tuna cannery in the early 20th century. Canned salmon was the dominant fish sold in most of the US A tuna cannery executive compared all the characteristics of their tuna with the characteristics of canned salmon. One of the biggest differences was the color. The tuna was white and the salmon was pink.

Instead of trying to convince prospects why they should buy tuna instead of salmon, he simply added a big headline to all of his tuna ads: “Can Won’t Turn Pink.”

Tell the truth

The beauty of this sentence was that the advertising executive was making a factual statement. He left the reasoning as to why it was factual to prospective consumers. The salmon was pink when the can was opened. Did that mean something was wrong with the fish? The can? The whole process of bringing salmon to consumers?

This story has been told in many different ways: tuna vs salmon, white salmon vs sockeye salmon, even albacore vs pink tuna. It doesn’t matter which version you have heard or which version you tell. While news of this story has been debunked several times, the TRUE of her remains. So much so that in the last two decades, real marketing executives have used phrases like “A fat-free food” on packages loaded with sugar and carbohydrates (the human body stores them as fat), or “No sugar added” or ” No Salt Added” in foods naturally loaded with those ingredients.

These are simple examples, that are close at hand and that I can take and show you. However, not all examples have to have the negative potential that these phrases have.

be assertive

I mention this because I have a potential customer who is looking for a way to differentiate their products from those of their competitors. You don’t need to make sentences that start with “We are different because…” or “We are better because…”

Find something positive to say about your product or service, something that will set you apart from your competition, and present it loudly and proudly. Choose something irrefutable, something that cannot be proven to be false. Use this as your positioning statement and make sure it’s true and sets you apart from the competition. After that, it’s up to you to tell prospects why that position is better or superior to the competition.