The defining of your enemy is critically important in driving the success and growth of your business because it helps to define your vision, gives your customers a clearer understanding of who you are, and the consequences of not doing business with you.
At first glance, the concept of defining an enemy may seem unnecessarily harsh, but the reality is that if you truly care about your customer's success and you feel you have the best solution (which you should feel) then you have an obligation to let your customers know who the enemy is. The enemy does not need to be a specific entity, it can be something like the status quo, but that enemy is the same for your organization and your customers as well.
I heard an interview with Jeff Bezos about how Amazon chooses not to operate in this vein even though many companies do. I understand his reasoning, but I think Amazon and its customers would be well served if Amazon viewed the enemy as the situation where people are buying sub par products for higher than necessary prices due to lack of transparency.
Think about it this way, if a friend asked your opinion on two restaurants, one which you know is excellent and the other truly terrible, shouldn't you as a friend, give your honest opinion? Of course a company is not a friend, but the general gist of these marketing tactics as a whole is changing the relationship between company and customer from beyond merely providing a service to putting the customer's needs first. Yes, these are marketing tactics, but tactics are not enough, the relationship is more important.
In reality defining enemies happens all of the time in business, think Apple vs. PC, Salesforce vs. Oracle, or even Southwest going after other carriers about baggage fees.
Three Reasons
1. Naming enemies is in the customers best interest.
2. Naming enemies brings clarity to what differentiates you.
3. Naming enemies can motivate employees and customers.
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