Psychology of Influence

The Contrast Phenomenon and Becoming the Harlem Globetrotters

In our recent discussions on the idea of "thin ice" – and on positioning your brand, in general – we’ve come to the conclusion that you can’t be "for" something unless you're “against” something else. You can't take a pro- "take pride in your beer" stance unless there's a "beer not worth being proud of" out there that you can conveniently distance yourself from. You just can’t position yourself in isolation against a pure white background. We need contrast. Even if your contrasting alter ego doesn't exist..

Ask the Harlem Globetrotters where they’d be today if it weren’t for the Washington Generals.

You know who the Washington Generals are, although you probably wouldn’t have identified them without a little help. The Washington Generals are the timeless underdogs that face off against the Harlem Globetrotters, each and every time they take the court. Like a misplaced chapter from Dante’s Inferno, the Washington Generals suit up every night only to be utterly humiliated in slapstick fashion by the comedic geniuses of the parquet floor.

The Generals, as you can imagine, are a creation of the Globetrotters and serve as a showcase for them. Without the Generals, who would the Globetrotters be? They would probably be a very talented group of basketball players displaying trick shots – to empty auditoriums, in all likelihood. The appearance of a contest, no matter how contrived, gives the performance the veneer of tension and puts the Globetrotters' skills in context.

The Globetrotters need the Generals.

In the social psychology of influence, as described by Dr. Robert Cialdini, we would call the Generals a walking, fumbling example of the contrast phenomenon. When viewing the Globetrotters, we ask ourselves, "compared to what?" The same rules apply to our branding and positioning as they do to the modern day equivalents of Meadowlark Lemmon and Curly Culp: we offer more options 'than what,' we have greater focus and domain expertise in back-end financial solutions 'than what,' and so on. Who are our Washington Generals?

Fred Smith, founder of Fed Ex, once said to a group of us at Wharton that without “Big Brown” (meaning his primary competitor, UPS), Fed Ex never could have existed.

Frankly, in the case of Fed Ex, if UPS didn't exist they would have had to create it out of thin air and imagination.

Regards

Stephen Denny is the President of Denny Marketing, a marketing consultancy helping clients in the areas of marketing strategy, demand generation and outbound communications. He is also the first in Silicon Valley certified to facilitate the "Principles of Persuasion” (POP) Workshop to corporate clients seeking leadership development and training in the science of influence. The POP Workshop is based on the research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, Regent’s Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University.

Apart from his consulting work, Denny also writes the marketing blog, Note to CMO: and is a frequent contributor to The Daily Fix.

We thank you for visiting our directory, and wish you well in whatever endeavor brought you here. We are constantly adding new information and resources to our site, both general and state specific in nature, so check back often.