Do you mention your rivals?

Groundswell recently highlighted an area that I can proudly say I'm a past master in - choosing to discuss rivals.

As I mention in my comment on the article you should always talk about your rivals as it strengthens the bond between your (potential) customer and your company - the "we're not afraid of our competitors"-type ethos.

It can scare higher management - "why are you talking about x, that's not your job. Why give them free publicity?" but there are many good reasons to embrace this model:

• It keeps your customers on your forum/website/blog; they don't have to go to rival forums to talk about that other product, they can stay with you and you keep the eyeballs trained on your property
  
• It can stop the trolls in their tracks (they're surprised that you're honest enough to talk about competitors)
  
• It shows you're not scared about the opposition and respect them (even if, sometimes, you're secretly envious!)
  
• It shows you've got a deep knowledge of the state of the market and the genre/sector
  

I'd say that as long as you consider the implications of what you're talking about, and you never abuse your competitors, it's the right way to go.

Be honest, be truthful; we all live in the real world and if we're going to talk with our customers on their level, we have to talk about the things they want to discuss, no matter how difficult it is for us to reference the rivals that are fighting for this person's cash/time.

Labels: customer, ethos, products, rival