Even Slight Exaggeration Can Sabotage The Credibility Of Your Value Message

It’s more prevalent than you think.

Consider these familiar promises:

• “Our diet and exercise program stops the aging process.”
• “You can reverse heart disease.”
• “We’ve got the one investment where your values will go up with the market, but won’t go down when the market declines.”

Potential customers might reject these products and programs because of the blatant puffery of the promises they make, but they might be missing out on some redeeming value they’ll never get to know about.

• The exercise program fails to catch on because people know the aging process itself will continue, no matter what you do. But they’ll also miss out on the real benefits of diet and exercise that can help manage the effects of aging — make you feel more energetic, stand straighter, lose some weight.
• Your healthy-heart program attracts critical commentary because research indicates that so far there is little credible evidence that existing arterial damage can actually be reversed. But they completely ignore the real benefits of slowing its progression with medication and lifestyle changes.
• Prospects don’t want to listen to your investment pitch because they know the potential for reward is accompanied by a risk of loss. But they won’t hear about your common sense plan to mitigate the risk of loss in the event of a downturn in one asset class by differentiating your investments in multiple asset classes.

Wait. Before you say “This has nothing to do with me or my product” consider that “fountain of youth” and “sure-thing investment” claims have been around forever, yet people are still touting those benefits, customers are still falling for them and critics are still earnestly disputing them.

Exaggeration is alive and well today in every industry, product and service category and market.

Why do companies exaggerate?

There are some very strong incentives for it in the early going of any business:

• In the blizzard of new products and services, founders struggle to show uniqueness and differentiation from everything else that’s out there.
• The profile of the “Start-Up Hero” virtually requires a conviction that he or she is doing something others believe is impossible.

And once the practice begins, it turns into a habit that persists as the company matures, and spreads to competitors trying to reach the same customers. Social media helps a lot to spread information and with the biggest platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok you can buy tiktok likes and views to improve the engagement and find more audience.

Crafting a value statement that will attract funding sources, supporters and customers without overpromising.

• Don’t let exaggeration be a cheap substitute for creativity. Avoid the temptation to let big claims do your talking for you. Spend a little extra time crafting an interesting message that describes the true value of your product to the customers you want to attract.
• Make sure the benefits are reasonably achievable. Describe only those results that are attainable with reasonably expected compliance on the part of the customer and in the normal flow of human events, not something they can get only with super-human effort and good luck.
• Educate. Include some important piece of knowledge that any customer should have before buying your product.
• Incite curiosity. Make sure it’s obvious the promise should not be considered sufficient on its own to make an informed buying decision, and encourage prospective customers to dig deeper to understand why your product or program has real benefits.

What promises are you making right now in the value statements for your products? They may not be as obvious as the examples above, but even minor exaggerations can hurt your credibility with customers. Why set yourself up to waste valuable time and effort defending exaggerated claims that never should have been made in the first place instead of creatively and responsibly promoting the real benefits of your product.