How do brands grab the attention when consumers lack enthusiasm? The answer is simple: They make fun of themselves. When brands make fun of their weak-points, consumers view them as honest and down-to-earth and in nowadays digital age when social media is leading the marketing communication channels, consumers get the subliminal message from brands ” We Are Listening”.

Reverse Psychology Marketing

Reverse psychology is a technique involving the advocacy of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired, with the expectation that this approach will encourage the subject of the persuasion to do what actually is desired: the opposite of what is suggested.

Zooba, the hippest local food outlet ever. They serve the traditional doses of Egyptian food such as Foul, Taameya and Koshary  prepared fresh and right in front of you.

With it’s unique experience, Zooba still criticized on social media for it’s overrated price range. Zooba decided to digest all this negative opinions regarding the high price issue and launch a campaign to justify the value for money and announce launching a new range of sandwiches with lower prices in such a crazy way.

The Crazy, Risky, and Wonderful Elements:

Rosser Reeves, the accomplished advertising executive credited with coining the term “unique selling proposition,” once said, “The people who read and remember your advertising may buy less of your product than people who are not aware of your advertising at all.

Zooba’s new campaign might provide us with some useful insights to justify the above average pricing range for consumers. For marketers, you will find lessons you can apply to your marketing strategy but such a crazy concept applying “reverse psychology marketing” for advertising may drive away Zooba’s customers!

Zooba’s marketing executives might think that “all publicity is good, even negative publicity”. But its one of the biggest PR myth because there’s no such thing as bad publicity!

Collecting negative reviews to start a campaign and publicize negative opinions on greater scale will definitely make your brand look bold and crazy, yet it’s very risky and might fire-back!

In case you’re unfamiliar, the idea of collecting and featuring negative feedback from social media is not that unique. Jimmy Kimmel first introduced the idea in his live show and from time to time, he give more celebrities a chance to read some of the mean things people tweet about them.

Actually watching celebrities read mean tweets about themselves is way too entertaining:

The result of mean tweets was seriously amazing, Jimmy Kimmel “mean tweets” won a Webby Award early 2015. Let’s wait and observe how Zooba’s new campaign will affect its sales volume!