"Why can't we just talk about us? Why can't we just say why we're great?" "Why do we need to bring up the competition at all?"

We get a version of this question very frequently when running positioning sprints with software companies.

Interestingly enough, certain regions are less down with calling out what they seek to replace (mainly countries in Europe).

Others have no problem with it (cough, cough, the U.S.)

But there is a certain level of power in naming an enemy.

Salesforce did this famously with their "end of software" campaign.

And there are still plenty of companies today that have adopted the practice — naming their own respective villains, whether they be specific vendors, product categories, or broken processes.

If you're going to try it, here's a rule of thumb:

→ the more specific the better

It has to be something people can rally against, like the "next steps email" with Arrows or "terrible meetings" like with Loom.

Even though your software replaces lots of things, it can really move the needle to place the problem on ONE of those things specifically.