Should you market your product as better or worse than it is?

When marketing your product there are two ways you can go. Either, you can choose to market it so that people will think it is better than it is, or you can choose to completely play the product down.

By choosing the first method you can build up a hype about your product. People get excited about trying your product and this then leads on to sales.

The second option may seem a little odd, but many would be shocked by how effective it is to exceed your customers expectations. It takes a little more work and creativity but it can create am amazing word-of-mouth chain.

A good example of people using this method is holiday homes, very often a property will be listed as a 4* even though it is actually a 5*. By doing so the customers expectations are lower and therefore they are pleasantly surprised by the house, they are more likely to think of it as good value, leave good feedback and tell others about it as well as keep coming back. If it was listed as 5*, they probably wouldn't be disappointed, but it is unlikely it would surpass expectations in the same way.

The first method is the most popular and does work brilliantly but may not have long lasting effects, whereas with the second it may take longer to see results but i can have huge, long-lasting results.