Reverse Psychology Marketing

Essentially, the idea of this marketing tactic is completely at odds with normal marketing. Normal marketing is all about convincing people that your product is the best. Instead, when using this tactic you take a product that is very good, or very popular and proceed to jerk the fans/customers around. You run a campaign that makes people think your product isn't that great, or confuse them about what to expect when they buy it. Apparently the idea is to lower expectations so that when the customer gets the item, they are excited because it's so much better than expected.

The method behind the madness is that word of mouth is the most powerful advertising you can have. But how do you get people talking about your product? What better way to start a conversation then acting in precisely the opposite manner from that expected of someone selling something. That starts people talking about it, then if those people talking about it run into one person who has actually used the product and they give a good glowing review. Well then, it sparks even more interest.

Taken to extremes, it can come across as a big Take That to Fan Dumb.

An example of Reverse Psychology Marketing:

1. Be as abusive toward your core clientele as you can. Engage in deceptive advertising—not the sleazy kind that makes them think your product is great when it isn't, but rather irrationally make them think your product is crappier than it is. Maybe run a Non-Indicative First Episode that makes your product look worse than it is, instead of better.
2. Promise an exciting new version/season and then keep delaying its release. Then announce that it's been canceled, but spread rumors that the cancellation is just a promotional gimmick.
3. Release rumors that a new long-awaited version/season is finally coming out, but then explain it's actually just a re-release of the old product with new packaging. Then include new content without telling anyone.
4. Then reveal that the new content actually isn't what you had been promising for several years, but consists of something superficial, like extra color variations allowing for shallow aesthetic changes.
5. Then reveal that this was all really a promotion for the new version/season that you promised in the first place.

By keeping your customers completely confused and shell-shocked with the shift between giving them their dreams and then crushing those dreams before their eyes, Stockholm Syndrome will soon set in and they will become your mindless minions. Unable to resist buying whatever merchandise you set before them.

Contrast No Such Thing as Bad Publicity. Might be based on the same type of appeal as the Tsundere, only applied to marketing instead of romance. As with other Reverse Psychology ploys, it is subject to Reverse Psychology Backfire.

Examples of Reverse Psychology Marketing include:

• Our own example is Better Than It Sounds. Admit it: You write stupid/boring summaries for your favorite shows only to advertise them to other tropers.
• Haruhi Suzumiya is a case of this. The first episode of the first season had an opening with poor camera focus, an off key opening song, incomprehensible plot, terrible special effects, and all sorts of flagrant errors in production. Consider that this is an anime, which means all the bad elements had to be deliberately created. Oh, and also, the rest of the season was in Anachronic Order.
  • Haruhi season 2 (or re-release of season 1 with new episodes, however you happen to classify it) was the inspiration for this trope, as essentially all of the listed steps were done. Oh, and Endless Eight with its "nice plane". Yeah.... it's becoming a tradition with Haruhi; who knows what she'll do to us next?
• The makers of Battlestar Galactica were a bit like this during the last few season breaks. They also went out of their way to offend fanboys of the original BSG series, the ones who had been dreaming of new stuff for 20 years. They took Starbuck, the most masculine character in the show, and turned him into a woman. For those who did not watch the old series, this is like making Cowboy Bebop, but turning Spike a girl. After some fans dubbed the series "GINO" (Galactica In Name Only), the creators said they would address it in a coming episode. They did—by naming a character who is repeatedly raped and beaten "Gina".
  • I should add: No one was more offended than Dirk Benedict, the actor who had played Starbuck. His rant, if you have not read it, is legendary... for its He-Man Woman Hater-level frothing, insane Stay in the Kitchen misogyny (guy's psychotic enough to actually say "Men hand out cigars. Women `hand out' babies." You have been warned). However, all the press from this is probably what gave the BSG execs the idea to execute this trope.
• One troper read a Donald Duck story about this. It ended in Donald on the run, for the Nth time.
• The depressing ad by 6 Hour Power which was basically a picture of a few bottles of the energy drink and a dry narrator voice giving a pitch that more or less amounted to "Please buy our product, please." After seeing that, if I had actually bought the thing I'd be satisfied just to know there was liquid in the bottle.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth: So they ran out of money for the last two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but we are told we are going to get a movie to finish the story. Then we get Death and Rebirth, which was only half of the movie... Yeah... I know Evangelion is infamous for the Mind Screw, but that was just jerking us around in order to hype the future release of End of Evangelion, which was the full movie.
  • Death and Rebirth was arguably an pointed attempt not to jerk viewers around. Gainax just didn't have the movie ready, and they wanted to put out something for the fans.
• Real Life example, Vitaly Borker. Running an online company "Decor My Eyes" that sells eyewear. When a customer complains that he didn't fill their order correctly, he refuses to refund their money. He even has gone as far as sending ominous and vaguely threatening emails to the complaining customer. This causes the customers to complain to industry watchgroups. Because his site is mentioned on these sites his Google score goes up, thus bringing in more customers than he loses. During his interview with the New York Times, Mr. Borker openly explains that this is his deliberate strategy.
• One wonders if this trope is what Tiger Electronics had in mind when they released this gem. Of curse, given how long the game.com lasted on the market...