Study: Saying your brand is ‘the best’ isn’t the best marketing strategy

Is the product that you represent the absolute best in its category? If so, you may want to keep that news to yourself.

A new study from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management shows that if you call your product “the best” it actually decreases its chance for success—something they’re calling the “maximizing mindset.”

“If you’re in this maximizing mindset, no matter how good the product is, [consumers are] going to be unsatisfied with it if it’s anything less than the most amazing thing ever,” Neal J. Roese, a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management and co-author of the study told BusinessNewsDaily. “It’s a hidden danger that marketers need to be aware of.”