---
id: "action-target-rival-loyalists"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Tailoring Messages to Your Audience"]
tags: ["social-media-strategy", "audience-targeting"]
related: ["framework-audience-tone-matching"]
action: "Comment positively on a rival's social media post (e.g., congratulating an anniversary) to reach their loyalists."
outcome: "Demonstrates grace, softens opposition from rival loyalists, and avoids alienating your own base."
speakers: ["Abhishek Borah", "Johannes Berendt", "Sebastian Uhrich", "Gavin Kilduff"]
sources: ["tail2"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail2"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-tail-124-good-rivalry-brand"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/08/a-good-rivalry-can-elevate-your-brand"
sourceTitle: "A Good Rivalry Can Elevate Your Brand"
---
# Engage Rival Loyalists with Positivity

**Action:** Comment positively on a rival's social media post (e.g., congratulating an anniversary or product launch) to reach their loyalists.

**Outcome:** Demonstrates grace, softens opposition from rival loyalists, and avoids alienating your own base.

Negative messaging fails on customers fiercely loyal to your rival. Instead, deploy **strategic positivity directly on the rival's owned channels** (where their loyalists congregate). Because it happens on the rival's channel, your own loyalists are less likely to see it — mitigating the risk that they resent you 'being nice' to the enemy ([[claim-positive-messaging-backfires-loyalists]]). This is the counter-intuitive third row of [[framework-audience-tone-matching]]. **Caution (enrichment):** empirical evidence for conversion among rival loyalists is limited, and identity-based reactance may cause them to read gracious messages as insincere — pre-test.