Private equity funds are responding to harder times by adopting a financial services equivalent of the marketing world’s attack advertisements and peppering investor presentations with comparisons that are meant to differentiate – and elevate – themselves from their competitors.

The sharper-edged marketing strategies have been on display recently as firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Apollo have tried to reassure investors worried about the impact of credit market turmoil on the leveraged buy-out business.