Comparative Advertisement (Attitude change)
Comparative advertising is a marketing strategy that makes a company’s products or services perform better than its competitors. Comparative advertising campaigns may involve side-by-side comparison of the characteristics of a company’s products with the characteristics of its competitors. It can also be compared based on value or cost. Often, competing products are displayed in a degrading manner. Comparative advertisement may bring an advantage which is let consumer to know more about all of the brand and consumer can make a comparison and finally decide to buy which brand of product.
Now I’m going to talk about the comparative advertisement between Pepsi and Coca-Cola Company. Many of today’s marketing students – and tomorrow’s small business owners – have studied the landmark Pepsi Challenge, which was launched in 1975. Pepsi-Cola tried blindly across the country to differentiate it from Coca-Cola and enter the large mobile vehicle community, which was received with great fanfare. Not long after, Pepsi Cola proudly touted the result: more people prefer the taste of Pepsi than Coca-Cola – Pepsi ruthlessly slammed home. The attack occurred at a particularly vulnerable moment in Coca-Cola. Instead of naming Pepsi on the name, the company acknowledged that its leading edge of the flagship product’s main competitor and its flagship product has been slowly declining for 15 consecutive years. The cola category is generally drowsy. “To make it shockable The Coca-Cola Company re-enacted its tightly protected 99-year recipe and introduced the “New Coca-Cola” in 1986. Consumers quickly documented their dissatisfaction and created a “storm of consumer protests” that enabled the Coca-Cola Company to launch the product in just 79 days on the market and return its “classic” product to the store shelves. So any advertisement may affect consumer decision. (Yourbusiness.azcentral.com, 2019)
Next, let’s talk about the Apple and Samsung Company’s comparative advertisement. During 2012, Samsung launch an advertisement is mocking Apple’s latest phone – the iPhone 5. It targets specifics of the phone, such as headphones jack on the bottom, implies how the recent phones have not changed and portrays the Apple fanatics in a negative light. Simultaneously, it has people show off a Galaxy S III, and has them demonstrate why it is superior, such as explaining features, or showing that much of the technology people are waiting in line for is readily available through Samsung.
Amazingly, it does all this without explicitly stating the product or company name in order to protect themselves from legal prosecution. Samsung uses suggestions such as similar stores, and had people wear the famous white Apple headphones in order to imply their message. And it worked perfectly.
As an apple user and fans, I feel so disappointed and the advertisement led me to reassess my current product choices. I think comparative advertising is a great way to attract potential consumers as well as change consumer attitudes. It provides reasons and justifications for to the consumer to switch over to their product and creates an impression that the other brand is inferior. By making these reasons so clear and blatant, it allows consumers to easily remember and evaluate their product in a positive manner. Although some may see it as a ‘cheapshot’, or unethical – personally, I believe it is a very effective form of advertising to change consumer attitudes and habits. (Consumer Behaviour ⎢McGill, 2019)
Sources: https://inteist.com/android-and-apple-fun/
The third last comparative advertisement company is Pepsodent vs. Colgate. Pepsodent and Colgate have have launch many comparative advertisements to get most of the market share. One of such cases was when Pepsodent came out with an advertisement where it promised 130% of the germ attack power of Colgate. I believe that the sales of Pepsodent will rise rapidly because the advertisement show that the germ attack is higher than their competitor- Colgate. This is the benefit of comparative advertisement that make customer know more details and the different between each other. (Pahwa, 2019)
The last comparative advertisement company is McDonald’s and Burger King. McDonald’s and Burger King are boMcDonald’sfor their burgers and other fast food items. But McD, because of its greater presence, has an upper hand over Burger King. This USP of McDonald’s was showcased in one of their advertisements in France where they put a directional Billboard of Burger King being 258 KMs ahead and McD being just 5 KMs ahead. But Burger King did come up with a reply and used the same advertisement for their own good. That’s why the McDonald’s franchise is more than Burger King, because we can see McDonald’s keep launch different advertisement on YouTube or cinema and honestly I haven’t try Burger King before because I don’t know what Burger King have and many of us more prefer McDonald’s. (Pahwa, 2019)
References
Yourbusiness.azcentral.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/examples-comparative-advertising-12783.html [Accessed 26 May 2019].
Consumer Behaviour ⎢McGill. (2019). Comparative Advertising. [online] Available at: https://consumerbehaviourmcgill.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/comparative-advertising/ [Accessed 26 May 2019].
Pahwa, A. (2019). Most interesting Brand Advertisement Wars of All Time.
[online]
Feedough. Available at: https://www.feedough.com/brand-wars/ [Accessed 26 May 2019].
Pahwa, A. (2019). Most interesting Brand Advertisement Wars of All Time.
[online]
Feedough. Available at: https://www.feedough.com/brand-wars/ [Accessed 26 May 2019].
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