CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- The gloves also have come off for advertisers, and it's not just the upstarts taking swings.
The challengers in this round of comparative ads are far from the usual small-time players in esoteric categories. Increasingly, the jabs are coming from industry giants such as Pizza Hut, Diet Pepsi, Apple and Subway. You can take your pick of causes: product clutter, category maturity, executive turnover or activist investors. But one reason beats all.
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To unveil the makeover of its 43-year-old Diet Pepsi brand, PepsiCo revived its famed "Pepsi Challenge." It uses pop-culture references to tout that 56% of consumers said Diet Pepsi has more cola taste than its archrival. |
"Because it's effective," said Z. S. "Andrew" Demirdjian, professor-marketing at California State University at Long Beach, Calif. "It would [result in] at least a 20% increase in sales if properly done," he said.
'Category shorthand'
In a world where the explosion of brands has made the majority of products look like me-toos, comparative ads give consumers a logical decision factor. Despite declarations that consumers are in control, "most consumers don't want to make decisions," said Tony Pace, chief marketing officer for Subway's Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust. He said using "buy our sandwich instead of their hamburger" messages provides "category shorthand" for consumers.
And as brands become more adept at making tit-for-tat product tweaks, what once were points of difference have become commoditized. So, like bored cocktail-partiers turning to the local forecast to break the silence, marketers are taking otherwise small differences and blowing them up to stay in the conversation. You want clean tables? Eat here! Calls that don't drop? Sign up for our service!
For years, fighter brands outspent by goliaths have aimed their marketing slingshots at the big guys. But the internet and the burst of public offerings have leveled the playing field for newcomers. So whereas once share leaders rarely stooped to acknowledge follower brands, today some are taking on multiple rivals -- even those in adjacent segments such as Miller Lite vs. Bud Light and margaritas and wine. Coca-Cola Co. has even taken on itself, pitting its Coke Zero against its flagship Coke Classic.
Big guys step up
Since consumers overwhelmed by brand choice search for information, it's tempting for marketers to help the process along. For all the talk of brand loyalty, only 8% to 10% of people are stubbornly brand loyal, said Arjun Sen, president of Restaurant Marketing Group, who has helped several brands develop comparative claims, including Papa John's. "There is a huge group of people who can be swayed. Now that the market is saturated, it's a new move for big guys to say 'I'm going to take you out today.'"
His research has showed that comparative ads, properly executed, can boost sales 15%.
There is, of course, another side effect: More complaints are expected to swamp the ad industry's self-regulatory body, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, though the NAD said its caseload of competitive challenges has held steady so far.
"It's the nature of public discourse now," said John Villafranco, a partner at law firm Kelley Drye. "We're likely to see more battles in court and the NAD and other places about truthfulness of the claims."
Other Categories Where Battles Are Brewing
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Contributing: Alice Z. Cuneo
