Horlicks VS Complan-the comparison war !!...part 3

Continued from part 2....>>>>>>

Spontaneous trait transference as we saw it may or may not happen when brand A compares itself with Brand B but one thing that can for sure happen among the masses that see the ad is the phenomenon that ad researchers have termed as sponsor misidentification. This is the customer/viewer confusion as to who is actually sponsoring the ad is many a times a main by product of such comparative advertising.....

When the viewer belongs to the so called SEC A (the upper strata) may be the story becomes different and the job may be done…I mean the ad may be effective in the sense brand recall may happen but assuming that recall and attention is equal to ad effectiveness would be as stupid as assuming that since people have a smile when they see you they simply love you…But in any case direct comparative ads are far better and decent than the indirect comparative ones( remember the Pepsi vs Thumbs up humbug some time back)

Marketing is war and the war strategies are used without mercy here as well.. Defense and offense.. no matter what ..the end result is what matters… finding weakness in the leaders key strength is the main and most usable offensive principle in the marketing warfare.. as Pepsi would vouch and its war with Coca cola over the last so many years bears testimony. Coke had to claim that they are “The real thing” in face of such offense which later was abandoned for the lesser impressive and unexciting “Coke is it” and the rest is history .Coke is what? Or what is it? you may never get and answer….The blind tests that Pepsi did and since it was a bit sweeter than coke (9% to be precise) the tests favoured Pepsi and in the worst of marketing blunders coke changed its formula and bottle.. Now the Real thing had gone and Coke jumped into the new and improved bandwagon when its users wanted and loved and bought it for the OLD taste/sweet/formula/communication/brand whatever it stood for. The real thing that coke was had made the difference and it was lost in one stroke… this is what too much of comparison can do to anyone… even the giants….

It can some times be really dirty and cruel jokes.. Hyundai dealers in north were discredited to have come up with ads ridiculing their competitors who sold the Daewoo cars with tag lines “Car at your homes, company on the roads” when Daewoo ran into rough weather financially and went bankrupt. For Daewoo who introduced the concept of comparative advertising in India ( decent and side by side or A-B comparison) this below the belt attack came as a rude shock and for the people who saw it, it was free knowledge that even car majors can go bankrupt… if it is Daewoo today it can be Hyundai tomorrow….

To sum up let us derive some rules for those who are hell bend on comparing and get compared….

1 Comparative advertising should not be misleading and should not make improper use of the reputation and name of the competitor .

2 Comparative advertising should only compare things that can be compared.

'apples and oranges' are two different things…

3 Comparative advertising should objectively compare demonstrable results.

The comparison must impartially compare relevant, verifiable and representative characteristics of the goods and services, such as price, reliability, quantity and safety.

4 Comparative advertising should not confuse the consumer.

The consumer must not be made to think that the comparative advertising originates with the competitor (hope Horlicks and Complan is listening..)

5 Comparative advertising should not negatively reflect on the competitor.

The comparative advertising must not harm the competitor's good name or be disparaging with regard to his brands, activities or products( ahem!!!)

The consumer is a smart ass.. or that is what he believes at least. The last tirade and the war of statistics/ facts/figures and fiction between the two malt majors- Horlicks and Complan reminds me of the proverbial crabs… no one will allow another one to climb up…

And that is to say the least…. !!!

Tail piece:-

How do you compare American, British and Canadian English?

Americans: Spell words differently, but still call it "English".
Brits: Pronounce their words differently, but still call it "English".
Canadians: Spell like the Brits, pronounce like Americans.

Below the line and below the belt...the P&G vs Lever saga....

An optometrist was instructing a new employee on how to charge a customer:

"As you are fitting his glasses, if he asks how much they cost, you say '$75.' ...

If his eyes don't flutter, say, 'For the frames. The lenses will be $50.'...

If his eyes still don't flutter, you add ...'Each.'

Its about how u say it...properly said, you can do it!!!!!

Tide has created India's Longest Clothesline to illustrate the superior value that Tide offers consumers. A first ever, Tide India's longest clothesline ran around the famous Necklace Road on the perimeter of the historical Hussein Sagar Lake...... says a news item, which I ran a cross, this morning.....

I have got amused ever since I saw this in NDTV profit some days back and was interested by the developments. Not that I am afraid that "The end of advertising as we know it" is atlast happening, but am amazed by the scale at which it is..... It has entered the records as a unique Limca Book Record but it also has raised the level ,tone and the importance of the 'below the line promotion' stuff as they call it. Arc Worldwide, Leo Burnett’s integrated marketing division have done it excellently well and with an ease that made others awestruck. Celebrity Homemaker and Actor Ramya Krishnan, as they describe the endorser , appeared in the streets along with the Tide team and scores of onlookers and could pull a large crowd who gathered to see more of the film star and her spotlessly white attire and less of course of the packet of tide and "how much" one packet can wash....

Ms. Vidya Murthy, Brand Manager, Home and Personal Care, P&G India said, "Our Consumer Research indicated that the homemaker's primary concern is her family's well-being, and thus she believes that one of the ways she can contribute to the family is by making the most of her budget. She wants maximal value from her brands and the Tide India's Longest Clothesline is proof of the economic efficiency that Tide offers."

Very true, even though its not much a great revelation... we all knew it long back right???? still Ms Murthy is genuine compared to what the endorser had to say......

Ramya Krishnan said, "The Tide India's Longest Clothesline brings to life what I as a consumer experience everyday. As a homemaker, I find Tide a great fit for my budget. I urge homemakers across Andhra Pradesh to experience the great savings by using Tide daily."

Oh !!! come on Ramyaji...You seriously think that we are gonna beleive that? Where you and the average home maker...?

Still the attempt is simply stupendous and the charm that its has created is all marvellous...

Below the line, well thought about and executed is all about getting more for spending less !!!

And what is the competition doing?

Well they are not simply hanging their fate in the clothline and getting dried off.. INFACT the whole thing started with Lowe lintas and Surf excel taking the now famous time tested Dhabba walla route campaign...Yes the same Dhabba walas, who formed a case in Harward on Logistics , whom the Prince of wales came and marvelled at, whom Sumantra Ghoshal is supposed to have asked Fedex to learn a lesson or two from, and whom in the past, radio mirchi and ICICI bank among others have creatively used in their below the line promotion efforts....

Branded table mats which said... ‘Kuch Khana, Kuch Girana… Surf Excel Hai Na' , an extention of the‘Jaise Bhi Daag Ho… Surf Excel Hai Na' campaign, which they had unleashed in response to Tide's attempts to position itself as the only stain remover kinda..... this time they had the RK Laxman touch, the cartoonist made the pics for the mat and signed on it, so that it would be hard for you to throw it away and for a sum of 1.50 rupees per mat the dhabbawalla was all too willing to deliver it to the lunch rooms where staining do happen quite often........

Its heartening to me to see this street fight.... because it is creativity, it simply is innovation and innovation brings challenges..to reach more people and more eyeballs and stay there and percolate into the brains.... Marketing communication is supposed to do it and supposed to do it first..... The problem that today we have, is that, its all addressing the eyes and nothing for the brains... the next generation, will end up, I am afraid with bean sized brains and baloon sized eyes, looking like antellopes......

Well done my beloved industry !!!! simply superb.....!!!

Tail piece :-"If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks."

- Leo Burnett, quoted in Denis Higgins, The Art of Writing Advertising: Conversations with Masters of the Craft (1990), Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books, p. 26.

Now this is the ad war !!

with that middle finger this ad war seemingly came to an end..... Games advertisers play !!!!

Ukkarungo...Bingo sappidungo..!!!

Im sure you have seen it... those bingo ads which have at last broken the hell of clutter that was ravaging in the category.... ITC determined with all the money and muscle and more importantly with a mindset tuned to strategy and success, is making the waves even here in a category ravaged by unorganised players and infinite brands....



If the earlier flamingo ads rocked, the glad bangles one made us glad and giggle... and almost took out our breathe ,till the last minute when one sees the ad for the first time...



Now dont get upset that the product benefit aint clear and the promise isnt made and all such stuff....the category is such that the clutter breaking is important... bakki sab...Well u said it.... Bakwaas !!!

Good advertising from Ogilvy and Mather
...!!!

Go air !!! We have not changed ....

Now that is heights of competition,literally !!! Refer to the previous article on the same topic and have fun>>> cant imagine what Jet airways and its agency would be thinking now...? is it not the opening of a pandorras box...? a can of filthy worms...?

King fisher vs Jet...the ad war for the skies!!!

A shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business much like his own opened up next door and erected a huge sign which read
'BEST DEALS.'...........
He was horrified when another competitor opened up on his right, and announced its arrival with an even larger sign, reading
'LOWEST PRICES..............

'The shopkeeper panicked, until he got an idea. He put the biggest sign of all over his own shop. It read .........

'MAIN ENTRANCE'

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Its heating up …in air and in the ground…. The KF vs Jet fight…. The war of words that the competitors are engaged in, is entering its third phase now… Kingfisher and Jet Airways are fighting each other on the streets, in an advertising battle which has enormous potential and clearly is a fun to watch….

When Jet Airways embarked on a Rs 10 crore campaign to announce its change, ( we have changed …It said..) it least expected to be in the non enviable position of having to see its competition hijacking its campaign right from under its nose tips… Every where in Mumbai streets especially,right above the“we have changed” Jet ad at Cadbury Junction, which is around two kilometres from Jet chairman Naresh Goyal's residence, KF and its war managers put up another hoarding which proudly proclaimed “ we made them change”…!!!!

Kingfisher is into this tongue-in-cheek method,thanks to Swapan Seth & his Equus Advertising, obviuosly to narrow the gap in market share. Jet leads with a 31% share while Kingfisher has 10.5%.( Well I am not sure about the exactness if this numbers, still…). Jet Airways, which spends up to Rs 50 crore a year on marketing, has increased its budget after it bought and rebranded Sahara into JetLite. But its ad agency M&C Saatchi preferred to ignore the issue of competition and embarked on the much touted campaign which we are talking about today…..bitten by the sarcasm bug, Jet was forced to withdraw the campaign, and start a new.."Take Off To New York Daily" campaign…Not to be left behind…taking the war of words forward, Kingfisher Airlines again changed its hoarding which stated, “They’ve flown from here to New York.”

This seems to be the sequel to the war on talents that this two majors ( Indian or the Indian airlines seems to be no where in the picture here…) are already engaged in. The seasoned market player ,Jet Airways witnessed an exodus of its senior executives ,at least five top-level officials of Jet Airways joining Vijay Mallya's Red brigade…..and this all is happening amidst the rebranding hype that jet has launched with M&C Saatchi and US-based Landor Associates…..

Competition is good, at the end of the day, because that helps in the players getting more innovative and the customer stands to be benifited....

Now a defensive Jet should react, in the mean time Mumbaikars are having fun… watching the otherwise monotonous hoarding sites getting spiced up !!!!

After all everything is fair in war ,love and advertising….