Comparative Advertising

COMPARATIVE ADVERTISING ---- ARE THEY GOOD OR BAD?


Before writing anything about Comparative advertising I must say that the views expressed are only my personal views. So, in case I make any ‘bad’ / improper comment about any person or Organization, please don’t take it seriously and / or officially. If you see information is wrong, kindly forgive me.


On May 3, 2007 there was an advertisement published in the Times of India newspaper. The ad was given on the page number 16 ( Titled as Business Economy page). The ad was for the promotion of the job site timesjobs.com. the ad’s caption was - ‘It took us 25 days to move 1,28,370 steps further ahead of our competitor.’ That competitor’s anme I know. But neither the ad nor I would mention its name because, mentioning the name may lead us to some legal problems in case the comparative charts and graphs data given on the ad are false or partially true. This type of ads promoting one promoting one product / service or brand by comparing it to other similar product(s) / service(s) or brand(s) is known as comparative advertising. These types of ads may be both ehical and unethical. You will see plenty of companies fighting legal battles for such unethical comparative ads.

Given below, some arguments both in favour and against of comparative advertising : -

Arguments in favour:-

1) In case of comparative ads, the customer can get the product attributes of one brand compared to another. In case of Hyundai’s Santro and Maruti’s Wagon R, the consumer can get a comparative chart of the advantages and disadvantages of the similar products and from there his / her preference and purchase decision can be made.
2) While launching a new brand, the comparative ads may work in favour of the new brand when it is compared to the other similar brands already existing in the market from other companies. Like, when a television company launches its new brand with advanced technology, it shows comparative ads to generate business.

Arguments against:-

1) For almost similar products like Pepsi and Coca- Cola ‘s coke products,where product composition, packaging are almost same, comparative ads, comaparative charts and graphs are of no use. What they do in those case is mocking at each other’s products and making each other’s information as wrong info. In these types of comparative ad war, companies come up finally with a loose – loose situation for both. Many companies do not show comparative ads mentioning their competitor’s name directlt but they do it in an indirect manner. Like Kotex sanitary napkin used it against Whisper, with their caption -- ‘Don’t Whisper. Say it allowed.’
2) loyal customers of a brand is generally aware of that brand. When they see that any other similar brand is showing comparative ads not with correct facts they take it seriously and as result a negative impression is created in the market for that brand showing comparative ads.



If anybody has any comment in favour of / against this article please write to me at biswajit20793@gmail.com.




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