Competion, Comparison & ....

Advertising uses various kinds of appeals to appear appealing to customers. One such appeal is Comparative Appeal.

Comparative appeal usually highlights the competitive frame of reference and then highlights the POD (Point Of Difference) of the brand. This kind of appeal is generally used for recent launches as it’s mandatory for a new brand to register in the minds of customers, which can be through POD. Hence, Comparative appeals work for new brands.

A peculiar case of comparative appeals seen on Indian screen these days is a TV commercial of Complan health drink that degrades its major competitor Horlicks by calling it cheap and fake (in terms of brand promise to provide required nutritional content). Complan is an established brand and it need not go for such comparisons. It’s more of an Anti-Branding campaign though Horlicks too tried the same tactic some time back .

If we look from consumers’ perspective, the brand has degraded in terms of brand image and thereby brand equity. It is clearly a strategy to beat competition. Well, nothing wrong in that and in fact, it is the need of the game. However, your intensions should not be visible to consumers. They should see what you want them to see and you definitely don’t want them to see your cut-throat rivalry.

I feel that the ad campaign is a disaster that will dampen the brand image.