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Trends 26 August 2014, 14: 35 21218 3
War of the Worlds: how brands improve their image by comparing themselves favorably with competitors
Karina Starobina,
Author of articles and translations
in Cossa
Coca Cola vs. Pepsi, Burger King vs. McDonald's brands that users often perceive as interchangeable, have been waging a fierce information war for years.
From the outside, their sarcastic reproaches towards a competitor seem funny, but the world of advertising is regulated by law, and it does not depend on whether the brands are funny or not.
How far can you go in discussing a competitor?
Taco Bell forces Ronald McDonalds to confess their love for their burgers, Samsung makes fun of iPhone owners in almost every Galaxy ad, Windows does not hesitate to expose Siri as a useless application, trying to introduce fashion to Cortana.
How far can brands afford to go using the so called direct comparison ads attacks on each other?
The legislation in different countries gives different answers to this question.
The European directive allows you to" tease " competitors in some cases, for example, when both brands are involved in the same field and the advertisement does not contain information discrediting the competing brand.
American law generally believes that such advertising motivates the consumer, so that brands are protected only from very cruel and deceitful attacks from a competitor.
In Russia, the law on advertising of 2006 calls advertising that "contains incorrect comparisons of the advertised product with goods in circulation that were produced by other manufacturers or are sold by other sellers" unfair.
It is considered that it " discredits the honor and business reputation of a person, including a competitor."
We decided to consider several stories of brand confrontation and ask lawyers to comment on the scope of what is allowed in the context of Russian legislation.
The experts were Artem Ponomarev (Atra Attorneys ' Office) and Yuri Khabarov (L'Etoile Legal Consultant).
IS COMPARATIVE ADVERTISING PROHIBITED IN RUSSIA
Artem Ponomarev:
"Despite the fact that comparative advertising is an extremely effective and successfully proven tool in the competition of brands, Russian advertisers, unlike Western ones, are much less likely to turn to it because of the well established opinion that direct comparison of goods in Russia is prohibited by law.
However, there is no such prohibition in Russian legislation.
In accordance with paragraph 1 of Part 1 of art. 5 of the Law "On Advertising", an advertisement that"contains incorrect comparisons of the advertised product with goods in circulation that are produced by other manufacturers or sold by other sellers" is considered unfair.
Attention should be paid specifically to "incorrect comparisons".
That is, the main criterion that this type of advertising should meet is the "correctness" of comparing products.
The absence of a definition of "comparative advertising" in the law "On Advertising" creates some difficulties associated with identifying advertising as comparative.
For the definition of comparative advertising, it is necessary to refer to Directive N 2006/114/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union "On misleading and comparative advertising" (adopted in Strasbourg in 2006).
According to it, "comparative advertising" means any advertising that explicitly or indirectly identifies a competitor or products or services offered by competitors.
Avis vs Hertz
Two companies providing car rental services, Avis and Hertz, declared war on each other back in the mid 1940s.
Avis employees didnot like the fact that Hertz called itself the number one in their field in any public references, so they launched the We Try Harder advertising campaign ("We try harder").
In it, Avis emphasizes that they are only the number two in their business, but when you are not the first, you try harder.
The next move was the advertising campaign When you're only No. 2 ("When you're only number two"), which shocked the advertising world, accustomed to self praising brands.
The campaign was invented by copywriter Paula Green from the agency DDB.
The agency has since used the technique of so called "modesty", for example, in advertising Volkswagen Beetle cars, which recognized: "It's ugly, but it will take you where you need to" (It's ugly, but it will get you there).
Avis never called Hertz by name, but it was always very clear who they were talking to.
Needless to say, the advertising campaign was an insane success.
For a long time, Hertz silently ignored the ironic attacks, until finally, in 1966, they presented an advertisement with the headline "For many years, Avis said that Hertz is number one.
Now we will tell you why."
This was followed by " Number 2 says they are trying harder.
Than who?" and " Hertz has a competitor who says he's number 2.
It's hard to argue with this."
The attacks continued, but over time they became more and more sluggish and good natured.
Avis never became number one, and then both companies took a back seat to Enterprise, so the competitors had to forget their differences altogether.
Artem Ponomarev:
"In accordance with Russian legislation, the use in advertising of the comparative characteristics of the advertised object with other goods, for example, by using the words "best", "first", "number one", must be made with the indication of a specific criterion by which the comparison is carried out and which has objective confirmation."
Cola Wars
Cola Wars or "Stake Wars" — the great confrontation between Pepsi and Coca Cola, which has not subsided for more than 50 years.
Now the companies seem to have declared a truce, as Pepsi decided to focus on the edible products market, leaving Coca Cola as the undisputed leader.
Although the confrontation began with the very birth of Pepsi, the first serious clash was the launch of the Pepsi Challenge: consumers were asked to blindly try Pepsi and Coca Cola and voice their preferences.
As it turned out, many of them chose Pepsi.
Coca Cola's response was to launch a New Coke a drink identical to Pepsi, since studies after the experiment showed that everyone who took part in it preferred Pepsi because of the sweeter taste.
However, the launch turned out to be a complete failure, which only played into the hands of Pepsi.
In the late 90s, Pepsi launched the most successful strategic campaign — Pepsi Stuff, which is a prize system.
They repeated the campaign in 2005, and Coca Cola, unable to stand it, created a similar system of Coke Rewards.
For many years, brands have not let each other down, while endlessly entertaining consumers with funny ads demonstrating the superiority of a particular brand.
In one of these forbidden videos, a little boy buys two cans of Coca Cola from a vending machine in order to reach the Pepsi button.
On April 1, 2000, Pepsi created an ad for We Love Coca Cola, confusing everyone: did both brands conspire and simply promote themselves at the expense of each other, releasing viral videos, or are they really waging a cold blooded war?
In 2011, Cola accused Pepsi of using their "branded" glass bottle.
The court found the charges unfounded, since the form was not patented, and the logo clearly indicated the manufacturer.
In the same year, Coca Cola declared a complete victory: if Coca Cola and Pepsi occupied the first two places in the carbonated drinks market before, now Pepsi has replaced Diet Coke in the second place, so that Cola actually monopolized the market.
In the same year, Pepsi made another attack, but this was already the last attempt: in the video Summer time is Pepsi time, the brand mocks Coca Cola's favorite characters a polar bear and Santa.
Yuri Khabarov:
"There are certain legal prohibitions, as well as banal moral norms (for example, seniors need to give in), which brands adhere to in such battles.
But otherwise they are free to do anything!
It is not necessary to resort to slander or misleading the target audience about the properties of a rival's product (for example, Coca says that Pepsi is made of elephant dung), because this threatens with multimillion dollar lawsuits to protect the honor, dignity and business reputation of the company."
BMW and Audi
BMW and Audi are the leading German car manufacturers that are known for "billboard wars" in California.
It all started with a harmless Audi slogan, which beat the BMW logo: "Chess?
No, thanks.
I'd rather drive my own car."
A few days later, they openly challenged, replacing the slogan on the billboard with "Your move, BMW".
As a response, BMW bought a billboard across the street twice as large and answered: "Checkmate".
Audi has asked Facebook users to come up with a witty answer.
As a result, the brand settled on the dubious phrase " It's time to check out your luxury badge.
Perhaps it has gone out of fashion."
After that, Audi moved the billboard to another place, ending this small and fun collision, photos of which are still wandering on the Internet.
BMW was inspired by the acquired experience and began to attack Mercedes and Jaguar as well (without stopping the clashes with Audi).
For example, in Hong Kong, BMW placed a huge billboard right on the building of a competitor's salon.
In addition to billboards, Audi and BMW almost every month release a funny video, making fun of each other.
It seems that representatives of both brands enjoy the confrontation no less than consumers.
Well, sales, of course, are growing.
Yuri Khabarov:
"In Russia, such advertising does not violate the current legislation — the only question is moral norms.
The challenge that the participants of the battles throw to the established methods of advertising causes more interest.
The non target audience also begins to follow the progress of the advertising company.
For example, as a young lawyer, I canot afford, say, an Audi A5.
But I've heard a lot about this car, I've heard a lot about the brand itself.
And my positive attitude towards him is caused, among other things, by the fact that they approach the issue of advertising with confidence, charismatic audacity and a sense of humor."
Burger King and McDonald's
Two fast food tycoons Burger King and McDonald's have been fighting since the middle of the XX century and, I must say, choose quite sophisticated attacks.
Brands rarely directly address each other, but there are some exceptions.
For example, in an advertisement for Burger King Breakfast Muffin Sandwich, the King from Burger King steals a recipe from McDonald's at night, mocking the supposedly very intricate recipe.
An advertisement from 1981 deserves attention, in which five year old Sarah Michelle Gelar claims that McDonald's uses 20% less meat than Burger King when making sandwiches.
After the presentation of this video, McDonald's was outraged and sued Burger King.
The Burger King Whopper Virgins campaign invited people from all over the world to try and compare "Big Mac" and "Whopper", however, was found to be racist and exploitative.
Yuri Khabarov:
"In my opinion, such an advertising war is beneficial for both companies, because it favorably distinguishes two competing brands from the rest.
While others say that they are just good, rivals in such battles say with confidence and a sense of humor that they are not just good, but better than their principled opponent).
And a sense of humor is the humanization of the brand.
It is much more pleasant to believe in a company that humorously approaches product advertising than these "quality guarantee and low prices"."
Mac vs IBM
Perhaps one of the most striking examples of comparative advertising is the long running mini series from the Get a Mac commercials featuring John Hodgman and Justin Long.
From 2006 to 2009, 66 "episodes" of the series were released.
In them, Hodgman (PC), a sad office clerk, and Long (Mac), a fashionable young guy, discuss who is still better.
Since this is an Apple advertising campaign, it is very clear what idea they are trying to convey to the consumer.
The campaign even won the "Effie" prize in 2007.
Get A Mac is a continuation of the Switch campaign, which was also filmed on an all white background and told consumers about people who switched from Windows to Mac.
Microsoft responded to Get A Mac with a series of I'm a PC videos, where they debunk the stereotype imposed by Apple.
Mac has been attacking Microsoft for decades, so the latter decided that it was time to respond.
What is one recent Zune ad worth, contrasting Zune and iTunes.
WHAT IS NOT PROHIBITED IS ALLOWED
Yuri Khabarov:
"All these wars are taking place within the legal framework, because the management of companies is aware of the price of their reputation.
They will not go to dirty advertising methods or violations, because it can hit their reputation, which will hit the value of the brand itself.
In this case, the right is dispositive: any advertising methods that are not prohibited are allowed (relatively speaking, you can not swear, mate).
The norms of morality are losing their weight today, and in the field of advertising they are practically not a social regulator.
By doing something that is not prohibited by law, you can mock your competitor in any way you want.
At one time, it seems, the Just Russia party ("Free Russia", - ed.) was an advertising video in which they tried to make fun of their main competitors for single seats in the State Duma — the Yabloko party.
The video with the words " Donot vote for "Apple" — it's rotten" was taken with hostility by everyone.
Here you can also see an insult, in general."
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Brand wars, brands, image, competition, comparative advertising, prohibited advertising, Avis, Hertz, Pepsi, Coca Cola, BMW, Audi, Burger King, McDonald's, Mac, IBM
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Comments:
- 0 +
Sergey Chernyaev #
26.08.2014 21:44
And what do you say about personal brands?
Now it is very fashionable to use your name as an expert as brands
To answer
And what do you say about personal brands?
Now it is very fashionable to use your name as an expert as brands
- 0 +
Alina Bazelyuk #
26.08.2014 21:52
Sergey, please clarify the question.
Or give an example of the situation?
To answer
Sergey, please clarify the question.
Or give an example of the situation?
- 0 +
123123123123123123 #
09.06.2016 14:33
http://www.i media.ru/
To answer
http://www.i media.ru/
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