Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [114]
Although comparative advertising is beneficial for buyers and sellers, people’s attitudes towards such ads do not reflect this. They find them less believable and less likeable (Shimp and Dyer 1978; Swinyard 1981; Wilson and Mederrisoglu 1979).
6.8.2. Compare the product with market leaders
It is more effective to compare your brand with the market leader than to compare it with other established brands. The determination of the market leader should be based on criteria such as the brand’s prestige and market share. For example, in the ancient Roman Empire, bathing establishments in provincial towns would claim that their “warm, sea and fresh-water baths” were patterned after baths in the city of Rome. Duracell batteries, with a very large market share, got this backwards when it used comparative ads against Kodak batteries, because Kodak had only 3 percent of the market at the time (Levy 1987).
When it is difficult to make comparisons with the leading brand, or where it is not clear which is the leading brand, some advertisers use piecemeal comparisons. The idea behind piecemeal comparisons is to show that the featured brand is better than Brand B on attribute X, than Brand C on attribute Y, and so on.
Evidence on the effects of making comparisons with other brands
A meta-analysis found 38 studies in which the comparison was against the market leader and 15 studies in which the product was compared with an established product other than the market leader. Purchase intentions were 2.4 times higher when the comparison was against the market leader (Grewal et al. 1997, table 2).
To test piecewise comparisons, 120 subjects were shown print ads for automobiles. Some received a non-comparative ad, others a single-comparison ad, and the rest a piecemeal-comparison ad. The latter ad claimed that a fictitious Ambassador automobile was superior to Suzuki, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Nissan in terms of safety, roominess, power, and gas mileage. It did this by claiming that the Ambassador was superior to the worst-ranking brand among those being compared on each feature. The piecemeal format was rated as more believable and persuasive than an ad providing comparisons with a single competitor’s product. Both were more persuasive than a non-comparative ad (Muthukrishnan, Warlop, and Alba 2001).
6.8.3. When making a comparative claim, provide objective support and offer it gently
There’s nothing stronger than gentleness.
Abraham Lincoln
Premier Foods in the United Kingdom had been making HP baked beans under license from Danone when it learned that the HP brand had been sold to Heinz, which already had the largest market share. Premier decided to launch its own beans under a new brand name, Branston. Believing that it had a superior product, it launched the Greater British Bean Poll campaign. As part of the campaign, Premier hired a firm to do blind taste tests in supermarkets across Britain. Of the 750,000 people who voted in this Bean Poll, 76 percent favored Branston over Heinz. The poll generated much media coverage. Statistical analyses showed that the campaign led to large and rapid gains in sales, and it won an IPA effectiveness award (Green 2007).
As Abraham Lincoln advised, be gentle. Focus on the positive by describing the product’s advantage rather than the competitor’s disadvantages. Present comparisons in a positive manner with an attitude such as, “Our competitors have wonderful products, bless them, but compare them with our brand.” Let the evidence do the talking. A gentle and positive approach seems to be more objective and less likely to arouse counter-arguments by customers or legal challenges from competitors.
When making comparisons, use well-supported, objective evidence. In addition to helping consumers, this also can ward off legal challenges by competitors. Google AdWords imposes the restriction on advertisers that when making comparative claims, “support for this claim must be displayed on the leading page of your AdWords ad.”
Many advertisers overlook the need for factual