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Table of Contents

Introduction.............................................................................................2

Objective and Significance .....................................................................4

Case 1: Rin vs. Tide.................................................................................... 7

History .................................................................................................... 7

Marketing Warfare...................................................................................7

The Ad Campaign....................................................................................8

Marketing Strategy..................................................................................9

Case 2: Horlicks vs. Complan................................................................... 11

History...................................................................................................11

Marketing Strategy................................................................................11

The Ad Campaign .................................................................................12

History..................................................................................................... 15

Case 4: BMW vs. Audi...............................................................................19

Case 5: Pantene vs. Dove.........................................................................26

Case 6: Jet Airways vs. Kingfisher Airlines................................................30

Findings................................................................................................. 33

Conclusion.............................................................................................35

References, Bibliography and Webliography.........................................36

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Introduction

With growing competition there is a greater need to attract and retain consumer

attention hence companies rely on marketing techniques that compares the products or

services of one undertaking with those of other competitors. Its basic aim is to deliver

superior customer value and it is designed to highlight the advantages of the goods or

services offered by the advertiser as compared to those of a competitor. The customers

are continiously bombarded with general information. Its difficult for a marketer to

remain in the mind of the competitor. Marketing warfare fare drives sales by comparing

the features or services of a brand with that of its closest competitor for a better product

offering.

Marketing warfare fare strategies or competitive advertising are types of

strategies, used in business and marketing, that try to draw parallels between business

and warfare, and then apply the principles of military strategy to marketing situations,

with competing firms considered as analogous to sides in a military conflict, and

market share considered as analogous to the territory which is being fought over. This

usually takes place in a mature, low-growth market, and when real GDP growth is

negative or low, business operates as a zero-sum game because one persons gain is

possible only at another persons expense. Success depends on battling competitors for

market share.

It started with the notorious cola and detergent wars, and then led to corporate

biggies in the consumer product space washing their dirty linen in public. Comparative

advertising is not a new phenomenon in corporate India; it has ruffled many a feather in

the past. Though there is no compelling evidence in support of the proposition that such

advertisingwhere one brand makes random attacks or disparaging comments about

its rivalshelps brands in any way, leading companies continue to indulge in such

tactics.

In the past decade, there have been several instances of leading brands taking to

authorities in retaliation against what they thought was offensive advertising on the

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part of their rivals. Leading textiles firm Raymond Ltd, for instance, found footwear

retailer Metro Shoes Ltds new commercial in bad taste. The commercial showed a man

wearing a suit with no shoes on, followed with a tag line that said: The Incomplete

Man. This got Raymond upset because it was in direct conflict with its decade-old

sloganThe Complete Man. Raymond, in an official communication to Metro

Shoes, alleged that the advertisement is a clear evidence of mal-intent and deliberate

denigration of the Raymond brand, with the ad being poorly executed. It asked Metro

Shoes to either withdraw the advertisement or face legal action.

In retaliation, Metro Shoes went to the Advertising Standard Council of India

(ASCI), a self regulatory body of the advertising industry, asking it to settle the

controversy. The idea was to convey that a person without shoes is incomplete. There

is no mal-intent behind the ad because Raymonds product line is completely different

from ours, said Sohel Kamdar, vice-president, Metro Shoes. ASCI is looking into the

matter.

In a similar episode, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting and Godrej Consumer

Products Ltd, both leading consumer products companies, filed suits against each otherin the courts alleging wrongful advertising on each others part. First, Wipro Ltd got an

injunction from a Hyderabad court on an ad by Godrej, which claimed its soap brand

Godrej No. 1s leadership over rivals such as Santoor soap, a Wipro brand. Wipro cried

foul citing the ad to be unfair, unethical, incorrect and misleading. A week later,

Godrej challenged Wipro for advertising its liquid detergent brand Wipro SafeWash,

which claimed supremacy over Godrejs own brand Ezee. The Punjab court, where the

company filed the case, passed an interim injunction restraining Wipro from continuing

the controversial ad.

Organizations engage in marketing warfare s to generate massive attention,

engage their audiences and attract large number of eyeballs. Its main aim is to make

certain claims that they are better than their competitors. Also its a creative way to

show that competitors claims are invalid and rubbish.

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Objective and Significance

The objective of this study is to identify the marketing strategies adopted by

leading brands during a situation of a marketing warfare. The aim was to study the

marketing warfare and identify what and how the organization manages to grab the

customers attention. We will read about a brief history about the brand, the reason for

the marketing warfare taking place, the actual competitive advertisements and the

marketing strategies used by the companies.

On the positive side, the brand gives their customers reasons why they are better

than the other products. They make their brand stand out from amongst the clutter.

Dropping the name of a competitor can be a way to capitalize off of the

accomplishments of another brand, and take it in a fresh (or at least different) direction.

The brand lets the market know that they are part of the market.

One negative aspect of this kind of ad campaign is that the brand is putting the

competitors brand in the minds of the potential customers. Depending on the nature of

the campaign, it could be looked upon as a lack of class on the companies part if they

are insulting their competitors in the ads. This can negatively impact the business. On

the face of it, such aggressive tactics may seem damaging for brands, specially the

aggressors, but some marketing experts say it actually helps them get immediate

consumer attention.

One potential danger with competitive campaigns is that they may have an

adverse effect upon the whole category of goods/services concerned. However, anarguably successful example of negative advertising was the long-running series of ads

run by Apple against PCs (represented by a tired, conservative, behind the times,

nerdy man who was contrasted with a more lively, trendy and with it Mac guy). The

campaign worked because it was done in a light-hearted way. It was pitched against a

product type rather than an individual manufacturer and the market was binary, (eg,

there were just two operating systems you could choose from- Mac or PC), and so to

the extent that the campaign succeeded in making one doubt PCs it must be to the

benefit of Macs (eg, Apple).

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Brand owners should avoid being seen as mean-spirited, eg, the market-leader

picking on a plucky new entrant. On the other hand, new entrants often have the least

to lose and the most to gain from a comparative campaign, provided it is based upon a

genuine product innovation or superiority, and keeps its nose clean in legal/regulatory

terms. Above all, always do plenty of market testing before proceeding with such a

campaign to ensure that the consumer response is what you are expecting.

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We will now look at a few cases from advertising history both Indian and international.

India is a