Misguided comparisons can do more harm than good

In a broader way,all advertising is comparative. One routinely comes across advertisements with claims such as finest in class,world famous,Preferred Card or Car of the Year or Indias most respected television channel etc etc.Come to think of it,which brand or service doesnt have a superior reason why the target consumer shouldnt gravitate towards it? And there is a rationale behind the advertising being comparative. Consumers,when they are making their purchase decisions,they are comparing the different attributes of the brands they are choosing from. So,it is natural for a marketer or an advertiser to make the consumers job easy by highlighting their brands superiority in different aspects.

Having said this,comparisons like the one thats being talked about - Rin vs Tide - should be healthy and factual. Also,such advertising should be done in good spirit. In India,we have seen instances of one cola drink getting after the other but those ads had a fun element to them. The latest commercial of Rin,however,is different. The ad essentially bashes the rival product Tide. Both these brands are big in the detergents space and their parent companies,Hindustan Unilever and Pamp; G are dominant players in the market. So,any kind of rivalry between them is expected to catch everybodys attention. But I am not sure if this kind of attention is good for any of the two brands,especially Rin. They are both above par,and size,and carry enough credibility and respect. So why resort to hitting below then belt? There is a certain dignity that big brands carry. Street fighting isnt expected of and from them. The immediate impression one gets on seeing the ad is that Rin perceives Tide as a real threat. It is normal in the detergent space for brands to claim their products wash clothes better. In that sense,both these brands have their own set of loyal customers but bashing up a rival publicly in an effort to get past them is an act of frustration. At least thats the hidden message.

The big question here is the basis of the claims Rin has made in its ad and if it can prove what it is saying. Consumers stand to gain from such comparisons provided the comparisons are based on flawless, tested,and authenticated research. If not,then they do more harm than good both to the consumer as well as the brand. Then again,who has authenticated this? Barring an ISI,consumers in India really dont have a research body whose findings could be trusted blindly. And in the absence of that,any brand or any service can be white washed and left to dry by any lab.

A short-term tactic to gain consumer attention

Gullu Sen

Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer,Dentsu India

On Friday night we saw Rin throwing the challenger gauntlet smack on the face of Tide. One can only imagine the chaos that would have ensued for the brand managers who were looking forward to a long lazy weekend to unwind and hang up their boots. Though these seasoned veterans are no stranger to such tactics,there must have nevertheless,been a moment of panic. The sucker punch caught them completely off guard. Knowing fully well that no legal action could be taken until Tuesday,it must have been extremely frustrating,sitting there,not being able to contain the damage. The biggest question confronting them mustve been how do we respond?

Historically this is a manoeuver thats been done many times over by various brands internationally as well as nationally. Examples like the Pepsi and Coke war,Colgate and Pepsodent,Big Mac versus McDonalds,Avis versus Hertz and Apple versus IBM are only few of the many such instances where competing brands have taken the leader head-on.

What ensued in these cases mostly was that the disruption was responded to in some way of the other. A brutal war has always raged at the market place for the eyeballs of the consumer.

Especially in the detergent segment in India,it seems that the whiter the category is becoming,the murkier the game plan. Whether the players lean heavily on distribution channels,fight at the price point or hold the retailers at ransom,all is fair in their race. In this game,you have to pick your time and place very carefully and create maximum impact.

How does it impact the consumer? He is already neck deep into IPL matches,political fiascos,spats between Bollywood icons,bilateral issues,serial twists and turns,the day to day rat race,anxiety over an escalating cost of living and real estate,unsavoury events and a highly volatile Sensex.

To add to this,is the cumulative noise level of various brands and products vying for this attention. In strictly communication terms,he is not looking out for ads unless its extremely entertaining or interesting to him.

What brands have with the consumer are only a few precious and prohibitively expensive moments to capture his attention. The only way to get his attention is to create an impact. A black eye to the competition for a consumer eye-ball is not a bad trade-off where media expense and effectivity is concerned. The question is how long do such things last? Events like this fade from public memory very fast.

For the time being,the challenger has created a disruption. It will be interesting to see how the champion answers.

As told to Rahul Sharma