Competitive Advertising: Sometimes using your head in marketing means going head-to-head with your competitors.
By Mike Matson; Creative Director

Lord & Lasker client Suddenlink Communications recently faced a daunting challenge. It seems that a very large competitor, the newly re-formed AT&T, had moved into their markets with a very aggressive ad campaign. However, their aggressive offer carried a sea of fine print and legal disclaimers that would surely scare away potential customers – if they only paid attention to the details.

As a result, Lord & Lasker created a campaign that carried the headline, “Don’t get hooked on our competitor’s offer” and featured photos of fishing lures with captions such as “2-year contracts”, “confusing prices”, and “termination fees”. Of course, we never used the term “bait and switch” but it will be interesting to know if consumers subconsciously lead to this conclusion themselves?

Below, I showcase other campaigns that similarly leveraged a competitive situation. These are three of my favorite that I have culled from my quarter-century in advertising.

Tour Buses

Restaurants located along interstate highways invariably have a billboard to capture the travelers market. They often put these words on the bottom of the billboard, “Tour Buses Welcome.” On a particularly popular stretch of I-75 through Georgia, there were many restaurants with this bus-capturing message. One savvy restaurateur wanted to stand out from the crowd and asked his ad agency what he could put on the bottom of his billboard that would make sure that the tour buses picked his restaurant over all others. The agency studied the multitude of billboards that sported ‘Tour Buses Welcome’ and arrived at a variation that would surely give their restaurant client the competitive edge: The line they came up with? “Free Lunch For Tour Bus Drivers.”

Helicopter Rides

A Dutch airline was at a competitive disadvantage when it came to flying international travelers to Paris. Since the airline was state-owned, by law, it had to fly to its own country first. From there, Paris-bound passengers were put on helicopters for the short hop. Since competitive airlines flew directly to Paris, many passengers opted for this convenience. The Dutch airline asked their ad agency for help in overcoming this seemingly huge obstacle. The agency’s solution? Turn a negative into a positive. They came up with this campaign: “The only airline that flies you to Paris and gives you a free helicopter tour of the Eiffel Tower.”

Furniture Row

The owner of a vacant strip mall in North Carolina decided to turn his property into a furniture outlet mall. A small furniture retailer jumped onboard first and selected a prime storefront in the center of the strip mall. To his dismay, a few days later, a much larger furniture retailer took the entire row of empty storefronts to his right. To make matters worse, a second large retailer took all the remaining storefronts to his left, leaving the small guy with just this island in the middle of these foreboding competitors. Sure enough, the large competitor on the right put up a huge sign that read, “Largest selection.” Then the large competitor on the left put up a huge sign that read, “Volume discounts.” The little guy in the middle was in a quandary. He had neither the largest selection nor volume discounts. Who would ever come into his store? He turned to his ad agency. They studied the signs to the left and right of their client’s store and brainstormed to come up with a sign that would bring customers into their client’s store in the center of this competitive quagmire. Their ingenious solution? A sign that simply read, “Main Entrance.”

The bottom line of these three anecdotes? They show that there is always a unique creative solution if you just carefully consider and  leverage your competitive situation.

How many times have you ordered a Diet Pepsi while dining and got “all we have are Coke products” as your answer? Do you then let out a sigh of frustration and opt for ice-tea instead? This happens thousands of times every day and is the ultimate testament to brand loyalty, which leads to customer loyalty and a sustainable future for the product desired.

Americans have more choices than any other group in the world. With those choices come competition and with competition comes questionable customer loyalty if your brand’s integrity is compromised in any way. Every day we are presented with choices in regards to our beverage of choice, our bank, our doctor, our grocery store, our cable service and more.

Unfortunately, most companies often see customers jumping ship at the next coupon or discount from their competitor. With all of the choices that surround your customers, what keeps your customers loyal to your brand?

To retain customers, companies need to get back to the basics and protect their brand. They must create the impression in consumers’ minds that their product stands alone in the market in its values and benefits. Most companies sacrifice their long-term branding efforts to put their marketing budgets toward short-term direct acquisition. Have you ever seen Coca-Cola advertise a price point nationally?

By investing in your brand you invest in customer loyalty. The goal is to sustain business over a long period of time. The investment in your brand can start with something as simple as a personalized monthly newsletter inserted in monthly statements or a card during the holidays to let your customers know they matter.

Take this a step further by inviting your customers to a personalized website to acquire additional information about your product and services while simultaneously gathering data on their own purchase habits and preferences. In your communications, keep it personal. People prefer to be called by their name and taking that extra step will resonate with customers.

Take a minute to review your marketing plans and what you are putting into place to ensure your success in 12 months while balancing the sales activity needed for today and tomorrow. Do you have your brand protected or are you only driving a price point war and discount mania?

It’s not only High Definition TV anymore. The advent of HD radio has been on the rise and with a 2007 promotional budget of over $250 million, it could just be the next big thing.

What exactly is HD radio? It is a new technology that allows FM and AM stations to broadcast their content digitally. Reception is said to be better and free, with no subscription costs, only the cost of the digital radio receiver. In addition, more information such as song artists and titles plus local news and weather are digitally transmitted. Stations also have the ability to multicast, allowing users to select more than one program choice from its station, such as music or sports.

HD radio had a successful first year in 2005, garnering support from many retail, receiver and automotive partners in the marketplace. In addition, more than 1,000 radio stations in the U.S. broadcast in HD, “reaching 81% of the population and over 230 million people”. HD radio not only has sound and delivery superiority over traditional radio, but it also offers a much more expansive choice of channels.

So, does this mean an eventual goodbye to the analog AM and FM formats? It seems so, but not without working out some of the kinks in the marketing of the HD system. For instance, HD radio receivers were surpassed on Christmas wish lists by items such as iPods and satellite radio. As Charles Hodge, spokesman for Radio Shack, says, it takes time to create awareness in retail for technology newcomers. Also, only large metropolitan areas have a significant demand for HD radio since programming is not broadly available in smaller markets. Another pitfall against HD radio in its inception is the lack of content available. Superior sound quality may not be enough of a selling point to offset the lack of programming variety.

What about advertising? As the technology changes, so will the advertising. As John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio states, “There's a need to do it differently. Radio is reinventing itself by taking advantage of and embracing new technologies”. Formats such as text streaming across the visual display or a push-to-play button for consumers to launch an advertising message when a product is mentioned that appeals to them.

“Hey, do you remember that direct mail piece we did for a client years ago with the blond girl carrying a bucket of sand along a beach?” Such questions are not uncommon in the business, and it usually leads to the bigger question: “Do you know where your stuff is?”

Over the passage of time, computer files are altered, erased and archived. Relationships with vendors and print houses are made and broken. Collateral pieces are placed in storage units or in the back of file cabinets, waiting for the day they will be needed (and most usually will).

Whether you do it or not, everybody knows that you have to back up your data as part of a consistent backup recovery plan. What most people fail to realize is that how you archive your work is just as important. Believe me, it isn’t fun to tell the creative department that the prior works they need to pitch a new client are missing or incomplete because half the necessary data is on old SyQuest cartridges or backed up using software that only works on a 12-year old Mac Quadra (you know, the one you disposed of six years ago).

Keep it simple, keep it compatible. The two best solutions for a backup strategy are optical media (CD/DVD) and external hard disks. The decreasing costs of both types of media (and their continued popularity and use) give them an advantage over expensive tape systems or off-site storage options. They are also the easiest for the end user to deal with if the need arises. Just make sure that your archives are complete (jobs packaged, all source files included) and readable by both Macs and PCs. If you are using third-party backup software, make sure that long-term upgrades and support are available.

Two backups are better than one. So you’ve backed up your data to a CD, why not make a copy or store the same data on a removable drive? Make sure you keep duplicate archives in a separate location as a protection against fire, theft or storm damage.

Keep your archives current. Years down the road, the backup strategy that you employ today may be superseded by a better medium. Make sure your current backups work with any new hardware or software you acquire. Update your archived data to newer media when the situation presents itself. Never assume that your current media will be good forever. (Remember when Zip and Jaz disks were the perfect portable storage?)

Finally, make sure you note where your data is (live on server, backed up to external media, collateral pieces in storage, etc). Also remember to whom you have given your data (print houses, websites, clients). Knowing (and cataloging) these things can make retrieval of old projects quick and easy.

Paper yellows, staff changes, companies merge. But when properly planned and cared for, the work and ideas of people can live forever.

Who we are.

Lord & Lasker is headquartered in Tampa, FL with additional primary offices in Lakeland, FL; Daytona Beach, FL; Washington D.C.; and Wichita, KS. Our Office in Daytona Beach was established in 1981, followed by Lakeland (1984), Tampa (1989), Washington D.C. (2000), and Wichita (2006).

Each location offers our clients a wide range of services: strategic account planning, research, marketing and positioning, media analysis, implementation, direct marketing, sales promotion, public relations and complete creative and productive services.

Affiliate offices, in which Lord & Lasker is a Worldwide Partners shareholder, are located in over 120 markets and 40 countries thoughout the world. This alliance assures our clients of an unprecedented depth of marketing and strategic branding intelligence.