There is no such thing as a good product...

There is no such thing as a good product, its all consumer perception - Al Ries and Jack Trout

I find it fascinating how this seemingly tepid statement appears relevant to our society as well and not just confined to the realms of marketing.

What if i said -

There is no such thing as a good/bad person.

There is no such thing as a good/bad job.

There is no such thing as a good/bad city.

If only we were not as judgmental as a society as we are and learn to appreciate and live with different perspectives, life would be so much easier. No?

Ambush Marketing

On 23rd July Mumbai woke up to hoardings that screamed ‘A Mystery Shampoo!!80% women say is better than anything else’. P&G, it was later found, was planning to unveil the new Pantene on August 1. HUL saw an opportunity to score a point. Five days later, Mumbai woke up to a new hoarding that said "There is no mystery. Dove is the No.1 shampoo." The repartee achieved two objectives. First, it took the sheen off the P&G teaser campaign. Second, the shock and awe grabbed consumer attention and generated a buzz in favour of Dove.

A classic case of ambush marketing; a company (HUL) feeding off its competitor's campaign (P&G).

It comes with the territory, says Jagdeep Kapoor, managing director, Samsika Marketing Consultants, a leading strategic marketing consultancy. “Teaser campaigns are vulnerable to such attacks,” he says. “Companies should focus on consumers rather than the competition. Eventually, consumers will decide based on the brand’s performance and image.”

Heightened competition to capture the relatively small share of the customer’s wallet allocated for discretionary purchase, on account of food inflation, is stoking the companies to resort to such tactics.

The growth rate in the shampoo category has come down from 17% in 2008 to 11% in 2009 and 9% in 2010. One reason

Definition

A term coined by marketing guru Jeffery Welsh, ambush marketing refers to means by which companies, not associated(officially or otherwise) with an event/campaign ride on its popularity and get themselves associated with it in the consumer's mind.

“Nothing official about it”

In 1996, Coke paid a fortune for the right to call itself the official sponsor of the World Cup. Pepsi promptly launched a massive advertising blitz, based on the catch-line: "Nothing Official About It". The Pepsi campaign captured the public imagination while Coke, the official sponsor, lost out. It was a masterstroke that made Pepsi younger, and reinforced its maverick brand attitude.

“No need for visa to travel to Norway”

During the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, credit card maker Visa, one of the official sponsors, broadcast advertisements that highlighted the message that only Visa cards will be accepted in the Olympic Village. American Express responded by creating an advertisement with the slogan “If you are travelling to Norway, you will need a passport but you don’t need a visa.” This was an improved version of their 1992 attack on Visa. Visa had invested over $20 million to become the official sponsor of the 1992 Olympic Winter and Summer Games and at that time also American Express purchased substantial advertising time on the major media networks and made advertisements that showed the French Alps with the caption “Winter Fun and Games”. In the same year the Olympic Games in Barcelona, American Express ran an advertisement with the slogan ‘And remember to visit Spain, you don’t need to be a visa”. It is worth noting that the word ‘Olympics’ was never used in any of these advertisements from American Express. As an event organizer who is conscious of the sponsorship value, the IOC got disturbed by the frequent ambush marketing attempts from this company and threatened to sue it for repeatedly trying to create an impression that it was an Olympic sponsor. But it was too late and those advertisements had really gained the attention of the world. Many people still consider American Express the official sponsor of the game at the time. The novel approaches from American Express made its marketing story enter the books and articles on marketing and is still considered as an inspirational theme for ambush marketers.

“Nike does it again and again”

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, instead of paying US$ 50 million that the official sponsorship would have cost, Nike chose a different approach, one that would create an impact at significantly lower cost. Nike got itself into the city’s billboard space, handed out swoosh banners to wave inside the stadiums and erected an enormous Nike centre overlooking the stadium.

The result of these measures paid off for Nike. Many people felt that Nike was the official sponsor of the games. In the 2002 Football World Cup sponsored by Adidas, by sponsoring top teams like Brazil, Nike got its logo on the jerseys of the players who were the cynosure of the millions following the game on television. Nike was able to ride on the wave of excitement created by the tournament, turning the positive sentiment into its favour and enhancing its brand franchise. Nike as a brand always had an iconoclastic element in its brand personality which gets reflected by such actions.

“2012 Olympic Games Organizing Committee chary of getting ambushed”

The organizers of tournaments have become wary of ambush attacks and have taken a slew of measures to ensure their sponsor’s interests are protected. The organizers of 2012 Olympics in a preemptive move to ward off the threat booked the entire city’s billboard space during the games.

The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 created the London Olympic Association Right (LOAR), which gives the games' organizers the power to grant licenses to authorized sponsors to use the symbols, words and logos of the event.

It also prevents any advert or merchandise with the combination of words and symbols which could create an unauthorized association with the games.

There are two lists of prohibited expressions, with marketers falling foul if they use any two words in list A, or any word in list A with one or more of the words in list B.

Companies deemed to have broken the rules could face fines of up to £20,000.

B-LIST WORDS London Medals Sponsor Gold Silver Bronze

RESTRICTED 2012 A-LIST WORDS Games Two Thousand and Twelve 2012 Twenty Twelve

Source: BBC Website

It will be increasingly difficult for firms on the prowl waiting to strike at the opportune moment. Offering an explanation for the strong measures taken, the spokesman for the London Organizing Committee insisted that the Games could not go ahead without sponsorship and that it had a duty to protect those brands that were shelling out. That notwithstanding one can’t put it past a Machiavellian mind to come with well thought out ambush plan.

“Pitfalls of ambush marketing”

Cynics of ambush marketing contend that customer is not necessarily the focus in ambush marketing. They also argue that when a brand ambushes - the well preached theorems of marketing take a backseat. Every brand has a distinct meaning and direction vis-à-vis the competition. By indulging in potshots the signals start to merge. In the case of Dove’s ambush of Pantene discussed earlier in the article, the skeptics contend that Dove, which stands for realism, is sending conflicting signals to its target audience by linking itself to an element of mystery.

There is increased overlapping of the two brands (meaning and direction)

The distinct brand meaning and direction of brand Dove got lost to some extent, claims one school of thought. The critics go on to state that ambush marketing creates diversions driving the long term plans awry.

In conclusion it would be fair to say that while ambush marketing offers companies high ROI in terms of immediate surge in sales, companies need to understand that it’s a tactical move. An ambush/guerilla attack is not an attack but should be seen as a preparation for a bigger attack.