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Comparative advertising is a marketing strategy that compares specific products to demonstrate superiority and encourage consumer purchases. It is used in various industries and must be based on verifiable data. It differs from parody advertising, which compares products to an unidentified generic product.
Comparative advertising is an advertising and marketing strategy that involves conducting a direct comparison of specific products competing in the market. The idea is to demonstrate that one product is inferior to the other product in some way, thereby getting consumers to buy the obviously superior product. Besides being used in the promotion of various goods and services for sale, comparative advertising is also sometimes used in political campaigns.
Many different types of large industries make use of comparative advertising. This particular advertising technique has been used to demonstrate how one brand of bleach leaves clothing whiter than others and how one brand of gasoline contains additives that extend engine life that a major competitor does not. There have even been instances where this approach would draw on publicly available information to make comparisons between specific makes and models of vehicles sold by different automakers. Airlines sometimes compare their service record and range of onboard services to that of a competitor, as a means of setting customers apart from the competition. In all cases, the goal is to show why a consumer should choose one product over the other.
The actual comparative advertising process must be based on the use of verifiable data to support the claims made in the advertisement. For example, if a soft drink company claims that more people prefer the taste of their product to a similar product marketed by a different company, they should base that claim on data gathered during actual consumer comparisons. Similarly, if a politician wishes to contrast his or her position on key issues with an opponent’s past actions, the contrast must be made by comparing the two politicians’ public service records.
Comparative advertising is different from the similar approach known as parody advertising. In the comparative approach, only real products on the market are used. With the parody strategy, the advertiser will compare its products to an unidentified generic product type, sometimes referred to as “brand X”. The idea behind the parody approach is to convey the idea that most other products of the same type are all the same, while the advertiser’s advertised product is clearly superior.
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