When the topic Ad war is brought up, the
first few examples which strike the mind are brands like Sprite and Dew, Rin
and Tide, Pepsi and Coke. But recently, it is the newspaper brands i.e. The
Hindu and Times of India hitting each other through print and Television
commercials that have became famous. It was initially started by Times of India.
In a recent advertisement campaign it depicted The Hindu as paper that puts readers to sleep compared to its own brand.
Then Hindu came up with the advertisement attacking on The Times of India
saying that “Stay ahead of times,".
Here is the commercial!
After this ad it will be the turn for
Times of India to respond. Let’s wait for that.
But here I have a doubt as to why
companies get into these kind of marketing battle?
Is this the strategy to create a
conflict and to boost the market share for both companies and to gain the
competitive advantage or really trying to kill the competitor brand?
I personally believe that it will not
kill the competitor brand, rather it would indirectly create the awareness for
the brand among the people and influence the brand recall. I guess it would be
the creative move of Times of India to provoke the leader inorder to get the
attention among the people and to be noticed by other players. The reason could
also be like TOI would have thought
that Hindu was enjoying the monopoly market and started a war. But in
general everyone believes that Hindu has its own brand image among people and
it is perceived as most respected brand in the newspaper industry because of
its heritage. But Hindu is trying to upset its brand image while contradicting
and making fun of other brands. The brand image may get diluted and the
differentiating factor from TOI will not get noticed by customers because of
this issue. Even though customers enjoy watching these kind of ad war the brand
may be diluted.
Do you think, this kind of practise will
dilute the brand image, and is ad war unethical?
Hi Santhosh,
ReplyDeleteA good topic to debate. I feel that its a perfect marketing strategy. If a new entrant wants to enter market he will attack the market leader (if he is having the capability to withstand the opponent). Here The Hindu was the market leader so the attack happened openly. By fighting The Hindu, TOI got a good reach. In fact both are Waking Up the readers. Another truth i felt was the content of TOI is diminishing after this.
Hey Santhosh,
ReplyDeleteThis indeed is a good topic to discuss.
Right from the time immemorial we have heard that to win, people have shed bloods (others blood),taken lives (other lives) etc. These two companies, and also other companies mentioned by you, have been doing the same. I don't find anything wrong in this as long as people are clear as to what is their choice and whether they want to continue with their existing choice or want to change their reading preference.
The point whether these companies' brand image will get diluted is a million dollar question. TOI is a new entrant and he is trying to hit 'The Hindu' which is close to 130 years old. It might cause a serious trouble to TOI.
Thank You
Hi friends,
ReplyDeleteBy this recent advertisement,The Times Of India is indirectly making the customers of The Hindu to think whether " Are we reading the news or else for the sake of everyone reads we are also reading it ".Obviously ,The Hindu was enjoying monopoly but not now. After this advertisement ,TOI has increased its circulations and also their customer base.Its a tough situation for The Hindu to step into new strategy because it might affect their positioning.I think its better for them to bring another equivalent paper to compete with TOI .Even though,The Hindu is old and well established ..its a matter of time that their market share can be depleted if they don't innovate...