If you have watched any TV or online TV streaming lately, odds are good that you’ve seen one of these commercials:
When Verizon started the campaign bashing AT&T’s 3G coverage, some of us got a chuckle out of the spotlight being put on AT&T’s known spotty coverage – in particular those of us who have AT&T and experienced their amazing “fewest drop calls” claims for ourselves; I personally have at least 1 call a day that drops, which is quite annoying when talking with a client.
With AT&T’s response and the escalation of both companies into an all-out war, who got caught in the cross-fire? We did, the customers. Both companies seemed to have forgotten what really matters (maybe they never knew in the first place). Some Verizon customers will argue with me and say that Verizon actually traditionally put its customers first, saying, “They really take care of me,” and “I love Verizon,” or “AT&T sucks, I will always use Verizon.” However, that’s not the point.
How, then, did Verizon fail?
They forgot the simple fact that their strength is, and has always been, in their service quality. Ask anyone who is on Verizon and they will undoubtedly tell you nothing but positive. By getting in this pissing match with AT&T, Verizon has actually lowered itself to the same level as AT&T – a big mistake. By bringing in their competition, Verizon actually diluted its own brand recognition, and counter-productively increased AT&T’s.
Okay, so how did AT&T fail then?
AT&T committed a common amateur marketer move – they decided to simply react to the Verizon campaign. Most people remember being on the playground at school when a peer sneered, “you’re stupid,” to which the reply was undoubtedly similar to, “no I’m not!” or “I’m telling!” As it turns out, the only people that really cared were the two people calling each other names. The same applies to the AT&T and Verizon bout. By simply reacting, instead of being innovative, AT&T did nothing but give more people a reason to change the channel or hit the mute button when their ads came on.
In short, the typical reaction to the ads has been an overwhelming, “so what?” on both sides.
Learning from marketing failures
So what does this mean for you, the ever-concerned marketer? Simple: resist the urge to bash your competition. It’s a timeless piece of marketing advice and for a couple of good reasons: 1) you’re doing nothing but giving people a reason to look at your competition, and 2) in many cases, by bashing your competition, you actually make yourself look worse, giving your competition the upper hand – customers don’t like when people bash their competition, it’s just bad taste.
Instead, find a way to be innovative in your approach. If you’re having trouble figuring out how to do that exactly, ask a couple of your customers what they like about your product or service. Ask them why they chose you over your competition. Then, market the heck out of those strong points – all while making sure you are keeping your competition out of it.
