Image Credit: Dave Dugdale

When it comes to marketing, it would be a mistake to take advice from the current responsible parties for AT&T’s marketing and general business strategy – they only seem to know how to react to what Verizon is doing.

I’m not proud to be an AT&T customer

To be clear, I’m an AT&T subscriber, though not a proud one though. I have experienced first-hand the amazing “truth” to their “fewest dropped calls” claim. I think I actually had two occur when trying to talk to my wife in the same conversation. But, I have an iPhone, and I love it. I’m intrigued by Android phones, and I will probably eventually switch to one, on the principle of open source, if for no other reason.

When it comes to companies I give my hard-earned money, I typically keep it in the realm of those that I’d be at least marginally proud to say I patronize their business. AT&T, however, has rapidly lost my confidence – and I certainly don’t recommend them to anyone. Simply put, if the iPhone could be on a different network, I would probably switch in one swift moment.

Verizon has recently put intense pressure on AT&T, and though I don’t agree with companies calling out their competition in their marketing (I wrote about these two companies before, here), I think Verizon has made their point quite effectively. Verizon has positioned themselves as a clearly better company than AT&T, though not through their own campaigns; they have done it through the reactions in AT&T’s campaigns.

They hired Owen Wilson to let people know that AT&T has a faster network than Verizon, amongst other such claims – something even I take with a grain of salt because of my experience with the dropped calls issue. About the only thing I can see that AT&T has done in the last 5 years that was clearly an innovative step was their invention and registering their Rollover minutes program.

Learning From The Big Dogs

AT&T is on its heels and in a completely defensive stance. They have no angle, and all of their marketing has been directed at answering the claims and marketing of Verizon. Verizon is even affecting their price points. Around January 15, 2010, Verizon announced that their unlimited calling plans will be decreasing in price from $99/month to $69/month. Just over a week later, AT&T has responded by doing the EXACT SAME THING.

When it comes to marketing, many small businesses can learn incredibly valuable lessons by watching what the big companies do. AT&T, in this case, is clearly a company to learn what not to do when it comes to marketing. Simply reacting to competitors’ marketing efforts is a perfect recipe for rapid decline and certain death for companies. If AT&T doesn’t shift its own position to a more proactive approach with its marketing, it will quickly lose the battle.

What do you think?

Do you think I’m wrong, is AT&T doing the right thing, or is Verizon kickin’ ‘em in the butt? Tell me what you think in the comments below.

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.