Dirty Marketing- Fighting brands unethically
Monday, 31 October 2011 09:22
Marketing, in laymen’s language is promoting a product or brand mutually satisfying the need of
consumers, manufacturers, retailers and people involved in between. All companies have their
marketing plans. But, simultaneously companies have their “Dirty Marketing” plan too in place.
If one can’t market their product or can’t break up into another product they use dirty marketing
strategies to gain market share.
What is dirty marketing?
Dirty Marketing is exploring chunks in competitors’ advertisements and running through spoof
ads, or defaming one’s brand or creating obstacles though legally but unethical.
Dirty marketing is basically used by organisations in # 2 or 3 in the market, and have the
resources to sustain a challenge to the leader.
This includes:
1. The main consideration is the strength of the leader’s position.
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Dirty Marketing- Fighting brands unethically
Monday, 31 October 2011 09:22
2. Find a weakness in the leader’s strength and attack at that point.
3. Launch the attack on as narrow a front as possible.
A brightest example of dirty marketing is during late 1980s a soft drink MNC purchased their
competitor’s empty glass bottle from all kirana stores. As an MNC, the corporate had big buying
power. They purchase empty glass bottles and destroyed them. For the brand, processing
those glass bottles is a long process, needing 3 months to get that number of glass bottles
again. So, that brand was not available into the kirana stores. That was a setback for the brand
as consumers feel the brand is not always available and they felt the brand is not serious for
their business.
MNC what did was not legally wrong, but unethical. They found out a loop hole, processing
glass bottles is a long process and they exposed that.
Many organizations are coming up with Dirty Marketing department. Thinking of very best
marketing strategies and communications tactics is a time consuming process. One needs to
have ample funding to do market research, to hire the most creative talent, to always follow best
practices, to test marketing, and to launch campaigns with great fanfare. On contrast,
developing dirty marketing is comparatively an easier job. Find out a loophole, exploit it and you
are in race, frog leaping.
"Too often, companies focus on understanding only the current demand of the consumer,"
wrote Edward Tse, a VP with the consultant Booz Allen Hamilton. What companies do now,
they try to attack on peoples psych. They advertise in a way, that if one is not using their
product they create a stigma.
For example, Procter & Gamble created the perception that dandruff; traditionally a nonissue for
the Chinese is a social stigma and offered a product (Head & Shoulders antidandruff shampoo)
to 'solve' the problem.
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Dirty Marketing- Fighting brands unethically
Monday, 31 October 2011 09:22
On the same line, mobile operators activate a service for free for limited period, even without
asking customers. When a customer gets back to them, they say it’s a free service. But, when
this limited period is over, they start debiting every month. They activate paid service without the
paying customer voluntarily asking for it?
Not representing the clear facts about the products qualifies under dirty marketing. Top FMCG
Company advertises their products as 99.7% germs killer, 99.9% tooth germ killer etc. There
are no proven facts. But, they fruitfully utilize the loopholes in a system and boost their product
on falsy claims.
Rin vs. Tide advertisement is still afresh in peoples mind. The big-shots of Media industry are
surprised. How can you do this? How can one think of even ‘thinking’ this? Comparative
advertisements are not new to the audiences. What is shocking here is the under-the-belt attack
on the competitor. Rin comes upfront and speaks the competitor’s name in its ad in a manner
that degrades the positioning of Tide. Every brand has time and again used such comparative
tactics in their communications, but by air-brushing or pixilation of the competitor’s name, logo
or packet. One implied and understandably adhered rule of communication is that you never
speak your competitor’s name, as it gives unnecessary mileage to the competing brand at your
own cost. Here, all such rules are broken and that too, in a quite upfront do-what-you-can
manner. It is actually a well thought out and a perfectly executed strategy that focused on
creating the “Buzz”.
Similarly, Horlicks vs. Complan ad. Horlicks launched such attack on Complan some time back
and provoked a sleeping, laid-back giant. Complan retaliated fiercely by taking Horlicks hands
down. Horlicks had to stop but Complan, with deep pockets, continued its
counter-communication for a long.
Dirty marketing do exist in corporate world. But, we hear very less about it as this is done
undercover and classified. But, have many examples in marketing and advertising world of dirty
marketing.
Dirty marketing is an easy way to gain market share and sometimes it pay offs and sometimes it
doesn’t.
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Dirty Marketing- Fighting brands unethically
Monday, 31 October 2011 09:22
Most of the time it does pay off when done undercover as it has more deviating effects as
discussed above in soft drink case. That lead to the affecting soft drink company to sell of their
brand to larger fish.
But, in HUL vs. P&G (Rin vs. Tide), the attacker gained minor market share but for time being. A
consumer is not stupid. People out there can understand such tactics.
This article has been authored by Manu Agarwal from SIMSR
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