Mention a rival to get more engagement

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📝 Intro

You’re about to launch a new formula for your toothpaste brand. It was tested against other products in the market and found to be the most effective in its category for fighting cavities.

You want to showcase this but are worried about being too aggressive in your marketing if you start comparing your products and your competitors’ products.

Should you mention you’re better than your arch-rival Colface? Or would that simply give them free publicity?

P.S.: Research found that there are strong benefits not only in mentioning your competitors but also in praising them. This improves perceptions of your brand by making you seem more sincere.

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Mention a rival - not any competitor - to boost engagement and purchase intentions

Topics: Messaging & Copy | Social Media
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B 
Research date: April 2024
Universities: Hochschule Hannover, German Sport University Cologne, INSEAD, New York University

📈 Recommendation

Highlight your brand’s strengths by comparing yourself favorably against a known rival (e.g. “Unlike ACME’s 3 hours on full charge, our headphones will last 5 hours straight!”). People will be more likely to engage with your content and more likely to learn about your product.

This only works with a known rival (e.g. Coca-Cola vs Pepsi) - not just any competing product (e.g. Coca-Cola vs Arizona). 

🎓 Findings

• Social media posts that mention a rival brand drive more attention and engagement.

• As part of a series of 3 experiments and an analysis of over 1.2 million tweets from 100 brands across 20 categories from diapers to credit cards to semiconductors, researchers found that:

  • Tweets that referenced a rival brand received on average 196.7% more likes.

  • A Burger King Facebook post referencing rival McDonald’s received 9.8% more likes than a post referencing non-rival KFC.

• The effect is stronger:

  • When the rivalry is strong (e.g. Coke vs Pepsi is a stronger rivalry than Coke vs 7up)

  • When social media posts are slightly critical or mocking

  • Amongst loyal customers (e.g. posts in the Coke/Pepsi rivalry received 20% more engagement from loyal customers than neutral ones)

• The effect disappears if the brand is not a rival, but just a regular competitor.

🧠 Why it works

• In general, stories and narratives with defined conflicts, problems, or competition (e.g. will Harry Potter defeat Voldemort, who’s the better footballer, Ronaldo or Messi, or who makes the best smartphones, Apple or Samsung?) are easier for us to follow, understand and remember.

• We find long-running brand rivalries to be engaging narratives and stories too.

• We also consider the groups we belong to (e.g. an organization, a sports team we support, a brand we favor) to be part of our identity. When our preferred brand references a rival, it reinforces our identification with the brand, making us more likely to engage with their content.

• The more loyal we are to a brand, the more we respond to their rivalry with others.

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✋ Limitations

• The research did not find a statistically significant effect on purchase intentions. This suggests that references to a rival may increase engagement (e.g. likes or comments on a post), but not buying behavior.

• The study only analyzed social media and ad campaigns. While not studied, it’s likely this messaging would also resonate across mediums like TV, print, and outdoor advertising.

• The study did not investigate whether references to rivals might have long-term branding risks. Repeatedly joking about or mocking a rival could backfire if customers start finding the brand to be aggressive or unprofessional, especially for more serious products (e.g. a bank mocking a competitor's lower earnings in a quarter).

🏢 Companies using this

• Historically public brand rivalries have been common, especially amongst larger brands, where market dominance makes it easier to identify a single clear rival. Campaigns in traditional and outdoor media include:

  • The “Cola War” between Coca-Cola and Pepsi

  • Samsung’s frequent targeting of Apple. Their “Ingenious” campaign draws attention to the iPhone X’s lack of a headphone jack, fast charging, and other features.

  • Audi and BMW famously bought a series of billboard ads making fun of each other. One famous example included Audi’s billboard near a BMW ad saying “Your Move, BMW” to which BMW responded with a billboard saying “Checkmate”. 

  • Telecom company Verizon’s series of ads mocking rival AT&T’s coverage in the US.

• In the tech sector, Slack famously published an open letter in the New York Times to Microsoft, makers of competitor product Teams.

• As social media has grown, brands across categories from supermarkets to car rental companies to courier companies mock their rivals in social media posts, with less cost and greater control (e.g. limiting comments, deleting posts) than in traditional media. 

Target’s mocking of competitor Walmart triggered a response from the retailer.

⚡ Steps to implement

• Identify whether any of your competitors would be considered a true rival by assessing customers’ perceptions, whether you’re in frequent competition, the history of this competition, and whether you both have strong, distinct brand identities in your market. Only use direct rivals in your campaigns.

• If you have a true rival, you can reference them in a fun and playful way, making comparisons to highlight your brand’s strengths. 

• Your tone (negative, neutral, or positive) should depend on how fiercely your rivalry is perceived, how aggressive you want your brand to seem, and the audience you’re reaching out to.

  • While playful and funny comparisons are likely to trigger responses from your customers, overly negative mean, or insulting messages can backfire.

  • When targeting your own loyal customers (e.g. customer forums and groups, email campaigns to past customers) you can be more competitive and negative in your tone, For more neutral audiences, try to keep your tone positive.

• Use this in your social media posts, advertising, and other marketing materials to make your brand more compelling, especially to loyal customers.

🔍 Study type

Online experiments and market observation (analysis of 1,241,450 tweets with 100 brands across 20 different product categories)

📖 Research

The Rivalry Reference Effect: Referencing Rival (vs. Nonrival) Competitors in Public Brand Messages Increases Consumer Engagement. Journal of Marketing Research (April 2024)

🏫 Researchers

• Johannes Berendt. Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts

• Sebastian Uhrich. German Sport University Cologne

• Abhishek Borah. INSEAD

• Gavin J. Kilduff. Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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