Critical Questions 01-26

For Reading: Product Positioning

This reading mentions how consumers rank brands in their minds. They know who the number one brand is in their mind and do not care much for anything else. This makes it hard for the number two brand to stand out. It gives the example of the car-rental companies Avis (#2) and Hertz (#1). It states that the number two company must relate itself to the number one brand, and so Avis came up with the line “Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder.” Is this really effective? Do I really want to choose Avis over Hertz now? To me it is like they are admitting defeat to Hertz and agreeing that Hertz is indeed number one. I believe there are other strategies as discussed in the reading that Avis could have used to become more successful other than this.
Is repositioning the competition okay? And can comparative advertising be justified? To me it is a little below the belt, and possibly only a U.S. thing as I don’t recall seeing much of this in English commercials. The reading gives the example of Wise potato chips listing some of Pringle’s non-natural ingredients that sounded like harsh chemicals even though they were not. Sure they were able to gain market share because of this, but I think it says a lot about the company if that is their only tactic of making themselves look better. Personally, I am less likely to want to buy something I see in a commercial if they are making another product look bad just to make themselves look better.