Why do you think companies use comparative advertising?

Disadvantages of Comparative Advertising 

Generally speaking, these rougher types of advertising come with a handful of cons as well. You can pretty much see comparative advertising as a double-edged sword. Everything depends on how well-timed and crafted your ad is. 

Here are the potential disadvantages of comparative advertising:

1. Paint Yourself as “The Bad Guy”
2. Tarnish Your Brand Image and Lose Customers
3. Suffer Legal Repercussions

1. Paint Yourself as “The Bad Guy”

If you pick on a business that is smaller than you or if the tone of your ad sounds even slightly mean, you can easily be seen as a bully. And nobody likes a bully. 

This is the main reason why businesses either:

• Avoid this advertising technique altogether
• Choose their competitors and their words very carefully
• Prefer to make their product seem just as good as the competitor’s, but not necessarily better

2. Tarnish Your Brand Image and Lose Customers

This goes hand in hand with our previous point. If you are not careful enough when crafting your comparative advertisement, then you will look like a bad sport and lose customers as a consequence. 

This kind of advertising technique might also not be very compatible with your brand image. If it is something drastically different than everything you have done up until that point, then your established customer base will be surprised. Trust will be lost and clients will leave, preferring a business that seems on the safer side. 

3. Suffer Legal Repercussions 

Stating any false claims that denigrate other brands or arguments that can’t be proven through undeniable facts can lead to comparative advertising disputes. These rules were set by the Federal Trade Commission and are held in high regard by marketers and accredited advertising agencies.

Although this marketing strategy is not illegal, you can still be sued if you don’t respect the comparative advertising law. But the thing is, the rules usually change based on your location. What does this mean?

For example, if you want to manage a comparative advertising campaign in Europe, you will have to be mindful of the Directive 2006/114/EC laws. But if you’re performing this sort of campaign in the United States, then you will have to take into consideration each state’s comparative advertising legal laws and the federal law, which is governed by the Lanham Act. 

Generally speaking, when using comparative advertising, you should avoid:

• Stating false or misleading comparative claims regarding products or services
• Deceive leads and potential customers 
• Convince customers through deceitful methods to purchase one product over the other
• Comparing products that don’t have the same purpose and functionality (for example, comparing a phone with a tablet)

All in all, it’s very important to understand the laws and regulations revolving around this advertising method in order to avoid being sued and fined. 

Best Practices of Comparative Advertising

To avoid suffering the consequences of bad comparative advertising, you will need to know how to advertise without seeming too harsh.

Now, like with all marketing techniques, there are plenty of tips that can be shared.

Here are some the main best practices of comparative advertising:

1. Be Funny and Lighthearted in Your Comparative Ads
2. Be Innovative
3. Be Objective and Factual
4. Don’t Pick on Smaller Brands

1. Be Funny and Lighthearted in Your Comparative Ads

As you might have noticed, most examples of comparative advertising have one thing in common: humor.

By creating funny content, businesses take less of a risk of being seen as the bully. Instead, by telling a joke or two, or by making their copy or videos amusing, they will be able to make comparative advertising like a playful banter between two friends. 

Not only that, but people will prefer funny content over something more serious. In fact, 53% of consumers say they remember and enjoy an advertisement if it is humorous.

2. Be Innovative

Just as nobody likes bullying, nobody likes seeing the same advertising technique being used in the same way time and time again.  So if you want to use comparative advertising, make sure you come up with some ingenious copies, visuals, or videos. 

Visuals usually work great when it comes to any kind of advertising, really. But if you have the means, we recommend you try making a video.

The reason behind selecting a video is simple. Videos are visually stimulating, interactive, and generally preferred over text. Not only that, but 51% of digital marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.

3. Be Objective and Factual

If being funny doesn’t really align with your brand’s image, then going on the other route can also be an option. You can also go for an approach that compares alternative brands in relation to your business as objectively as possible.

Guesswork is not acceptable when it comes to comparative advertising. Performing studies and fact-checking are necessary, especially if you want to do a good job and avoid legal complications.

For example, if you are a web developer and you’re selling web development services, then you might want to compare yourself to others by showing successful case studies and good reviews left by happy clients. 

4. Don’t Pick Smaller Brands

We all know the saying — pick on somebody your own size. This is a pretty good rule of thumb in business and marketing as well. 

If you pick on a business that is significantly smaller than you, then you will most definitely look bad. This is why, when picking a business from your pool of competitors, you need to select a company that is either at the same level as you are or a bigger company. 

Be careful if you choose a bigger company, though. Bigger companies generally have more resources and they can easily respond to your comparative advertising with better-structured comparative advertising. 

Enhance Your Advertising Strategy

Comparative advertising is definitely a marketing technique that you should experiment with, at least once.

Using a more indirect and subtle approach is a method that will definitely spark interest and improve your visibility on the market. So check out the legalities in your area, just to make sure everything is in order and see which style of comparative advertising works for your brand. 

If you want to go beyond comparative advertising and work on your social media marketing strategy as well, download our comprehensive guide below and start spreading the word about your business across the most popular marketing channels.

Don’t forget to also give SocialBee a try and automate your content creation tasks from one dashboard. Start your 14-day free trial today!

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