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Advertising Age
http://adage.com/printarticle_id=116722
Why Big Brands Are Getting Into the Ring
As More Products Hit Market, Diet Coke, Other Titans Embrace Tactic Traditionally Employed
by Upstarts
By Kate Macarthur
Published: May 22, 2007
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- The gloves also have come off for advertisers, and it's not just the upstarts taking swings.
The challengers in this round of comparative ads are far from the usual small-time players in esoteric categories.
Increasingly, the jabs are coming from industry giants such as Pizza Hut, Diet Pepsi, Apple and Subway. You can take
your pick of causes: product clutter, category maturity, executive turnover or activist investors. But one reason beats all.
To unveil the makeover of its
43-year-old Diet Pepsi brand,
PepsiCo revived its famed "Pepsi
Challenge." It uses pop-culture
references to tout that 56% of
consumers said Diet Pepsi has
more cola taste than its archrival.
"Because it's effective," said Z. S. "Andrew" Demirdjian, professor-marketing at California State University at Long
Beach, Calif. "It would [result in] at least a 20% increase in sales if properly done," he said.
'Category shorthand'
In a world where the explosion of brands has made the majority of products look like me-toos, comparative ads give
consumers a logical decision factor. Despite declarations that consumers are in control, "most consumers don't want to
make decisions," said Tony Pace, chief marketing officer for Subway's Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust. He said
using "buy our sandwich instead of their hamburger" messages provides "category shorthand" for consumers.
And as brands become more adept at making tit-for-tat product tweaks, what once were points of difference have
become commoditized. So, like bored cocktail-partiers turning to the local forecast to break the silence, marketers are
taking otherwise small differences and blowing them up to stay in the conversation. You want clean tables Eat here!
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For years, fighter brands outspent by goliaths have aimed their marketing slingshots at the big guys. But the internet and
the burst of public offerings have leveled the playing field for newcomers. So whereas once share leaders rarely stooped

Advertising Age
http://adage.com/printarticle_id=116722
to acknowledge follower brands, today some are taking on multiple rivals -- even those in adjacent segments such as
Miller Lite vs. Bud Light and margaritas and wine. Coca-Cola Co. has even taken on itself, pitting its Coke Zero against
its flagship Coke Classic.
Big guys step up
Since consumers overwhelmed by brand choice search for information, it's tempting for marketers to help the process
along. For all the talk of brand loyalty, only 8% to 10% of people are stubbornly brand loyal, said Arjun Sen, president
of Restaurant Marketing Group, who has helped several brands develop comparative claims, including Papa John's.
"There is a huge group of people who can be swayed. Now that the market is saturated, it's a new move for big guys to
say 'I'm going to take you out today.'"
His research has showed that comparative ads, properly executed, can boost sales 15%.
There is, of course, another side effect: More complaints are expected to swamp the ad industry's self-regulatory body,
the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, though the NAD said its caseload of
competitive challenges has held steady so far.
"It's the nature of public discourse now," said John Villafranco, a partner at law firm Kelley Drye. "We're likely to see
more battles in court and the NAD and other places about truthfulness of the claims."
Other Categories Where Battles Are Brewing
DIET COLA
To unveil the makeover of its 43-year-old Diet Pepsi brand, PepsiCo revived its famed "Pepsi Challenge." It uses
pop-culture references to tout that 56% of consumers said Diet Pepsi has more cola taste than its archrival. The spots use
fuzzy math and silly verbal qualifiers to dramatize the point; one claims three of five "90210" characters would choose
Diet Pepsi, generously rounding up to 60%. Another mischievously stretches the truth, saying 56% means "everybody.
OK, almost everybody. Mostly everybody. Fine, a little more than half of everybody."
PIZZA
Challengers have been pig-piling on Pizza Hut with deep discounts and quality claims for years, but the Yum Brands
segment leader fought back with a New Year's Day campaign saying consumers preferred its hand-tossed pies 2 to 1
over both No. 2 Domino's and No. 3 Papa John's. The "America's Favorite Pizza" spot showed rival delivery drivers
eating pizza at the home of the Pizza Hut driver. Papa John's earlier this month added a new PR claim: Its dough is made
fresh, while Pizza Hut's is frozen. Yet the battle isn't doing much to draw new consumers. In 2006, Papa John's share
grew 7.8%, more than making up for the combined 6.1% share lost between Pizza Hut and Domino's. But growth among
the top chains was half that of the growth of independents.

Advertising Age
http://adage.com/printarticle_id=116722
Eager to regain the sales boom Miller Lite enjoyed before the Man Laws misstep, Miller Brewing Co. is going back to
challenger-brand mode -- this time with Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light, Heineken Premium Light, and even margaritas
and white wine. Homemade spots that look like they were pulled from a marketing presentation will compare calories
and carbohydrate levels. Our advice: Look out for a sales sucker punch from the spirits and high-sugar,
energy-drink-based cocktails hot with 20-somethings.
FAST FOOD
Subway has faced comparisons by No. 2 sandwich chain Quiznos, but the Doctor's Associates-owned chain is zeroing in
on a bigger target: McDonald's. The sandwich leader's spots boast that its foot-long Subway Club has less fat and more
meat than the Golden Arches' Big Mac. Despite the growing penchant for big burgers, it's lucky for McDonald's that
Subway doesn't have many drive-thrus, as sandwich-category growth was double that of the hamburger chains in 2006.
COMPUTERS
By tapping the emotional badges of hipsters vs. geeks to dramatize features and functions, Apple's spots comparing
Macs and PCs have elevated the comparative ad to a whole new level. It seems to be working, as domestic Mac share
growth outpaced that of its three larger rivals in 2006 and during the first quarter with a 30% pop, according to IDC and
Gartner. But Mac still controls only about 5% of the market, and PC users have gotten some revenge spoofing the iconic
ads on YouTube.
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Contributing: Alice Z. Cuneo
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