How Brands Reply to Poking Competitors

It was the year of 1975 when Pepsi decided to check the ground reality and make people realize that they like Pepsi more than Coca Cola. The famous campaign was called 'The Pepsi Challenge' and it was one-of-its-kind blind taste challenge. A representative would set up a booth in a mall or a shopping centre, pour two white glasses with Pepsi and Coke respectively and ask people to take a sip from both the white cups. The sweeter taste was a hit and Pepsi came with a survey insight that more Americans prefer Pepsi over Coke.

For whoever took the challenge, Pepsi representative handed them a promotional Pepsi can and a metal tab button to promote the campaign. Coke was not behind and started distributing metal badges with the text "I picked Coke in the Pepsi Challenge"

This story brings an interesting debate in marketing -- Does it pay to have a presence of mind, coupled with a sense of humour?

In this blog, we have a few marketing comebacks from competitors that stole the show and created new brand fans.

Luxury war

With this cheeky billboard, Audi challenged BMW to show that they have better cars in luxury sedan segment. Soon, BMW came with a reply and it escalated with a couple of more replies.

This was the sequence of the jabs -

Audi: Your move, BMW.

BMW: Checkmate.

Audi: Your pawn is no match for our king.

BMW: Game over.

Glass or Chalice?

Newcastle, a British based Brown Ale brewery, took a little different approach. Newcastle decided to pick on Stella Artois by exploiting the word “Chalice” used on Stella’s popular print ads that have “It’s a chalice, not a glass” written on them. The Newcastle billboard just says “Who uses the word ‘Chalice’?”, and is placed under the Stella Artois billboard. At the bottom of the pint ad, “No bollocks” phrase is written to point out that beer ads usually convey irrelevant messages.

Logistics war

Logistics and delivery competitors, FedEx and DHL, went against each other via what defines them, the trucks that do the job. FedEx creatively painted its truck and said ‘FedEx Always First’, a direct take at DHL’s brand colour.

However, DHL took the opportunity to talk about how people are fed up with the two brands - FedEx and UPS.

Burger war

Known for their dominance in the fast-food market, McDonald’s and Burger King are commonly known as forever rivals. However, McDonald’s is comparatively more widespread with a larger number of stores. The battle started when McDonald’s launched a billboard talking about how a McDonald’s brand was just 5Kms ahead while a Burger King store was 258Kms ahead.

However, Burger King wasn’t going to let it go, it launched it’s own response campaign too, crediting McDonald’s for giving its customer relief before they travel the mile to reach Burger King. These ad battles called ‘burger wars’ haven’t stopped amusing customers for a while now.

Conclusion

Brands can be very competitive at times with comparative ads. However, they are forbidden from pointing out competitor brand's flaw by explicitly mentioning brand's trademark entities such as name, slogan etc. That is why most companies target competitor brand's characteristics which are not legally registered. For example, that’s how Samsung created the “Next Big Thing Is Already Here” campaign focusing on the hype that can unmistakably be connected to its main competitor Apple iPhone and all the prejudice that accompanies it.

While a really smart comparative ad can give you good social media mileage, there's a good chance that it can backfire too. Also, comparative ads may bring attention to your competitors at your marketing expense.

Do you see comparative advertisements as a smart strategy? What is your preferred/favorite advertisement strategy? Tell us in the comment box below.

• Topic Participants

• Vinit Tibrewal

  

• Sticky Posts

• 10 simple e-commerce marketing tips to boost sales

  Congratulations! You've finally set up that e-commerce store you've been thinking about for a long time. Hopefully it wasn't too difficult. Even if it was, the effort will be totally worth it when you start seeing some orders come through. Now that the store is live, let's take a look at some marketing tips you can apply for sales growth. 1. Avoid cart abandonment If you've ever shopped online, you might have added a product to the cart but then decided not to purchase it. This is known as cart abandonment.

• Marketing in a post COVID-19 world!

  Consumers across countries are increasingly spending more time on a wide variety of digital activities, right from online grocery shopping, to video conferencing, to tele-medicine. There is a good chance that you performed one or more of the following activities during this lockdown, thanks to COVID 19: Cooked a meal Made a TikTok Video Signed up for a remote learning session Consulted a doctor online (or ordered medicines online) Shopped for groceries online A study by Hunter, a food and beverage

• Inbound Marketing 101: The Foundational Blocks of Inbound Marketing Strategy

  According to a behaviour survey, 68% of the buyers use sources such as blogs to evaluate the product even before considering it. Before buying a product, we do a lot of research to learn more about the product through communities, blogs, social media,

• How Zylker doubled their webinar registrations!

  Webinars are good educational resources to gather qualified leads for your product. But what if your visitors are dropping off from your webinar landing page without signing up? What more could you do to convert visitors into registrants? This is the

• The ideology behind why features tell, but benefits sell

  Do you think there's any truth to this? Do features only tell, and benefits sell?  Well, let's see why we should focus on benefits rather than features as the great marketing wizards, David Ogilvy and Steve Jobs proved to be the best examples leveraging

• Recent Topics

• Transitioning FESCO Bill Project to Zoho Sheets and Integration Options

  Hello Zoho Support, I'm considering transitioning my FESCO bill project from Google Sheets to Zoho Sheets and wanted to know if there are integration options to seamlessly migrate our existing work. You can view our platform here, any guidance would be

• Support for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal

  Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While these

• Lightbox Pop-up form

  I would like to embed my form using the lightbox pop up. I don't want it to load automatically. I want it to load when some clicks the button. I can see this option, however when I use the "show pop-up launch button" on the website, the button automatically

• Data Processing Basis

  Hi, Is there a way to automate the data processing for a candidate every time an application arrives from job boards, without requiring manual intervention? That is, to automatically acquire consent for data processing. I've seen a workflow that allows

• Lightbox Pop-up form

  I would like to embed my form using the lightbox pop up. I don't want it to load automatically. I want it to load when some clicks the button. I can see this option, however when I use the "show pop-up launch button" on the website, the button automatically

• Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade

  Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everything

• Customer Management: #5 Never Let the Customer Slip

  When Rahul started Knight's Watch Consulting, his focus was simple: deliver good work and keep clients happy. He offered one-time consulting projects, monthly advisory retainers and usage-based support for growing clients. Business was steady, and customers

• 10GB Email Storage Limits in Zoho CRM

  We’ve had Zoho One for almost 5 years and have always synced our emails from Gmail via IMAP… As of late, we’ve run into issues with our emails not syncing, due to being over the 10GB storage cap… What’s very odd is that we haven’t changed a thing? I know

• Zoho Projects Android and iOS app update: Mobile device permission based on user profiles

  Hello everyone! We have brought in support for mobile device permissions based on the user profiles which are configured in organization level. Administrators can now configure the permissions on the web app(projects.zoho.com) by following the steps mentioned

• Zoho Projects Android and iOS app update: Timesheet module is now renamed as 'Time Logs', delete option has been renamed to 'Trash'.

  Hello everyone! We have now renamed the Timesheet module as Time Logs and the delete option as 'Trash' on the Zoho Projects Android and iOS app. Time Logs Android: Time Logs iOS: Trash option Android: Trash option iOS: Please update the app to the latest

• Zoho Mail app update: Manage profile picture, Chinese (Traditional) language support

  Hello everyone! In the latest version (v3.1.9) of the Zoho Mail app update, we have brought in support to manage profile picture. You can now set/ modify the profile picture within the app. To add a new profile picture, please follow the below steps:

• Reminders for Article Approval

  Is there a way to send reminders for approvers to review articles and approve/deny them? I'm not seeing that option anywhere.

• To print Multiple delivery notes in batches

  In Zoho Books, we can print a Delivery Note from an Invoice using the Print Delivery Note option, but it is non-editable and always prints all line items from the invoice. Our requirement is to deliver invoiced items in batches and print delivery notes

• Add Full-Screen Viewing for Quartz Recordings in the Client Interface

  Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request an enhancement to the Zoho Quartz client interface when viewing submitted recordings. Current Limitation: When viewing a Quartz recording from the client (user) interface, there is currently no option to switch the

• 2025 Recap: A Year to Remember | Zoho Inventory

• Important Update : Pipedrive deprecated fields no longer supported in Zoho Analytics

  Dear Pipedrive users, We would like to inform you about a recent update related to your Pipedrive integration with Zoho Analytics. The Pipedrive team has deprecated certain fields from their application. You can find more details in the official Pipedrive

• Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | November 2025

  Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this November. Zoho Mail Format comments easily using Slash Commands With Slash commands, you can easily format text, insert

• Right-Click Pipeline to Open in New Tab

  Please add the ability to right-click on a pipeline to open it in a new tab

• Adjusting Physical Inventory

  Not getting very far with support on this one, they say they are going to fix it but nothings happened since November. Please give this a thumbs up if you would like to see this feature or comment if you have some insight. Use Case: Inventory set to be

• Deluge date time issue

  The deluge function info zoho.currentdate.toString("MMM/YYYY") returns Dec 2026 instead of 2025

• Sending automated messages that appear in the ticket's conversation thread

  Good morning, esteemed Zoho Desk community, warm greetings Today I am here to raise the following problem, seeking a solution that I can implement: I need to implement an automation that allows me to send reminder messages to customers when I am waiting

• Issue with Zoho Creator Form Full-Screen View in CRM Related List Integration

  Hi Team, We have created a custom application in Zoho Creator and integrated it into Zoho CRM as a related list under the Vendor module, which we have renamed as Consignors. Within the Creator application, there is a form named “Pickup Request.” Inside

• sync views to sheet

  Im looking to sync my views aka reports in analytics to zoho sheets, when data is updated in analytics it also should be updated in sheets, till now zoho sheets only offer raw data connection and it is not enough as these reports are difficult to re-do

• How to update the Status in a custom module?

  Hi, I have a custom module "cm_payment_registry" in Billing, I am trying to change the status which is "Draft" with: array = {"custom_status":"Approved"}; zoho.billing.update("cm_payment_registry",organization.get("organization_id"), XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, array,"connectionname");

• how to add email to existing organization i w

  I am already registered my organization and i have an email id. I need one more email id but i can't find anywhere .i want the cheapest email id . how to add ?

• is it possible to add more than one Whatsapp Phone Number to be integrated to Zoho CRM?

  so I have successfully added one Whatsapp number like this from this User Interface it seems I can't add a new Whatsapp Number. I need to add a new Whatsapp Number so I can control the lead assignment if a chat sent to Whatsapp Phone Number 1 then assign

• Replace Zoho Invoice with QuickBooks

  We are implementing Zoho FSM for a cleaning business in the US with 50+ field workers. This business has been using Quickbooks for accounting for decades and will not migrate to Zoho Books. A major issue in the integration is the US sales tax calculation.

• 2025 Highlights: A Year of Steady Progress and Significant Developments

  As we come to the end of 2025, let's take a moment to reflect on the significant progress and developments we've made to improve your travel and expense management. In the Spotlight Introducing Online Booking (US edition only - Early access) Enable online

• e-mail bloqueado

  Estou com meu e-mail lucas@peplus.me bloqueado, preciso desbloquear para retorno de usos em minhas atividades.

• ¿Cómo puedo configurar las contraseñas creadas bajo una directiva para que nunca caduquen y no aparezcan como caducadas en los informes?

  ¿Cómo puedo configurar las contraseñas creadas bajo una directiva para que nunca caduquen y no aparezcan como caducadas en los informes? La razón por la cual contraseña estas no deben caducar es porque su actualización depende de mi cliente y no de mí.

• Function #42: Show the actual rate of items on invoices

  Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! In Zoho Books, you have the ability to create Price Lists, wherein you can mark up and mark down the item rates by a specific percentage or set custom rates. Generally, when you apply a price list to an

• Ability to Set Text Direction for Individual Cells in Zoho Sheet

  Dear Zoho Sheet Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement in Zoho Sheet that allows users to set the text direction (right-to-left or left-to-right) for individual cells, similar to what is available in Google Sheets. Use

• New in CRM: Dynamic filters for lookup fields

  Last modified on Oct 28, 2024: This feature was initially available only through Early Access upon request. It is now available to all users across all data centers, except for the IN DC. Users in the IN DC can temporarily request access using this form

• Warehouse fast processing

  Hey guys, would anyone be interested in something like the attached image ? If there's any interest I'd be willing to develop it further for others to use, it's much faster than using Zohos native solutions, it can part pack, pack in full, part ship,

• Can't change form's original name in URL

  Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new

• Start/Stop Timmer in Chrome Extension

  The chrome extension is great and allows you to do allot however one of the most common things employees working on projects need to do is track their time. Having an easy start/stop timer to track time would be great.

• Invalid collection string

  I haven't changed anything in one of my functions. I'm trying to run it manually and suddenly "Invalid collection string" appears. My code has 6 lines and the error says that the error is on 7th line. Why? What does this error mean? Nothing has been changed

• Zoho Directory 2025: New Features | Security Enhancements | Enriched UI

  Hello everyone, Greetings from the Zoho Directory team! 2025 has been a highly successful year for Zoho Directory. We are delighted to introduce a fresh set of features, an enriched UI, and major product enhancements. These updates aim to deliver a smoother

• Bulk Schedule for Posting TikTok

  Hallo, We have a client whose business is a social media agency specifically TikTok. Currently they are handling 30 TikTok accounts from. I think zoho Social can handle it with Agency License + with Add on 10 Brands. Their concern is related to posting

• zoho people 5 report

  How do I customize my report in Zoho People Report? I understand that I can get the results of multi-table queries through SQL join statements, but I don't know the relationship between each table. I tried to create a report using Attendance User Report

• Next Page