The most skeptical consumers in the experiments were likely to have the biggest positive response to brands that tipped their hats to a competitor, the researchers found.
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Whether they’re beefing on billboards or sparring on social media, big brands are known for taking jabs at their competitors (see the famous “Get a Mac” ads or “the chicken sandwich wars”).
What consumer brands typically do not do is compliment those rivals – they wouldn’t want to grant an adversary free publicity, said Keisha Cutright, a marketing professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. But new research from Cutright published in the Journal of Marketing suggests a little goodwill can pay off.
[This article has been reproduced with permission from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. This piece originally appeared on Duke Fuqua Insights]