Comparing yourself to opposition

Are you allowed to mention competitors products when talking about your product? I wanted to have a little feature comparison on my website but I wasn't sure if this was legal as on alot of T.V. adverts they choose to just mention "the leading competitor" rather than who they actually are.

Thanks
Matt

I think you'd be better of sticking with "others" and "the competitors" or something.. However, I think you can mention certain features etc. from the other products and compare those to your own product, just as long as you don't explicitly name the product(s)..
(not 100% sure, but I think that's the way it works)

If you name a trademark you have to name the trademark owner I think. As a general rule it's bad form to mention a competitors name because it puts their name in the customers mind - especially when you talk negatively because of a strange quirk of the mind, like an extension of "people like a scandal" they tend to remember whats wrong rather than whats right.

If you go ahead you should remember to put the date you checked your competitors specification as you could get into trouble if they change anything.

yeah don't mention them, just say other systems don't do this or something.

The reason that specific names are not mentioned in adverts is because you would be advertising that particular brand name - it also serves as a way of "pulling the wool". How could you sue a company for saying thier product was better than the leading competitor? Who defined the leading competitor?

I don't see a reason not to mention the competition, if your product has genuine advantages then point them out. You will gain a lot more respect from potential customers if you do. And don't be afraid to point out any weaknesses. Besides, if they are looking at your product the chances are they they have already looked at the competition.

Thanks I guess i'll stick with leading copetitor then.

Well, I don't know about other counteries but I've seen advertisements for head products in the UK who do mension how their product is better than 'named product'.

The new X, removes more dandruf than product Y.

Usually the same company owns both products anyway, as we live in a capitalist society.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16397941&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=loo-s-who-name_page.html

If you read what I said. I said that; "Usually the same company owns both products anyway, as we live in a capitalist society."

I was quoting and responding to Indiepath, dopey. And as he was asking about what would hapen with two genuinely competing products you'll forgive me if I link to an example of what recently happened with two genuinely competing products (namely that, rather than sue, the matter had to be taken to trading standards). Sheesh!

I guess it also depends on where you are -- in Dutch TV commercials, comparisons will never mention the competitor or its products by name, while in the US there are countless "coke vs. pepsi" commercials, for example.

Sorry, my bad!

Hold on "Comparing yourself to opposition" is not the same as slagging them off or trying to rip off thier brand name for your compeitive advantage. Lets not get confused here - if you are concerned that comparing yourself to the competition may show up weaknesses in your product then I suggest you fix those weaknesses before your make any false claims/comparisons.

Competition is healthy, if your product is better then tell the world about it!

The mirror articles is fascinating, my dad said they (his family) used to use newspaper in London (Southend to be specific) in the 1950s. Of course chips use to be wrapped in newspaper also. This seems like good recycling although hopefully noone used the newspaper for a wipe before wrapping the chips.

No worries.


Like Jono I've noticed a few examples in the UK over the last few years (superstores and banks, mainly)... I might be wrong but I think there used to be rules preventing explicitly mentioning the competition in advertising until fairly recently.

If you look at the examples (superstores and banks) you should note that it's possible to objectively state that X's prices are lower than Y's, or that A's interest rates are higher than B's - they're essentially being no bolder than stating facts. Quality, on the other hand, is not so quantifiable... whether A's customer service is better than B's is a matter of opinion, and as the Trading Standard hoo-haa shows, it's consumer opinion that ultimately matters.

Where the OP is concerned, a feature comparison is basically fact-based ("We have X, Y and Z whereas they can only offer X and Z") so I don't see the problem as long as you don't get too carried away with the descriptions (especially as it's probably not even an advert, technically). That said, tooting ones own trumpet doesn't always backfire and the 'Darling Special' is ripe to be taken to the next level by someone brave! ("Pook-O-Shoot is the MOST EXHILERATING PC game I've EVER SEEN and MUCH BETTER than Barf-O-Blast!" -Milton Nerdsack, Pook-O-Soft.)

btw, I've seen Dutch commercials about phone-subscriptions.. where they do mention "cheaper than KPN"

(KPN being the major phone-company here)

And I once saw a nice supermarket trick ^_^ "goedkoper dan AL DIE die andere supermarkten" al-die.. aldi ..

</dutch>

roughly translated: "cheaper than ALL THOSE other supermarkets" where there's a supermarket-chain called "allthose" :P

In fact, Alienware are doing this - this made me wonder about the competition.

As Alienware are high-spec and they are going head-to-head with 2 manufacturers, then the 2 others *might* be reasonably good.

So, I had the urge to check out the rivals.

http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_detail_pages/Aurora/aurora_compare.aspx?SysCode=PC-EU-A51AURORA&SubCode=SKU-PERFORMANCE

EDIT:
Half of Alienware's claimed *EXCLUSIVES* are purely cosmetic.