The use of comparative advertising for brand positioning: association versus differentiation

The explicit superiority claims in direct comparative ads should facilitate differentiation of the advertised brand from the comparison brand. However, prior research suggests that such ads primarily associate brands. This problem is investigated by considering the categorization and inferential processes elicited by direct comparative ads. Results suggest that direct comparative ads can enhance consumers' perceptions of the advertised brand by associating it with the comparison brand and simultaneously differentiate the brands by lowering consumers' perceptions of the comparison brand on the featured attribute. But both effects are contingent on the typicality of the featured attribute and the familiarity of the advertised brand. A key finding is that direct comparative ads are most effective for both unfamiliar and familiar advertised brands when the featured attribute is typical of the category.