http://www.rohitbhargava.com/2010/10/visa-chases-the-myth-of-exclusivity-and-fails.html
In this article, the author talked about his two distinct experiences with VISA and American Express, two of the most popular credit cards nowadays. VISA was associated with a negative experience when the author went to the Summer Olympics in Sydney, an event sponsored by VISA, ten years ago. The author waited in the line for a drink for a long time only to learn that they only accepted VISA cards – and he had not brought his with him! On the contrary, AMEX gave more pleasant experience when the author was in a gift shop and was told at the cashier that, with an AMEX card, he could get a 5 % discount on his purchase- a nice benefit! Apparently, the two credit cards adopt different approaches towards their competitors. VISA uses irritating exclusivity arrangements to grab market share, whereas AMEX focuses on how to create more value for its customers. Guess what the result is? After similar experiences for a couple of times, he is now much happier to be a customer of AMEX! The story provides valuable insights for marketers: “if a good portion of your customers are also customers of competitors – then your challenge is NOT to get them to choose you instead of the other, but rather to get them to choose you more often than they choose your competitors”.
Psychological factors- how customers feel about your products- play an imporatant role in consumers’ purchase decision making process. Some customers have attitudes towards the product even before they actually use it. Their attitudes are enduring but can be influenced or even changed through persuasive communications and personal experience. Advertisements, campaigns are typical ways of this kind of persuasive communications frequently used by marketers. But has it ever occured to them that, how they treat competitors also influences attitudes of customers, expcically those who are also customers of competitors. Marketers need to handle this with care. Of course, they have to win the battle, but in a graceful and decent manner, because if they don’t, they are likely to provoke customers or even turn them off. I recall an ad made by Pepsi I saw last year. The competition between Pepsi and Coke has been lasting for ages. But the thing is, does this kind of ad really work?
In the ad, Pepsi was intentionally degrading Coke. If I were a fan of Coke, I guess I would never think about switching to Pepsi. Pepsi should go with it if this kind of result is what it really wants.
What I am trying to say here is that a customer’s purchasing decision is influenced by his attitude and personal experience. The best way to attract customers from competitors is thus not forcing them to, but focusing on adding more value to its products and provide positive experience for the customers as much as possible.
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