Marketing Wars

It has been known for a long time that Facebook and Google are competitive rivals, always fighting for the number one spot. With the release of Google plus, Google is trying to take over the social networking market that Facebook currently dominates. With rumours circulating that Google Plus is the new Facebook, the competition between these companies took a dark turn.

It all began when negative stories about Google were circulating the web prior to their release of Google plus – a crucial time for marketing their new social networking project. The rumours stated that Google was using their user’s personal information and invading their privacy – a problem that Facebook is quite familiar with. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Facebook actually hired a PR agency to publish these negative stories about Google in an effort to harm the company’s image and to secretly market themselves in the process. In fact, a Facebook representative actually confirmed that they did indeed hire a PR agency because they believed that Google was using Facebook’s data without their permission. Whether that is true or not, nothing should justify unethical marketing, mocking other companies and spreading false rumours.

Comparing one product to another is seen quite often on television. I’m sure most people have seen tide commercials where they compare how their product removes stains better than product “x”. This creates a positive environment for competition when it purely involves comparing. However, Facebook spreading false rumours about Google and hiring a PR company to do the “dirty work” for them, is unethical and in the end harmed Facebook’s image. Here’s another example of a commercial that compares products:

Marketing can take a dark turn when companies start getting greedy and instead of marketing how great their product is, they start marketing how bad another company’s is. Although this method can lure some consumers, when done the unethical way, the truth will always finds its way out in the open and the plan will end up backfiring.

Sources:
http://marketing.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=marketing&cdn=money&tm=42&f=20&su=p284.13.342.ip_p554.21.342.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&st=11&zu=http%3A//www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-12/facebook-busted-in-clumsy-smear-attempt-on-google/