In Response to Doug Kendall

Doug's post was about trash talking in marketing. He asked; Do you think think this is effective marketing? Do you think this type of advertisement actually has an adverse affect on these companies?

I think that in many industries, "trash talking" is actually the best type of marketing. Take the car insurance industry for example. It is impossible for them to effectively market their service without pointing out the disadvantages of other companies' service and what they do better than their competitors. They all say that if you switch from their competitor you will save such and such dollars a year.

I do not believe that this type of marketing has an adverse affect on these companies. If I owned a firm competing for customers and one of my competitors made a claim on their commercial that I thought I could prove to be false or that I could beat, I would do it. That is sometimes the only way for businesses to compete for the limited number of customers in their target markets.