‘Relative advantage’ helps business performance, study finds

Relative advantage involves approaching one or more elements of planning strategy with the ambition to be distinctive from category norms and to grow market share in spaces, contexts, environments and moments that competitors have overlooked.

To examine the effectiveness of relative advantage, Bountiful Cow analysed more than 200 cases from the IPA Databank, with 55 cases identified as relative advantage and compared to a further 181 that did not.  

The research found that relative advantage campaigns are 15% more likely to show at least one very large brand effect, as well as 60% more likely to have a very large effect on awareness, 22% more likely on differentiation and 17% more likely for commitment (loyalty).

Relative advantage campaigns deliver a 9% uplift in very large business effects, according to the research, specifically in generating sales, acquiring new customers and accruing very large profit gains.

The average return on marketing investment for relative advantage brands stands at 500%, a 40% increase above those that did not use the tactic. 

The research was conducted by a team from Bountiful Cow led by Chetan Murthy and Sam Barton, in association with the IPA Databank and independent effectiveness consultant Peter Field.

Adam Foley, chief executive at Bountiful Cow, said: “When you can’t outspend your competition you have to out-think them. You’ll never win by doing the same thing with less money; it’s about seizing opportunities that competitors overlook or neglect.

“We can see the tangible impact that the Relative Advantage growth principle delivers – it really does pay to stop following the herd.”