The Underdog Guide to Advertising: Avis vs. Hertz
How Avis stole market share by highlighting their weaknesses.
Great advertising is all about positioning, and there’s no better example of this than the famous ‘We Try Harder’ campaign run by the car rental company, Avis. This is the story of how Avis took their share of the market by turning their competitor’s strengths against them.
In the 1960s, Hertz dominated the rental car market with Avis firmly holding second place. Avis hired the ad agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach, to help them make up the difference. The big idea was to lean into the number two position. This gave birth to the advertising campaign; ‘We Try Harder’. Instead of disguising their number two position in the market, Avis would double-down on their second place accolade and run campaigns explaining that they had to try harder than the market leaders, Hertz.
The campaign ran as a print series in the United States throughout 1962. Below is an excerpt from one of the print ads:
“When you’re only №2, you try harder. Or else.”
Little fish have to keep moving all of the time. The big ones never stop picking on them. Avis knows all about the problems of little fish. We’re only №2 in rent-a-cars. We’d be swallowed up if we didn’t try harder. There’s no rest for us.
We’re always emptying ashtrays. Making sure gas tanks are full before we rent our cars. Seeing that the batteries are full of life. Check our windshield wipers.
And the cars we rent out can’t be anything less than lively new super-torgue Fords.
And since we’re not the big fish, you won’t feel like a sardine when you come to our counter.
We’re not jammed with customers.”
This advert offers a masterclass in copywriting and brand positioning. The ad manages to turn the common arguments for not using Avis into brand strengths. They’re not the number two rental car business, they’re the business that tries harder and has to go the extra mile for their customers.
The ‘We Try Harder’ campaign was incredibly successful. The campaign made Avis profitable for the first time in a decade; within 12 months the company went from losing $3.2 million to earning $1.2 million. The campaign took Avis’ market share from 29% to 36% in three years. Hertz was losing control as their market share shrunk from 61% to 49%.
Hertz became increasingly concerned that Avis would have to shut down the advertising campaign in a matter of years, as they would take the number one spot. It wasn’t until 1966 when Hertz went on the offensive, running their counter-campaign: “We’re №1”.
Avis continued to run their campaign for another 50 years and eventually the market share stabilised at 48% (Hertz) and 35% (Avis). Not only was this campaign a massive success for Avis, it also broke advertising rules and paved the way for the underdog. Up until Avis ran this campaign, it was taboo to focus on being number two. The goal was to be the best and nothing else was acceptable; why would you highlight that you’re number 2?!
This was the first time we saw an ad campaign that turned a competitor’s strengths against them. This approach has since been used by Dominos Pizza, Bing, Pepsi, and a ton of other brands fighting for the top spot. Advertising legend, David Ogilvy, referred to Avis’ ads as a feat of “diabolical positioning”.
There’s a lot you can take away from this story.
Research your competitors ads. What are they highlighting as their brand strengths? See if you can use these strengths to your advantage, positioning your brand as the counter movement. All you need is to create a value skew in your favour. What’s the one area you can provide value that skews the consumer to choose your brand over your competitors?
Avis settled on the customer experience value skew. That’s where they can outperform Hertz. Then they doubled down and focused all of their advertising on this one, simple message. Think about how you can do the same.
