Conquesting

Conquesting, as used in the Advertising industry (which means that it is an improper use of the word), is a means to deploy an advertisement for one's products or services adjacent to editorial content relating to the competitor or the competitors' products.

A common practice is to purchase advertisements in magazines and newspapers where editors and reporters write about the products or company. The goal is to reinforce the marketing message and earn even greater levels of awareness and recall of the Brand. Generally, getting the advertisement as close to the editorial content is considered important to maximize the awareness effects.

Conquesting injects a competitive advertisement at the moment of editorial presentation and seeks to usurp or disrupt the reinforcement process. Some publishers reject the notion and allow the editorialized advertiser to match the fee and retain advertisement-editorial integrity.

Recent Examples of Conquesting

In 1997, Northern Telecom announced Nortel Power Networks, a marketing initiative focused on reinforcing the unifying attributes of the portfolio of enterprise products the company offered at the time. Not more than a month later, Cisco introduced the Cisco-Powered Network a partner co-branding, where if a service provider purchases some minimum quantity of Cisco product they would be eligible for co-marketing funds.

In this way, Cisco marketers used conquesting to neutralize the brand effect of the Northern Telecom marketing initiative.

References

• June 7, 2007, Wall Street Journal, Marketers try 'Conquesting' to get on rivals' nerves (subscription required)
• Market overhang