Who is really ‘Sore’ in the Twitter clashes between Flipkart and Amazon
Remember the good old days when competing brands would launch wars on advertising campaigns like TVC’s, print and hoarding. Today, battles are raging stronger on social media and Twitter leads the way there.
One recent example would be the Ola and Uber tiff on pricing followed by a twitter storm on how Ola was following Uber’s footsteps or rather emulation being the best forms of flattery.
While it is common for brands to have a go at each other during launches, sale times and special events, a new level ground for the battle was set with the #SoreLoserFlipkart today on Twitter. This trending(in India) hashtag has seen volley of tweets hurdled towards both the e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart.
A little background – Both Flipkart and Amazon went ahead and advertised the launch of the new Moto G4 mobile phone on their platforms on a leading national daily. While this seems normal, what actually seemed to have got the guns blazing was the fact that they both had seemingly same messages - #motoOnFlipkart and Moto on Amazon.
By today evening there were tweets running on the microblogging site that slashed Flipkart for resorting to ‘copies’ and cheap marketing tricks in light of their recent devaluation.
To another set of Twitteratis, who were vocal of the fact that #SoreLoserFlipkart was trending, because Amazon is using paid trends to fight a dirty battle with the Indian e-commerce giant. There were some who believed that it is a normal strategy and nothing is wrong with having similar communications.
Given the current market trends, it is no surprise that brands are announcing product launches and services at the same time. Another striking example, would be the fact that most of Uber and Ola’s announcements come in at the same time, whether it was the bike taxi services or now even signing a MoU with National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC). This can be absolutely coincidental as well.
In fact, both Flipkart and Amazon early this year had claimed their market leadership. Who do you believe? This isn’t the first time the giants have battled it out. In fact, from leading front page adds to exclusive brands to offering steeper, better and more discounts, it has all been done. During festive seasons, we have seen full page ads for all three e-commerce giants - Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, in many cases with the front page ads on each newspaper.
Earlier in 2015, when the funding rounds were going strong, Flipkart first announced its $1 billion round, which Amazon followed with an announcement of its $2 billion investment into India. 'Mine is bigger than yours' soon traversed from the grounds of funding to the user number, and now even paper ads and product launches are becoming sources for battle.