Airbnb's Sneaky Tiktok Tactics Exposed Booking.com's Marketing Game.

Don’t you just love it when clever brands out-think and outmaneuver their competitors? I recall my university business strategy professor saying.

‘What do you do when your competitor is drowning? You shove the hose down his throat and turn on the tap full blast.’?All is fair in love and war and business, good old aggressive capitalism.

Ambushing Competitors

Ambush marketing is usually when a brand uses another brand’s marketing campaign to gain exposure and profit.

That is not strictly what I am referring to in this article. How about, rather than using other brands’ marketing campaigns, you ‘hijack’ their customers?

What if you fulfilled a need that a competing brand is not fulfilling and you listen to the competing brand’s customers? That is not ambushing or hijacking, but it is exploiting your competitor’s weakness.

When you are in the service industry and your product is accommodation, you better ensure that your service or value is better than the competition.

But how would a brand find out about the frustrations and lamentations of its competitor’s customers?

Social Listening

All brands follow their competitors on social media. If you don’t, then you are missing out on a lot of free information that may turn a profit.

People on social media are the opinion leaders of this generation, and those with large audiences are powerful influencers.

When you have a high-powered influencer on TikTok , with an excess of 5 million followers, you better treat them like royalty or suffer the consequences.

Well, Booking.com didn’t get the memo. The memo arrived, but their marketing department was out to lunch.

Meanwhile, lurking in the shadowy corridors of TikTok, like a shark in deep, dark waters, was Airbnb ’s marketing team.

So what? Millions of Views in 24 hours, that’s what.

The ‘TikTokker’ in question with over 5 million followers, recently went on a trip to Europe with some friends and she booked through booking.com.

How disappointed she was when she realized the house they had booked didn’t exist.

Taking to TikTok, she let her followers know about booking.com’s shortcomings. 3.9 million views later and I will never book with booking.com. Neither will the 3.9 million others who viewed her content, I suspect.

Airbnb was awake and listening to the chatter on social media and was quick to take advantage of the weakness of its competitor. Within 24 hours, they organized accommodation nearby the original booking made and once again the influencer took to TikTok to share her experience.

She painted Airbnb with a positive glow of service and competence to 3.8 million followers, while the paint bucket of shame and incompetence was reserved for booking.com.

Recap

Pounce when you discover your competition's weakness

Listen to your competition’s customers and serve them better

Transfer the glowing success halo to your brand

Smile and watch as the incompetence of your competition drowns in the whirlpool of negative sentiment.

If there is one thing I have learned about this generation and the digital age, it’s that things can turn overnight. Be careful and listen to your customers and follow and know what your competition is up to.

It’s free and may just be a tactical move that delivers new strategies.

Also, Follow Rashiv Bajaj for more such insightful happenings.