In this blog, I will be comparing how marketing decisions that are infleunced by brand rivalry influences brand reputaiton. I will examine the long-term impact of using traditional methods that are meant to alienate consumers from competing brands. Additionally, I will talk about how praising a competitor can lead to long-term benefits. Next, I will explain automatic processing and how it impacts consumer’s purchasing decisions. Finally, I will explain the limitations of competitve praising.

BRAND RIVALRIES

Alienating customers is a common rivalry strategy Microsoft uses to keep their markets from doing business with Sony. The Xbox is a popular example because Microsoft has exclusive games by partnering with popular developers. According to Alex Sterling (2025), “By pushing blockbuster titles onto the service on day one, Microsoft has been devaluing the $70 price tag and conditioning millions of users to see gaming not as a series of expensive purchases, but as a utility”. Microsoft also allows consumers to play their games for a cheaper price on any electronic device. If we combine these two strategies together, consumer loyalty is increased significantly because it allows consumers to save money and makes it more convienent to play games on any electronic device. This positions Xbox as the go-to product if you want to play exclusive games on any device without making an expensive purchase. However, this approach has a lot of criticism becuase many consumers are concerned that Microsoft has the potential to monopolize many games. Additionally, their unique strategy makes users feel trapped because they can’t play the games without paying a monthly subscription.

Interestingly, Microsoft has also praised Sony for it’s success on multiple occasions. In 2018, the CEO of Microsoft, Phil Spencer congratulated Sony for its top-selling game, God of War During a console war. Many customers came to the conclusion that Microsoft wants to priprotize their demands over making a bunch of money. In addition, Microsoft shifted Xbox’s reputation to appear more consumer friendly. According to Game Tyrant (2018), “It’s admirable that although the two companies are in tight competition with one another, Spencer instills professionalism and encourages a positive competition with Sony”. Microsoft became more respected by its consumers for promoting a friendly environment when competing with Sony. In the long-run, this strategy gave Microsoft more opportunities to collaborate with Sony on other projects.

Microsoft can keep customers from going to a competing brand by alienating them with exclusive services and subscription-based billing. This can lead to more consumers becoming life-long clients. However, consumers and also feel trapped, which can disencourage new customers from making a purchase.

Alternatively, Microsoft’s decision to praise it’s competitor improved brand loyalty in the long-run, while providing new opportunities for collaboration. Consumers slowly saw Microsoft as a business that doesn’t put profit before its customers.

Competitor Praise

Why do consumers respond favorably to competitor praise? Consumers will sometimes respond favorably to competitor praise because it could lead to more sales and an improved brand reputation in the long-run. “While praising the competition seems to go against conventional wisdom, our research shows that it can result in many favorable outcomes for the praiser brand. Given the rise of social media in the digital age, brands can now easily communicate with each other and be observed by consumers” (American Marketing Association, 2021). Competitor praising can also make a company look more genuine to a consumer.

Automatic Processing

Automoatic processing allows consumers to make purchasing decisions with limited information or consiously being aware of what’s influencing their choices. Consumers will make assumptions based on past experience, limit research, and a few second of being exposed to a brand. For example, many consumers who used Microsoft computers for a long-time will be hesitant to buy another product because they ahave a subconscious association with their brand as a safe or working source.

Thin-slice theory infleunces consumer behavior because it allows them to make almost immediate decisions on whether they will purchase a product or service based on an immediate exposure. According to Jeff Thompson (2012), “What thin slice methodology does refer to is observing a small selection of an interaction, usually less than five minutes, and being able to accurately draw to conclusions in the emotions and attitudes of the people interacting. These observations are, often surprisingly to many people, very accurate compared to self-ratings and ratings based on the entire interaction”. For example, consumers will make a juedgement about a business based on the color and shapes of their logo.

Praising Competitors Concerns

In some cases, praising a competitor can damage Microsoft’s reputation as a whole. Praising a competitor with a reputation for coyness can significantly hurt Microsoft’s public image. An example of this is when Microsoft praised OpenAI for creating groundbreaking technology that will transform the future. However, OpenAI was sued for stealing data to train its AI platforms, which made consumers lose trust in AI as a whole. According to Drive Digital Marketing Solutions (2025), “Moreover, the lawsuit highlights the need for an ethical framework governing AI’s role in content creation. There is a growing urgency to establish clear ethical boundaries and responsibilities for AI developers and users”. Praising competitors for unethical practices can eventually damage a company’s reputation.

Microsoft also risks losing customers if it praises competitors. One example of how Microsoft can lose customers by praising competition is its decision to use hybrid cloud solutions and multicloud strategies. Although Microsoft didn’t openly praise AWS, the idea of integrating hybrid cloud and multicloud was a way for them to say their competitor provided a better service. Since Amazon has been developing AWS for a decade longer, it has a bigger competitive and absolute advantage. “As Amazon was scaling its e-commerce business in the early 2000s, it was regularly purchasing computing infrastructure to support future needs of its site. This ensured that the site would run without service disruptions even as demand for the company’s products and services grew” (CB Insights, 2018). AWS was able to provide more effective hybrid solutions and multicloud strategies for lower prices because of their early development. As a result, Microsoft lost many customers to AWS.

References

CB Insights (2018). Here’s Why Amazon is No Shoo-In to Win the $206B Global Cloud Market. https://www.cbinsights.com/research/amazon-google-microsoft-multi-cloud-strategies/#:~:text=59%2Dpage%20PDF-,Email,Dominance%20of%20Amazon%20Web%20Services

Cutright, Keisha M.; Du, Katherine M.; Zhou, Lingrui (2021). How Brand-to-Brand Prasie Influences Consumer Preceptions and Choices. American Marketing Association. https://www.ama.org/2021/11/17/befriending-the-enemy-the-effects-of-observing-brand-to-brand-praise-on-consumer-evaluations-and-choices/

Drive Digital Marketing Solutions (2025). The New York Times Suing OpenAI & Microsoft: Here’s What We Think. https://www.drivedigitalmarketingsolutions.com/industry-innovation-news-blog/microsoft-openai-sued-by-nyt-intellectual-content-rights#:~:text=Moreover%2C%20the%20lawsuit%20highlights%20the,fairness%20in%20AI%2Dgenerated%20content.

Game Tyrant (2018). Xbox’s Phil Spencer Congratulated Sony For GOD OF WAR PS4 Review Scores. https://gametyrant.com/news/xboxs-phil-spencer-congratulated-sony-for-god-of-war-ps4-review-scores#:~:text=Xbox’s%20Phil%20Spencer%20Congratulated%20Sony,WAR%20PS4%20Review%20Scores%20%E2%80%94%20GameTyrant

Sterling, Alex (2025). Why Xbox’s New Strategy is Gaming’s Future. Made-in-China. https://insights.made-in-china.com/Why-Xbox-s-New-Strategy-is-Gaming-s-Future_zfHtmkWTuEiF.html#:~:text=For%20a%20flat%20monthly%20fee%2C%20you%20get,as%20a%20utility.%20Like%20Netflix%20or%20Spotify.

Thompon, Jeff (2012). Thin Slices & First Impressions. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyond-words/201203/thin-slices-first-impressions#:~:text=This%20holds%20true%20even%20when%20based%20on,*%20Stiff%20posture%20*%20Facing%20another%20direction