You know the battle: AT&T vs. Verizon. The two popular mobile phone providers are in a very public war with each other, each pointing out the shortcomings of their rival while boasting about their own unique selling points. This post is about AT&T and their use of a time-honored tactic: competing by solving a non-existent problem.

There’s A Map For That

The AT&T vs. Verizon war really started to heat up when Verizon took a shot at AT&T and the iPhone. Since AT&T/Apple had been doing so much promo for the 100,000+ applications available for the iPhone, Verizon decided to take them down a peg. Turning around the "There’s an App for that" slogan to "There’s a map for that", Verizon took a swipe at AT&T’s flaky coverage. The idea: you can have all the apps in the world, but since AT&T’s coverage stinks, who cares?

It was an awesome campaign. It actually pointed out a problem that all cell phone users can identify with.

I remember wondering what AT&T was going to do to counter the campaign. I couldn’t believe what the response was:

The above video is just one example, but AT&T’s big idea was: Sure, our coverage might stink, but you can talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time.

Now think about that. Forget about the commercials or your loyalty to a particular brand or phone, and just ask yourself which is more important to you:

1. Coverage- being able to place calls and use you phone’s data plan wherever you are.
2. The ability to talk on the phone while being on the web.

While I admit I don’t have any statistics on hand, I’d have to guess that most people would go with coverage. And to extend the example even more, if Verizon’s claims are correct, it really doesn’t matter if you can talk and browse at the same time on AT&T, since you won’t have coverage anyway!

Solving Problems That Don’t Exist

Now, it might sound like I’m picking on AT&T here, and that’s absolutely true. But it’s not the first time a company has tried to promote a product/service by hyping a feature that solves a non-existent problem. Think of ANY infomercial you’ve ever watched.

The snuggie is a pretty good example. The problem they apparently solve: the need for a blanket with sleeves (as opposited to a sweatshirt). Watch the beginning of that video to see just how annoyed the actors were at life before the snuggie came to town.

So is this tecnique a good thing? A bad thing? A thing at all?

Personally, I don’t like it, as it seems sleazy to me. But hey, maybe it actually works. And in that case, who am I to judge?