A grassroots battle where there is no grass

Business 2.0 is on the money about Real’s dumb cut-price, loss-making battle with Apple (see Tosh passim), which will continue to wring the last drops of value from a company surely destined for disaster.

"’Real doesn’t understand it’s fighting a brand battle,’ says Bradley Peacock, president of Chicago-based marketing consultancy Peacock Nine. RealNetworks, with its complicated downloads and annoying pop-ups, has never been adored, and it is going up against an aspirational brand that is. (That’s why people wear the pocket-size device outside their clothing and use the distinctive white earphones even though other earbuds offer better sound quality.)

‘Apple offers a superior product addressing genuine consumer wants and needs,’ says Drew Neisser, president of New York-based Renegade Marketing. ‘Real was never beloved by its users, only tolerated. Even by presenting itself as a bargain brand, it can’t overcome its inherent limitations. A stinky cheese smells regardless of how little it costs.’

Real is waging a grassroots battle where there is no grass. Apple is not Microsoft (MSFT). There is no sense of outrage among consumers. While it’s tempting to cast Steve Jobs as a scheming, egomaniacal villain, the fact is that most people love Apple and its hip products. And shameless price cutting, even if it’s just a short-term sales promotion, feels like the last refuge of a failed marketing strategy [...] ‘At the end of the day, starting a price war is going to bite RealNetworks on the ass,’ Peacock predicts."

[via Paidcontent.org]