Actually Marico started this on 2010 with Amla Hair oil category & was able to increase market share from 19% to 33% in a span of 3 FY. Dabur didn’t bother to respond and kept loosing market share. Dabur Amla is still much higher priced than Nihar Amla & still is the market leader. So, that speaks volumes of its brand equity.
– The above quote is from ‘Unusual Billionaires’ book.
AFAIK, Dabur started the same tactics with Coconut oil on 2016, however I don’t know the consequences.
So, this is nothing new & both don’t consider this tactics as unhealthy as both had resorted to the same before.
Actually such aggression is pretty common in every places. Yesterday, I shared a report on how Nestle is giving more content compared to Cadbury in categories where they aren’t the market leader. However, they didn’t advertise it.
In this regard, we must’ve remembered how Cadbury did the more-content awareness through a hilarious Ad war with Nestle, which is the market leader in Wafer Chocolate.
http://lighthouseinsights.in/on-wafer-chocolate-wars-cadbury-perk-or-nestle-munch-who-won-on-social-media.html/
So, either the war is through more-content or less-price. But as I mentioned, given the economic environment of slowdown less-price is expected to catch more eyeballs.
Brand is a moat for sure but the companies also have to ensure that the moat is giving them more prosperity.