History Main / ParityProductParadox

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!!Examples:

[[AC:Advertising]]
* The purpose of the famous Pepsi Challenge marketing campaign was to show that in blind tests, consumers consistently chose the taste of Pepsi over the taste of Coca Cola. The implication of the results was that the flavor of Pepsi was ''better'' than the flavor of Coke.
* Dwarfed by the search engine behemoth Google, Microsoft's Bing attempted to build a following by doing blind side-by-side comparisons in the defunct "Bing It On" challenge. After conducting a few searches, the user was shown the results to indicate which engine they actually liked, sometimes with surprising results. Despite this, the ubiquity of Google and its products has helped it stay on top while Bing remains at #2.
* The brand Eggland's Best touts on their website that their eggs have less fat, cholesterol, and calories and more vitamins than ordinary eggs, making them superior in nutrition. Despite these claims and the "Best" in the name, their motto is still "Better taste. Better nutrition. Better eggs."

[[AC:Literature]]
* In Literature/SewerGasAndElectric, two employees of Gant have to decide which is the best kind of toothpaste. One of them finds this trope is the solution, which is correct.
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In Literature/SewerGasAndElectric, two employees of Gant have to decide which is the best kind of toothpaste. One of them finds this trope is the solution, which is correct.

[[AC:{{Advertising}}]]

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[[AC:RealLife]]

* Dwarfed by the search engine behemoth Google, Microsoft's Bing attempted to build a following by doing blind side-by-side comparisons in the "Bing It On" challenge, which is [[http://www.bingiton.com/vote?query=youtube still available today]]. After conducting a few searches, the user was shown the results to indicate which engine they actually liked, sometimes with surprising results. Despite this, the ubiquity of Google and its products has helped it stay on top while Bing remains at #2.

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[[folder: Real Life]]

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-->--''101 [[{{Koan}} Zen Stories]]''

According to US government regulations, certain products are considered commodity items (in technical jargon, ''parity products''), with no noticeable variation in quality from manufacturer to manufacturer. As far as the government is concerned, there is no functional difference between one product and another in a given parity class. Aspirin, toothpaste, toilet paper and a host of other consumer goods fall into this category. Economists call these items homogeneous products. Manufacturers must differentiate their product from competitors' to sell their brand.

Paradoxically, this allows a manufacturer of any of these items to legitimately and legally claim in advertisement that their product is ''the best''. The logic behind this is that if all varieties of aspirin on the market are equally good, then they are all the best by definition.

The really counterintuitive part is that the makers of these products are not allowed to claim that theirs is "better" without substantial proof that it is somehow an improvement upon the commodity level.

[[AC: Real Life]]

* Dwarfed by the search engine behemoth Google, Microsoft's Bing attempted to build a following by doing blind side-by-side comparisons in the "Bing It On" challenge, which is [[http://www.bingiton.com/vote?query=youtube still available today]]. After conducting a few searches, the user was shown the results to indicate which engine they actually liked, sometimes with surprising results. Despite this, the ubiquity of Google and its products has helped it stay on top while Bing remains at #2.

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Compare AbsoluteComparative -- when "better" is liberally spread, without saying what it's supposed to be better ''than''.

Compare AbsoluteComparative -- when "better" is liberally spread, without saying what it's supposed to be better ''than''.

According to US government regulations, certain products are considered commodity items (in technical jargon, ''parity products''), with no noticeable variation in quality from manufacturer to manufacturer. As far as the government is concerned, there is no functional difference between one product and another in a given parity class. Aspirin, toothpaste, toilet paper and a host of other consumer goods fall into this category. Economics would call this item one that causes Perfect Competition, so manufacturers, to sell their brand, must differentiate it from the others.