Can you hear me now? Competitor cellphone companies harp on the same message to consumers—so is anybody really listening?

    Call them what you want—annoying, repetitive, or predictable—but there’s no question cellphone company commercials are one thing: played out.  The latest influx of ad campaigns features an ongoing battle among cellphone company giants Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and Cingular, and as noted in a recent New York Times article (may require sign-in), the message being sent to consumers is getting a bit repetitive.
    A bit?  OK, a lot.
    Verizon touts itself as “America’s Most Reliable Network;” Sprint Nextel claims “no one has a more powerful network;” and Cingular swears its customers have “the fewest dropped calls.”  While the Times article reports that all three companies use somewhat murky methodology to prove their campaign slogans, a Consumer Reports survey compiled last year showed that consumers rated Verizon’s network coverage as being the best in 17 of the 18 cities surveyed.
    So, what gives?  In a market with mounting competition among cell phone companies, why are all of the advertisers and marketers singing the same song? Why not claim to have the most stylish handsets to reach a different market of consumers?
    Should the mantra be, “Anything you can do, I can do better,” or would a company be better off by finding its own consumer niche and developing a unique and strong selling point?