Asa tells Asda to make price guarantee adjustments
Britain’s advertising watchdog yesterday ruled that Asda must make adjustments to the way that it presents price guarantees, which was a key component of the grocery giants marketing strategy, after complaints lodged by some of its many UK rivals.
The ASA, or the Advertising Standards Authority, said that adverts being run by Asda following an introduction of a price guarantee in April mustn’t appear again as they currently are. Asda’s original guarantee told shoppers that they would be refunded the difference in they event that they are able to find their groceries elsewhere at a cheaper price.
The Yorkshire-based chain, which is a unit of the huge U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart, stepped up its campaign in December while offering to refund any difference if it wasn’t at least 10% cheaper at one of the stores of its rivals.
Britain’s largest retailer, Tesco, welcomed the ruling from the ASA while also urging it to reach similar decisions on complaints made about Asda’s fresh batch of price guarantees. Fighting battles on all fronts, Wm Morrison Supermarkets was one of the companies that complained about the original price guarantees that Asda offered.
Asda, which is Britain’s second-largest supermarket group, stressed that it was incredibly pleased by the fact that that many of the detailed complaints with regards to its price guarantees were not upheld by the ASA and shall continue to fend off any further complaints it receives in the future.