Tesco and Sainsbury’s price match war intensifies

Sainsbury’s has intensified its attack on Tesco’s price matching scheme ‘Price Promise’ by launching a campaign trumpeting the transparency of its own “Brand Match” despite the advertising regulator rejecting a complaint it made about ads for ‘Price Promise’.  

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Sainsbury’s latest ads take aim at rival Tesco’s price matching service.

Press ads, launching today (31 July), claim Brand Match makes fairer and clearer price comparisons than Tesco. The print ads use the strapline “Same price, different values” and claim that Tesco’s “Price Promise” scheme is not a “fair deal”.

The launch comes as the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) confirms it has rejected Sainsbury’s complaint that an earlier campaign for Price Promise was misleading. Sainsbury’s argued that some of the products compared in the advert were not comparable – due to differences in ingredients as well as animal welfare issues.

The watchdog says it is “satisfied” Tesco had taken into account those differences when creating the advert. 

David Wood, marketing director for Tesco in the UK, says the ruling means the brand has overcome “a challenge to another innovation”.

He adds: “If there’s something that a lot of disruptive innovation has in common, it’s that some people don’t get it right away. We are delighted [with the decision] because we know how good Price Promise is for customers.”

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s, says: “We understand the ASA has not upheld our challenge but we think customers would not agree with Tesco’s position that provenance and ethics play little or no part in customers’ buying decisions.”

Sainsbury’s attempted to strike a blow ahead of the decision ealier this week when commercial director Mike Coupe attacked Tesco’s Price Promise campaign as ‘unfair’. 

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