When I first saw this TESCO television commercial, I thought it was nasty, the fact that it is directly comparing itself to its main competitor ASDA with its prices cheaper than the latter. Yes, it could be a healthy competition, mainly beneficial to the consumers. Im sure a lot of people were convinced that TESCO is surely "better" than ASDA as the commercial claims. This is one of the wonders of marketing, to make the people believe, influence and persuade them to buy or not to buy.
This is not the first time I saw a commercial in UK that is doing the same. Some advertisements for an insurance company, bank and some food products directly competing themselves against their rival on a paid commercial. Is it lawful? I asked myself the same question. But I couldn't care at all. and competitive markets such as the UK and EU surely have one of the best legal systems in the world. As far as I know, this has also been done in the United States. I remember in the Philippines, one of the advertising ethics is to advertise against a competing brand anonymously. Advertisers can not name the targeted brand, nor show any significant trademarks that can identify its competitors otherwise, litigation is always the end point. This is to protect the advertisers from any destructive propaganda against their own built brands.
Granting that the UK allows healthy competition such as this, as TESCO deliberately tells the whole world that they are way better than ASDA in terms of product prices and value, and that shopping with them means buying more than in ASDA; it is possibly impacting the latter's sales because of this campaign.
As for ASDA, I am concerned about thinking why don't they produce a counter-act campaign against TESCO? The baskets shown are piled up and only the topmost are filled. This is a picture of a more customers shopping at ASDA due to the number of baskets left on pile. On a creative point-of-view, ASDA can claim that because their prices are of true value, more customers are shopping that is why they have 709 baskets left on stack compared to 1020 empty baskets on TESCO. This could make it a healthier competition between the two.
This is not the first time I saw a commercial in UK that is doing the same. Some advertisements for an insurance company, bank and some food products directly competing themselves against their rival on a paid commercial. Is it lawful? I asked myself the same question. But I couldn't care at all. and competitive markets such as the UK and EU surely have one of the best legal systems in the world. As far as I know, this has also been done in the United States. I remember in the Philippines, one of the advertising ethics is to advertise against a competing brand anonymously. Advertisers can not name the targeted brand, nor show any significant trademarks that can identify its competitors otherwise, litigation is always the end point. This is to protect the advertisers from any destructive propaganda against their own built brands.
Granting that the UK allows healthy competition such as this, as TESCO deliberately tells the whole world that they are way better than ASDA in terms of product prices and value, and that shopping with them means buying more than in ASDA; it is possibly impacting the latter's sales because of this campaign.
As for ASDA, I am concerned about thinking why don't they produce a counter-act campaign against TESCO? The baskets shown are piled up and only the topmost are filled. This is a picture of a more customers shopping at ASDA due to the number of baskets left on pile. On a creative point-of-view, ASDA can claim that because their prices are of true value, more customers are shopping that is why they have 709 baskets left on stack compared to 1020 empty baskets on TESCO. This could make it a healthier competition between the two.
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