Sainsbury’s was angered by the Advertising Standards Authority’s rejection of its complaint about Tesco Price Promise ads and launched a national press advertising campaign to convince consumers that the Tesco pledge compares apples and oranges.
The ads feature two pictures side by side showing the ‘same’ product, one from Tesco and the other Sainsbury’s. Underneath is the snappy tagline ‘Same Price, Different Values’, but consumers must read further to really understand the alleged difference between the two grocers’ values.
In the case of ham, Sainsbury’s highlights its product’s provenance by highlighting the fact that it sourced from the UK, while Tesco’s’ ham is not. At the bottom the ad bitingly says that though the two products cost the same, “It’s what you can’t see that makes the difference.” It is a powerful line that stresses loud and clear the grocer’s case that Sainsbury’s products tick boxes, such as ethical and local sourcing, that Tesco’s offer does not.
Adrian Watts, chairman of creative agency Live & Breathe, which works with Morrisons, likes the campaign’s message on values, but believes consumers may not get it.
He maintains: “It’s a strong but complicated underlining message and consumers don’t study ads that carefully. I like the visual appeal of the ads which I think will stop people in their tracks because you don’t normally see two bunches of bananas or two ham rolls side by side. But the issue is, how do you quantify the difference in the quantity?”
Sainsbury’s attempts to do that in the accompanying text, but that point would be lost on anyone glancing over the ad and only catching the product images and tagline. Furthermore, people would have to read the text to know the ad compares Sainsbury’s product with Tesco’s. If readers don’t read close enough, then the combination of the visual product comparison and bold tagline may not communicate Sainsbury’s’ point.
Watts believes the ad does not take price out of equation, adding: “It raises the values side of things, which is difficult to understand because when you’re shopping you instinctively make judgements [based on price] without thinking about everything involved.”
Sainsbury’s message of superior quality to Tesco at the same price doesn’t come across as strongly as it could. The idea of “different values” is abstract and the campaign might have been stronger and clearer in its message to lead with a simple statement such as Sainsbury’s Fairtrade bananas cost the same as standard bananas from Tesco.
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