Ad description
A website and two leaflets for The British Standards Institution seen in October 2017:
a. The website www.bsigroup.com, on a page titled “ISO 9001 Quality Management” included text which stated “Designed to be a powerful business improvement tool, ISO 9001 Quality Management certification can help you to: Continually improve, streamline operations and reduce costs Win more business and compete in tenders Satisfy more customers Be more resilient and build a sustainable business Show you have strong corporate governance Work effectively with stakeholders and your supply chain”. Another page titled “ISO 9001:2015 revision” included text which stated “The revised standard will ensure that quality management is now completely integrated and aligned with the business strategies of your organization … With the new standard in place, organizations will find it easier to incorporate their quality management system into the core business processes and gain greater business benefit”.
b. A leaflet which could be downloaded from the BSI website provided further information about the ISO 9001, including a table with three columns headed “Business Issue”, “How ISO 9001 helps” and “Benefits”. Under the heading “Business Issue … Improvement” the listed benefits were “Lower operational costs”, “Reduce waste and increase efficiency” and “Improve your bottom line”. Under the heading “Business Issue … Engagement” the listed benefits were “Internal and external communication is improved” and “Business with a motivated and engaged workforce are more likely to remain compliant and avoid penalties or fines”.
c. A leaflet which could be downloaded from the BSI website which was titled “Why ISO 9001:2015 is better for your business Whitepaper” included text “Improved risk management One of the new benefits is the increased use of ‘risk based thinking’ which is implicit throughout the standard”.
Issue
Oxebridge Quality Resources challenged whether the ads misleadingly implied that all companies would achieve the stated benefits.
Response
The British Standards Institution (BSI) said that the extract complained about in ad (a) stated that the ISO 9001 “can benefit” and “can help” to achieve the various stated aims. They said they believed the generality of the language made clear the stated aims were not in any way guaranteed and as such they did not consider the statements to be misleading. They explained that in the context of a management system, if an organisation only met the requirements of the standard, then it may not see the full potential benefits. The further the organisation went beyond the requirements of the standard, the more likely it was to see maximised benefits. They said due to this correlation, they took particular care not to promise these benefits, but instead suggested that they “could” be achieved.
They said that the extracts referenced in ad (a) in regard to the page titled “ISO 9001:2015 revision” referenced benefits which were inherent to quality management systems that met the base requirements of ISO 9001:2015. As such, they argued that when organisations received certification it was clear that they had met the base requirements of the standard which, in turn, meant they would actualise the benefits. They provided two extracts from the ISO 9001:2015 in support.
They further said that the page on the BSI website included statistics that were based on their customer research data which supported the claims being made. For example: 66% of customers had commented that ISO 9001 had helped them improve their products and services was support for the statement that ISO 9001 helped companies to “improve your products and services”; 54% said it helped them attract more business, providing support for the statement that ISO 9001 helped companies to “win more business”; and 60% said ISO 9001 reduced the likelihood of mistakes, supporting the statement that it “will help you to continually monitor and manage quality across your business”. They provided a copy of a document which set out the methodology they used in the consumer research and the results.
In relation to ad (b) they considered that as the ad used the words “can help organisations” this made it clear that the stated aims were not guaranteed.
In relation to ad (c) they said that the statement referred to the benefits of the new standard rather than any resulting quality from the management system.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA understood that the ads were aimed at Senior Management teams, Chief Executives, Finance Directors and other managers at a similar level. We considered that traders would understand that the ISO:9001 was a management standard which, if applied to their business including being certified by the BSI, would offer certain benefits but that the benefits were not guaranteed and would be dependent on how closely they followed the standard. We considered that the language used in the ads made it clear that the benefits stated were conditional and that the implementation of the standard could help the business to achieve the stated benefits. For example, ad (a) included phrases such as “can help you to” and then listed the benefits that it could help achieve. Further, we considered that the claim in ad (a) “The revised standard will ensure that quality management is now completely integrated and aligned with the business strategies of your organization” was about the standard itself and not what would result from its implementation. We noted that text on the same page stated “With the new standard in place, organizations will … gain greater business benefit” but considered that traders would understand the claim to mean that the standard would help you improve your business and that the more detailed claims provided clarification as to how. Further, ad (b) included the claim “Business with a motivated and engaged workforce are more likely to remain compliant and avoid penalties and fines”, but we considered that businesses would understand that this was a potential result of following the standard and would not expect that they would be guaranteed to avoid penalties and fines. For these reasons, we concluded that the ads were not misleading.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action required.
