Ad description
A radio ad for Wilsons Carpets heard in December 2016 stated, “Our every-day low prices are always lower than anyone else, sale or no sale, any day of the year! That's what we mean by our price GUARANTEE.”
Issue
Floorserve Ltd, who said they offered the same carpets for less than the advertiser, challenged whether the claim was misleading.
Response
Wilsons Carpets said that if a customer approached them with a like-for-like product, at a cheaper price, they would lower their price to beat the quote and then permanently lower the price across all their stores. They operated a ‘Price Promise’ which stated that they “will beat any quote within 15 miles of any of our stores”. They also ran random checks on competitors, which could occur regularly or when a competitor had a sale. The company stated that they would always beat a competitor’s sale price with their regular price and that they would only change their prices in response to the competition. They also provided evidence of how they monitored competitor’s prices using a price monitoring tool and how they responded to pricing changes.
Lincs FM who cleared the ad, said that after the claim had been initially approved for use in a previous ad, they checked with Wilsons whether they were still regularly monitoring the competition’s prices. Wilsons stated that they were. When Lincs FM received notification of the complaint, they further discussed the price guarantee with the advertisers and understood that the procedures followed were not as robust as are required. In response, they removed the claims from all the Wilsons ads currently being aired.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the claim “Our every-day low prices are always lower than anyone else” to mean that compared to all other carpet retailers, Wilsons would always be cheaper for identical products. We also considered that the claim, which followed it in the ad, “That’s what we mean by our price guarantee” would be interpreted to mean that Wilsons themselves ensured they had the lowest prices available. We noted that they monitored the market and lowered their prices in response to changes from competitors. However, it appeared that the monitoring was restricted to the use of an online tool which notified Wilsons of competitor price changes and irregular mystery shopping visits of local competitors only. This meant that Wilsons only changed their prices compared to high street retailers when they became aware, during their visits, of a price disparity. Further, we noted that the “Price Promise” they operated stated that they would “beat any quote within 15 miles of any of our stores”. We considered that the details of the price promise contradicted the general impression given by the claim in the ad. Because we considered the ad implied that compared to all other carpet retailers, Wilsons would always be cheaper for identical products and that was not the case, we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached BCAP Code rules 3.1 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), 3.33 3.33 Advertisements that include a comparison with an identifiable competitor must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, consumers about either the advertised product or service or the competing product or service. (Comparisons) and 3.39 3.39 Advertisements that include a price comparison must make the basis of the comparison clear. (Price comparisons).
Action
The ad should not be broadcast again in the form complained about. We told Wilsons Carpets not to repeat the claim unless they held suitable evidence to substantiate it.
