It appears that a store brand tagline coined by Sainsbury in the 1950s is being liberally used by Asda and is appearing in full-page newspaper advertisements in the U.K., according to a report in The [London] Times.December 22, 2009
It appears that a store brand tagline coined by Sainsbury in the 1950s is being liberally used by Asda and is appearing in full-page newspaper advertisements in the U.K., according to a report in The [London] Times.
Asda is promoting its revamped premium store brands with the slogan, “Good food costs less at Asda. The only difference from the Sainsbury slogan is the retailer’s name. Sainsbury’s has used the tagline “Good food costs less at Sainsbury’s” coined by Lord Sainsbury in the late 1950s, according to the report.
“As they say, imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but it looks like they’ve run out of fresh ideas and are getting a bit desperate,” Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury’s customer director, told The Times, “Maybe all they want for Christmas is a new ad agency.”
This is the first ad campaign where Asda is focusing on a price message, taking a page from the playbook of parent company Wal-Mart.
Responding to the tagline issue, an Asda spokesman said: “We’ve won 289 quality awards this year and been named by The Grocer as Britain’s best-value shop — that’s why good food really does cost less at Asda.”
In a separate story also published in the Times, Asda said it is better harnessing Wal-Mart’s buying power on its non-foods to beat competitors’ prices. Asda said it plans to increase the number of products it sources alongside Wal-Mart, according to the report.