Morrisons hit with ASA complaint from Aldi and damning press ad from Lidl
Morrisons has suffered a blow from both of its discount rivals – Aldi and Lidl – today (8 November) as the former made an official complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) while the latter took out a full page ad in this morning's Metro.
Aldi has publicly complained about Morrison’s new Match & More scheme, which offers extra loyalty points whenever a shopper pays for a product found to be cheaper elsewhere - 10 points per every additional 1p.
When the scheme launched last month, Aldi took full page newspaper ads stating: “Morrisons Match and More. More like charge more & refund.”
However, Aldi has now officially complained to the ASA that the price-match service lacks clarity in its terms and conditions, leading the industry body to begin an official investigation.
An ASA spokesman said: “I can confirm that we’ve received 15 complaints, including one from Aldi, about the Morrison ‘Match and More’ ad.
“The general nature of the complaints is that the ads (TV and print) are misleading because:
"They do not make clear how products are compared and that some product comparisons are so different that it makes the comparison misleading.
“The TV ad does not make sufficiently clear that there is a minimum spend of £15.
“They do not make sufficiently clear that any credit will be awarded in points, rather than cash, which can only be redeemed on future purchases at Morrisons’, once a minimum of £5 worth of points has been accrued.
“The TV ad does not make clear that points will be awarded for the overall difference on an entire shop, rather than individual items.”
Morrisons suffered futher criticism as Lidl took out another print ad (pictured) in today's Metro mocking Morrisons’ price claims. The ad shows a Guardian headline claiming Morrisons is now the cheapest supermarket and below magnifies an exclaimer which says the research leading to the finding excludes Lidl.
It follows a similarly scathing print ad which appeared in the Sun newspaper in October this year which looked at the stages Morrisons customers need to go through in order to get the same prices as a Lidl shop, and then suggests you ‘just go to Lidl’.
Morrisons declined to comment on the actions of its rivals, however brand and communications director, Mike Hoban, previously told The Drum: "Confident brands understand what they want to communicate and concentrate on that. Brands that are rattled or are a bit unsure worry about what everyone else is doing. We’re concentrating on what we’re doing.”
The results of the ASA investigation will be published "in due course".