Ad description
An outdoor digital poster for Tesco, seen on 4 September 2024, featured an image of a stack of sandwiches. Text stated, “Get more with” alongside the Tesco Clubcard logo. Further text written in roundels stated, “£1 from 100 Clubcard points*” and “50p from 100 Nectar points*”. Text beneath stated, “Clubcard gives you more to spend on your groceries than Nectar. Stacks more”.
Small text at the bottom of the poster stated, “*Clubcard points are worth 2x the value of Nectar points when converted for spend at Tesco and Sainsbury's respectively. Value of Nectar points for spend at Sainsbury’s checked at nectar.com on 30/08. Comparison excludes Nectar points value enhancing or bonus points offers. Details at tes.co/nectar-spend-partners.”
Issue
J Sainsbury plc t/a Sainsbury’s challenged whether the comparison between the Tesco Clubcard and Nectar loyalty card scheme was misleading.Response
Tesco Stores Ltd t/a Tesco said that consumers would view the ad as making a specific comparison between the conversion value of Tesco’s Clubcard (Clubcard) points and Sainsbury’s Nectar (Nectar) points for spend on groceries and that it was not misleading to advertise and highlight specific elements of a loyalty scheme.
They explained that the overall benefits of supermarket loyalty schemes for customers could be categorised into three areas, which included: savings on the price of products at the point of purchase, collection of points from purchasing items from the retailer or their collection partners and spend of points when converting them to money for spend with the retailer or their reward partners. They believed it was commonplace in the grocery retail market for supermarkets to advertise specific elements of their loyalty schemes without highlighting other elements and benefits. They provided examples of such ads.
With a Clubcard, the savings element of the scheme included promotional pricing. They highlighted the collection of points involved earning points through purchasing groceries, fuel and clothing with Tesco, or earning points with their collection partners. Tesco also offered customers ad hoc bonus points collection opportunities. Once points had been accrued, the spending of points was the ability for customers to convert their accrued points into monetary value to spend either directly with Tesco or with their reward partners. Every one point collected was worth £1 for spend at Tesco or £2 if converted for spend with a reward partner.
They re-iterated it was common to distinguish between the collection of points and spend of points as separate benefits and features of loyalty schemes. They believed customers had a good understanding of the differences that could arise between loyalty schemes across the retail sector, recognising that different cards offered different benefits and where a points-based scheme was adopted, different rules may have applied to both point collection and spend with the possibility of additional benefits too. Tesco commissioned a survey on understanding and awareness of different features of their Clubcard in August 2023, which they said showed that the consumers surveyed had a strong comprehension of the Clubcard scheme. They provided a summary of the results.They said the ad made clear that it was a specific comparison between the value of accrued points for spend on groceries once converted into money. The headline claim “Get more” with a Tesco Clubcard was qualified and contextualised by the claims which immediately followed. The roundels were prominently placed below the headline claim, so consumers’ attention was immediately drawn to the differing conversion rates for points into money. The comparison was qualified by the small print which provided further explanation that the effect was that Tesco Clubcard points were worth twice the value of Sainsbury’s Nectar points when converted for spend at the respective supermarkets. The secondary claim was also prominently placed below the roundels and further added to the overall impression that the ad was making a specific comparison in respect of the value of points for spend on groceries. It also qualified the headline claim by explaining that customers could get more to spend on groceries with their Clubcard in comparison to Nectar. ‘Spend’ was a key, distinct and comparable feature of both the Clubcard and Nectar schemes that customers would understand referred specifically to spending points, as opposed to collecting points or the saving that may have been available through Clubcard prices.
The roundels included asterisks which linked to qualifying text that stated, “Comparison excludes Nectar points value enhancing or bonus points offers”. The qualification clarified that it was the like-for-like standard conversion value for spend of points comparison and excluded any value enhancing or bonus offers, which by their nature were ad hoc, intermittent and time limited.Therefore, they believed it was clear from the ad as a whole that the overall message of the ad was that the Tesco Clubcard points gave a higher conversion value than the Sainsbury’s Nectar points for spend at the respective supermarkets. Notwithstanding that, they had amended the ad to add further clarification that the comparison was between the spending of points.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ad included the claims “Get more with TESCO Clubcard”, “£1 from 100 Clubcard points*”, “50p from 100 Nectar points*” and “Clubcard gives you more to spend on your groceries than Nectar. Stacks more!”. The ASA considered consumers would understand the ad to mean that, if they exchanged the same number of points using the respective loyalty card schemes, they would be worth twice as much to spend on groceries at Tesco than at Sainsburys.
Additionally, the ad included asterisks that linked to qualifying text that stated “Clubcard points are worth 2x the value of Nectar points when converted for spend at Tesco and Sainsbury’s respectively […] Comparison excludes Nectar points value enhancing or bonus points offers”. We considered that clarified the overall impression of the ad; that Clubcard points were worth twice the value of Nectar points when converting the same to spend on groceries, and that the comparison was based on their usual conversions, and excluded any additional, time-limited offers.
Sainsbury’s, the complainant, were concerned that the ad implied overall superiority of Clubcard compared to Nectar, which they did not believe to be the case because there were differences in the way that consumers could collect points between the two schemes, including that the Nectar scheme offered bonus points. We understood that both loyalty card schemes offered consumers the opportunity to purchase certain products at lower prices, collect points on purchases with the retailer and their selected partners and exchange collected points to spend with the retailer or their selected partners. Despite the similarities between the loyalty card schemes, each scheme also had its own unique features. However, we considered consumers were unlikely to interpret the claims to be of overall superiority across all features of schemes because of how they were presented in the context of the ads. The focus of the ads was on comparing a specific aspect of the two loyalty card schemes, namely, the conversion of collected points to spend on groceries.
We understood that when using Clubcard points to spend on groceries the conversion was £1 for every 100 points collected. When using Nectar points to spend on groceries, the conversion was 50p for every 100 points collected. Therefore, whilst there may have been differences in the savings and collection of points between the two schemes, because the same number of points converted to twice the monetary value with Tesco compared to Sainsburys when used for groceries, we concluded that the ad had been substantiated and was not misleading.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1, 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), 3.9, 3.10 (Qualification), 3.33 and 3.35 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action required.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
3.1 3.3 3.7 3.9 3.10 3.33 3.35
