Sainsbury’s launched its own Brand Match initiative this week and had a swipe at rival schemes for being over-complicated.

Brand Match, launched as a trial in Sainsbury’s 12 Northern Ireland stores, pledges to match Tesco and Asda on more than 12,000 branded grocery lines. Unlike Tesco’s Price Check and Asda’s Price Guarantee, where customers have to type receipt details into websites, Sainsbury’s will give shoppers a voucher instantly at the till.

It is promoting Brand Match as “It’s simple. You do the shopping. We do the maths. And pass any savings back to you”.

“We want to give shoppers a no-hassle experience,” said Sainsbury’s commercial director Mike Coupe. “We understand they don’t want to spend time checking prices or logging on to a computer to print a coupon at home.”

Sainsbury’s is also seeking to avoid the mistakes made by Asda and Tesco when they introduced price pledges earlier this year.

Sainsbury’s has made it clear that shoppers would need to spend £20 or more and buy at least one comparable branded grocery item to qualify, and has capped the maximum value of a single Brand Match coupon at £20.

To avoid the “cottage industry of savvy and determined people” who forced Tesco to scrap its Double the Difference promise in April, shoppers can buy no more than 10 identical items in one transaction.

“Sainsbury’s has clearly learnt from the mistakes of others and a key feature of its scheme is simplicity and ease. That will appeal to shoppers,” said Neil Saunders, consulting director at Verdict Research.

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