Asda has fired a shot across Morrisons’ bows as the supermarket price war intensifies in the run up to Christmas.
The retailer aired a TV ad this week entitled ‘Spot the Difference’, which featured Bold 2in1 Gel Lavender & Camomile 888ml laundry detergent and compared the price of £6.40 at Morrisons with £4 at Asda.
With a voiceover of “enjoy a white, white Christmas, you could be better off at Asda”, the ad was launched after the price of Bold at Morrisons returned to £6.40 having been £4 for the previous five weeks. Asda, meanwhile, has been selling the detergent at £4 since dropping the price from £6.20 in mid-September (Brandview.com).
The decision by Asda to single out Morrisons in this way has been viewed by some analysts as a sign that it has become concerned by Morrisons’ recent deep discount strategy on a handful of key grocery lines - such as Christmas tins of Celebrations, Roses and Quality Street at two-for-£7 and bottles of Baileys for £9.
“While it is fair to surmise that there is strong national competition between the big four and increasingly with smaller rivals such as Waitrose and the discounters, there is still a strong degree of regionalism in the UK grocery sector,” said Kantar Retail’s Bryan Roberts. “Bearing this in mind, competitive actions by Morrisons will impact Asda given their geographic overlap. The Morrisons deals might well be luring shoppers away from Asda.”
Last week, the manager of Morrisons store in Netherfield, Max Baczynski, told The Grocer the new deals were “attracting new customers”.
In the latest Kantar Worldpanel data, Morrisons’ sales continued to show a recovery. They grew 1.5% in the 12 weeks to 10 November compared with growth of 0.8% at Asda.
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