Asda focuses on price for Christmas
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Asda says its Christmas advertising campaign will not follow rivals Marks and Spencer, Morrisons and Waitrose by featuring celebrities in its ads but will focus on price.
The supermarket also announced it has relaunched its Extra Special range, and has added 100 new products, including 60 Christmas lines.
The supermarket says it is aiming to save its customers £150m during the festive season with price promotions.
It claims that it has already saved its customers £50m compared to those shopping at rival supermarkets following six weeks of price comparisons on Mysupermarket.com.
Asda makes its claim as it reports like-for-like sales, which exclude new stores, are up 5.6% in the third quarter.
Chief financial officer Judith McKenna, says the “strong, consistent” performance was driven by Asda’s focus on delivering everyday low prices.
As part of its Christmas price promotion drive, Asda has announced it will cut the price of 50 home electricals products such as DVD players, TVs and mobile phones from brands including Phillips, Sanyo and Fuji to help customers save money and spread the cost of Christmas.
The technology promotion follows similar promotional events for clothing, entertainment, and toy sales and comes ahead of the proposed VAT switchback to 17.5% on 1 January.
Supermarkets have engaged in aggressive promotions this year but despite launching several hard-hitting price led events, Asda’s chief financial officer, Judith McKenna said in a conference call that the supermarket is “not really interested in price wars” but that its customers recognise it offers “fantastic value”.
McKenna adds: “This year will be the most aggressive on price in a decade, which is good news for Asda shoppers. We are also enabling our customers to spread the cost of Christmas over a longer period of time, with tailored events and longer rollbacks on key items.”
Asda says there are more promotional events to come in the run up to Christmas and its full festive campaign will be revealed soon.
Asda has also increased its market share to 17.3%; up from 16.9% in the same period last year, according to TNS figures released this week.
Readers' comments (1)
Maurice Flynn | Thu, 12 Nov 2009 8:16 pm
See I say that the technology will rise up too. I was writing some news that the other industries are going up, searching for workers again, doing better and that the IT will stay put for now, but I don't think that. Now that the people are somehow addicted to the Internet, computers, automation and stuff, I think that the technology will go up too. Little time and patience maybe needed.
ASDA knows what to sell and so the market lowers down the prices for the electronics. I think it is a good idea and I want this strategy to go on, just I have some thoughts - is this OK for those who make the products or for those who are simple workers in the markets?
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