Direct Marketing / Flyers

emsywoo123 · 20 November 2011 at 5:40PM

Hi, thanks for reading

I am looking at sending some flyer type things to some targeted businesses (not sure how yet-poss Royal Mail? But their website is down so cannot check costs.)

I sell the products cheaper than my 3 main competitors who are market leaders. Can I say "we are cheaper than blah" and use their logo in a price comparison table?

Sorry if this does not make much sense, its just an idea I am knocking about at the minute.....:cool:

paddyrg · 20 November 2011 at 6:37PM

If you make a direct comparison, expect challenges - so substantiate every saving, make sure it is like-for-like, etc. See the ASA/CAP websites for guidelines.

texranger · 20 November 2011 at 6:59PM

they can also challenge you for using their logo if they have it trademarked

emsywoo123 · 20 November 2011 at 9:13PM

paddyrg wrote: »

If you make a direct comparison, expect challenges - so substantiate every saving, make sure it is like-for-like, etc. See the ASA/CAP websites for guidelines.

thank you, the products are exactly the same....like Tesco saying they are cheaper than ASda for Coke if that makes sense :cool:

emsywoo123 · 20 November 2011 at 9:15PM

texranger wrote: »

they can also challenge you for using their logo if they have it trademarked

Yes, that's what I was wondering....

texranger · 20 November 2011 at 10:27PM

with Asda and Tesco, if one sue one then the other would counter sue as they use each others logos all the time, so they would never be out of court, but with small businesses they dont usually do this day in day out so it can be damaging using a competitors logo without their permission.

pitkin2020 · 20 November 2011 at 10:38PM

Agree with Tex. I also think its a very petty way to advertise your business TBH, obviously depending on the products price isn't always the main concern for businesses. If its coca cola lets say most people won't care if they get it from tesco or asda as long as its cheaper. When it comes to other products though especially aimed as B2B transactions support, after care and a good customer service can be worth paying a little more for.

Again depending on the industry I suspect your competitors might price match or undercut you where will your leaflets stand then? Will you be able to sustain dropping your prices further if they reduce their prices by 10%??

emsywoo123 · 20 November 2011 at 11:05PM

pitkin2020 wrote: »

Agree with Tex. I also think its a very petty way to advertise your business TBH, obviously depending on the products price isn't always the main concern for businesses. If its coca cola lets say most people won't care if they get it from tesco or asda as long as its cheaper. When it comes to other products though especially aimed as B2B transactions support, after care and a good customer service can be worth paying a little more for.

Again depending on the industry I suspect your competitors might price match or undercut you where will your leaflets stand then? Will you be able to sustain dropping your prices further if they reduce their prices by 10%??

No, they are branded products, and the industry is such that the primary concern for (I estimate) 95% of consumers is price.

I was planning on highlighting price comparison between their advertised web price of products on 5 or so popular products that I easily undercut on.

emsywoo123 · 20 November 2011 at 11:06PM

texranger wrote: »

with Asda and Tesco, if one sue one then the other would counter sue as they use each others logos all the time, so they would never be out of court, but with small businesses they dont usually do this day in day out so it can be damaging using a competitors logo without their permission.

Thank you, I wondered how they got away with it! I assume I can use their name?

pitkin2020 · 21 November 2011 at 12:20AM

I would double check but I do beleive you can use their name if your statement is true and your aren't making claims about the company. i.e you can't say company products are naff and more expensive but I do beleive you can say my company is X amount cheaper for y product than another company.

I still think its a fine line though and I would be wary of the repercussions, do you really have to name the other companies to still get the point across?

Slinky · 21 November 2011 at 8:49AM

The supermarkets when they advertise that they have 1257 products cheaper than their competitor put in small print 'Prices checked on 21st November 2011'. If you're going to go down that route you'd be as well taking screen dumps of the prices you are comparing them to and mentioning the date of comparison on your literature.