UK supermarket group Kwik Save is attracting its custom from “underhand tactics,” according to frozen food retailer Iceland.
The UK supermarket sector is very competitive and as the war for consumers gets increasingly bitter, Kwik Save attacked its rival with a flyer campaign, detailing the potential savings to be gleamed from purchasing the same goods down the road. Around 400 Iceland outlets are within 1km of a Kwik Save store, and the latter is no doubt hoping to capitalise on the current consumer move away from Iceland.
At the beginning of this week, Iceland revealed poor trading figures and a necessary u-turn over its organic-only policy, after disillusioned customers left to shop elsewhere, proving that price is still more important than organic variety.
Emma Woollett, marketing director at Kwik Save explained the idea behind the flyers, a tactic also used by Safeway’s against Asda during August 2000, was that: “We are reinforcing what we have always been about – big brands at low prices, day in, day out.
At Iceland, meanwhile, marketing director Sara Jamison was reticent about the success of the campaign: “Anybody can reduce a few products in order to do a trolley comparison. Our customer feedback tells us that this kind of aggressive local campaign actually turns customers off because they can’t believe companies would get involved in such underhand tactics.”
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