Supermarkets are going against the general retail trend and spending more on advertising despite the economic downturn, it has been claimed.
Research carried out Nielsen for the Daily Telegraph found Asda boosted ad spending by 52%, Tesco by 18.8%, Sainsbury’s by 21.3% and Morrisons by 15%, all in the six months to October.
By comparison, Marks & Spencer lowered its spend on advertising by 20.3% to £25.3m, compared with the same six-month period in 2007.
Overall, Tesco is the fifth-largest spender in the advertising category, the research discovered, while Asda has jumped to 12th place.
According to a survey carried out by Which? magazine this month, supermarkets regularly mislead consumers over advertised special offers.
Various price comparison promotions have also come in for criticism in the past few months, including those carried out by McVitie’s and Mars.
