Speaking at an event in London yesterday (14 November) CMO Stephen Smith criticised price-matching schemes similar to Sainsbury’s Brand Match, which offers to check rivals’ prices for branded goods, and Tesco Price Promise, consisting of branded and own-brand grocery products.

“It is strange to me that our competitors are touting how much they match prices and are practising parity. i locate it almost anticompetitive that enormous competitors are talking about and proud to be matching each other’s prices. We’re the only ones standing up and saying we’ll be 10 per cent cheaper,” he said.

Asda’s Christmas marketing this year, while expanding to encompass quality, will still “relentlessly” talk about price. That features taking a dig at rivals with its 10 per cent lower price promise and an “aggressive” spot the adaptation campaign.

In a shift from last year, it won’t discuss any form of vouchering or money-off coupons. Smith criticised rivals for investing in promotional gimmicks by offering vouchers while while increasing prices.

Asda has announced it’s putting £1bn into keeping prices low over the subsequent five years, £400m greater than it previously planned to take a position.

“When our competitors voucher, somebody has to pay for those vouchers. We see it as their customers are paying and that’s not a direction we wish to go. They put money into gimmicks, we spend money on price,” he said.

Asda’s Christmas marketing message continues its concentrate on pricing, taking aim at rivals with a snowman ad that enhances the ten per cent lower cost. It also includes planning to push a top quality message and highlight key items corresponding to its wines and bakery selection within the run-as much as Christmas, deliberately eschewing rivals’ emotional brand messages.

”This year we’ve got an incredibly integrated trading plan that’s all based around big bets. We’ve built a campaign it truly is way more hardworking, delivering a lot of messages.

“I love watching other people’s ads. Would I actually have done them? Not likely. But I’m not of their seats, I don’t know their business plans.”

Smith said its Christmas snowman ad received 2.2m views on Facebook, giving it more reach than print ads and helping to spice up loyalty. He added that the supermarket has a “rule” on social media that it posts 9 messages which might be “fun, engaging and build a conversation” before it would post any commercial message.

“It’s a very simple rule, but what it’s doing for us is building a relationship with our Facebook fans.

“We do various research on understanding those customers and they’re our most loyal customers, they’re our advocates. When times are tough they’re going to defend us and that they keep us honest,” he said.