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A recent NAD decision looks at an issue that frequently comes up for advertisers but doesn’t often make its way into NAD decisions—how companies can use charts to compare features they offer against those offered by their competitors.
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Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
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A recent NAD decision looks at an issue that frequently comes up
for advertisers but doesn’t often make its way into NAD
decisions—how companies can use charts to compare features
they offer against those offered by their competitors. It sounds
easy enough, but it can get complicated, especially because
companies don’t always advertise features the same way.
ZenBusiness uses a chart to compare the features it offers to
those offered by its competitor Tailor Brands. The eighth row of
the chart below reads ​”100% Accuracy Guarantee.”
There’s a check mark under ZenBusiness to indicate that the
company offers the guarantee, and there’s an
​”x” mark under Tailor Brands to suggest the
competitor doesn’t offer a similar guarantee.
ZenBusiness argued that its chart was accurate. The company
offers a 100% accuracy guarantee which provides that if ZenBusiness
ever makes mistakes in its filings, the company will fix those
mistakes at no cost to its customers. In contrast, ZenBusiness
pointed out that Tailor Brands doesn’t advertise a similar
guarantee.
Tailor Brands argued that the chart falsely implies that
ZenBusiness’s filings are more accurate than those of Tailor
Brands. Tailor Brands also noted that although it doesn’t
advertise a ​”100% accuracy guarantee” to
customers, it effectively offers the same correction service as
ZenBusiness, fixing errors at no cost to its customers.
NAD determined that ​”one message reasonably
conveyed” by the chart is that ​”Tailor Brands does
not strive to provide accuracy or correct internal filing errors.
Accordingly, NAD recommended that ZenBusiness modify its
advertising to avoid conveying the message that Tailor Brands does
not work to provide accuracy in its filings.”
This decision suggests that just because a competitor
doesn’t advertise a feature doesn’t necessarily mean that
the competitor doesn’t offer that feature. Sometimes, it’s
necessary to look beyond what the company advertises to determine
whether it offers a feature or something similar. Suggesting
otherwise could be misleading.
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