Categories
Close
Menu
Menu
Close
Search
Search

Featured Articles

News

Nook advertising campaign breached the ASA advertising code

Mark

Share:

Print

Rate article:

No rating
Rate this article:
No rating

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about recent advertisements for discounted Barnes & Noble Nook eBook readers.

In April Barnes & Noble cut the price of the basic Nook reader from £79 to £29, advertising the product’s availability at Argos, Asda, Blackwell’s, Currys, Foyles, John Lewis, PC World, Sainsbury’s and Very.

However, a complainant said they’d been unable to purchase the item from any of the listed retailers.

Barnes & Noble admitted the product had gone out of stock at its web store and at some retailer partners, although it believed it had made a reasonable estimate of demand for the product based on recent UK sales levels. It said UK retail partners had held stock of over 20 times the previous three months’ average sales when the promotion started.

Nook sales during the promotion were over 120 times the normal sales rate, causing some retailers to quickly run out of stock. Barnes & Noble worked to distribute remaining stock evenly throughout the market, put an ‘out of stock’ message on its UK web site and stopped running its press ad in early May.

Despite this the ASA upheld the complaint, noting that that Barnes & Noble had not provided it with sufficient evidence to show the stock estimate was reasonable. Although Barnes & Noble had based its estimate on recent UK sales data, the ASA considered that B&N should have based the estimate on responses to a previous similar offer.

[ASA adjudication]

Comments

Collapse Expand Comments (0)
You don't have permission to post comments.

Opinion Articles

Whatever happened to all my tech?

ExclusiveWhatever happened to all my tech?

Mark Bridge writes:

I've been taking a look back at the devices I've written about during the past few years. Some are still faithful companions, others... well, let's just say my faith was misplaced.

ExclusivePredictions for 2016: Network Function Virtualisation, 4G throttling and video calling

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Kapture review: the audio-recording wristband

ExclusiveKapture review: the audio-recording wristband

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

RSS
12345678910Last

Recent Podcasts

ExclusivePodcast - 27th October 2010

This week's podcast includes big news from Nokia along with the rest of the week's industry headlines. There's also an interview with Jamie Driver from MedHand about putting medical information on mobile phones.

ExclusivePodcast - 20th October 2010

In this week's podcast we talk to Clive Bayley, managing director of Fonehouse, about the current state of the UK market for mobile phone dealers. There's also a look at the week's major mobile headlines, from O2's location-based marketing to Apple's quarterly results.

ExclusivePodcast - 13th October 2010

This week's podcast sees the long-awaited launch of Windows Phone 7, the creation of the GSMA's mWomen project and a wide variety of other mobile industry news, from legal action to SMS marketing.

ExclusivePodcast - 6th October 2010

Iain, James and Mark take their usual entertaining look at the UK's mobile phone industry, from irresponsible texting to patent wars. There's also an interview with Steve Jarrett of MePlease who explains how his company could transform the way people think about mobile marketing.

ExclusivePodcast - 29th September 2010

This week's edition of The Fonecast covers the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, Windows Phone 7, the EC, mobile advertising and accessory sales. There's also an interview with Dave Tharp from Roulette Cricket about his company's success in the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 competition.

RSS
First6061626365676869Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«July 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
293012345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
272829303112
3456789

Archive