Just saw a grocery chain TV commercial that ended with the tag, "Named by Market Force as the Low-Price Grocery Leader," complete with Market Force's logo next to the grocery chain's logo.
I wonder if there should be a disclaimer like, "Named by Market Force as the Low-Price Grocery Leader (among the smattering of grocery chains shopped by Market Force.) "
Or, "Named by Market Force (that we pay millions of dollars annually to conduct research for us) as the Low-Price Grocery Leader."
The grocery client expands on the declaration at their website, "Thanks to shoppers across the country, we’ve been named the Low-Price Grocery Leader for the third straight year! According to a recent survey conducted by Market Force Information, the world’s leading customer intelligence solutions company, AAA has beat out competition such as XXX, YYY and ZZZ for this honor.
If these are Market Force mystery shoppers being attributed thanks, then in the interest of full disclosure, there should really be something like, "Thanks to shoppers (who get paid by the people whom we pay in order to get those shoppers to come to our store)..."
Further, I didn't recognize XXX, YYY, and ZZZ as MF clients, even though I have lots of XXX, YYY, and ZZZ around me. I never saw any comparison shops on MF's boards. If the beaten three were shopped just for this ranking purpose, I would think that shoppers who are used to shopping AAA sites could have the subjective portions of their evaluations skewed by the challenges attendant with shopping new clients vs. the ease of their familiar AAA sites.
Subjective, as in the next quote from AAA's website...
"AAA also ranked high on Market Force’s “Delight Index,” which reveals the intersection between customers’ overall satisfaction and the likelihood of recommending a grocer to friends and family. The Delight Index placed AAA among such industry leaders as CCC, DDD and EEE."
Subjective, as in "Trying to do AAA's shop at a CCC was a real PITA and causes me to resent and be dissatisfied with CCC and makes me less likely to recommend CCC to a friend or family member."
Or, subjective as in, "I stay with MF in order to do AAAs, not CCCs, but this month I had to do a CCC in order to be able to get an AAA. I hate CCC and would never recommend them to a friend or family member."
It just seems that there should be some greater transparency to the relationship between AAA and MF for there to be truth in this advertising.