NEWS | Wednesday, 07 January 2009

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MCA says phone operators must back up ad claims

The Malta Communications Authority yesterday said advertising claims made by telecommunications companies must be backed by studies.
The issue concerns a complaint by Vodafone Malta, which had asked for the MCA’s intervention on a media campaign undertaken by GO plc, after GO claimed in its adverts that it was Malta’s best rated provider in terms of innovation, customer experience and reliability.
Back in December during the opening of GO’s Naxxar outlet, chief executive David Kay said that research commissioned in summer by market research giant GfK had confirmed GO as “leaders in various areas including value, customer experience, reliability and innovation.”
The claims were based on a survey commissioned by GO, the MCA later found. Consequently, it resulted that the survey was not in the public domain.
The MCA has already communicated with GO to express its concern on this type of advertising, saying that all operators in the communications sector should ensure that any surveys which serve as the basis for any claims made in the media should be in the public domain.
“The MCA firmly believes that if undertakings make claims on the basis of information which is not in the public domain, then this may lead to a situation where undertakings make claims about their services and products or those of their competitors which cannot be verified for their accuracy and correctness.
“The MCA also considers that if a claim in an advertisement is based on a survey commissioned by an undertaking concerned, then this fact should be clearly stated in the said advertisement.”
In a reaction yesterday evening, GO said it had made various references in the media about the research conducted by GfK.
“As a result of this research, GO has launched an advertising campaign focusing on its strengths as resulting from GFK’s scientific research,” spokesperson Franco Aloisio said.
The company added that detailed results were published in an interview given by GO’s Chief Operations Officer to the business supplement of the Times on 18 December.
Aloisio said GfK carried out an in-depth research on Malta’s communications sector with special focus on the level of customer experience provided by the various operators. The survey was carried out as part of the project using GfK’s patented Loyalty Plus methodology among a 1,000-strong population sample. It included also qualitative research via extensive mystery calling and shopping as well as in-depth interviews and focus groups. Gfk has carried out similar exercises internationally for telecoms giants T-Mobile and Telefonica.
Aloisio said the report showed that GO customers are more satisfied than those of the other two main operators in the local market. “Consistently throughout the research, GO – as Malta’s sole quad-play provider – is ahead of its two main competitors in various areas, including value for money, customer experience, reliability and innovation.”
“GO would like to state that it has communicated with the MCA on the matter and has expressed its views and concerns on the claims made by the authority, while substantiating the results of the survey. GO reiterates its view that it is completely correct for it, or any other organisation for that matter, to base promotional campaigns on scientifically valid research that it commissions.”

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