Guidelines aim to avert Korea King ad redux
Guidelines to restore consumer confidence
The TV Home Shopping Association Thailand has set business guidelines for the industry to prevent repeats of the Korea King case, which involved exaggerated advertising claims and overpriced products. “We want to ensure consumers that our TV home shopping operator members run their businesses ethically. We don’t want to see any scandals like what happened with Korea King frying pan from repeating in the future,” said Songpol Shanmatkit, the association’s chairman. The guidelines are intended to restore consumer confidence. Apart from the right for consumers to be treated fairly, the association aims to raise the business standards and ethics of TV home shopping operators. The association said it will work hard to provide information about the benefits of TV home shopping in both private and public organisations. The association will also build a strategic network with public organisations to strengthen their relationships with consumers and other TV home shopping operators. The association will also act as a centre of information about TV home shopping and give advice to member operators, while holding seminars and workshops to provide the correct information about home shopping. “Actually, consumers have basic rights related to return policy, quality guarantees, product liability, after-sales service, and rules and regulations. They are wellprotected under the consumer protection law but our guidelines will give them more confidence,” said Mr Songpol. The chairman is optimistic that the guidelines will improve the TV home shopping industry as the association also created a 30-second TV commercial called “The Symbol of Trust” to restore consumer confidence after the Korea King incident. Questions about Korea Kings pans and ad claims went viral on social media, forcing the Consumer Protection Board to ask broadcasters to pull its ads from the air. The association agreed to promote the Symbol of Trust logo during the sales programmes of member operators to reassure consumers. Its six TV home shopping members are True GS Co’s True Shopping, Shop Global Thailand’s Shop Channel, O Shopping by GMM CJO Shopping Co, TVD Momo by TVD Shopping Co, High Shopping by High Shopping Co and TV Direct by TV Direct Plc. They hope to set guidelines for the TV home shopping business in Thailand to match international standards. “Programmes on each TV home shopping channel are different, but all the content clearly contains information, product details, prices, promotions, premiums, contact information and product warranty,” said Mr Songpol.