In today's global marketplace, it is common to expand the
marketing footprint of successful consumer products from one
geographic market to multiple. In doing so, it is tempting to
leverage economies of scale regarding the substantiation for any
advertising claims associated with the consumer product.
However, when moving a successful international product into the
United States market, special care should be taken to ensure that
the substantiation relied upon is relevant to U.S. consumers, as
the recent NAD decision in GTech instructs.
GTech manufactures and markets the AirRAM cordless vacuum
cleaner. The AirRAM is a very popular vacuum cleaner in the
U.K. which touts performance that is equal to that of a corded
upright vacuum cleaner. GTech sought similar success in the
U.S., recently introducing its AirRAM vacuum into the U.S.
market. However, GTech's marketing claims were challenged
within the U.S. by Dyson at the NAD.
