Tesco marketing: unclear, irrelevant and not very successful
Tesco began in 1919 with one man, Jack Cohen, a market stallholder selling groceries in London. TESCO was formed out of a merger with T.E. Stockwell from whom he purchased tea for sale on the stall. The first store opened in 1929. Since then, Tesco has expanded across the world. It now has over 2,200 stores including hypermarkets and Tesco Express outlets to meet different customer needs. As a conglomerate Tesco also offers alternative goods and services such as insurance, banking and online shopping. With net profits of around £3.4 billion worldwide Tesco has become the largest British retailer and one of the world’s leading retail outlets on three continents. Tesco’s growth has resulted in a worldwide workforce of over 468,000 employees. However, the last years were not such a success for the Retailer giant. Recently, Tesco's UK profits fall for first time in two decades.
Tesco's CEO Philip Clarke announced £1bn makeover and admited supermarket has taken 'a little bit too much away from the shopper'. Tesco has pledged to make its marketing "better, clearer and more relevant" as part of a turnaround strategy to reverse recent fortunes, but in the absence of any details all that the supermarket has proved is that over the past year its marketing has been unclear, irrelevant and not very successful.
Clarke the group CEO was cagey on the future of the Big Price Drop, introduced in September 2011, refusing to be drawn on whether it would continue to play a part in Tesco’s marketing and promotional strategy or whether it would be abandoned. There will be little surprise, however, if it is jettisoned in favour of a more holistic, brand-led approach designed to engender more trust in the brand’s overall values. Sainsbury’s has done well in recent months to promote both its values and a price message within the framework of its "Live Well for Less" brand proposition. Another of Clarke’s pledges is to return Clubcard developer Dunnhumby to the heart of the business. This is a worrying admission that Tesco ever relegated the insight and data gleaned from its Clubcard program from the core of its marketing and decision making. The fact that Tesco has been under using its Clubcard data, not just in terms of the loyalty programme, but in terms of decision making and strategic planning, goes some way to explain why its marketing became unclear, irrelevant and unappealing to shoppers.
Clarke in his preliminary results speech, outlined plans to better use the insights to create a more personal and localised business, more closely aligned to the kind of shoppers in the local area. By better tailoring products and promotions in stores to the local shoppers, Tesco will go some way to shifting the perception that it is a giant faceless corporation. The same can be said for the investment in more staff, "warmer" stores and better service that will go a long way to giving Tesco back some of the soul and human connection that it has lost in its relentless quest for growth and more stores. In fact, Tesco considers that the business depends on two groups of people: customers and staff. It appreciates that staff are unique and have diverse lifestyles outside of work. Tesco has discovered that it is important to create trust and respect among its various publics. It has found that by valuing employees, providing realistic goals and an interesting environment for them to work in, it increases employees’ motivation that has a direct impact upon performance. An indeed warm and caring business environment that a customer is looking for during his purchases endeavour. Most pragmatically, customers visit a retailing outlet primarily to buy what they desire in "optimal prices" and hence to spend some of their leisure time. In this sense, I would appreciate to enjoy my stay as much as possible. I want to have as much good time as possible during my stay at a retailer. I truly do not want to rush my "shopping therapy". This is all basic, generic to my marketing, business philosophy. We need to take good care, love both our employees and the customers. Happy and satisfied Human Resources essentially mean Happy and satisfied customers.
No comments:
Post a Comment