Tesco Marketing Strategy

Tesco is one of the third largest retail industry in the world in terms of profit. Which was found by Jack Cohen in 1919? The first ever Tesco store was opened in Burnt Oak, Edgware, North London, Tesco holds the name of grocery market leader in Hungary, Ireland, Thailand, united kingdoms. They consist of 6500 stores worldwide 460000 employees around the world.

Tesco’s History

In 1929 jack Cohen opened the first ever Tesco store in Burnt Oak, Edgware, North London. The store sold their first ever product which was Tesco tea. Later in 1934, Jack Cohen decided to build a new headquarters and warehouse thus he bought a new plot of land in Angel Road, Edmonton, north London. They were known to be the first ever modern food warehouse in the country and introduced new ideas for stock control. Just after a year, Jack Cohen witnessed a gradual expansion in the business by buying the stores in the expanding London suburbs. They were introduced in the stock exchange with a share price of 25 pence. Later, in 1948 jack decided to venture into self-service after a research visit to North America. The first ever self-store was opened in St Albans, Hertfordshire in 1948. Customers reaction tended to be mixed at first. Between 1955 and 1969 over 500 new stores where purchased and the first supermarket was opened in melon, Essex.

The store had a counter service which sold meats, cheese, and butter which were weighed by sales assistants. Sooner, they also began to sell household goods and clothing in their stores across Uk. One of the tactics which were used by Tesco was the green shield stamps. These stamps can be collected from the checkouts. These stamps can be collected together and used to buy some products which are displayed in the catalogs. in 1973 they opened a new head office in Cheshunt which was called New Tesco House and at the same year, their first petrol station was opened in the major cities in the UK. After four years Green Shield Stamps were phased out and a new initiative price cutting was introduced called ‘checkout at Tesco. The founder of the Tesco Jack Cohen was passed away in 1979. Computerized checkouts where introduced for the first time in Tesco. Tesco also took part in charity works. They raised a huge amount of two million pounds in 1989 for great Ormond street hospital by the staffs who were working in Tesco. They were providing computers for schools and raised an amount of 185 pounds million worth of equipment for schools around in the UK. Tesco’s one of the first metro store was opened in Covent Garden which was 10000 sq ft in size and offered products tailored to the local market which mainly focused on lunchtime snacks. Sooner in 1994, the first two Tesco express stores where established in London within a short period of space 18 more were opened. Just after a year, Tesco launched another tactic which was club card by the launching of club card they were able to attract over 5 million customers in the very first year, after the successful introduction of club card they were able to overtake Sainsbury’s in the market share.

In 1996 they started 24 hours trading to help their customers to buy things whenever they wanted to. In the same year, they also entered Slovak market through the acquisition of department stores seven K-mart. To do something different, they started personal finance. The new savings account exceeded all the expectations and over 300000 applications were received. By the year 1997 Tesco entered in Poland and Ireland. And just after a year they also entered in Thailand operating under the Tesco Lotus brand. In 1999 Tesco began to sell mobile phones and sooner they became the largest retailer of pre-paid mobile phones. Tesco biggest breakthrough happened when they decided to launch their online service known as tesco.com in the year 2000, they served over 500000 customers each week. They entered the Turkish market in 2003 through the acquisition of five kiap store also the same year they made their remarkable entry to Japan. World first ever zero carbon supermarket was launched by Tesco in Cambridgeshire. In the year 2011, Philip Clarke took over as group CEO. Tesco was successful in many other fields too such banking, charity etc, by the year 2016 Tesco made a remarkable statement that no food that’s safe for human consumption will go to waste from UK stores. They were also known to be the first ever retailer to offer the same day grocery nationwide. and by the year 2017 Tesco bank celebrates their 20 years of serving Tesco shoppers. They have established the full range of retail banking products and they have witnessed powerful growth in the traditional banking markets, which included mortgages and current accounts and as well as innovating in the payment sector.

We can look more to know more about Tesco through the PESTEL analysis. This will help to specify how Political, Legal, Economic, Social and Technological relevant issues affecting the Tesco

Political Factors

As Tesco has an operation at worldwide. It is highly influenced by global political factors. Tesco helps the countries by giving the job opportunity to people of that country. As Tesco has more than 46000 employees they give a significant support to many countries for economic growth. The ongoing and the current political issues will also affect the Tesco. Issues like new policies in employment and the economy

Economic Factors

An economic factor which affects Tesco is mainly the change of rules in each country. As Tesco is worldwide retailer the sudden changes of the economy in each country may affect the Tesco. Mainly the changes like taxation etc. the Economical factor is also the most important factor in the retail industry. This is because of the cost, demand, prices, and profits

Social Factors

As the consumers taste changes or when the trend changes Tesco must change the products very fast or else the sale becomes less. Also, the customers make a new option for the purchase instead of Tesco. So as Tesco has the idea of the market. They started selling more variety of stuff. They sell non-food items also. Now Tesco started selling the organic food also. Now most of them have started bulk purchases this is because the Tesco increased the quality of products and started giving the products for fair prices. Also, there is a reason for this bulk purchase that is mainly the female members also started earning money so as the income increased the family they started spending more on leading a good life.

Technological Factors

The new technology has made more major changes for Tesco. The new technology helps both the company and the consumers. They started online shopping and the self-checkout points which helps the customers. This also helped in the time also reduce the employees. The online shopping made a large sale for the Tesco

Environmental Factors

Now a day the retailers face many problems on the environmental factors mainly for the food retailers and a decisive area for retail industries to be responsible socially and environmentally. as Graiser and Scott (2004) pointed out that in 2003 the government has intended to launch a new strategy for sustainable consumption and production to decrease the waste and consumption of resources and reduces the environmental damages.

Legal Factors

New policies in each country affect the Tesco. Like the product safety, rights for the customers, the maximum cost etc. The employment law.

Tesco’s Marketing Strategy

Tesco aim to increase their sales through Advertising, Clubcard, free gifts etc. these promotions make an excellent role in the marketing strategy of Tesco. The Clubcard members earn points on each £1 they spend in the Tesco. The customers can purchase with that points later. This is a good idea to increase sales. Tesco also put some products for sale, so that, customers can get the product at a fair rate. In this way, the customers are also happy plus Tesco can sell their stock as well (Dudovskiy, 2018).

Social Media Marketing

Online platforms and social media is the best way to make serious interaction with the consumer. It’s also the way to give product description to the consumers. One of the main benefits of this marketing is the company can reduce the cost of the advertisement. Cost for social media marketing is very less while comparing with other advertisement ways (Kozinets, 2018). For the Tesco, as daily consuming product seller company wants to be touch in with customers. Tesco also does advertisement through the radio, local newspaper, TV etc. They show the discount advertisement more so that the public get more interested at Tesco

As a well-structured retail industry with enough capital, Tesco can expand their branches and other facilities or services in the rural areas. As Company can providing products on low prices might help to achieve break-even point in limited time. Also, Tesco has trusted customer over the nation and the goodwill. These all factors are an opportunity to increase the market share. Tesco holding good market share in the market of the United Kingdom. It is the main strength of the company as well. It might enable the company to develop in different ways. As a large-retail industry, Company can continue their development programs. Another thing is Tesco has enough trusted customers over the country and goodwill as well. It shows the chance to be a success in future in the different industry. As a well-structured retail industry with enough capital, Tesco can expand their branches and other facilities or services in the rural areas (Powers, 2018). As Company can providing products on low prices might help to achieve break-even point in limited time. Also, Tesco has trusted customer over the nation and the goodwill. These all factors are an opportunity to increase the market share. When we look to the last few years Tesco has increased 78% profit in Europe, Asia. Tesco has also made a major growth by the sale of non-food items.