Tesco value perception falls dramatically

Its “value” rating has fallen 12 points in a year to 28, while at the same time its rivals have retained broadly flat scores.

The fall in Tesco’s Value score has also hit its overall brand perception and its Brand Index Score, which measures how customers rate the brand in terms of impression, quality, value, reputation, satisfaction and whether they would recommend it, has suffered the biggest fall of the Big Four supermarkets in the past 12 months.

Tesco’s overall Brand Index score has dropped 10 points from 32.9 a year ago (18 December 2010) to 22.9 today (20 December). The drop means Tesco has slipped from second into third place in terms of overall Brand Index score.

Meanwhile, its rivals Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury’s have seen their Index scores fall far less. Morrisons has seen the strongest performance in the Brand Index measure over the last 12 months, overtaking Tesco to the second highest overall rating.

Tesco’s scores across all the Brand Index measures – reputation, recommendation, value, quality and satisfaction have all dropped significantly farther than the rest of the sector, as has its Buzz score, which measures a balance of positive and negative things consumers have heard about the brand.

All four of the major supermarkets have seen their Buzz rating fall compared to a year ago, but Tesco has fared worst falling to 2.5 down from 16.5 a year ago, despite the high profile ad campaign around its Price Drop and additional Christmas promotional activity.

In the past 12 months all four major supermarkets have followed aggressive marketing and pricing tactics in a bid to increase their share of shoppers spend and attract more shoppers through the door.

Sainsbury’s has overhauled its branding with the introduction of its Live Well for Less strapline and promised to match Tesco’s prices on brands, while Morrisons has invested £100m in price promotions in the run up to Christmas on top of an overhaul of its own label ranges.

Asda has continued to invest in its pledge to beat competitor prices by 10% and always offer the cheapest price while Tesco has promised £500m worth of price cuts as part of its Big Price Drop initiative.

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