Tesco’s new ad campaign demonstrates a firm commitment to restoring consumer trust
Tesco has had a rocky start to 2013. Will new marketing campaign: Love Every Mouthful and a loyalty scheme rebrand be enough to change its fortunes?
It was the most high-profile retailer to be affected by the horse meat scandal at the start of the year, after horse meat was found in four Tesco products including beefburgers. As a result, trust in the brand and confidence in its products was severely dented.
This has understandably had a negative effect on its UK sales, which slipped into decline in the first quarter, with the retailer reporting a 1 per cent fall in sales for stores open for a year or more in the 13 weeks to May 25.
In a further bid to regain consumer trust and improve perception of the quality of its food offering, this week Tesco unveiled a new marketing campaign: Love Every Mouthful.
The campaign highlights the provenance of its fresh produce and encourages consumers to “celebrate everyday food”. It makes its TV debut on Sunday and will be followed by cinema, outdoor, social media and print advertising.
Filmed on farms and featuring real Tesco staff, this positioning is a new focus for the brand, which in recent times has been concentrating on price – with its price promise – and service.
The retailer also this week announced a rebrand of its Clubcard Rewards and Exchange initiatives, bringing them under one banner – Clubcard Boost –in an effort to make its voucher loyalty scheme easier to understand and to improve redemption.
The supermarket says Clubcard Boost will make it easier for customers to take part online because their vouchers will appear automatically at the checkout, rather than having to pre-select which departments they would like to exchange their vouchers for.
Coming six months after the horse meat scandal that dented trust and sales across the supermarket sector, will these moves be enough to restore faith in the brand?
In recent weeks retail observers have slammed Tesco’s turnaround strategy, calling its marketing “dull and insipid”, but this new long-term positioning might prove a game changer.
Demonstrating a firm commitment to restoring consumer trust in Tesco products and their provenance, these are definitely steps in the right direction.
