Tesco revamps Finest range to ‘put food back at the heart of the business’

Tesco is relaunching its Finest range to ‘put food back at the heart of the business’ as it tries to improve quality perceptions and boost customer engagement with its food.

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The supermarket has spent tens of millions of pounds revamping both the products and packaging in its premium food range with the aim of highlighting the passion and care it puts into its food.

Speaking at an event in London to unveil the range, Leonie Foster, Tesco’s brand marketing director, said the old packaging, while being distinctive, was tired and outdated. The new packaging is meant to show the individuality and personality of every product, showcasing the stories behind every item.

She told Marketing Week that this feeds into a wider philosophy at Tesco that, along with the “love every mouthful” campaign, aims to boost customer engagement with Tesco’s products.

“We want to put food back at the heart of the business and showcase the stories, passion and people behind the range both on the packaging and in our communications. Shopping accounts for just an eighth of the time people spend with food. If we focus just on that experience we miss the point. We want people engaging with our food, understanding where it comes from and how to use it,” she said.

To back this up, Tesco is launching an advertising blitz that will showcase that Finest is “real food made by real people with real passion”. It will appear on TV, in print and in store, as well as on social media, where the supermarket is aiming to use content marketing to engage with shoppers. This will include expert Q&A, recipe ideas and further information on products such as its origins. Some products will also have QR codes that customers can scan to get more information.

It is also supported by sponsorship of the current series of Downton Abbey, which it will use to showcase more of its new range once the marketing campaign kicks off next week. In total, more than 400 new products will be added to the range, while three-quarters of the 1,500 on offer will be either new or improved.

Tesco is already selling revamped versions of some products, including yoghurt and flowers, which went on sale two weeks ago. It claims that since then sales of fresh flowers have increased by 20 per cent.

The revamp is key to Tesco as it looks to boost quality perceptions of its food following incidents such as the horse meat scandal. The supermarket says it is already making some steps, claiming that customers have “responded positively” to its marketing campaigns, particularly the “love every mouthful” activity launched in July.

Figures from YouGov’s BrandIndex tally with Tesco’s claims. Over the past six months, consumer perceptions of quality at Tesco are up 5.9 points to 16.2, helping to move it up from eighth to fifth position in a list of 25 UK supermarkets. Meanwhile, rivals including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have all seen their quality perceptions fall.

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