Tesco sees perceptions plummet following Tesco Bank hack
Tesco’s brand reputation has been negatively affected after Tesco Bank was targeted by hackers last weekend, which saw cash stolen from 9,000 current account holders.
Tesco and Tesco Bank’s brand perceptions have both been negatively impacted following a cyber attack that affected 9,000 of Tesco Bank’s customers.
Tesco Bank halted all online transactions for its 140,000 current account customers on Monday after it discovered 9,000 customers had been targeted by the online attack and had money taken from their accounts. The brand has since resumed its service and refunded the customers affected, with the total cost estimated to be £2.5m.
Tesco Bank’s YouGov BrandIndex score, which measures the public’s perception of the brand on a daily basis across a range of measures, including value, impression and satisfaction, saw a statistically significant decline. It dropped 13.6 points to -12.8 over the last seven days, placing it last on a list of 31 high street banks.
It also saw a statistically significant decline when it comes to buzz, which measures whether people have heard anything positive or negative about a brand, dropping 41.2 points to -41.8 over the same period.
The bank’s reputation also took a hit, dropping 10.7 points to -13.8. Other areas that have seen a statistically significant decline are quality, impression, value and recommend.
Tesco has not been left unaffected by the scandal either. In terms of brand buzz, Tesco is now placed last on a list of 26 supermarkets, dropping 3.1 points to -5 over the past week. Meanwhile, its reputation dropped 3.7 points over the same period, leading it to drop five places in the ranking.
Tesco Bank is not the only brand that has been targeted by cybercrime recently. Last year, TalkTalk was attacked by hackers who claimed to have stolen private customer data, including bank details. At the time of the incident, the brand said it was pausing its brand marketing to prioritise informing its customers and reassuring them.
In July last year, Ashley Madison, a dating website for people who are seeking an affair, had its database hacked and the details of around 33 million people released.
