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Tesco - Strategic Marketing Techqniques

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Tesco's is a United Kingdom based international supermarket chain. It is the largest British retailer both by global sales and by domestic market share. Originally specialising in food, it has moved into areas such as clothes consumer electronics, consumer financial services internet services and consumer telecoms.

The Current Position
In 1995 Tesco overtook Sainsbury's as the UK's largest supermarket. In 2001 Tesco occupied 15.6% of the UK grocery retail market and was the market leader by 6%. Tesco's enormous share still grew and by September 2004, it had increased to a massive 28%, around 12% more than its nearest market rival, Asda. In the year ended 26 February 2005 Tesco made a pre-tax profit of £1.962 billon on turnover of …show more content…

The populations in Buckingham, Bicester and Brackley can now choose from 'Tesco, Tesco or Tesco' as a result of the chain's recent acquisition of the One Stop chain of convenience stores.
At the end of 2003, Tesco was voted most admired company and its chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy was voted most admired leader by Management Today. The most impressive aspect of Tesco's triumph was the 'margin of victory' in both categories. Tesco also came top in other categories, 'Quality of Management', 'Quality of Goods & Services', 'Ability to Attract, Develop & Maintain Top Talent', 'Value as a Long-Term Investment', 'Quality of Marketing' and 'Use of Corporate Assets'. Only in the rankings for 'Community and Environmental Responsibility' did it fall outside the top 10.

Corporate Strategy

Tesco's growth over the last two or three decades has involved a transformation of its strategy and image. Its initial success was based on the "Pile it High, Sell it Cheap" approach which was implemented by the founder. The disadvantage of this was that the stores had a poor image with middle class customers. In the late 1970's Tesco's brand image was so negative that consultants advised the company to change the name of its stores. It did not accept this advice but decided to formulate a market strategy plan involving various marketing techniques in order to understand the environment, market, customer and products

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