U-turn for Tesco’s after poor Christmas sales
Last year Tesco announced their ‘Big Price Drop’ to much fanfare. However after being beaten by the likes of Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s over the Christmas period and having £5billion knocked off their market share the supermarket giant has decided to revert back to their voucher system.
It was clear to many that their price drop scheme would be a failure after many news publications printed at the time all Tesco had done in the weeks preceding the price drop was to increase prices, so that when they dropped prices customers weren’t really saving any money. A dirty tactic which backfired on the supermarket chain, when shoppers realised what had been done, they then left in droves, taking their customer to Tesco’s main rivals.
Their new national print campaign offers customers a £5-off voucher when they spend more than £40 on a shop, features the strapline; “a helping hand from Tesco” and is backed up by the statement, “It’s just our way of saying ‘thanks’”.
It does seem like Tesco is tempting customers back with the vouchers, however what people really want is the truth from supermarkets. Chief executive Philip Clark admitted that the supermarket was wrong to switch its strategy away from voucher activity over the Christmas period.
Tesco’s rivals Sainsbury’s saw a record-breaking Christmas on the back of its Brand Match strategy, where customers saw prices matched of brands sold by Tesco and Asda via vouchers provided at the till.
The Tesco offer has been running this week, however there isn’t any indication on how long it will last for, but it is also available to customers shopping online as well.