乐购(Tesco)营销策略分析

The Marketing Strategy of TESCOIntroductionThis paper is to demonstrate the marketing strategy of TESCO based on the observation on its London store which is located at 159-167 Castelnau, London. TESCO has become a successful international brand and a famous national brand across UK due to its effective supply chain management and marketing strategy. Therefore, the study on its marketing strategy has significances. Along with the increasing competition in the industry, retail grocery stores are required to differentiate themselves from competitors and obtain competitive advantage using effective positioning strategy and segmentation strategy, which are also the success factors of TESCO (Humby, et al, 2006). Theoretically, convenient chain store’s marketing model has five key elements, namely investment selection, location selection, layer selection, strategy and tactics selection. This paper would discuss the location selection, pricing strategy, product mix strategy, and promotion strategy of the selected store. It is found that effective marketing strategy contributes significantly to the success of TESCO not only in UK, but also across the world. The operation of the store is also effective.The location of the store shows that it has a clear site selection strategy. Castelnau has convenient transportation. This makes the store to be approached easily by customers. There have some direct competitors at this location. However, there are also some parks around the location, which contribute to attract enough customers. This leads to the broad business opportunity of the store. In addition, the location is also close to the Castelnau Library and Castelnau Youth Centre, which add attraction to the location. The store has a parking lot for customers. Moreover, there are also some other parking lots near this location. Generally, TESCO targets at domestic consumer. It provides a good environment for people who have been married to spend their time and shopping. Therefore, main target customer group of the store is women who aged between 30 and 45, particularly white collar around south west of London. Our observation shows that the targeting strategy of the store is excellent. The peak hour of the store is around 6:00 pm. Customers who purchase at this store are mainly white collar women. In addition, customers mainly drive their cars to this store for shopping. Thisindicates that transportation is an extremely important factor for the store and confirms that the site selection of the store is excellent. There are two main competitors for TESCO at this location, namely ThaiSmile Supermarket which located at 283-287 King St, Hammersmith, and Londis which located at 63-65 Church Rd, London.Fig 1: Direct competitor for TescoThe overall layout of the store is designed to be rectangular. And it has been divided into several parts which sell different products. Customers could brief know the area their needed products located before they enter the store by seeing the poster outside. This provides convenience for customers. However, considering from marketing theory, this may limit the ability to stimulate customers to purchase more things at this store (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Since customers could easily locate their needed products, and then leave the store, it loses the opportunity to show customers more products and stay at the store longer. It is recommended that the store should design the layout to be U-shape. Under this circumstance, customers are requires to enter the store from one door at the left side and then pay and leave from the other door at the right side. This would enable the store to stimulate consumption.Fig 2: The TESCO storeIn marketing fields, the marketing model is developing rapidly because of the change in marketing concept and the development of information technology. This has been significantly reflected in pricing strategy. Customers could compare the prices at different store easily under the help of information technology. This limits the possibility to obtain high profit margin. However, as a chain store, Tesco has superiority in flexibility, convenience, multi-service, and accuracy information retrospect (Solis, 2011). These competitive advantages have been observed at the Castelnau store. By integrate its advantages and introduce suitable marketing model, TESCO is allowed to obtain moderate profit margin. We observe that the store is more likely to implement a high margin convenience strategy. It is observed that the prices of the products at this store are often a little bit higher than those at similar stores. The store focuses on convenience. This not only has been observed at the site selection, but also observed in its shelf placement. Label and posters are conspicuous. Products which could be classified under the same group, such as fruit, Flower and Plants, and Bakery are placed in the same areas. The arrangement of the products on shelf is observed to follow the similarity of the products. In addition, products which have connections from the same brand (supplier) would be placed on the same shelf. The store also works together with suppliers to implement promotion campaign. They design the posters to show information about discount and put them at the front of the store, so that customers could clearly see what promotion are available.With the development of competition in the market and the needs of the consumers, brand personality has become an emotional tie between consumer and brand if the enterprise must gain customer’s loyalty in the competition. TESCO including the observed store makes great effort to establish its brand personality (Leahy, 2012; Simms, 2007). The store attempts to provide enough product mix for customers. Consequently, the store not only provides daily supplies, but also provides plants and the offering of heat meals. This strategy enables the store to meet the multiple needs of customers. It is also an important element of the effort to provide convenience for customers. In addition, the store also provides a corner for reading and eating. This also helps the store to conduct relationship marketing among its customers. Since the location of the store is a little bit far away from the downtown, the offering of heat meals is extremely important for the store. The store does not have special advertising which is only organized by the store. Since TESCO is a chain store across the world. The head office of the store is mainly responsible for the advertising. It is believed that this should be further improved. It is a need to create its own website. This would not only facilitate the marketing strategy, but also helps the store to provide on-line service. But the store allows customers to use credit card, cash, and band card for shopping. It has adopted POS technology. In addition, for old customers, VIP card has been also provided to customers. Customers could use the card for shopping at the store. This is also a crucial part of the relationship marketing.In general, the operation of the store is effectiveness. It has excellent marketing strategy to support its operation. It has excellent targeting strategy, product mix strategy and good site selection. The location of the store has convenient transportation for customers. However, it is also found that the store also has some disadvantages, which must be improved. If I am the owner of the stop, I would pay more attention to the advertising. A website must be developed to support the advertising. In addition, it is also important to design the layout of the store using barrier-free design. This would support the strategy to provide convenience for customers. Furthermore, such design would also help the store to show carefulness to customers.ReferencesHumby, C; Hunt, T & Phillips, T (2006). Scoring points: How Tesco continues to win customer loyalty. London & Philadelphia: Kogan Page.Leahy, T (2012). Management in 10 Words. London: Random House.Kotler, P & Keller, L. K (2012). Marketing Management. Pearson Education.Simms, A (2007). Tescopoly: How one shop came out on top and why it matters. London: Constable.Solis, B., (2011). Engage!: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.pp.201-202.。