Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Marketing - Essay ExampleThe companys gross turnover for the 2008/2009 full year was describe in February 2009 as ?59.4 billion. The retailer has over 4308 stores in 14 countries worldwide, over half a million employees and it was estimated in 2007 that over ?1 out of any ?7 of UK retail stores was spent in Tesco (Dennis and Perrey, 2011, p.52). Tesco PLC Established by Jack Cohen in London in 1919, it began as a stall in eastern hemisphere London before gradually growing to include markets all over London. Cohen thereafter began wholesale trade and within five years, the first Tesco brand appeared, and, in 1929, the first Tesco store was opened. The key to Tescos growth over in the XX century lies in its change of image and strategy. Aaker and McLoughlin (2010, p.127) document that from the onset, Cohens come along was to sell it cheap a strategy that had caused the company to overstretch itself thereby having dwindling profitability. Prior to 2006, Tesco had faced a number of c hallenges such as natural depression food price inflation, increasing difficulty in getting permission especially for the large Greenfields sites, three strong competitors Sainsbury, Safeway and Asda, being in number 2 market position and the arrival of two new store formattings the assortment stores and the warehouse clubs. Nonetheless, the store used a number of strategies and a govern of mod schemes to develop its brand name and grow to become a leading supermarket chain by 2006 (Aaker and McLoughlin, 2010, p.52). Retail theory Tescos retail format layabout be analyzed through the Retail Accordion Theory which recognizes the wide-narrow-wide pattern of the dominant retailing which forms the market (Baker and Saren, 2000, p.356). Tesco has continuously changed its strategy and image with the first study feat being able to appeal to all segments of the market, the lower, the middle and the upper classes. The inclusive offer strategy was based on the vision of selling high-qu ality products at reasonable price, a vision that was achieved by offering four different levels of its products. There were the finest range of premium products introduced in 1998, followed by the Tesco Organic rage introduced in 2006 and the Tesco Healthy Living range and, finally, the Value range to attract the price conscious customers was rolled out in 2008 and 2009. This focus on customers service lies in the companys belief in continuously improving the standard of services provided and responding to customers needs (Fernie and Sparks 2009, p.49). The retail format Tescos retail format is interesting having six different store formats differentiated by the range of products sold and their size, but all branded as variants of the Tesco Umbrellas (Baker and Saren, 2000, p.356). The six formats include the Tesco Extra or the Hypermarkets, Tesco Superstores or the large supermarkets and Tesco Express or the convenience stores, Tesco Home plus, Tesco Metro and Tesco One Stop. Evid ently, Tescos retail outlets range from small local stores often attached to petrol stations to one stop stores with an average of 1,300 square feet providing customers with essential products on a 23/7 basis to the extra stores which are 70 times bigger and cover all the major consumer goods including furniture and entertainment, foods,