Tesco will launch its most extensive price-focused TV advertising campaign for more than 10 years tonight [Saturday].
The £4m campaign represents a departure from Tesco’s recent green-focused marketing and promotional activities from recent campaigns, as the UK’s number one supermarket chain reverts to claiming it’s cheaper than its rivals.
Actor Bob Hoskins will provide the voiceover for a campaign that highlights Tesco's online price check, which allows consumers to compare the prices of 10,000 products from the ‘big four’ grocery chains every week.
In the last year, Tesco said price check showed it to be on average one to two per cent cheaper than Asda, about four per cent cheaper than Morrisons and about seven per cent cheaper than Sainsbury's.
The TV adverts will boast how many products of the 10,000 surveyed are cheaper at Tesco.
Just three months ago, Tesco ceo Sir Terry Leahy said the long-term trend of households spending less on food had come to a halt.
But it appears his board may have turned a deaf ear. Commercial director Richard Brasher said household budgets have become more strained this year: "I could see price coming up the agenda last year, even though the talk was all about quality," he claimed this week.
He added that the signs are now pointing towards shoppers wanting cheaper prices on premium ranges and once again starting to buy cheaper products, such as Tesco's Value range of basic items. "Lines that have been quiet are now starting to step up. The market is quite challenging. I'm not all doom and despondency, but it is a competitive market where consumers are more focused on value-for-money than they were a year ago," Brasher said.
Completing the turnaround from Sir Terry’s April comments, Brasher went as far as suggesting that Tesco has focused too heavily on more affluent shoppers and green issues: "If you don't make sure you have the basic things right you will be talking at the edge rather than at the centre," he said.
The price focus has been prompted by "what we are hearing from consumers”, he said. "Coming down the road is a tougher time and that is why we are doing this now."
Brasher denied that Tesco's campaign is aimed at Asda. Which has launched its own price-slashing exercise, claiming that Tesco only wants to be "transparent".
