Every little helps: TESCO

Jeremy Smith

1st September, 2004

Are you a ‘premium loyal’, a ‘loyal low spender’, a ‘can’t stay away’… or don’t you care? Tesco does, and uses the data collected from your loyalty card to dictate what you buy, when you buy and how much you buy.

‘Why not try spreading it on a muffin?’ I turn round trying to locate the shop steward but I am alone in the aisle. Just above the top shelf of cereals, however, I see the screen of a TV. I stand and watch as the banal nightmare unfolds on the screen in front of me: a 10-second clip of a woman spreading cheese onto a slice of bread is accompanied by a caption reading, ‘it’s great with bread, too’. The first clip is followed by one suggesting an inspirational way to make your own flan (buy a Tesco flan base; fill it with Tesco tinned fruit pieces; add Tesco gelatin).

And so it goes on. And on. Welcome to the world of Tesco TV: 24-hour advertising without the boring programmes in between.

Wherever I push my trolley, another TV glares at me. And depending on which one of seven retail sections I am in, I get a different set of adverts cunningly masked as handy hints, recipe suggestions or make-up tips.

This is Tesco’s latest marketing development, and it looks set to be huge. By the end of this year, it will be ‘available’ at Tesco’s 300 largest stores, which account for 530 million shopping trips each year and 10 million shopping trips per...

 

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