Tesco Data Gathering Strategy
There are ways to stride in competition but the best part of gaining competitive advantage and consistent market leadership especially in retail industry is to learn to know your customers, to learn what motivates them and even to anticipate their next buy. The use of ordinary feedback form is just the beginning. Tesco is one of the largest retailing company in the UK whose competitive advantage is at par with the rest of its competitor to which they are able to acquire due to effective use of customer data. Tesco started their initiative in learning about their customers through the introduction of the Tesco ClubCard, the company’s loyalty card (TotalCustomer)which user can also use to buy products at Tesco. Tesco took such program in order for them to meet consumer demand faster and more accurately which other loyalty cards could not since most of them are merely points cards.
Tesco gathers customers’ data discretely through the loyalty cards although they also applies the traditional market research or survey (Nice.com) method there are also other ways to capture customer information without their knowledge such as through credit card purchases. (Ferguson) They also use commissioned reports from market research agencies. For the loyalty cards Tesco keeps customer demographics from the time they signed up therefore had already owned their birthdays, age and genders and some basic personal data they can use for promotion. As customers uses their loyalty cards during purchase they are actually giving out their habits to Tesco including what they buy most and how much they can spend. Moreover, Tesco can also capture information from institutional statistics as well as public sources including industry reports. While traditional survey and feedback forms provides simple collection method, loyalty card and credit card being supplemental yet effective collection agent, Tesco also employs high technologies for gathering information about the habits, behavior and preferences of customers as well as online and social media channels.
Tesco Assets Leverage
Tesco knows that in order to advance in the competition (Grant) they need to know and anticipated what the customer would likely buy next and geared toward achieving such challenge through data gathering and information analysis for better consumer understanding. One of Tesco’s competitive edge or assets to leverage in the competitive retail industry is their size. They have the advantage of being able to command competition as well as to bargain from suppliers and vendors which they can also use to gain better terms for payment and even reduce middlemen to score great rewards. It also allows them to destroy competition by offering better prices and to be able to exploit all available leadership channels and promotions. Moreover, Tesco also leverage their competitive advantage through their leadership digital innovations. Company with leadership command such as Tesco is not afraid to thrive into other realms of competition as well as the support of the industry including the government who also depend on the company’s growth and industry participation. Vendors and suppliers also adds to Tesco’s assets because they are often vested with better products including exclusive products that uses the company as test beds. Moreover, Tesco can offer their customers products that are targeted according to their preferences to which the company was able to determine through historical data from the ClubCard and these offerings are not even funded by Tesco but more importantly through the efforts of their suppliers in exchange for mileage and instant customers. More than even, Tesco was able to leverage on their ability to solicit detailed, in-depth and vast customer information to which they can translate into sales and competitive solutions that keeps them in the lead for more than 20 years and counting. (Thomson and Creevy)
There are ways to stride in competition but the best part of gaining competitive advantage and consistent market leadership especially in retail industry is to learn to know your customers, to learn what motivates them and even to anticipate their next buy. The use of ordinary feedback form is just the beginning. Tesco is one of the largest retailing company in the UK whose competitive advantage is at par with the rest of its competitor to which they are able to acquire due to effective use of customer data. Tesco started their initiative in learning about their customers through the introduction of the Tesco ClubCard, the company’s loyalty card (TotalCustomer)which user can also use to buy products at Tesco. Tesco took such program in order for them to meet consumer demand faster and more accurately which other loyalty cards could not since most of them are merely points cards.
Tesco gathers customers’ data discretely through the loyalty cards although they also applies the traditional market research or survey (Nice.com) method there are also other ways to capture customer information without their knowledge such as through credit card purchases. (Ferguson) They also use commissioned reports from market research agencies. For the loyalty cards Tesco keeps customer demographics from the time they signed up therefore had already owned their birthdays, age and genders and some basic personal data they can use for promotion. As customers uses their loyalty cards during purchase they are actually giving out their habits to Tesco including what they buy most and how much they can spend. Moreover, Tesco can also capture information from institutional statistics as well as public sources including industry reports. While traditional survey and feedback forms provides simple collection method, loyalty card and credit card being supplemental yet effective collection agent, Tesco also employs high technologies for gathering information about the habits, behavior and preferences of customers as well as online and social media channels.
Tesco Assets Leverage
Tesco knows that in order to advance in the competition (Grant) they need to know and anticipated what the customer would likely buy next and geared toward achieving such challenge through data gathering and information analysis for better consumer understanding. One of Tesco’s competitive edge or assets to leverage in the competitive retail industry is their size. They have the advantage of being able to command competition as well as to bargain from suppliers and vendors which they can also use to gain better terms for payment and even reduce middlemen to score great rewards. It also allows them to destroy competition by offering better prices and to be able to exploit all available leadership channels and promotions. Moreover, Tesco also leverage their competitive advantage through their leadership digital innovations. Company with leadership command such as Tesco is not afraid to thrive into other realms of competition as well as the support of the industry including the government who also depend on the company’s growth and industry participation. Vendors and suppliers also adds to Tesco’s assets because they are often vested with better products including exclusive products that uses the company as test beds. Moreover, Tesco can offer their customers products that are targeted according to their preferences to which the company was able to determine through historical data from the ClubCard and these offerings are not even funded by Tesco but more importantly through the efforts of their suppliers in exchange for mileage and instant customers. More than even, Tesco was able to leverage on their ability to solicit detailed, in-depth and vast customer information to which they can translate into sales and competitive solutions that keeps them in the lead for more than 20 years and counting. (Thomson and Creevy)