Save our Sheringham - Say NO to Tesco

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Customer loyalty falls at Tesco.

An analysis of consumer brand loyalty for the top 10 grocery stores in the UK, carried out by brand market research consultancy Millward Brown last month, shows that while measures of customer loyalty have dropped significantly for supergiant Tesco (down to no 6 from its no 1 position in 2004), Waitrose is the store that consumers have most loyalty to, followed by M&S and Sainsbury's. Aldi and Lidl also score higher than Tesco and Asda in the customer loyalty ranking for the first time.
Its measures of customer loyalty (the Voltage Measure, which also is a good indication of likelihood of the brand to grow) has dropped significantly since its top position in 2004 to just +0.5 (o is average score) and now ranks 6th. Waitrose has a score of 6.9 followed by M&S at 4.8 and Sainsbury's at 3.4.
According to Peter Walshe, global brand director at Millward Brown who manages the BrandZ study, “Waitrose is maintaining a unique identity that appeals to consumers, while M&S is recovering strongly and Sainbury's is getting its confidence back. The huge decline in customer loyalty for Tesco, at a faster rate than any other British grocery store, is an indication that many consumers are acting on a growing desire to buy quality products whatever the price. Sales of Tesco are doing well despite dropping customer loyalty”, concluded Walshe. “They are still the most popular British supermarket. British consumers like to grumble but often act differently: convenience and location play a big part in their decision to continue to shop at Tesco.”