Consistency is name of the game for Tesco

The furore over the launch of its so-called “fake farm” brands doesn’t appear to have bothered customers, who not only crowned Tesco Britain’s Favourite supermarket for the third year in a row but voted for it ahead of supermarket rivals Sainsbury’s and Waitrose as the best supermarket for food provenance.

The launch of Farm Brands helped Tesco leap from fourth place to first to overtake last year’s leader Sainsbury’s and runner-up Waitrose in the good food provenance category, although Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen, also said Tesco had “communicated more in this space” about its commitment to UK suppliers.

Britain’s Favourite Supermarket is the only award directly decided by consumers. It was conducted for The Grocer by Nielsen, which asked 7,041 shoppers - drawn from statistically weighted households - to rate the 10 leading supermarkets based on 10 key attributes, and then weighted the results based on the importance shoppers attached to them.

Tesco didn’t have it all its own way. The leading attribute was price, and once again Aldi came top, with Lidl second, overtaking Asda in the category. Aldi was also seen as the most improved supermarket in the past 12 months, by 20% of shoppers, with Lidl second on 14%, nudging out Walmart’s Asda. And the way in which Aldi and Lidl engage with shoppers through their marketing and comms is “also being recognised by their customers,” Watkins noted, with two out of three shoppers (64%) now shop at these retailers every 12 weeks, versus 76% shopping at Tesco.

With Marks & Spencer once again considered best for quality - the second most important attribute - Tesco owed its success to its consistency. It was top in no fewer than seven of the 10 attributes used to decide the award, including wide choice of products, best promotions and offers, good customer service, and providing convenient ways to shop.

Tesco was also perceived to have the best food product availability, ahead of Sainsbury’s and Asda. A new category for 2017, availability was the third most important criteria for shoppers and Watkins believes there are lessons to be learned.

“Retailers arguably should rely less on promotions and more on offering the right range and having it in stock. This will complement strategies that seek to differentiate or to be distinctive.”

Tesco’s consistency is further evidence that Tesco has regained the confidence of UK shoppers, adds Watkins, following a disastrous performance over recent years that culminated in the 2014 accounting scandal, with a number of other initiatives launched by Tesco landing successfully.

“This is another example of the Tesco turnaround in action. Farm brands was part of it but there is a lot more to it than that. Two out of three shoppers shop at Tesco once every four weeks and they are seeing a whole series of improvements across service, availability and good food provenance. It’s interesting they are still seen as having a wide range of products on offer despite Project Reset.

“Tesco is a big player in convenience, it has lot of big stores, it’s a big player in multichannel and it is connecting with shoppers across many of the key areas they are looking for.”

Co-op overtook Sainsbury’s to come top for good food ethics.

“Tesco shoppers are seeing a whole series of improvements”