Page 176 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

84 FOCUS ON THE KEY
ISSUE FOR YOUR
CUSTOMER

People judge what we do by their own criteria—not by ours.
Knowing what the critical factors are is a key element in marketing
success—and it isn’t always easy to spot.

Retailers often focus on the virtual price war—the battle to persuade
customers that they are cheaper than anyone else. However, this is
not always the most relevant issue from the customer’s viewpoint—
there are many other factors involved in choosing which retailer to
favor with our business.

The idea

Tesco supermarkets have many good ideas for gaining a competitive
edge. Price is only one of the elements in their approach—like all
the other major grocery retailers, they have to keep their prices keen,
but this does not in itself provide a competitive advantage.

One of the elements that customers find important in supermarkets
is the length of time spent queuing. Queuing up to pay for goods is
frustrating because the customer wants to take actual possession of
the shopping—not to mention move on to the next of the day’s tasks.

Tesco guarantee that they will open more checkouts if there is more
than one person ahead of you in the queue, until such time as all the
checkouts are open. The system is monitored at Tesco headquarters:
every 15 minutes, every till in the country freezes until the checkout
operator enters the number of people in his or her queue. If there are

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