Tesco & Aldi Advertising

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Tesco are proudly advertising that Aldi is better than them at reducing prices.

Aldi advertises being cheaper than Tesco, but not on a like for like basis i.e. brand for the equivalent brand (why not on own brand?) and get away with it.

Can anyone else see flaws in their marketing (regardless of whether it works)?

 

[MBE2017]

I think it works for Aldi, not Tesco’s so much. Obviously Tesco’s are trying to stem the numbers shopping elsewhere, Aldi concentrates on offering very good value and keeps winning customers.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

You're probably right, but if you are going to fight on price, tell people where you are better, not the same!!!

 

[MBE2017]

Many Aldi customers I know believe them to offer better quality and value than Tesco’s. I used to shop at Aldi a lot, but with covid I have moved over to Morrison’s, Waitrose and Iceland for home deliveries.

 

[MikeJ]

If I was Tesco or Sainsbury, I'd start focussing on the difference in quality. Find where the Aldi/Lidl stuff is worse, and demonstrate it. Most people are happy to pay more if they know why stuff is more expensive.

 

[fisicx]

Can’t get into our local Sainsbury’s, road is still blocked with people queuing for petrol.

That being said, I know Sainsbury’s is really pushing online shopping. You often see more staff doing shopping than you do customers.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

That being said, I know Sainsbury’s is really pushing online shopping. You often see more staff doing shopping than you do customers.

Unlike our local Sainsbury. They can't get the drivers for deliveries. There are 3 or 4 vans parked up permanently.

It is well known locally that Sainsbury pay the worst followed by Tesco. Lidl have no staff problems because they pay better.

 

[DavidWH]

I like Aldi, none of the shite, just in get what food I need, and out. The wife isn't looking at clothes, books, and other crap we didn't actually go in for.

There's no luring yellow tags promising savings, it's just what you see if what you get.

I love it... until I get the till. I cannot stand the disorganised chaos, there's no que for each till, it's just a mass gathering and fight for the next space. "Do you want to move to till 4 please?" Well no I don't as there's nobody serving, and by the time they arrive I'll have been served where I am.

It riles me so much, I sit in the car, or have to endure the torture of wanting to windmill through the store.

I'm now an ASDA convert, I order it online, and I drive 2minutes down the road, and a nice lady wheels it out, and I throw it in the car I've minimised human interaction and it suits me fine

 

[The Byre]

We have a verb in German - aldifizieren. It means to 'Aldify' and refers to a market structure. To Aldify the market.

The UK retail market is being Aldified by Aldi and Lidl. It means to reduce prices by reducing all possible costs, including debt and dependency on outside influences such as shareholders.

The UK and the US retail markets have always had a huge soft underbelly of higher margins and high debt levels and severe inefficiency. Too many staff arranging stuff on shelves, goods handled too often, suppliers reluctant to supply because of late payment and having to often supply and stack shelves themselves, sale-and-lease-back arrangements for land and buildings, absurdly wide choice of different brands and often from the same company.

But being publically listed companies is their biggest disadvantage. They have to answer to major institutional investors, not all of whom may have their best interests at heart. They are vulnerable to take-over bids, share price fluctuations, covenants on their debts, all kinds of dangers lurk for the publically listed company, especially when they are in debt.

Supplying Aldi, in particular, can be very different from supplying a Tesco or a Sainsbury. Their QC people come into your factory, they inspect your processes, they study you in-depth and may want to see the books if you are smaller and this is to be a longer-standing relationship. They may even want to invest in you and sort out any supply chain issues you may be having.

For example, if you go down to Tesco right now, you will probably not see any plain fizzy water as the bottling plants have been running out of CO2. There is fizzy water at Aldi. They ordered food-grade liquid CO2 (probably from either Norway or Germany) and supplied the bottling plants they use on condition that it was to supply Aldi only (obviously!)

If you supply Aldi or Lidl from the UK, you only have to their distribution centres and not the individual shops. If you supply from outside the UK, Lidl has it's own (rather large) harbour building at the London Gateway. Every tiny part of their operations is studied and fine-tuned to eradicate any friction or costs. Everything is done to achieve the utmost efficiency.

As soon as Aldi and Lidl entered the UK and US markets, it was game-over in the long run for high margins and inefficiency. Tesco and Co just didn't even take them seriously! Tesco boss Leahy even said "Not a serious threat at all. The British housewife wants choice!"

"Retail" he said. "is show business!"

The housewife wanted lower prices - and she is getting them! Aldi must be very pleased to see Tesco buying advertising for Aldi.

 

[KM-Tiger]

I love it... until I get the till.

My wife and I have not been in a supermarket since Mar 2020, and we have no plans to go.

Why bother when you can have it all delivered or do a click and collect.

We variously use Ocado, Waitrose, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys, buying what's best or cheapest at each.

 

[fisicx]

My wife and I have not been in a supermarket since Mar 2020, and we have no plans to go.

Why bother when you can have it all delivered or do a click and collect.

We variously use Ocado, Waitrose, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys, buying what's best or cheapest at each.

Which comes back to my post about Sainsbury’s. Just called my mate who is a store manager in the midlands. Before covid store capacity was around 1500. He said they now rarely get above 1000, it’s usually around 600. Most people are shopping online.

 

[UKSBD]

I've been to Tesco 2 times in the past few weeks, got to the tills to find 2 in use out of about 10, people stood around with baskets and trolleys but I had no idea if they were in a queue or not, joined one, person stood near an aisle gave me a look so I said sorry mate have I pushed in and he said don't worry about it he had no idea where the queue started either.

3 or 4 members of staff stood around, none helping or opening other tills.

Doubt I will go again

 

[Ryan Paul]

Aldi advertises being cheaper than Tesco, but not on a like for like basis i.e. brand for the equivalent brand (why not on own brand?) and get away with it.

Lidl were instructed to change their marketing campaigns to be more like for like.
Now you will notice they'll include brands like Hellmanns, Heinz, Cadbury, etc. in their price comparisons.

 

[DontAsk]

There's no luring yellow tags promising savings, it's just what you see if what you get.

Sorry, but, Aldi ALWAYS have red shelf tags with "savings", albeit usually only a few pence.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I completely get the discount mindset and it works in context

I don't get the Tesco / Sainsburys partial discount approach which boils down to 'we are sometimes as cheap as them'

I'm bewildered by supermarkets as whole in that their marketing is in some ways extremely sophisticated (the whole end-to-end experience), but then jump on to race to the bottom price wars

 

[UKSBD]

I don't get the Tesco / Sainsburys partial discount approach which boils down to 'we are sometimes as cheap as them'

I think it's very clever when targeting the people who are already shopping Online and filling their baskets.

I'll often look for the Aldi price match tags when whizzing down my usual's or favourites.

I used to compare products by having 2 browsers open one on Tesco other on Sainsbury, don't bother so much now if they have the Aldi price match tag next to the product.

 

[The Byre]

I'm bewildered by supermarkets as whole in that their marketing is in some ways extremely sophisticated (the whole end-to-end experience), but then jump on to race to the bottom price wars

They have no choice. Aldi and Lidl are eating their lunch. Inflation is biting hard and people have no choice but to use the discounters. The established supermarkets certainly cannot claim to have better quality (with the possible exception of Morrison with meat).

They tried competing on choice - but it was a bogus choice, I remember seeing 24 different olive oils at Tesco, but all from the same Spanish wholesaler!

 

[Mark T Jones]

They have no choice. Aldi and Lidl are eating their lunch. Inflation is biting hard and people have no choice but to use the discounters. The established supermarkets certainly cannot claim to have better quality (with the possible exception of Morrison with meat).

They tried competing on choice - but it was a bogus choice, I remember seeing 24 different olive oils at Tesco, but all from the same Spanish wholesaler!

They definitely have a choice - the choice to maintain target markets or to race to the bottom.

I do somewhat agree that grey have lost sight of their target market

 

[Dillon Lawrence Ltd]

They definitely have a choice - the choice to maintain target markets or to race to the bottom.

I do somewhat agree that grey have lost sight of their target market

Tesco, Asda etc seem to be closing down in store fresh counters for fish, meat and are also ditching their bakeries.

It just makes the whole experience worse for the customer. Their way to differentiate themselves was how the whole customer experience was better than the discounters. They have to differentiate themselves like that because they can’t or struggle to consistently match them on price.

Stores nicer, presentation better, fresh counters etc seems to have gone out of the window which means they are surely driving away customers in a ‘race to the bottom’, having lost their selling point as being perceived as a cut above through a better customer experience.

 

[SillyBill]

I like Aldi, none of the shite, just in get what food I need, and out. The wife isn't looking at clothes, books, and other crap we didn't actually go in for.

There's no luring yellow tags promising savings, it's just what you see if what you get.

I love it... until I get the till. I cannot stand the disorganised chaos, there's no que for each till, it's just a mass gathering and fight for the next space. "Do you want to move to till 4 please?" Well no I don't as there's nobody serving, and by the time they arrive I'll have been served where I am.

It riles me so much, I sit in the car, or have to endure the torture of wanting to windmill through the store.

I'm now an ASDA convert, I order it online, and I drive 2minutes down the road, and a nice lady wheels it out, and I throw it in the car I've minimised human interaction and it suits me fine

This is the one area of their business I think they are playing too keen on. Just a smidgen more resource on the tills would make me more of a regular. As it happens, like you, the experience of Aldi deteriorates rapidly when you get to the payment end. And it has got significantly worst since COVID hit (my local branch in any case); now a confusing hybrid of a long central queue forming down a middle aisle and other shoppers playing fast-and-loose on jumping straight onto any other manned till on the ends. Shoppers are in part causing this but no active management to try and sort it. It was bad enough before. There have been too many times when I am waiting behind a queue of 5-6 people with full trolleys and one till open I think they're playing for absolute pennies by keeping the resource so lean...and costing themselves a few pounds for those like me that don't do a big shop in there anymore due to it. No surprises to me on their success and expect them to continue to grow, improve the till end experience and it will be game, set, match. And if that costed every shopper an extra 25-35p on their shop I am sure they'd still be smashing Tesco and the likes on price while providing efficient service.

 

[japancool]

I dunno about elsewhere but Morrisons in my area have started delivering hot food. Mostly roast chicken and roast beef.

The thing I dislike the most at large supermarkets is how the shelf stackers pointedly ignore customers trying to get to the shelf that they're blocking. Hello, I'm standing here on crutches and you're not even trying to move out of the way.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I hate the price comparison thing. As a former 'Ad Man', knocking the competition, even mentioning the competition was persona non gratis.

We shop at Asda, Sainsburys, Tescos, M&S & LIDL primarily because we like certain products and brands that one sells and the other doesn't. I can't see the point in buying a £1.49 Tikka Masala and Rice from LIDL when the £7.99 combo from M&S is 100 times better or buying Tescos smaller bag of dry and tasteless mixed nuts when LIDL's are so much better (fresher?) Price comparison is therefore lost on me...