Report: Tesco Revamps Fresh & Easy Advertising Model

El Segundo, Calif. Recent market research proves that Fresh & Easy shoppers are driven by price more than the chain anticipated. As a result, the chain is revamping its advertising model, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Prior to the chain’s launch in Nov. 2007, Tesco conducted research to learn about the opportunities in the West Coast grocery marketplace. Shoppers not only shared their preferences, but invited Tesco representatives into their kitchens and pantries to learn “about food and shopping,” Tim Mason, head of Tesco’s U.S. business, said in the article.

Where the research failed, the report said, is that they overlooked shoppers’ garages, which housed freezers filled with meat that consumers bought in bulk when it was specially priced. Fresh & Easy did not create a model based on price discounts, “but that may have been a mistake,” he said in the article.

New research revealed that the recession and a lack of regular distribution of weekly promotions has hurt the chain. The point hit home during a focus group when a shopper revealed that he not longer shopped at the chain because he no longer received weekly fliers, the article said.

Following the meeting, “we said we had better make sure we hit everyone in the area with fliers,” Mason said.

The 113-store chain did not reveal how soon the re-emphasis on weekly fliers would begin. The chain has also pushed back its plan to expand to 200 locations for at least six months.