Rumours abound that Tesco are undergoing a major brand review. What? Why? Who? When? Eh?
All the questions and none of the answers...
Its always been one of the hardest moments in my MBA course on Brand Management. We bow down and worship at the altar of Tesco's marketing, research, segmentation, private label, brand architecture, leadership and then comes the positioning problem.
There is no question that Tesco is, pound for pound, the greatest marketing company in the UK. And yet at the heart of its magical transformation through the 1990's, usurption of Sainsbury, and global emergence is one of the tattiest, most generic little straplines imaginable. Every Little Helps. And it sits squarely within the famous 'steering wheel' - see above that has guided Tesco for most of the last 10 years.
The best you can say for the ELH strapline is that it is tight, it does unite staff, and its a appropriately plain and simply approach for the famously tight, no-nonsense Tesco brand.
But finally, perhaps, the penny has dropped and Tesco are about to focus on a richer more complex positioning. Don't expect a BIG relaunch or lots of fancy wheels and traingles when Tesco eventually launch their new positioning.
But it will be very interesting to see what they come up with and (perhaps even more interesting) who they will turn to for help in developing it. Inhouse? The Red Brick Road? Landor?
