Marketing: Has Tesco gone of the boil?
Tesco: You'll have to wait to see our latest numbers but I can tell you that Tesco is in great shape. We have invested in the right things for customers and adapted our offer to the current climate. We are cutting prices, creating jobs, investing in local communities, driving forward our climate change agenda and opening new stores. There aren't too many British companies that can claim to be doing all of these things at the moment.
Marketing: Your critics say the discount brand has confused shoppers and undermined Tesco's price architecture. How do you respond?
Tesco: It's amazing how many commentators and retail 'experts' have decided that our Discounter range is confusing or doesn't fit into our 'brand structure' but do you know not one of them has asked Tesco customers what they think. If they had, those customers would more than likely have told them that they don't need to understand how it fits in, they just need to know that it is good quality at a fantastic price.
30% of customers are now buying Discounter products and most have at least two items from the range in their basket. This shows that they are appealing to customers and we are delighted with the response. People said exactly the same things about Tesco Value when we launched it back in 1993 and few people now would say that it had a detrimental affect on our brand.
Marketing: Has Asda won the price comparison advertising battle? They started it, Tesco responded, some believe it has caught Tesco on the back foot is this fair?
Tesco: The strength of our 'real baskets' campaign is that it uses real customers' shopping across a far wider range of products than Asda would ever dare to compare. We include the everyday items people buy such as milk, meat, fruit and vegetables and own brand as well as branded products. People I talk to are always surprised to hear that Asda's claims focus on branded lines and include multiple variants of things only a tiny proportion of customers buy such as hair dye. In the end customers decide who is the cheapest based on what they find in store and the plain fact is more customers still choose Tesco.
Marketing: City analysts also wonder about succession management. Are there too few chances to rise to the top as the board are all fairly young and likely to stay in place for many years to come?
Tesco: The evidence suggests otherwise. In January we announced the promotion of Tesco's Group Distribution Director, Laurie McIlwee , to the Board as our new Group Finance Director. Laurie held several positions in Tesco before joining the Board. Many of our senior people are running businesses with a turnover equivalent to running a FTSE 100 company, such as Tesco.com, Tesco Personal Finance and our international businesses. These people have huge responsibility and are greatly motivated by the challenges they face to grow their businesses. We have excellent succession plans in place and a huge pool of talent to back them up.
Marketing: There seems to be a revolving door in marketing with many comings and goings (three marketing directors in two years) after the departures of Tim Mason and Simon Uwins. Why is this?
Tesco: We have an excellent marketing team in place with some of the best talent in the industry. Tim and Simon left their marketing positions to go and start-up our Fresh & Easy business in the US, one of the most exciting developments for Tesco in its history. Richard Brasher has held responsibility for group marketing since then and Carolyn Bradley runs UK marketing having taken over from Lance Batchelor last year. Lance was chosen to run our telecoms business as he has great experience in this field having joined from Vodafone. It's healthy to move people around as the business grows so that we all benefit from wider experience and knowledge of other areas.
Marketing: Has Clubcard lost steam?
Tesco: Clubcard goes from strength to strength and is more popular than ever in this tough economic climate as consumers recognise the 'something for nothing' benefits of the scheme. We now have over 14 million active members and will be developing the scheme further in the coming months. Partners continue to join us with one of the recent additions being Cineworld cinemas. Clubcard deals - where customers can redeem their vouchers on a wide range of offers for 4x the voucher value - is incredibly popular as customers use them to maintain treats for themselves and their families.
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