Tesco: the dark side of a company’s DNA

The discovery by Crick and Watson of the DNA molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms must count as one of the single most significant discoveries in all of scientific history.

Biological functions or activities often become metaphors useful in describing social activities and so it is with DNA. What is the foundation for matching biological connections going back centuries, solving criminal cases long abandoned, has also crept into the language of marketing. We speak of a company’s DNA using it as a metaphor for encapsulating the essence of companies, brands, institutions etc. We could easily use the word heritage. The relevance is the resistance to real change on the one hand the source of adaptation on the other.

In the business world we think that anything is possible by way of change, indeed the business world requires it. Yet as much as companies often wish to change dramatically to suit new circumstances, that elusive DNA of its origins remains.

Often this becomes the source of a totally new use – Lucozade, for example, the glucose drink given to the sick and frail was successfully re-launched as a sports energy drink. IBM’s obsession with excellence in computers transmuted itself into excellence in solution provision. Successful companies make these transformations seamlessly. John Lewis, the Economist, many P&G brands adapt from a basic core that continues to ensure success.   

But there is a dark side to the process which is what I thought when I read  the article in the current issue of Market Leader in which Andrew Curry analyses the basic problem with Tesco.

Truth be told, nobody ever loved Tesco when it piled ‘em high and sold ‘em cheap.

And despite enormous investments in marketing, advertising, tracking customer behaviour, becoming a giant retailer both in the UK and abroad, and winning respect for the sheer competency of their operations, nobody ever really learned  to love Tesco with the same intensity that customers love Waitrose, Sansbury's or M&S. In fact, many people – environmentalists, suppliers and town planners actively hated it. And when a company, no matter how successful, stumbles, its enemies can be forgiven for indulging in a massive wave of schadenfreude.  

As Curry points out, Tesco is truly between a rock and a hard place. It has little emotional capital to leverage and its price position is being taken over at incredible speed by the discounters who are laughing all the way to the bank. Will it be possible for anyone really to ever love Tesco? I wouldn’t put money on it. At least not in this century.

Dave Lewis - with the most impeccable credentials for making brands lovable - has his work cut out.

Read Andrew Curry’s analysis in the current issue of Market Leader and read more from Judie in our Clubhouse.

(Feature image courtesy of Gordon Joly.)