4 - Internationalist

London
LETTER FROM
Allyson Stewart-Allen is recognized as the world's
leading authority on trans-Atlantic business,
international marketing and working across
business cultures. As founder of International
Marketing Partners, Allyson Stewart-Allen advises a
number of national government agencies and
Fortune 100 companies. She is an American based
in London and Los Angeles, a member of the
Advisory Board of the New York-based organization
Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA), and a
recently selected judge for the UK’s 2005
International Business Awards. Co-author of the
first book on U.S. business (Working with
Americans, Prentice Hall), Allyson Stewart-Allen is
a regular contributor to the international business
media, including CNN, BBC, USA Today,
Newsweek, Business Week, Les Echos,
Bloomberg, Financial Times, Sky News, Wall
Street Journal, Marketing magazine as well as the
major daily newspapers.
Tesco, the U.K.’s largest
retailer, enters
the U.S. market this
month in California
with 10,000 square-foot
supermarkets.
Here are some recommendations on
how the company can ensure success
from Allyson Stewart-Allen, author of
best-selling business book Working with
Americans, recognized marketing and
retail expert for European companies
growing in the U.S.
“I suggest Tesco focuses on some of these American fundamentals
to win over new U.S. customers,” says Stewart-Allen.
• West Coast food stores — Whole Foods,
Trader Joe’s, Ralphs, Vons, Albertson’s,
Gelsons and others — won’t take Tesco’s
arrival lying down. Unless Tesco makes its
value proposition immediately clear to
consumers, the company will be yet another
U.K. brand looking for a US home, like so
many before them.
• In order to raise its U.S. brand awareness
where Tesco is currently a total unknown,
and to continue demonstrating ethical retail
practices on the West Coast, Tesco should
donate a significant amount of its stocked
items, including water and other essentials,
to the fire victims in Southern California to
show its concern for the communities in
which it operates.
• Tesco will need to acknowledge American
shoppers’ expectation of “enthusiastic”
customer service and marketing claims which
are much bolder and louder than the rest of
the world. The decibel levels of these claims —
which help U.S. brands cut through in
America — is not Tesco’s typical practice in its
current U.K. and overseas markets. Boldness
and confidence, not understatement, is what
Tesco will need to succeed there.
• Ready meals is a significant and profitable
area where Tesco — and the U.K. in
general — is well ahead of the U.S.
Bringing this best of British to American
shoppers is one way to ensure Tesco carves
out a clear niche in the competitive U.S.
grocery industry. Shoppers will also expect
the type of service for which the best
American retailers are admired:
knowledgeable, responsive and answering
the questions we didn’t even think of
asking. Tesco needs to ensure it gets the
American customer service aspects
absolutely right.
• Tesco’s latest announcement of a tie-up in
the U.K. with Walt Disney for a co-branded
children’s food range is a smart strategy to
create consumer “pull” in the U.S. should it
market the healthy Disney range to U.S.
shoppers.
• California is car-country, so Tesco will need
to recognize that even its carpark spaces are
wider and longer than at its U.K. stores,
with wider shop aisles than in Britain.
Bigger is better in America, and Tesco will
need to demonstrate it understands that key
cultural attribute.•
FOR MORE INFO: www.intermarketingonline.com and www.workingwithamericans.com
12 inter national ist magazine