Most retailers survived a steady, but fragile Christmas on a mixture of good products, integrated communication and appropriate value propositions. But it’s been a bleak
start to 2008. This continued within the grocery sector, with Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s
and Morrisons sniping at each other’s ‘value’ credentials, sometimes using comparison websites to validate their claims.

How many retailers (and designers) go into their stores and watch what, how and why customers buy? What creates that purchasing decision at the point of sale? Is it design that sells, informs, creates and emotional link with the customer and the brand, or is
it price? And only one retailer can be the cheapest.

In all this promotion and value ‘noise’, there are still some retailers prepared to hold to their brand. Waitrose maintains an almost disinterested approach, but communicates consistently through design and ‘calmness,’ enticing its customers with great products, beautifully presented. And while Tesco has all its value guns blazing both in point-of-sale and above-the-line, it still manages to cut through the noise with a dash of occasional humour, such as with its Tortilla chips range. As the late and much-lamented graphic designer Alan Fletcher amply illustrated, an injection of appropriate humour and wit can cut through many perceptions and restrictions. Tesco’s orchestration of communication messages and channel shows a retailer of real value experience.