Imperial College London

Survey on British supermarkets

With more than 25% of market shares in the UK retail industry, TESCO can technically be classed as a grocery monopolist , a Big Brother company, that provides everyone with everything.

If it is a monopolist, is it perceived as one by the consumers? Would even the consumer mind? In marketing, perception is reality. As long as customers do not perceive TESCO as a monopoly, TESCO will get away with it.

Having grown so big, isn�t TESCO itself its own worst enemy?

In the context of our marketing group assignment the most practical way to assess customers� perception of TESCO is by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire shall be tailored-made for the purpose of this study (i.e. primary source of information) and capture the consumers� stated behaviour (as opposed to observed behaviour).

One drawback of the questionnaire tool is that interviewees may �put on a performance�, which is known in POK as �impression management� (IM). In other words they will tell us what they think we want them to say, or what they think they should say.

To minimise the impact of IM, the questionnaire should avoid blunt direct questions such as �Do you think TESCO is too big a company?� and use detour questions to craftily capture the consumers� actual perception of TESCO. This perception should also be put into context, i.e. compared with the perception interviewees have of other supermarkets.