Chosen business: Tesco Essay

There are different types of information that Tesco use these are: – Verbal information: This is spoken information it could come from the customer, it could also come from Tesco if they let any promotions over the tannoy. – Written information: This is information that is written in a document, Tesco uses this type of information in its leaflets, receipts and collects this information from customers through comment cards etc. – Onscreen information: Tesco will use this type of information in their TV adverts so that they can get a lot of promotions across to their potential customers, they can also use this to show customers how good they are compared to their competitors and that their products are cheaper. – Multi-media: This type of information is a lot of different sources mixed in, it includes pictures, presentations, videos and can include on screen information, Tesco does not normally use this type of information because they tend to use types of i nformation that they can easily communicate with their customers such as verbal or written in the form of a leaflet or poster. – Web based: This type of information is given out or collected through the internet, Tesco have a website that they use to communicate information on the business to their customers. Customers can also give information through this by buying products online and giving reviews on Tesco. Tesco use these types of information for many different purposes, these are: – Updating knowledge: They use information to update their knowledge on things like what products are selling the most and which ones have high demand, they can then make sure that they supply all of these products for the customers, they can find this out by questionnaires etc. and also written sales figures and this will update their knowledge on what products are their best sellers so they can promote these. -Informing future developments: They use information to inform their future developments because if they can get lots of information from their customers then they can use this to make plans for their fut ure developments in order to make their organisation better, they can use customer feedback via written information. -Strategic direction: They use different types of information in order to decide which strategic direction they are going to take, they can use sales figures and department feedback to see what is making Tesco do so well. If they come across a problem, like they do not have enough sales then they can use this information to change their strategic direction. -SWOT analysis: They use both internal and external forms of information in order to see what their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are. Tesco will use sales, customer, department, competitor and growth information in order to conduct a swot analysis they will then find that their strengths are having specialist marketing expertise because they are such a huge organisation they know what they are doing. They also have weaknesses such as a large amount of competitors that could overtake them such as Asda and Morrison’s. An opportunity could be the development of technology such as self-scan machines that they can use to promote their business. A threat could be how Asda is currently top of the market and this means that they need to come up with more ideas to get above Asda. -Offering competitive insight: They will use information such as market share and published sales figures from other their competitors to see how good other competitors like Asda are doing they can they use these to see what they can do better. They will also use the on-screen information such as the TV adverts to get a competitive insight because they will see what offers their competitors are doing and try to match or outdo these. -Communicating sales promotions: They use both written, on screen and verbal information in order to communicate their sales promotions, they will do this because by using more than one method of information they can get more information and better information out to their customers and it will mean that more of the customers are likely to see the promotions and buy the products. -Inviting support for activities: They can use onscreen and written information to do this because if Tesco are holding a fundraiser then it is important that they can get this message out to their customers and staff so they will hand out leaflets on the activities they are holding and advertise it on the television for people who are not coming into store this will invite support. They can also use written information such as messages on bulletin boards in the staff room to invite support for new technology in the business such as new ICT and then staff will be able to voice their support or non-support for this new software etc. There is lots of places that Tesco get this information from, these can be both internal and external: Internal -Financial: This is a place where Tesco can get their information from because if Tesco is doing well and generating a profit then they know that they are doing something well and may not need to change their strategic direction if they are constantly growing and generating more money. -Human resources: This is a place where Tesco get their information from because they can tell them if the staff are good enough to do their job for example, do they have the right skills to do their job. Human resources can also give them a lot of information such as training that they are giving then Tesco can use the staff for different things because they will be trained to do this. -Marketing: This is a place where Tesco can get information on how departments are doing but they will also use this to give information out to their customers for example Marketing can advertise the promotions and create the adverts, they can also market new products that come into the business so that customers know what products exist so that they can buy them. -Purchasing: This is a place where Tesco can get their information because they will get information such as if they are getting a good deal on all the products that they are buying for their stores, they will also get information such as are they having good suppliers where deliveries arrive on time. -Sales: Tesco gets information from their sales because they can look at their sales figures to see what products are selling the best and what kind of products have high demand, they can then make sure that they make the most of these products and promote them more so that customers buy more e.g. Warburton’s because customers buy bread very often so it is often on promotion in Tesco. -Manufacturing: Tesco make their own brand products, they get information from this because they know how much it is costing them to manufacture these products, they can then put a reasonable price on the products so that they are giving their customers the best deal and they will be able to make profits if they know how much the product is going to cost them to manufacture. External -Government: Tesco get information from the government on things like how much they can legally pay their staff e.g. minimum wage, this is important information because they can use this to not spend too much on wages if they don’t need to but also to protect their staff. -Trade groupings: Tesco can use the information they get from trade groupings for things like their competitors because they will be meeting with these people and can then gain more of an insight into their business and Tesco can improve to be better. – Databases: Tesco can use the information they get from external databases in order to help their organisation, they can find out independently published databases on the sales of individual products that they sell. They can also get databases on how other competitors are doing so this information can help them to change their strategic direction if they need to. -Research: Tesco can do their own primary research into products and their customer service to see how they are doing but they can also use external secondary research, this can be done on forum sites where customers have reviewed Tesco and they can also do secondary research from people who have already published research and they can use this. -Reliability of data sources: If Tesco does a lot of secondary information then it is important that they find out how reliable to sources of the data are, if the person who took out the research is a reliable source e.g. a government source then they can use this well because they know that the information is reliable and will not mislead them but if it is from an anonymous source then it is not likely to be reliable and may be biased so it might not be the best idea to use this as it may lead to Tesco making wrong decisions. Task 2 (M1) Verbal information is an appropriate way of communicating and gathering information in Tesco because it allows for Tesco to get their information to their information to the customers quickly and would allow for Tesco to get all of their promotions out quickly and often verbal communication is a more persuading way of giving information and by giving the promotions verbally Tesco may be able to persuade their customers to buy more, so this would be an appropriate way for Tesco to get the information it needs across to its customers. The source of verbal information can come from sales, I think that this is an appropriate source for verbal information and for information in general because it comes from the customer themselves, it is normally a one on one encounter with the staff and the customer so this means that information is less likely to be manipulated because there is less people for it to go through before it can get used, so this source is reliable and valid because the info rmation is coming direct from the customer or the information is coming directly from the seller for promotions etc. Another type of information is written information, when Tesco uses this it is normally in the form of leaflets so that they can show their customers what is on offer at Tesco, it is an important and effective way of getting information across to the customer because it means that they can read it anytime they want, even when they are not in the store they can pick up the leaflet and see what is available at Tesco. Written information allows for the customer to view the information any time they want and it allows for Tesco to get the information out to many people at once, verbal information may not be appropriate when trying to get a lot of information out to a lot of people because it is often not possible to talk to many people at once other than a tannoy and also verbal information will only allow for information to be passed to people who are in the store at the time whereas written information can be given to people who are not in store. The source of written information could be marketing within Tesco, this is an appropriate source of written information because marketing has the right skills in order to make an effective leaflet that gets all of the information needed to the customer, they know from other departments what information needs to go into the leaflet e.g. what promotions are on or what jobs are available via human resources so they can then market and advertise this in a way that will attract customers to take and read the information. The final type of information that Tesco use is on-screen information, this is in the form of TV adverts and sometimes on screen adverts in store, this is a good way of getting information across to the customer about things that might be going on at Tesco e.g. new products or events that are being held. On-screen information is a good way of giving out information because customers will still remember what they have seen even after the advert has finished and this means they will remember what is happening or what products there is and if people see something they are interested in then they are likely to go and buy it as a result of the on-screen information, it also allows for Tesco to run adverts even when the stores are not open, it also allows for them to advertise directly to the customer in an environment that they are comfortable with because most people watch the television at home and will be relaxed and more likely to take in information. It is reliable because it has come directly from Tesco which means all of the information is what they want to share and all the information is correct. A source of on-screen information at Tesco is the marketing department, they are responsible for advertising and marketing all new products and generally advertising the organisation. They will be able to make the information clear and attractive using multimedia and on-screen and if customers are attracted to an advert they are likely to listen and be interested, allowing for the information to be shared to the customer. Marketing is a good source of information for on-screen because they know what they are doing and have the right skills to make an effective advert that is fit for purpose.