THE TESCO IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION IN MARKETING

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The importance of innovation in modern society cannot be negated. There has been a lot of research for various kinds of innovations. Innovation in marketing strategies is one type of innovation which has been studied often by the researchers. According to Halpern, marketing innovation may be defined as novel methods through which businesses can promote their product to their customer base. (Halpern, 2010). The focus of this thesis is the importance of innovation in marketing strategies keeping in view the innovative strategies conceived and implemented by Tesco. The research questions are: Is Tesco employing the traditional marketing practices or it has incorporated innovation in its marketing strategies? What is the current marketing innovation strategy employed by Tesco? Is Tesco’s marketing innovation strategy successful? Did the company gain any competitive advantage over its rivals through the use of marketing innovation strategies?

Table of Contents

1. Chapter 1: Introduction

In the modern society, innovation is considered a burning issue (Bessant and Tidd, 2007). According to Bessant and Tidd, innovation can be defined as the method of conversion fresh notions into helpful exercise and employ them, in terms of innovative products, strategies and facilities. Various researches can be found on the topic of management of innovation which in turn presented many theories regarding innovation. These include but are not limited to theories which pertain to types of innovation, tools available for assessment of capability which a corporate has regarding innovation, the innovation process etc. Although various types of innovations exist today, research has mostly kept its focus on innovation of process or product (Brown, 1995). Among the various types of innovations, Marketing innovation is considered an important type (Halpern, 2010). As defined by Halpern, the novel methods by which businesses tend to reach its customer base is called market innovation. However, sometimes, marketing innovation is considered as a sub-part of product innovation (Tidd and Bessant, 2009) however, hypothesis and information concerning marketing innovation is deficient in prose. The focus of this thesis is importance of innovation in marketing strategies.

Organizations and nations have advanced on the basis of innovation; therefore one can’t deny the importance of innovation. Advancements in technology and innovation have become an important aspect of success which is usually referred by firms, policy-makers and researchers on day-to-day basis. The governments have increased their focus on innovation and the topics on innovation are mentioned frequently by the governments (Swedish Government 2008).

The term innovation is generally defined differently by different authors and is classified in various types. Schumpeter (1934), an Australian economist and also the pioneer of innovation management described innovation as creative destruction. Five aspects of the terms were given by the author. Firstly, the introduction of new commodities in which either the customers are not familiar with the product or the quality of the product is enhanced. Secondly, for the production of the product new method or technology is announced and it also includes the new way of handling the product commercially. Then