'The marketing genius of Tesco double points' blog discussion

SJ_Jones

david72 wrote: »

I actually find the Tesco Clubcard scheme the most annoying of the reward schemes: with nectar you can just swipe your card in Sainsbury's, Argos or wherever and claim your discount (nice and easy), but with Tesco's you have to remember to dig out annoying paper vouchers and take them with you (without getting them dog-eared in your wallet and/or losing them).

Why on earth can't you just swipe your Clubcard to claim your discount? It'd make life so much easier: every little helps, you know..

(I have a feeling they slyly did this deliberately in order to bank on the fact that a proportion of customers are bound to mislay the vouchers and never cash them in. It just means I have to remember to scoop them all up about once a year and then get a shopping trip for free, when I'd much rather just spend them as I get them.)

Months ago, I received a letter from Tesco, telling me they'd noticed I had £10 worth of vouchers that I had not yet spent (I believe the letter got missed when I moved flats), they gave me the option of phoning them to get it put back onto my clubcard, and would be re-sent out with my next lot of vouchers.

So even if you DO lose the vouchers, you can get them back!

I use Tesco every way I can (apart from phone atm, and that's only cos I'm currently under contract with the horrific 3!), DVD rental, Clubcard credit card - which is fantastic for getting extra points.

My only other option is Waitrose (which isn't an option), but if I had full choice, I'd pick Tesco, with an occasional trip to Morrisons. The rest are all overpriced or incredibly skanky imo!

marks7389

withabix wrote: »

250,000 BA Miles (which I will reach in a couple of weeks) would get me at least two fully flexible business class return flights to Vancouver (our usual destination) plus one fully flexible Economy one to the same destination.

Also worth knowing that if you take out a BA Amex card you can get a 2 for 1 voucher each year.

So instead of 200000 miles (or £1000 in clubcard vouchers at the new rate - plus taxes & fees) for two return business class tickets to Vancouver, it's half that. :j

With a bit of help from extra points offers / vouchers you can quite easily build up enough to do a luxury trip each year, even without spending £10K on fuel. We're off to Singapore First class in February.

Alternatively BA miles for upgrade premium economy -> business also often works out very good value (unless you consider that premium class air travel really isn't worth much of a premium).

Of course Tesco run the scheme as a clever marketing ploy, but if you're willing to put in some effort and work the system, and combine benefits from different schemes where possible, you can come out on top.

marks7389

joecamo wrote: »

Also, Tesco in my opinion is the best supermarket. They are the only Supermarket with their very own Mobile brand. Tesco Mobile is great, very often you get TRIPLE points as well as TRIPLE credit whenever you top up £15. Thats 45 points everytime you top up, and also £45 mobile credit.

Now if you're like me and don't spend £45 each month on your phone, then this is great because that £45 will last until you've used it all. Meaning you only have to top up every 6-8 weeks! Which is great.

That's not entirely true. The £15 you top up lasts until you've used it, the addition £30 "free" credit expires after a month and can only be used for ordinary landline/mobile calls and texts.

So like most marketing ploys its complicated and designed to make many people think they are getting a better deal than they may be.

That said, if you do use the full amount of "free" credit within the month on your normal usage it can work out very good value for money. Taking into account the 10% discount for regular/automatic top-ups by DD it can work out as little as:

Calls 6p/minute (3p/minute to your five selected 'favourite numbers')
Texts 3p each (1.5p each to your five selected 'favourite numbers')

And if you build up some ordinary credit over time you can also use it for roaming, effectively slashing the cost of roaming calls.

Getting the top-up level right (£10, £15 or £20/month) is key to getting the best value out of it.

meher

I think I'll look a royal idiot but never mind, it has to be said.

For about 5 years at least I used to just bin any of those envelopes I got from tesco until someone nudged me and said that it had vouchers and wasn't junk mail. That's when I discovered vouchers. But I keep seeing this thing about double points, I got no clue what it is and what we're supposed to do. It comes with no instructions, merely an invitation to treat. I wish it is explained in the form of a flowchart so that some of us understand it.

harz99 wrote: »

Tesco are no better or worse than the other major supermarkets; they are all in business to make money for their shareholders and/or owners. Ethics don't come into it.

Not sure if it's strictly true, waitrose and partner ocado are run ethically. If the staff themselves are owners and beneft from a chunk of it's profit through bonus, holidays, discounts and pensions, then I'd consider it good enough business model. You simply have to look at their site - it isn't even clamored with junk food and items as in asda and tesco and most importantly their services are green oriented.

harz99

meher wrote: »

Not sure if it's strictly true, waitrose and partner ocado are run ethically. If the staff themselves are owners and beneft from a chunk of it's profit through bonus, holidays, discounts and pensions, then I'd consider it good enough business model. You simply have to look at their site - it isn't even clamored with junk food and items as in asda and tesco and most importantly their services are green oriented.

I was not even considering Waitrose as a "major" supermarket chain.

At circa 200 (or less) stores across the UK I don't think many people would consider it so either.

That is not to say that it does not serve it's target market well though.

david72

SJ_Jones wrote: »

Months ago, I received a letter from Tesco, telling me they'd noticed I had £10 worth of vouchers that I had not yet spent (I believe the letter got missed when I moved flats), they gave me the option of phoning them to get it put back onto my clubcard, and would be re-sent out with my next lot of vouchers.

So even if you DO lose the vouchers, you can get them back!

Thanks, that's useful to know. Perhaps my cynicism as to Tesco's motives with paper vouchers was misplaced! That's quite a refreshing show of corporate decency, in this day and age.

Even better news from Martin, though, that Tesco are planning to make rewards redeemable via card next year. Is there no limit to his powers..? :cheesy:

withabix

marks7389 wrote: »

Also worth knowing that if you take out a BA Amex card you can get a 2 for 1 voucher each year.

So instead of 200000 miles (or £1000 in clubcard vouchers at the new rate - plus taxes & fees) for two return business class tickets to Vancouver, it's half that. :j

With a bit of help from extra points offers / vouchers you can quite easily build up enough to do a luxury trip each year, even without spending £10K on fuel. We're off to Singapore First class in February.

Alternatively BA miles for upgrade premium economy -> business also often works out very good value (unless you consider that premium class air travel really isn't worth much of a premium).

Of course Tesco run the scheme as a clever marketing ploy, but if you're willing to put in some effort and work the system, and combine benefits from different schemes where possible, you can come out on top.

The BA Amex is already in the wallet, however we haven't managed to reach the target spend, probably because the fuel is all purchased on AllStar cards and our Clubcard credit cards are on 0% at the moment.

withabix

not_loaded wrote: »

I suspect that a lot of posters are missing the point (double point?) here.

Martin was admiring the marketing ploy, NOT the double points!

Oh please, you seriously think that Tesco themselves supply the mobile signal?

My point (all the way back at #9) was that all supermarkets are into scamming you on prices and you cannot win. Anyone who thinks they are ‘getting something back’ with these loyalty schemes is living in dreamland.

They took it off you in the first place.

No.

So how is getting back more value than my own actual spend NOT winning exactly????

Barneysmom

I'm a big supermarket hater.

I hate Asda because it's always so full of people and you can't get rpound it without a padded suit.I hate Sainsbobs just because I can.

Tesco I have a special dislike for and make it my missioin to sc*w them for as much as I possibly can :rotfl:

Yesterday I took my points to double up.
I had £18 so could only double £15 to £30, and use the remaining £3 off my shopping.

The shopping came to £51. So take away the £33 I had in vouchers leaves £18.

I then got a till spit of £6 off my next shop.

Plus - I don't know why - a bonus of 200 points.

Plus half a dozen green points for using my own bags.

I paid full price for spuds and a cauli... ggrr must do better!

Play 'em at their own game, look for all discounts, get all the points and vouchers, and you do come out with a cheaper shop now and again which is always nice.

lexusman

Reminds me of the Green Shield stamps we used to collect, then it went double treble quadruple... and so on untill they were worth nothing... all the old shops where you would spend the books closed and it ended with a fiz, and started with a bang....
some of thier deals are worth collecting for, so if you collect but don't go out of your way to shop thier or they have won.