Tesco ditches the value stripes it earned

There's a new war brewing among the retail multiples. The battleground is 'value shopping' and the cause seems to be who can make their value range look as little like a value range as possible. Few product ranges have become as distinctive and instantly recognisable as the Tesco value range, products marked out from a distance by the bold blue and white stripes of their packaging. Sainsbury's tried it with a white and orange range of their own but somehow it wasn't as distinctive and, perhaps best for them, is didn't become as synonymous as the Tesco range with our collective struggle to get through the recession. However, when Waitrose introduced its sleekly packed Essentials range, I sensed it would be a game changer. There was nothing in the Essentials' packaging that marked it out so obviously as a value product. Perhaps the consumer has begun to feel self-conscious, even stigmatised, by pushing a trolley packed full of blue and white striped packages. Maybe there is a sense in which they feel it marks them out to their fellow shoppers as struggling a bit more, not being able to afford the branded goods. Even in recession it can still be a "Keep up with the Joneses" world. Hence Tesco's decision to ditch the stripes with the launch of its new Everyday Value range, with new colourful and more subtle packaging, is an interesting move. Although Tesco points out it’s not a straight like-for-like swap, the addition of the word "everyday" implies routine as opposed to "cheap as chips" whilst the new packaging creates less negative stand-out in the trolley. Value has been good for Tesco and has been good for the industry. It provided the platform for Tesco's dominance of the supermarket sector which, together with its Finest range, enabled it to pitch against Lidl, Aldi and ASDA at one end whilst Finest pitched it against Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer at the other. It has enabled the multiples to compete across branded products across the complete category mix. But one consequence of the recession seems to be consumers being polarised across a number of sectors. There appears to be life at the economy end of the market and life at the higher end, but like so much of the country, the middle is being squeezed. It’s always been difficult for retailers to operate convincingly in both sectors. This latest move by Tesco may be the first step towards positioning it at the middle-higher end of the market in time for the recovery if – and when – it finally materialises.