University Report: Analysis of Tesco's Customer Attrition (MSc PDP)

This report examines the issue of high customer attrition faced by Tesco, a major UK-based retail organization. The report begins by outlining the problem, including its impact on profitability and the broader business environment. It then explores the research methodology, including the sources of information used, such as the company's official website, annual reports, and secondary data like newspaper articles and academic journals. The study utilizes analytical tools like the Customer Life Cycle, Marketing Funnel, and Marketing Mix to pinpoint the causes of customer attrition, focusing on factors such as business competition and the slow embrace of e-commerce. The report concludes with recommendations for Tesco to address customer attrition, with the goal of enhancing customer loyalty and improving overall business performance.

Your Name
Your Student Number
Company Name
Company Location
Why do you want to research this company?
The issues currently faced by Tesco like business competition, the need to embrace e-
commerce model of business, high customer attrition and others and also the strategies
that it has adopted to overcome or mitigate them will help me to understand the
professional business world in an effective manner.
PDP/ESAP Management Report Proposal Form
Task 1. The Research Question (Topic)
Write one (1) clearly stated question related to an issue/challenge your selected organisation
faces. This is your main research topic. It may change slightly as you begin the research process
based on availability of information, narrowing of the scope, change in interest, etc.
Examples:
 How the high customer attrition rate that the organisation Tesco faced adversely affected
its profitability and what could have been done to avoid it?
Task 2. What do I need to Know to Answer the Question?
Identify a minimum of 3 (Maximum of 5) sub-questions which go directly towards answering your
main research question. What is/are key issue(s) behind the challenge?
1. What were the factors which contribute towards the high customer attrition that Tesco
faced?
2. How did the loss of loyal customers affect the business prospects of Tesco in UK?
3. How can organisations like Tesco reduce their customer attrition rate so as to enhance
their profitability?
Task 3. Sources of Information
Where will you find information with which to answer your question? Are you certain you can
access that information? If you’re thinking of original research, state the format(s) and consider
the amount of time required.
The information needed for the completion of the research work will be collected from the official
website of the organisation. The researcher will in particular use the annual reports, financial
statements and similar ones published by the organisation. In addition to these, the researcher
will also take the help of different kinds of secondary data like newspaper articles, peer-reviewed

articles, books and other sources of secondary information related to the topic under discussion
here. The researcher will focus mainly on secondary data and primary data will not be collected
for the research because of time and resource constraint.
Task 4. Define the Report’s objectives (Scope)
What do you hope will be achieved by answering your main research question? Where will you
define the boundaries of your report? What won’t you cover?
I would like to say that because of resource and time constraints, certain concepts or things which
are related to the topic like High Street supermarket wars, the failure of Tesco in USA’s retail
business market and others. The researcher will solely focus on the issue of high customer
attrition that Tesco faced.
Task 3. Explain the Report’s Structure
Give a brief outline of the report. It should be closely related to the structure given in the
Assessment Guidance section of the brief.
The report will begin by offering an overview of the organisation Tesco and also the issue that it is
facing currently, namely the problem of high customer attrition rate and its impact on the
profitability of the concerned organisation. The report will next discuss the manner in which the
information needed for the completion of the research work had been collected and also the way
in which the information have been analysed. The researcher will next take the help of different
kinds of analytical tools like Customer Life Cycle, Marketing Funnel, Customer Decision Making
model, Marketing Mix and other similar ones to determine the main causes of the issue that the
organisation is currently facing. In addition to this, the researcher will also show how the failure to
embrace the e-commerce model of business and other innovative technologies reduced the
satisfaction level of the customers of Tesco and thereby led to the problem of customer attrition
that Tesco is still reeling from, albeit in a smaller manner. The researcher will finally conclude the
report by recommending some measures through the use of which the organisation can address
the issue that it is currently facing in an effective manner.