Who's winning the high street PR war?

As we head into the festive season, many commentators are predicting the worst Christmas in living memory on the UK high street. Just as they did last year.

However, we probably ought to be taking the pessimists more seriously this time. In autumn 2007, the credit crunch was still a story in the newspapers. We had yet to see several high street banks brought to their knees or significant job losses.

A quick glance at the coverage rankings of this year’s Presswatch Rankings shows how media views have changed. In 2007, M&S and John Lewis were riding high in first and second place, enjoying more good coverage than their rivals. While media response to M&S’s products and glitzy advertising has remained favourable, by July 2008, the big story in retail has been the rise of the hard discounters.

Though barely on the media radar last year, the likes of Aldi and Lidl have enjoyed a huge increase in the volume and favourability of their coverage. Taking, respectively, the first and second spots in July, Aldi and Lidl have held on to these rankings ever since.

It has been a long hard slog for the hard discounters, who made little impact for years after they started trading in the UK (Aldi first arrived here in 1989; Lidl in 1994). Richard Fletcher of the Daily Telegraph praised the German chains for persevering with their UK stores, despite getting a “lukewarm reception” at first: “That patience may be about to pay off. Aldi and Lidl finally appear to be making inroads into the UK market” (20/08/08).

Some commentators still turn their noses up at the stores (the interior of Aldi reminded one journalist of “East Germany before the wall came down”). But for cash-strapped shoppers, the discounters have increasing appeal.

There was firm evidence that the traditional ‘Big Four’ grocers are taking the threat from the likes of Aldi and Lidl seriously when the leader of the pack, Tesco, recently started promoting itself as ‘Britain’s biggest discounter’. Fergus Shanahan of the Sun saw Tesco’s re-branding as “a triumph for the power of competition” (28/10/08).

While more of us may be carrying Aldi and Lidl shopping bags this Christmas, some things remain the same. Last year Tesco shrugged off pundits’ predictions of poor Christmas trading with December results that showed a characteristically solid performance. They’ve just done it again. The rise of Aldi and Lidl didn’t stop the nation’s leading retailer from wowing the City with their October trading statement. Few would bet against Tesco continuing to defy the pessimists into 2009. But as to whether Aldi and Lidl have permanently grabbed a bigger part of the consumer pie, we’ll have to wait and see.