Uncovering how parents really cook — and how Tesco could help them
A life-proof food content strategy and operational redesign to support it
Context
Tesco is the UK's largest supermarket — but its food quality perception consistently lagged behind competitors, despite products that scored well in blind tests.
Tesco wanted to improve quality association by taking a stand on democratising home cooking. They went about it by sharing inspiration and recipes. We found out that wasn't actually the answer.
£103 millions
increase in sales per 1% improvement in Tesco quality perception.
Parents with kids aged 2 to 10:
the segment with the lowest quality perception scores — and the most to gain.
Phase 1: Understanding parents' reality in the kitchen, the aisles and the everyday
Three methods to understand barriers, drivers and how UK families actually plan, buy and cook.
Shadowing in-store
and at home
where we observed decision-making in context, habits and shortcuts visible in real time.
7 day digital diaries
where we captured actual meal and shopping patterns as they happened, not as people remembered them
12 home Interviews
where we uncovered the realities, tensions and unmet needs behind how families approach meals
We identified a value-action gap between what parents aspire to do and their realities.
Tesco was speaking to the aspiration. Nobody was designing for the reality.
Aspiration: Eat exciting meals
Reality: Everyday cooking is routineAspiration: Providing healthy, guilt-free meals
Reality: Giving in and feeling guiltyAspiration: Providing for everybody with minimal effort
Reality: Having to cater to everybody’s different tastesAspiration: Savvy with time and money
Reality: Too busy to get organisedAspiration: Trying something new without risk
Reality: Sticking to what works
Gap 1 sits at the heart of the disconnection of what Tesco wanted to give parents and what they actually needed.
Aspiration: Cook inspirational and varied meals
Reality: Everyday cooking is routine
Fast, simple, done
On weeknights, parents heat up, combine, and make do with what's there quickly. There is no time to follow a recipe that leaves ingredients that won’t be used again.
eg. I need to feel like I cooked something nice even if it's quick, so that I feel I'm doing my best as a parent.
Routine by necessity, not by choice
Most families rotate the same 5–10 meals. Trying something new risks rejection, waste and having to cook something again. Many parents stop trying and accept blandness until kids grow up.
eg. I need to ‘perk up’ everyday meals, so that we enjoy our food more and don't get bored.
No headspace to do differently
Parents default to their routine way of approaching meal planning, shopping and cooking. They have little time, energy or brain space to consider doing things differently.
eg. I need to be given meal ideas at the right point, when I’m deciding what to make, so that I can incorporate the ingredients into my shop.
We translated our learnings into an interconnected set of artefacts.
User groups, defined by planning, shopping and cooking patterns, each came with their own user journey mapping associated needs. The 50+ user needs were mapped across user groups, journey stages, brand pillars and existing Tesco propositions.
Phase 2: Actioning research — embedding learnings and journey thinking into six teams' roadmaps via workshops
Prioritisation
🧮 Assessed how existing propositions currently meet user needs
📡 Prioritised 6 teams to engage:
- Tesco Recipe website
- Tesco Food Magazine
- Food Love Stories campaigns
- Meal bundles
- Counters
- Spoon Guru (partner)
Mapping and opportunities
🗺️ Introduced journey mapping as a shared working methodology
🧩 Unpacked most relevant user needs for each team
⚙️ Mapped current operations and enablers against the user journey
📍 Identified opportunities throughout the journey
Ideation
💡 Moved from early ideas into concepts
🎯 Scoped improvements teams could undertake independently vs those requiring central planning and funding
Phase 3: Setting teams up for success by establishing the missing enablers: a shared content strategy and the operational requirements to deliver it.
Evolved and shared editorial line, aligned to Tesco’s positioning and reduce dispersion
Everyday life-proof food that people will actually make, more practical than aspirational, spotlighting produces to associate great tasting food with products, not just to recipes.
Lowered perceived barriers to entry: under 6 ingredients easy to find and reuse, under 5 preparation steps without nested steps.
New formats: inspiration beyond recipes
Inspiration to do more and try new things, without falling back into recipes that come across as too much efforts
• Ingredients and product associations
• Small additions or helpful swaps
• Cooking techniques
Inspiration where decision happen, leveraging content in-store
Through existing:
• Support counter colleagues to share inspiration with customers
• Need state-based meal bundles
New curated inspiration via effective placement,
A content strategy is nothing without the operational rails to deliver it. We established the omnichannel content management and commissioning requirements
A shared CMS aligned to each channel's requirements — so content created once can be surfaced everywhere it's relevant
A consolidated commissioning process to stop duplicating content efforts across channels and meet all channels content readiness requirements
A shared dished taxonomy and standards to commission content that is actually relevant to different user groups and need states