The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Tesco enters the festive fight

01.11.07 Graeme Neill

Tesco unveiled its biggest books push yet this week with the launch of its Christmas campaign, which will see the chain introduce its first books-only catalogue along with aggressive pricing on key titles.

The news came as rival Asda geared up for a books-only press campaign in November and pledged to deliver the cheapest books offer in the run-up to Christmas. Sainsbury's, meanwhile, rolled out a new two-for-£20 hardback offer across stores yesterday.

A 20-page dedicated books catalogue highlighting around 150 titles was due to go into Tesco stores this week. Book buying manager Gaynor Allen said it will showcase Tesco's instore book offer in stores, as well as pointing customers towards its website's 500,000 titles.

Tesco's Christmas store offer will see eight hardback books highlighted per fortnight, priced at £12 or two for £20, as part of a wider two for £20 offer across 40 titles. Launching the campaign this week are new titles by authors including Patricia Cornwell, Andy McNab, James Patterson and Ian Botham.

Tesco book sections were given new Christmas-focused point-of-sale material from yesterday [Thursday], with a "Great gifts" strapline. "We have been performing quite strongly," said Allen. "Christmas only really kicked in last week, but we have been ahead of the market and growing our own market share." She pointed to the chart-topping Guinness Book of Records, for which Tesco has dumpbins in more than 500 stores and on which Allen said Tesco has trebled its sales compared to last year.

Asda launched its "gimmick-free" Christmas campaign two weeks ago. "We have been selecting the key titles and price promoting them by offering the likes of Michael Palin or Sharon Osbourne for £9," said book buyer Steph Bateson.

Asda is also running a hardback and paperback book of the week offer, with this week's featuring Book of the Dead for £9 and Katie Price's Crystal for £3.50. Around 40 books are highlighted in Asda's Christmas catalogue.

"We don't envisage any changes because we are clearly the cheapest in the Christmas market by around £3 per title," said Bateson. "We are comfortable with where we are on both price and range. Some further promotions will be launched in the run-up to Christmas but we will watch how the market goes."

Sainsbury's new hardback offer gives customers two hardbacks for £20 on Sainsbury's top 80 hardback chart. The supermarket recently dropped the price on the majority of its paperback chart to £3.99, and will also sell a fortnightly book of the week at £3.49.

Retail tesco Graeme Neill Christmas