For over 100 years Marks and Spencer has
been an institution on the UK High Street. This isn't a brand that has popped
up over night as part of the digital revolution or developed as part of a
multi-national strategy. M&S is as British as tennis, Eastenders and Sunday
Dinners. Should we therefore be worried that the brand has experienced a recent
decline in brand perception?
M&S has recently experienced a
tempestuous time when it comes to its trade and sales figures. 2010 was a
particularly challenging time that led to a complete overhaul of the leadership
team. Since that point M&S worked hard to turn the tide with particular
emphasis on addressing the negative public perception and improving the
reputation of the company. Initially the turnaround was a success for M&S
and going into 2012 this led to improved sales and a steady growth for the company.
However, the recent decline in brand perception is inline with a decline in
sales of the M&S clothing range. Does this lead us to believe that the
British public has fallen out of love with M&S fashion?
As a jack of all trades M&S run the
risk of positioning themselves as a master of none, and this maybe particularly
prevalent in the fast pace world of fashion. Primark are clearly positioned at
the price sensitive end of the market with strong competition from Tesco and
Asda and I won’t even try to list the amount of brands that position themselves
towards the mid to upmarket end. I struggle to try and determine where M&S
sees itself and its clothing product offering in the UK market. Taking this
into consideration I’m not too surprised that clothing is bringing the rest of
Marks & Spencer’s estate down.
You have to question if life would be made
easier for M&S if there were clear insight decisions driving the ranging of
clothing within its stores. You would struggle to find Tesco ranging clothing
within its Express format. Now of course M&S don’t have the luxury of
smaller size formats on the UK High Street so essentially have to offer all
‘under one roof’. One-size fits all may have worked fine in the past but the UK
consumer in today’s world have a plethora of choice, particularly when you
consider the growing number of multi-channel savvy consumer who will shop
around before making a choice. It may therefore be little surprise that M&S
continue to experience decline in an area of the store with no clear direction
or targeting of a segment of the market.
Alarm bells won’t be ringing yet but
M&S have a clear decision they need to make when it comes to the product
offering. How long will the decision makers continue to support a clothing
range if it isn’t fit for purpose in today’s age? Growth is essential for
long-term stability and there are clear differences in the performance of
categories within the chain. They can stick or twist with the clothing range
but if they continue to support it The Brand Avenger would like to see a clear
mission statement and a focus on one segment of customer as opposed to
continuing to be a lost cause in the multi-channel world of fashion.
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