Five years ago, Marks and Spencer’s dropped out of the FTSE 100 in a major blow for one of the UK’s biggest retailers. Share prices were close to a 20-year low, annual profits had slumped and the company chair promised a radical shake up to improve business.
Fast forward to 2024 and M&S is officially cool again. Clothing and home sales have soared, and M&S Food is popular thanks to it catering to customer’s dual demands of both value daily items and higher end dine in options.
Here are some of the ways M&S has gone from frumpy to fashionable…
Formerly associated with dates frocks and nude underwear, M&S has become a go to stop on the high street with trend led collections, often going viral online and selling out.
Clothing’s overhaul has been credited to Womenswear Director Maddy Evans, formerly of Topshop. Maddy helped to change the design process and crucially the mindset of the brand to target a younger demographic, whilst still maintaining the loyal older M&S customer base.
M&S is now becoming known for trend led pieces whilst remaining good quality, flattering and with consistent sizing across different items.
As part of this change, photography, styling and advertising have all been crucial. With showstopping and fun advertisements and memorable slogan’s such as its latest: ‘Big Autumn Energy’ campaign, M&S is positioning itself a jewel in the British high street’s crown once again.
Working with influencers has also been crucial for the brand in changing perceptions, with most saying along the lines of “I can’t believe this is M&S!”.
The brand has been working with influencers of different ages and body types to showcase the different products. This has also helped to align key messages of its clothing being for every body type and reliable quality, compared to other fast fashion retailers.
M&S has also embraced TikTok to appeal to a younger demographic, with huge success especially in promoting its food hall items. Popular videos include people hunting down its yellow sticker discounted items, dine in for two deals, food hauls with prices comparable to budget supermarkets and new product releases, including its ‘fully loaded’ dips which went on to sell out in stores across the UK after videos went viral.
As part of celebrating the ‘beginnings of a new M&S’, the retailer has also partnered with ITV on a TV show which will consist of a nationwide search for its next in-house designer.
The TV show is a clever move in widening the brands appeal even further at a time when it is being spoken about by many on social media and in press, also being on TV showcases a 360 approach to promotion.
M&S: Dress the Nation, will be hosted by AJ Odudu and Vernon Kay, and will document the hiring process over six episodes, with the winner joining one of the design teams at M&S in London’s Paddington.
At a time when online shopping is at an all-time high, UK high street closures are often in the news.
The BBC reports, a total of 6,945 stores have closed so far in 2024, which is the equivalent of 38 shops per day. However, taking into account new store openings, there’s only a net closure of 12 stores a day, which is slightly higher than the same period last year.
Whilst high street footfall is declining, retail park footfall has outpaced the high street. Retail parks which offer added convenience and often free parking have seen an increase in shoppers.
With M&S emerging as a ‘reshaped business’, the retailer has outlined its plans for a ‘new M&S’ with updated offerings and additional store roll outs. M&S is currently opening brand-new stores and ‘rotating their estate’ by relocating smaller stores to new and bigger sites, or redefining existing full-line stores that sell clothing, home and food to brand new ‘bigger, better, fresher’ Foodhall concepts.
M&S has over 100 new stores in its pipeline to launch in the next few years, as well as becoming Net-Zero by 2040.
All of these aspects combined are helping to establish M&S as a leader in the UK retail sector with a positive outlook that many brands will want to emulate. Formerly thought of as struggling and on the out, M&S has revitalised its offering to entice new target demographics and pump-up profits.
