Many will agree that the famous department store has become an unfathomable jungle of labels which host no brand philosophy behind them: Autograph, Indigo, Portfolio are all just labels with no stark or customer-noticed identity. The only sub-brand that anyone truly recognises is Per Una which made the brand an reported £500m in 2008. I think this has a lot to do with attention to the brand and the detail of the product as well as a clear and significant financial investment in the brand's promotion. Only Per Una has specific branded carrier bags.
In fact, I was at a presentation and networking evening recently headed up by Geek Branding Consultancy and the topic of M&S came up as Bolland had only recently been given the M&S crown. Rafael Gilston, co-founder of Geek, said of the M&S shopping experience 'it's just a sea of product' and that the test of a true brand was whether or not it could stand up on it's own, he said that he felt 'only Per Una is ready for that'.
I am not going to ramble on about Marc Bolland's many challenges, as you can read about them everywhere. I just hope that the Mother of the highstreet remains so under Bolland that that the sub-brands he axes make room for others to flourish. I don't think M&S would do too well if it went the way of NEXT and dramatically limited its sub-brand offer. Nor, however do I believe allowing square-footage to sub-brands that customers do not identify with is a good plan either. I look forward to seeing where Bolland's axe falls.
End.
