A Critical Evaluation of the Marks and Spencer Brand

Contents 1. Introduction........................................................................................................ ............................ 3 2. Brief history of Marks & brand.................................................................................... 3. Aakers (2002) Model for building ........................................................... 4 a strong Spencer 3 brand....

a. Customer Analysis . 4 b. Competitor Analysis . 5 c. Self Analysis . 7 d. Brand identity and Value proposition . 8 e. Positioning 10 f. Execution 11 g. Tracking 12 4. Brand Portfolio.................................................................................. ................... 14 5. Celebrity Endorsements . 18 6. Conclusion.......................................................................................................... ........................... 19 7. References......................................................................................................... ........................... 21 8. Appendix............................................................................................................ ........................... 23

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a) PESTEL Analysis 23 b) Aakers (2002) Model for building a strong brand 24 c) Intangible Businesses department store brand league table... 24 d) M&S ranked 3rd most valuable brand.. 25 e) Supermarket market share. .. 25 f) 7 Ps Marketing Mix 26 g) Snapshot of Marks and Spencers Website 26 h) Marks and Spencers official social networking site Facebook. 27 i) Example of a positive Customer Experience through Facebook 27 j) Email correspondence with M&S 28 k) Illustration of how targeted segments have increased dramatically.. 29 l) Customer recruitment from celebrity fan base ............................... ... 29 m) Take That Ad Campaign 2007 Article from Daily Mail... 30

1. Introduction The aim of this report is to critically evaluate the brand of Marks and Spencers (M&S). In order to do this I shall divide the report into 5 sections. The first section will give a brief description of M&S and the history of the brand. The second shall concentrate on Aakers (2002) model of a strong brand. The third will discuss the development of the M&S brand portfolio, followed by section on celebrity endorsements. Throughout I will be drawing on academic literature, theories, industry reports, corporate data as well as my own personal experiences to attempt 3|Page

to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the M&S brand, before finally in section five reaching conclusions on whether or not the Marks and Spencer brand is considered successful.

2. Marks & Spencers Brief Summary

Marks and Spencers (M&S) is a high profile British retail brand, operating through department and food stores which was established in 1884 in Leeds. Today the firm has a chain of 670 stores and operates in 40 countries globally, employing 77 864 staff. In 2009, revenue reached 12,876.3 million - 90% of this revenue was generated in the United Kingdom (Source of statistics: Yahoo Finance). Industry reports suggest that the M&S brand and its values is one of the main reasons behind the organisations success. It is considered a captive brand, selling its own products nationally, which are exclusive to the M&S stores. The offering of the brand has grown significantly over the past 20 years, from initially offering just food and clothing; it has stretched its brand portfolio to include homeware, finance and cosmetics. The M&S brand appears effective at being able to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Appendix A). The M&S brand is centred on the organisations core values; Quality, Value, Service, Innovation & Trust.

M&S is renowned for its white and green store fronts which are prominent on the British high street. The interior of the store is clean, well organised and simple. It is currently under the management of chief executive Stuart Rose who has previously managed Argos and Arcadia he claims to have revived the M&S brand whether he has done this successfully or not will be the focus of the report.

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3. Aakers Model: Building a strong brand A successful brand must be managed effectively; a key component of brand management is the firms ability to manage processes such as creating a brand identity, brand image, brand personality and brand positioning, the adoption of channels to communicate these and the management of customer feedback through brand tracking. The effective development of the above is core to brand equity building (Laforet 2010) which shall be discussed later on in the report. In this section Aakers (2002) model of building a strong brand (cited in Laforet 2010 p 126 Appendix B) will be applied to the M&S brand. This framework will not only allow for an in-depth analysis of the brand but it will also provide a basis for critical evaluation, helping to highlight any areas of strength or weakness in regards to the M&S brand. I shall be drawing on other theory where appropriate.

a) Customer Analysis The retail industrys success is largely determined by how much disposable income people have to spend due to recent economic conditions the industry has been affected and hence competition has increased to fight for the pennies in the consumers purse and the need to communicate brands value proposition to the customer has become ever more crucial.

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As customers determine the success of a brand it is important that we understand them and who they are it will also allow us to see if M&S are targeting the right segments. According to brand republic a large proportion of retail shopping is done by women who are in full time employment, either shopping for themselves and their partners and one in three women in the UK is said to wear an M&S bra. b) Competitor Analysis Below is a diagram to illustrate some of M&S major brand rivals and their offerings. As M&S have department stores in city centres, simply food stores at train stations and various other outlets they have a complex relationship with competitors, competing in various different sectors in the form of; Supermarkets, Clothing Specialists and Department Stores.

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(Brand Value and Ranking values extracted from intangiblebusiness.com report - 2008 top 100 successful retail brands. Not an exhaustive list of M&S competitors just the main ones)

It is clear that M&S is operating in heavily competitive sectors; its biggest rivalry seems to come from Sainsburys and John Lewis as they provide similar value propositions to the customer. One of and M&S strengths lies in the vulnerabilities of other competitors and their focus on profits, M&S is renowned for its quality of service whereas Tesco and Sainsburys are renowned for their unfriendly staff(*). When looking at the The Top 100 Retail brands of 2008 (Intangible Business) 7|Page

report, the M&S brand is ranked the 3rd most successful brand the retail industry. It also recognises M&S as the most valued brand in the department store sector (Appendix C) stating that this is largely due to the introduction of the Your M&S campaign (Appendix D). However, other industry reports show that M&S is underperforming in the supermarket sector, only holding a 6% market share (Appendix E).

c) Self Analysis This section will make it clear what the M&S brand is about. It is important to highlight this as it will provide the basis for evaluation on how successfully M&S has communicated this identity and value proposition to the market and its customers.

It is clear that the M&S brand prides itself on its traditional organisational values and the quality of its products and service. M&S must be doing something right as despite unfavourable economic conditions, profits have continuously increased over the past 7 years.
Year Profit (m) 2008 1,211.3 2007 1,045.9 2006 850.1 2005 598.1

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(Figures taken from M&S five year review report: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/investors/fin_highlights/five_year_record)

One of the criticisms levelled towards the M&S brand is that over the past three years, M&S market share in food and clothing has remained basically the same and they seem to be quite content with this which does not seem a fitting mentality for such a high profile brand who heavily promotes innovation and its vision to be the standard to which all others are measured. A leading city analyst states that M&S appears to be happy to maintain market share but I would argue that, with its strong branding and its immense buying power, it should really be going for it(Marketing Magazine). M&S has a high brand equity this has increased year on year since 2000. In 2009 it was brand equity was valued at 400m (M&S website), it is important to recognise that brand equity is a widely accepted concept yet the definition is frustratingly elusive (Knowles 2008), in other words there are various ways to calculate it so it would not be meaningful to compare with its competitors. It is argued that the better the brand the healthier the equity will be whilst this is not necessarily the case, having such high equity is considered a positive attribute to a brand, as it can provide a solid base for product launches, can offset decline in Market share during price and promotion wars (Nanodan 2004) and can cushion the impact of external pressures by enabling them to act quickly (see Appendix A for examples).

d) Brand Identity & Value proposition

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Some commentators within the literature argue that this model has limitations due to the confusion caused by combining different dimensions of brand identity into brand personality. Kapferer (2002) argues it is better to revitalise the original term of brand identity as an overall description of the brand. Therefore in order to eradicate this limitation, I shall also apply his model, the brand identity prism.

Both models illustrate that the M&S brand closely reflects the organisations fundamental values, which in theory is said to provide a source of sustainable competitive advantage (Fombrun cited in Nanodan 2004). This can lead to customer loyalty in face of intense competition and trying times the fact that M&Ss profits were increasing despite the economic climate may be testament to this. Brand consultancy BrandzTM shows the M&S brand to have a classic status, they consider classic brands to be positive at all levels of the customer-brand relationship from awareness to loyalty (Brandz.com) However, this was not always the case and in 2000 it was considered a brand defending its position within the market. One of the areas that these models differ is that Kapferer recognises brand culture. This is heavily promoted in other literature with lots labelling brands as cultural 10 | P a g e

artefacts (Pettinger 2004) it is therefore suggested that there is a significant interrelationship between cultural structures and brand meanings (Thompson 2004). When M&S is talked about, people understand its strong British heritage and quality of service and values, infusing the culture with its meaning (Schroeder 2006) and in this instance M&S is considered a strong brand as it is built on strong meanings (Soloman 2008). What a brand thinks or would like their brand represents is only a small part of the equation to being successful. One of the most important factors necessary to understand is how the brand is perceived by both potential and actual customers, if there are any discrepancies between the two, M&S have not communicated or managed its brand effectively and this would suggest a huge area of weakness. This now leads us on to examine whether or not this is the case by looking at the positioning of the M&S brand within its operating sectors through the eyes of the consumer. e) Brand Position In an attempt to keep a level of subjectivity, these perceptual charts have been constructed after examining many consultancy websites, consumer forums such as social networking sites and Fizz-back a customer feedback site. This enabled me to gain insights on consumer views and insights rather than being based purely based on my own opinion.

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Here we can see that in the eyes of the consumer M&S occupy the position of being fairly innovative at a reasonable price this is in keeping with their brand image and how they want to be perceived hence they have communicated this well. Too low a price suggests low quality and being considered too traditional can suggest that you are outdated.

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In regards to the supermarket industry M&S occupies a high quality - high price position. There seems to be a slight discrepancy here as I believe that M&S perceive themselves at a high quality reasonable price position. However it does move them away from too closely competing with Sainsburys and in both sectors M&S holds a distinguished market space in the mind of the target consumer, giving it a good position which helps differentiate their value claim from that of their competitors. This means that occupying this position is likely to give them a sustainable competitive advantage (Laforet 2010). M&S appear to have executed their branding strategy quite well. Now it will be discussed how it was done. f) Execution

One of the major reasons is due to the engineering of a successful marketing mix (Appendix F). Part of this is its 'Click and mortar strategy' (Laforet 2010) where a mix of on and offline channels are used only in recent years has M&S been considered an internet e-brand, CIOS magazine included M&S in the top 100 users of IT. In recent years M&S was considered slow and accused of falling out of touch with the consumers to avoid these associations in 2008 400m was invested in its IT system, funding new financial software, hand held computers for stock taking and a 13 | P a g e

dedicated warehouse for its online sales. It has invested heavily in its online store (Appendix G), in 2009 sales online reached 324m, with an ambitious target of 500m in 2011 One of the downsides to their online store is that they have not made it efficient enough for them to be able to sell food and offer a delivery service this is missing out on potential sales. Another way M&S has executed their brand strategy is through emotive language and metaphors e.g. Your M&S and its not just food its M&S food (said in their adverts in a seductive voice) this grabs the attention of the customer and makes you feel part of or want to be part of the M&S culture. Another apparent strength with the M&S brand lies within the management behind it that recognise the need for a value based strategy not just for the shareholder, but also for customer (Knowles 2008). Successful brands are the ones that base their strategies around the customer (Laforet 2010). g) Tracking

M&S recognise that branding is not just visual, and a critical component is relationship building and the customer experience. They are aware that brand identities are built through integrated marketing communications and any communicative practice or behaviour contributes to brand building (Laforet 2010). In this respect M&S are quite advanced in comparison to their competitors, they have set up an online community, with a company page on the social networking site Facebook (Appendix H) where they have 120,000 friends they can interact and engage with customers in real time, asking for their opinions. For example a question asked by M&S to its customers was what would you do if you were in charge of M&S for a day? They also resolve issues for customers on a one-to-one basis, e.g. Appendix I and ask for product preferences suggesting that it is also a valuable data source to them. On the other hand customers and members of staff express concern about how unhelpful and unfriendly staff/colleagues. I can also support a similar example(Appendix J), when I wrote to M&S via email to ask them for more detail

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about their financial statements, their reply was not very helpful and they did not go that extra step, which they claim gives them a competitive advantage. It seems that a big weakness lies in the lack of consistency of their brand values; a strong brand has to make sure that brand values, such as a high customer experience are consistently communicated across all channels, so externally to customers and suppliers as well internally to staff and management (Laforet 2010). Fournier (1998) illustrates the fragile nature of the customer-brand relationship. It is more fragile in the case of sincere brands like M&S as customers make assumptions in regards to a brands personality over a long period of time and grow to have high expectations - if M&S do something wrong in the eyes of the consumer and alter the balance of the relationship it can be damaging for the brands reputation as well as profits hence why interaction & engagement at a one to one level is extremely important to maintain a strong successful brand. Another example of tracking is how M&S have signed up to Fizzback a professional website designed for customers to leave feedback for other consumers and the company better to be proactive than do nothing at all. If they havent already I think it would be beneficial if they invest with an agency such a Nielson (www.nielson-online.com) to produce a brand association map this will collect and analyse customer conversations online and see what words and phrases are used and associated to them and the industrythis will allow M&S to see if their brand identity has been communicated and interpreted as theyd like it to be whilst also gathering valuable data so they can be ahead of the game.

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4. Brand Portfolio In this section the concentration shall turn to M&S brand offerings and how successfully they have altered the brand portfolio in order to meet changing customer demands and market conditions. Below we can see that the M&S brand began with the focus being on a single brand St Michaels which was a family brand, where all its product items across both food and drink, shared this basic brand name (Pride & Ferrell 1977). It was symbolised by quality and was considered a British Icon reflecting a quintessentially British image. Even though the brand was extended in the 1950s to include St Margarets to appeal to the female segment, when it reached the 1990s revenues and profits decreased and the brand image was viewed by customers as traditional but outdated for example, it would not accept credit cards for payment of goods and it remained closed on a Sunday and would only sell British goods (Mahr 2006).

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Due to changing fashions, cultural diversity, globalisation, increased competition and lack of differentiation, M&S was accused of losing touch with its customer base. It had to respond quickly and become more complex to adapt to the difficult trading conditions and gain a sustainable competitive advantage (Laforet 2010). As we can see from diagram below they have done this with a huge re-brand from St Michaels to Your M&S. The attention shall now turn to the current structure of the brand. The brand is now considered an Umbrella Brand and has been stretched and extended dramatically both horizontally and vertically to include different product areas such as finance and homeware with an array of different sub-brands.

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The attention shall now turn to the strengths and weaknesses of this transition and the impact they have had on the brand. One of the major strengths of the brand overhaul was that the St Michaels brand was phased out slowly rather than just banished; this reduced the confusion to the customers. An example of this is when the store fronts and packaging changed from St Michael to 'M&S', the St Michael logo was still displayed on receipts and the back of products stating the 'St Michael Quality Guarantee' and this was slowly fizzled out when management decided that the M&S brand identity had been accepted in conjunction with the same old values. Then new sub-brands were gradually introduced, such as Per Una to appeal to women aged 30-50, blue harbour to appeal to middle aged men (see Appendix K). It is represented in the literature that a combination of brands within the portfolio can be a key factor to develop growth and equity (Chalain 2006) so in a sense it has been successful at aiming these at such an array of different segments in order to extend their customer base. Some branding consultants labelled M&S the superstar 18 | P a g e

of brand stretch (Brand Republic) however, such super-branding borrows heavily of the equity of the core brand identity, therefore over extension of the brand is at risk of diluting the core M&S brand (Laforet 2010). I believe that this highlights a major weakness, in my opinion the brand has been overstretched and too many sub-brands have been added, these could alter the main personality and contradict the British image and values that M&S has been based on for over a hundred years, and has been fundamental to the success of the brand. Such a large extension in the portfolio can put a strain on resources and core competencies and as a result could be spread too thinly and again jeopardise the performance of the brand. This shall be illustrated through Laforets brand relationship and interactions framework (2010 p 186).

Here we can see that the foreign named sub-brands that appear throughout the M&S portfolio, extensions such as Per Una, Collezione, Florentyna, Sumpima and Ceriso. These sub-brands could be viewed in a positive light as they are trying to appeal to more customers in different segments as M&S brand image is based around its Britishness and these names reflect continental identities in reality it could have the reverse affect, and is at risk of confusing the already loyal customer due to the lack of brand associations with the core brand. 19 | P a g e

Another weakness that is evident is in the past few months M&S have made the strategic decision to stock other already established brands in their stores, these include; Walkers, Cadburys, Colgate, Heinz, Fairy, Persil, Hovis to name a few. The literature suggests that these already established brands are a less risky strategy to pursue, however through the application of the above framework I am inclined to disagree. As we can see these brands have their own individual values and can add negative brand associations to the M&S brand. Also offering their competitors products alongside their own seems like a ludicrous strategy, especially as they have only stocked the highest quality brands that specialise in their product area, customers are only going to compare with their own branded goods thinking which adds the most value this is a high threat to the M&S brand. Also after speaking with my grandma who has shopped in M&S for decades her opinion as a customer is that you can go anywhere for the other branded products, but you go to M&S for their own branded products and the experience that comes with it. She feels as though it is has taken something special away in branding terminology it has undermined the M&S brand and creates a confused image. It is apparent that such brand extension and co-branding is an attempt by M&S to stretch the brands territory beyond its core and leverage established brand equity (Uggla 2004). Tauber (2004) developed two criteria for successful brand extension and cobranding these were effective leveraging and the extent of fit with the core values of the brand again this only highlights how little fit there is with the M&S values, especially as M&S is identified as one of the leading companies for own brand development (Toda 2009) in this sense I think recently the M&S brand has lost direction, deviating from what initially made it so successful. Whilst M&S have a strong management this as well appears to be one of its weaknesses - CEO Stuart Rose previously specialised in clothing markets, I think that he is overexerting M&S and its resources in this respect and not in other areas such as the food which I think is losing its direction.

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5. Celebrity Endorsements This section will examine the use of celebrity endorsements; the use of a wellknown person to promote a company brand (Pickton + Broderick, cited in Laforet 2010) and whether or not such an activity has contributed to the strength of the brand, in order to do this the FATEP model shall be applied.
FATEP Model Fit/ Match: The Celebrity/ Brand Fit. Twiggy Good fit as Twiggy considered classy and has been around for decades people can associate with her. Take That Been around for a long time - established band for many years a sense of a family unit and until recently have been renowned for being well mannered. Ties in with M&S brand values, Good fit. Danni Minogue Not British but high profile celebrity who is well liked by public. Doesnt quite fit with the brand values as her style is a bit edgy. Naomi Campbell Although she is a famous British supermodel She does not fit with the brand values as has reputation for being rude, moody and aggressive.

Considered a Celebrity/Bran d Target Segments Fit Fits with middle aged women Women and men aged 1845 fashion Icon among the 18-40 female segment.

She is not very well liked and not sure what segment shed appeal too maybe fashionistas

Promoting suits - Will Attractiveness -Identification Classic British Fashion Icon. encourage men to buy who aspire to be like them and also to women to buy for their partners as they fancy them. Trustworthine ss Very Were at time of campaign but Not Recently.

An attempt by M&S to show that they can be fashionable and edgy.

Little attraction although as she is a British supermodel she would make the clothes look good.

Very

Not at all

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Expertise

Fashion

Music

Music/Fashion

Fashion

High power and Power/Authori ty authority seen as a trend setter. Aspired many middle aged females.

Had high power at time of campaign but recently exposed scandals in the media drug abuse and marital affairs.

The celebrity of the moment in all the fashion magazines for her good taste in fashion high power.

Low power has had lots of negative media attention due to violence, drugs and being a diva.

We can see that M&S has tried to tap into the fan base of the high profile celebrities who reflect similar values of the brand (well mannered, trust worthy and iconic figures) in order to generate more sales and attract new customers (Illustrated through Appendix L). By looking at the feedback from such campaigns, this strategy has worked and appears to have added value to the brand if we look at the Take That campaign (Appendix M) the majority of feedback through the daily mail website was from women saying that it would make them go in to the store to view the ranges and buy them for their husband. It has also been successful in the sense that take that have been perceived as a good reflection of M&S brand values, one customer describes it as a tasteful advertising campaign and the other describes it as not just take that...but M&S take that one of their infamous slogans from previous adverts. However unfortunately the same could not be said for Naomi Campbell she did not fit with the M&S brand values and the public picked up on this it shows how important it is that the public see this fit between the celebrity and the brand. Perhaps in future M&S should be sure to check this fit before hiring unfitting celebrities as this can jeopardise the success of the campaign and the reputation and associations to the brand. As Naomi Campbell was in an advert with 3 other Supermodels the damage caused by this campaign was fairly limited. But it highlights again how important the customer-brand relationship is. A Research 22 | P a g e

study conducted by Aaker et al (2008) suggests that relationships with sincere brands like Marks and Spencers are developed over a long period of time and these relationships suffer more than those with exciting brands. If the brand transgresses in any way shape, or form - the damage to the relationship is irreparable, regardless of the attempts to recover it. 6. Conclusion M&S have proven successful since the re-brand in 2000 by increasing its relevance with its customers. Its Your M&S logo was a big strength. They appear to be in a strong position financially and appear to be outshining other department stores in terms of both reputation and revenue, however one of my main concerns is that the brand is getting carried away with change and is expanding and stretching its portfolio at too quick a rate customers are likely to become confused with the direction of the brand and such strategic moves like introducing other independent brands into stores seems to be one of the brands biggest areas of weakness. By doing this they have compromised their family brand and has opened it up to direct competition, having these products on their shelves is in a sense giving away market share as well as diluting their own brand. In my opinion the best way for them to build their equity base is to slow down slightly in terms of sub-brands and concentrate on strengthening the ones that they have I suggest that the likes of Heinz and Hovis need to be withdrawn from the portfolio before. I also think that M&S could benefit from the introduction of a loyalty card this is something that all other competitors offer but M&S dont it will be away of rewarding their loyal customers and showing them that they are valued, it would also be a vital tool to gather data and information on their customer so that they can develop their brand to this.

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7. References Aaker, J. Fournier, S. Brasel, A. (2008) When Good Brands do bad. Accessed online via escholarship Carroll, A. (2009) Brand Communications in fashion catgories using celebrity endorsement. Journal of Brand Management: 17, 146-158. Palgrace Macmillan Fournier, S.(1998) Consumers and their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research. Journal of consumer research. Vol 24. 343-73. Knowles, J. (2008) Varying Perspectives on Brand Equity. Marketing Management. American Marketing Association. Available at .... 24 | P a g e

Laforet, S. (2010) Managing Brands: A contemporary Persepctive. McGraw Hill. Nandan, S. (2004) An exploration of the brand identity-brand image linkage: A communications perspective. Brand Management Journal Vol 12, no2 264-278 Pettinger, L. (2004) Brand Culture and Branded Workers: Service Work and Aesthetic Labour in Fashion Retail. Consumption, Markets and Culture, 7:165-184 Routledge Schoroeder, J. Salzer-Morling, M. (2006) Brand Culture, Routledge, p1. Toda, Y (2009) 'Changing Brands - Changing Image?' The Historical Analysis of Brand Management in Marks and Specner (*link*) Thompson, C. (2004) Beyond Brand Image: Analysing the culture of Brands. Advances in Consumer Research 31: 98-99 Uggla, H. (2004) The brand association base: A conceptual model for strategically leveraging partner brand equity. Brand management Journal Vol 12, no.2 105-123. Henry Stewart Marketing Magazine article: Analysis: Rivals target M&S position: Available at www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/64970 [Accessed on the 2 nd April 2010]

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8. Appendix:

Appendix A PESTEL Analysis

Factors to consider: Political Unstable in Government Economic Customers have lower Global Recession disposable income & therefore the M&S brand has to be promoted effectively to attract Potential changes in tax structure. Have reacted to this by adapting their brand slogan to affordable quality accessible to everyone they also promoted wise buys and n/a Effect on M&S Opportunity & Threat

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special offers. SocioCultural Consumer Behaviour has changed in relation to economic uncertainty Technologica l Customers are expecting things done quicker and more efficiently M&S had Changing Technologies. been criticised for being slow and outdated in regards to IT. More people are staying in at weekends and are reluctant to spend. M&S took advantage of this by introducing Dine in for 10 which enabled them to target couples who were now staying in rather than going out. M&S invested 400m in IT infrastructure hand held computers for quicker stock taking a dedicated warehouse for ecommerce were a few of the changes made. Ecological Society more aware of being ethically friendly Legal Need to be aware of employment law etc especially in unfamiliar countries In France M&S did not comply with the law in regards to informing staff about closures. Customers demanding greener products and supporting greener brands. M&S have always been conscious of this and have lead the way by offering ethically sourced produce supporting recycling

Appendix B: Aakers (2002) Model of Building a Strong Brand

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(Aaker, D 2002 A model for successful brand building cited in Laforet 2010 -apologises about clarity of diagram)

Appendix C: League table Department Stores: Brand Value

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Appendix D: M&S ranked 3rd most valuable brand

(Both Sources available at: http://www.intangiblebusiness.com/store/data/files/393The_UKs_Most_Valuable_Retail_Brands_2008.pd f)

Appendix E: Supermarket market share

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(Available at: http://www.utalkmarketing.com/pages/Article.aspx? ArticleID=16663&Title=Asda_is_closing_the_gap_on_Tesco_online_sales)

Appendix F: M&S Marketing Mix

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APPENDIX G: Snapshot of M&S website

(Available at www.marksandspencers.com)

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APPENDIX H: Marks and Spencers official social networking site Facebook

(Available at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/MarksandSpencer?ref=ts)

APPENDIX I: Example of a positive Customer Experience through Facebook

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APPENDIX J: Email correspondence with M&S Date Subject Dear Thank you for contacting us about your university project. I am pleased that you have taken an interest in Marks & Spencer. However, we receive a substantial number of student requests and Im sorry were unable to handle these enquiries on an individual basis. Try the Student Information section found in About Us Best Regards Jan Cox Executive Office Your M&S Customer Service Tel: E-mail: Website: Address: 0207 9354422 Chairman@marks-and-spencer.com www.marksandspencer.com Executive Office Chester Business Park, Wrexham Road Chester, CH4 9GA 24 April 2010 13:21 RE: Query

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APPENDIX K: Illustration of how targeted segments have increased dramatically through brand extension.

APPENDIX L: Customer recruitment from celebrity fan base (Meenaghan 2001 cited in J.Gills Branding People lecture 2010)

APPENDIX M: Take That Ad Campaign 2007 Article from Daily Mail. 34 | P a g e

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(Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-482627/Take-That-set-Shine-latest-ad-campaign-Marks-Spencer.html)

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