2016 winner: M&S, Building Marketing Capabilities - case study

At the start of 2013, the M&S Food Marketing Team found themselves faced with a plethora of external and internal challenges that were threatening to affect our strong Food sales growth. We were under even more pressure as the wider M&S business also faced a number of competitive threats.

Rising energy and commodity prices were impacting consumer spending habits and, whilst consumer confidence had started to improve, it remained fragile in the threat of a triple-dip recession.

The competitive environment had become increasingly intense and we found ourselves in a slowing market, needing to grow at the expense of other major multiples. With the long term decline in footfall on the High Street, the business was looking for online sales to drive growth. However, online was still a relatively small part of the overall offer and therefore reinvigorating the core business was a key strategic priority.

Meanwhile, buying habits were changing with customers increasingly demanding a more personalised experience in store and online. As an organisation, we needed to adapt. We needed to become more relevant, more often to customers. Whilst the business had started to take steps in that direction (1,500 iPads were rolled-out to our store employees to support their customer interactions), they were looking to the Marketing team to step-up and lead the way.

The Marketing team was newly formed with the amalgamation of 3 separate teams into one ‘end-to-end’ strategic Marketing function. At the same time, there was a change of leadership in the food group with Steve Rowe taking over as the Executive Director, Food. He was looking to Marketing to be the catalyst for brand growth.

However, whilst our employees were passionate and proud to be working for our 130 year old brand, 50% of the Food Marketing team were either new to the business or new in role. In particular, our Food Marketing team and leaders needed to be equipped to influence the strategic direction of the business, to drive customer-centred growth. With differing internal views regarding our positioning there was a need for a clearly defined and well-understood Food Brand Positioning. As a result, food
business performance was impacted – our like for like food sales growth had slowed and market share was flat.

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(Please note: parts of this case study may have been redacted for confidentiality purposes.)