MARKS AND SPENCER'S IDENTITY CRISIS OF 1999

Marks and Spencer have been at the top of their game for a very long time and have always been renowned for quality and value. They are one of the UK’s best known retailers and were the very first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion in 1998 (BBC NEWS, May, 1998). However, M&S plunged into crisis in 1999 and became stuck in terms of their corporate identity. As always, the marketplace was rapidly evolving due to consumer demand but M&S were not progressing with the demands of the consumer industry. They became reliant on their reputation of quality and value for your money rather than supplying what the consumers desired. The fashion sector of retail was overcome with demand and many organisations were improving their products to meet what the consumer of the day wanted. However M&S failed to do the same, in turn other retail companies began bettering the M&S reputation of quality and value. Consequently, their profits before tax dropped to almost half of the previous year, 1998.

“Marks and Spencer had failed to ‘move with the times’ and cater for a new generation of more affluent and fashion-conscious consumers who no longer saw the M&S brand as appropriate to their lifestyles and image.” (Oliver, 2002, p. 261).

Although their reputation did remain intact for a while, however they began to lose clientele ad were not gaining any new consumers. It seems the demand in the market had set much higher expectations in the eyes of the masses. Therefore their popularity began to slip as they were not innovative and their brand image became boring to the UK consumers. It did not take long for the brand and management of M&S to come under attack by the media.

“The key word for M&S is plain- plain as in decent honest-to-goodness and plain as in Jane.” (Walsh, 1999).

It seems that Marks and Spencer were unaware, at this time, of the need to supply the products ones public’s desire, as well as the importance of maintaining your reputation. As the quote above demonstrates, their publics still respected M&S but felt they had become plain and unimaginative in terms of their products. Thankfully, Marks and Spencer learnt from their mistakes and went on to readdress their mission and values statement, as well as their products. In 2007 a poll was conducted by The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) which aimed to find out which organisation had the best reputation. Marks and Spencer came out on top of the poll with almost double the credits of the second best which was John Lewis (Talking Retail, 2007).

Marks and Spencer managed to completely turn around their business and since then have maintained a good reputation and their place at the top of the retail game with corporate social responsibility campaigns like ‘Plan A’. It was in 2007 that they launched ‘Plan A’: it consists of a set of goals that, as a whole, they are working towards to make them globally renowned for being the most sustainable retailer across the world. It is arguable that this project has actually enhanced M&S’s popularity due to the fact that the organisation saw a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion in 2008, 10 years since the last time they reached the £1 billion point. To achieve a mutual understanding and respect between an organisation and all stakeholders it is imperative to take note of stakeholder opinions and current trends to allow the organisation to set morals and values that are parallel to those of their publics. Therefore projects like ‘Plan A’ are an important stepping-stone to a positive reputation.

“Research has found that 9 out of 10 consumers reporting that when choosing between products that are similar in quality and price, the reputation of the company determines which product or service they buy” (Mackiewicz, 1993).

Thus, M&S will receive the custom of many more consumers, due to their positive reputation for having high moral and ethical standards, than organisations that do not note the importance of this.

In M&S’s ‘Half Year Results 2011/12’ their CEO stated that,

“Marks & Spencer performed well in the first half. Sales were ahead of last year despite tough comparatives and a challenging economic environment.” (Marc Bolland, 2011).  

This proves that Marks and Spencer have highly benefited from their determination to identify with their publics to gain popularity and build and maintain a good reputation.

CURRENT ISSUES AND TRENDS IN THE PR INDUSTRY

Due to the current recession, trading is lower than ever and competition is higher. It has been said that if your main business is in the UK, Europe or the US it will be even harder to survive the recession. Consequently many companies have been on the outlook for opportunities to expand globally. Considering the circumstances of the time one would expect PR budgets to decrease rather quickly, however, it has not been the case during this particular economic crisis. It seems organisations are grasping the extreme benefits of PR, especially during times like this. PR is great if you want the maximum outcome, which everyone does, but with a low cost. Therefore organisations have been turning to PR rather than marketing/advertising techniques.

Unfortunately many businesses have been rated at SELL and therefore competitor competition is even higher than usual. Organisations have been competing not only on the products and services they offer but also geographical reach, reputation and stakeholder relationships. It seems that in the last six months of 2011 a large amount of companies were rated NEUTRAL rather than SELL, demonstrating how the economic crisis is slowly dissolving. Economic crisis is always seen to be negative but it is possible to put a positive spin on the situation. It’s arguable that economic crisis is, in a way, good for business as it leaves only the strong companies that can handle themselves during such times.

There are a great deal of external influences that will affect campaigns coming up in the pending months. For example, The London Olympics, amongst other events like the Eurozone Football Championships, will give great opportunities for marketing and in particular sports marketing and sponsorship. There are also high profile occasions like the US presidential elections and other issues like the Eurozone crisis and Government reforms like benefit cuts, which will shape many future trends in the industry.

At the moment there is also the issue of PR’s reputation in the eyes of the masses. It is ironic that PR has a generally negative reputation considering the aims of the industry. It is inevitable, for PR to stay effective, for the industry as a whole to concentrate on developing a more positive image of PR. There are a variety of ways that this could be carried out including more stringent codes of conduct and a higher credibility or licencing of professionals. It is foreseeable that PR practitioners must venture towards professionalization to boost the masses trust in PR as a whole. This moves me on to another current issue which is the fact that trust is in decline as I will go on to discuss.

Edelman’s Trust Barometer has demonstrated a serious decline in global trust. The barometer has shown that, compared to last year, nearly twice as many countries are now distrusters and even fewer are in the neutral zone (EDELMAN, 2012). This poses the issue of stakeholders being a lot less trusting in the messages PR’s are trying to communicate.

There has been a significant advance in the communication channels available to PRs; however it’s arguable that this is not necessarily 100% beneficial. Due to the amazing progresses of the internet in the recent years, tools like SEO, Social Media, Digital Media and Blogging have become available. However, due to the constant fragmentation of the media, even though there are new channels of communication opening, there are also many that are closing. For example, it is likely that we will lose print media altogether in the coming decade due to the advances of digital media technology. On a macro level, the most dangerous ideas that could alter the PR industry is not moving forward with the times and adapting to the changes in the media sector.

All in all there are a great deal of issues and trend in the trade that are likely to alter the communication and media industries extensively in the coming decade.

LLOYDS TSB AND REPUTATION

v  DOES THEIR ONLINE ‘ABOUT US’ RUN PARALLELL TO THEIR REPUTATION IN THE SCOTSMAN?

[LLOYDS TSB ONLINE]

ABOUT US/WHAT WE ARE DOING:
Explains how important online safety is stating that they use state of the art anti-fraud systems to identify unusual activity.  It then goes on to explain their fraud guarantee:

“We guarantee to refund your money in the unlikely event you experience a fraud with your internet banking.” (LLOYDS TSB)

SCOTSMAN:

An article in the SCOTSMAN stated that Lloyds TSB had some of the best online security (claimed by a consumer group) (Burridge, 2009).

[LLOYDS BANKING GROUP]

ABOUT US:

v  Largest retail bank in the UK with strong positions in a number of sectors: one in 3 bank with us.

v  “Our goal is to be the best financial provider in the UK. We believe this means we must build a leadership position not on the basis of scale but on the foundations of reputation and recommendation.” (LLOYDS BANKING GROUP)

SCOTSMAN:

An article in the SCOTSMAN stated that according to a survey, of 4,000 customers, carried out by a consumer research organisation, the Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB were the lowest-rated banks.

According to the survey, the three biggest complaints from customers were about fees and service charges, poor customer services and the way transactions were carried out. Internet and telephone were also both ranked below average for Lloyds TSB (Smith, 2010).

 v  DOES THEIR ONLINE ‘ABOUT US’ RUN PARALLELL TO THEIR REPUTATION IN THE SCOTSMAN?

All in all this suggest a mixed result as it seems Lloyds TSB Online, in 2009, were ahead of the game in terms of their online security. Therefore, their corporate identity ran parallel to their reputation in the SCOTSMAN newspaper. However, in 2010 the Lloyds Banking Group was criticised for many reasons, including their online banking services. It seems that the Lloyds Banking Group haven’t quite mastered ensuring their reputation runs parallel to their ‘about us’ and overall corporate identity.

TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY: E. Katz and P.F. Lazarfield 1995

The two-step flow theory suggests that the mass media puts out a message which is consumed by an opinion leader who in turn pushes the messages forward to the public in a hope to influence opinion and behaviour. In terms of this particular model the main job of an opinion leader is to connect publics to mass communication as well as interpersonal communications.

The theory assumes that…

®  The mass media influences society’s opinion leaders, who then influence the opinions and
       behaviour of the masses.
®  Opinion leaders function like experts in particular field.
®  Opinion leaders consume more media than the masses.
®  People are influences by people.

Critique of the theory…

• SIMPLISTIC: It assumes that there are only opinion leaders and followers only, whereas in reality there are many more types of masses, e.g. those who don’t follow the crowd- where do they fit?
• Assumes that opinion leaders are active.
•  Suggests that followers are passive and will absorb any information they receive but this is not the case in modern society: people believe and consume information they want to.
• Not all opinion leaders receive their information from the mass media (e.g. may interact with other opinion leaders etc.)
•  Opinion leaders have their own opinion!
• Opinion leaders are not only givers but they also receive information as well.
• Opinion leaders circulate information between themselves.
• LIMITED: must be able to identify with and reach the appropriate opinion leader.

BERNAYS: AN HISTORICAL FIGURE IN PR

PR is..."Telling the truth in the best possible light." - BERNAYS

Edward Bernays is an extremely influential figure in public relations, although it is arguable that he was a publicist more so than a PR practitioner. Therefore it is one’s own interpretation as to whether he is ‘The Father of Public Relations’.  Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalytical psychologist who specialised in the unconscious mind. Bernays decided to combine the ideas of crowd psychology by Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Freud.

At the time when Edward Bernays first began combining these ideas America had just come out of the war and the public were concerned with what they needed rather than what they wanted. He began turning America into the consumer culture it is now by making people want material objects.

One of his most famous campaigns was the Lucky Strikes promotion in the 1920’s. It was a huge social taboo for ladies to smoke in public, or even smoke at all to the extent that women could be arrested for smoking in undesignated areas. Consequently the cigarette market was limited to only half of the population as a potential consumer. Even though the amount of women that smoked had increased after the war, only 12% of females smoked. Therefore, in 1928 Lucky Strikes approached Bernays to open up their market to females to increase their profit margin.

Bernays recognised that women were still relishing the suffrage movement; therefore, Bernays decided to use this as a basis for his campaign. From a psychoanalytical view, it has been said that cigarettes were seen as a symbol of male phallic empowerment and sexual power at the time, thus representing an opportunity of equality to men, to women. During the 1929 Easter Parade, in New York, Bernays persuaded a group of rich debutantes to join the parade and take out cigarettes, at a signal from him. They then pulled out a lighter and began smoking them in an attention-grabbing way to provide a dramatic and eye-catching display. This therefore represented a motion of protest for complete equality to men: “Torches of Freedom”. Women across the US began smoking as a sign of protest and sales increased massively.

This example shows how Edward Bernays doubled the market of Lucky Strikes by identifying the issue, finding a way to address the publics that were previously not targeted and using s public relations stunt to get the message out there that it was okay for women to smoke if they wanted to. However the reasons for this particular promotion at the time were not so moral and Bernays has said that promoting smoking to women was one part of his career that he did regret.

OLD SPICE EXPERT ADs

OBJECTIVES: Reinvent the Old Spice Image and raise Sales by consumer engagement.

Old Spice suffered from the negative connotations of their brand image so they decided to reinvent their image. They enlisted Wieden and Kennedy to re-launch the old spice products. They launched a range of advertisements, both print and video, including Isaiah Mustafa as a celebrity endorser. The narrative of the ads is the idea that if you use old spice you’ll become a ‘man’s man’ and desirable to women. The ads are targeting both men and women. The idea that men should aspire to be like Isaiah and women should want their man to be like him. This is demonstrated by the use of direct address in many of the adverts. An example is the ‘Old Spice Red Zone Body Wash: After Hours’ advertisement‘Questions’. Isaiah says: “Hello ladies. How are you? Fantastic. Does your man look like me? No. Can he smell like me? Yes.”. Men are positioned to compare themselves to Isaiah and women are positioned to compare their boyfriends to him. They embodied their values, vision and mission in a person which consumers remembered- they created the old spice persona.

Their mission was to convert consumer engagement into sales and it worked- sales increased by a whopping great 107%! This sales increase by itself shows just how well the campaign worked. I, of course, agree that this is a greatly successful campaign that is unique for its sector. Many male toiletry companies use the idea of their product winning over women but the fact that they have considered women as part of their target audience is a distinctive and innovative idea.

DEVELOPMENT OF PR OVERVIEW

PR is a discipline that is hard to define and it is also said to be a fairly young and evolving profession. Disciplines often emerge and develop over a period of time, like PR, or they die at a certain point due to the fashion of the time or things along the lines of funding and resources available to the discipline. PR has managed to stand strong and show its worth for many years now and the tools that make up PR have been in use for many

The use of communication to influence the public comes from ancient civilisation. Two of the main groups to practice these ideas were the Greek and Roman Empires. Rhetoric is proof of just how long the ideologies of PR have been in use. Edward Bernays also argues that rulers of ancient Egypt and Persia, amongst others, used political publicity as well as personal (Baines, et al., 2004). It is also said that symbols on Viking ships, along with steamships and uniforms of armed forces etc. are examples of historical use of corporate identity- again supporting the use of PR tools in ancient history.

Certain PR tools have been in use for many years across the globe, PR in Britain developed through a political path in the 1920’s. Some of the key influences in the development of the PR profession are the professional bodies like the CIPR and PRCA as well as official PR education. The first PR diploma offered by the IPR (now CIPR) was in 1956 and in 1958 the very first IPR textbook was published. It wasn’t for another 30 years that the very first postgraduate PR degree was developed at Stirling University. This shows that it took PR a while to break through as an accredited and professional discipline. These are all valid influential factors of the development of the PR industry. Other influential factors are industrialisation, the new forms of technology and the rise of the mass media. For example take the media, years ago the only form of media was print, now there are so many mediums. The media can now get to us through not only print but the internet, broadcasting and cable amongst others. The mass media has become globalised; therefore offering PR practitioners many more channels to get their messages across which allows extensive growth within the industry.

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS: "LOVE IT OR HATE IT"

Marmite enlisted advertising agency DDB to launch an integrated marketing campaign. They faced many brand challenges and their objectives were to overcome these. Consumption of Marmite was in decline due to consumer distaste and decline in toast consumption. Along with criticism due to lack of innovation they also faced competition from own brand equivalents.

They decided to use digital media to launch an all new campaign. They held a ‘love it or hate it’ online campaign simultaneous to the actual governmental elections. They encouraged their publics to vote ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’, polarizing their publics and engaging their passions. The ‘love it or hate it’ slogan has become so well known that it has spread to other media and become a familiar phrase- “it’s like marmite- love it or hate it”.

They also launched an online virtual Paddington’s kitchen created by AKOA. The virtual kitchen encouraged visitors to share marmite sandwich ideas and general marmite recipes. Along with this they launched a Facebook page (250,000 fans) and a viral advert of a baby being sick over a mother who is eating marmite. This formed part of a wider media strategy, including a launch of a TV advert and 6 press advertisements.

This innovative campaign targeted not only marmite lovers but also the ‘waverers’. The main target audience is mothers and families. This is indicated by the use of Paddington bear- swaps his famous marmalade sandwiches for marmite ones in one of their TV adverts and his virtual kitchen. Paddington is familiar to children and nostalgic to many adults. They also launched a helpline which was aimed at mothers making packed lunches offering sandwich suggestions- similar to the virtual Paddington kitchen.

I feel this campaign was very successful and interesting to study as they used the fact that people either love marmite or hate it to their advantage- they polarized their publics to develop competition between the ‘lovers’ and ‘haters’. The use of anti-advertising developed brand loyalty. They also successfully involved all of their publics and even attracted the ‘waverers’ by making them feel the need to decide if they ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’. Finally, the creativity of the campaign created hype and ‘talkability’ therefore it almost created its own PR. The campaign was so successful that it allowed marmite to increase their price premium by 30%.

THE MORALITY OF CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT