Not just any M&S food…..
[cue slow music and sensuous female voice] These are not just any baked beans…. these are M&S baked beans. … err .. No wait, sorry, they’re Heinz.
The sensuous-voiced food narrator is not mistaken. Following a successful 16 month trial, M&S are to roll out 400 branded products across 600 stores. These will include many of the top household names such as Coca Cola, Heinz, Kellogg and Marmite.
Despite their high standard when it comes to culinary delights (and those famously mouth watering ‘food-porn’ style ads), M&S have admitted that there were categories where “we could simply never compete”. Their chairman, Sir Stuart Rose, uses Tabasco as an example when talking to BBC Breakfast News: “You either have genuine Tabasco or fake Tabasco – which tastes awful….Our customers deserve the best and that’s what they shall get; without having to shop elsewhere.” Quite a turnaround for a company which until now has followed a strict own-label-only policy.
Finally! Now you can get a real can of Coca Cola with your M&S lunch and grab that impulse KitKat while standing in the queue! Even their chairman found the lack of such brands frustrating. It seems to be an obvious move and I wonder why it hasn’t been done sooner. Pricing will also be competitive. M&S plans to combat the perception of their high pricing with an advertising campaign comparing prices to Waitrose.
However, I have to say that I’ve grown to respect M&S’s stance on own-brands. I think it served to enhance the impression of exclusivity and quality communicated in their food ads, and you knew where you were with them. Also, is 400 brands enough? Waitrose have already hit back saying that M&S “does not have 1,200 comparable lines”.
Only time will tell. Anyway, what does it matter if there are brand gaps when only M&S have Percy Pigs!
November 5th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Money talks.. and somebody at M&S clearly feels they aren’t making enough of it.
Have to say though, they should be careful how far they go to normalise the brand.. if they’re not careful they could be trading away the one thing that sets the aside from the other, larger chains.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
I think its a good move. I’d say 99% of those who do their regular shop at M&S also routinely shop elsewhere. This will predominantly be to pick up the items that the consumers have a strong brand preference for which are unavailable at M&S (as well as acquiring certain convenience goods for which there is little brand preference that can be found cheaper elsewhere). M&S are hoping to gain a greater share of wallet of their customers by providing many of these best-of-class products. By broadening their offering this should encourage some of their customers into exclusively shopping at M&S, if they can now adequately satisfy enough of their customers’ previously unfulfilled wants. This in turn will result in these customers also buying more M&S own-brand products as replacements for items that they previously bought elsewhere but are no longer collectively important enough to jusitfy a second supermarket visit.