The game of the Rose: M&S brand philosophy revealled
Brands invest a lot of time and energy in developing their points of difference. Stuart Rose, the ex-CEO of Marks & Spencers in one early morning interview for the BBC's Breakfast in 2009 revealled the secret of the companies success. Replicating the unique positioning of Marks and Spencers within the market - and the affections of the UK population - is the real difficulty for the competition but they certainly have a few clues.
One consequence of the move to attraction based "pull" media (i.e. Blogs, Tweets, Podcasts) is the unnecessary sharing of business strategies, propositions and insights. This all contributes toward the slow erosion of a brands point of difference. The cost of this is so much greater if the brand has strived over time to add mystery, sensuality, intimacy - the mores of Kevin Robert's "Lovemarks" - to its essence and the interview/expose serves to demystified the strategy.
Whilst the Stuart Rose information is not in the same league as the Coca Cola formula or the KFC coating recipe we now know that they want to ensure a "treat" everytime people visit the store. This to a competitor will probably give a strong clue to where promotional activity will be focused and what category of products will be loss led at key periods.
Product Life Cycles are short enough without finding ways to curtail them. Because of the power of digital media everyone, not just company directors and brand custodians - must treat their data with great care and sensitivity and avoid giving "information without reservation" (i.e. INFOWORES).
The later stages of the interview deal with why traditional retailers must adapt to the "clicks and mortar" model and not underestimate the stock levels needed to satisfy an internet offer. And then there is the Groupon model as it applies to SME businesses where the jury is still out...
More to follow at brandvalhalla at wordpress: