Spent a great evening last night with Marks & Spencer, celebrating the brand turning 125. It was good to catch up with some of the executives there, including Stuart Rose and Steve Sharp, to hear all about the company’s plans for the year ahead (…can’t give anything away here, sadly…).
Steve Sharp, the marketing director for M&S, was talking about a charity bikeride he is undertaking this week on behalf of the store’s 125 year anniversary. Lots of the retailer’s activities this year go towards its 125 Charity Challenge, which aims to raise £1.25m for local and regional charities between May and September. As someone who once lasted a whole four minutes on a cycling trip – oh dear – I wish Steve all the best with this!
Another topic of conversation during the event was about the number of retailers celebrating their birthdays this year. It’s not just M&S – Sainsbury’s has also been celebrating 140 years, for example. Everyone agreed that with the economic environment being so poor, these occasions provided something positive to keep marketing about. Would the anniversaries have been so noted or communicated in a better economic climate? Perhaps not, or at least we wouldn’t have noticed them so much.
It’s worth noting at this point that despite the recent “Big Bra-Gate” scandal affecting M&S, there were none of those big “We’ve Boobed” posters up anywhere. It was all very tasteful with lots of the new autumn collections out on display. And even though there have recently been rumours about Stuart Rose leaving the business before his planned 2011 departure date, Rose seemed as committed and excited by the challenges of M&S as ever, chatting happily to me about what Britishness and being a British brand means in this day and age.
My only disappointment: none of those new cupcakes with the fillings inside were around. I like those cupcakes. I imagine the innovation meeting at M&S headquarters went like this: “Hmm, let’s make some cupcakes. But how could we make a cupcake, already covered in buttercream, even more tasty? Hmm…what about adding a delicious filling inside?” But lack of cupcakes aside, an interesting evening.
