In a year of tough trading conditions M&S
has continued to produce clothes for
‘Every Woman, Every Time’. We remain
flexible to respond to catwalk trends and
create fast-fashion ranges for the under-35
woman, shown by our collaboration with
Patricia Field – one of the most high profile
launches of the year.
We also continue to produce classic
tailoring for our older customers. This year
we launched our ‘Portfolio’ range in 190
stores, aimed at 40+ women and bridging
the gap between our ‘per una’ and ‘Classic’
sub-brands.
With the retirement of George Davies the
womenswear team will now evolve the ‘per
una’ brand, launching the new collection
in-store for autumn. With all parts of our
clothing business now under one
management team, we are better able to
share best practice across our business
units, adopt a consistent approach to pricing,
and leverage our scale in the buying process
to ensure the best possible value. It also
means we can eliminate duplication across
our ranges and create clothes to hit all price
points. This positions us well to tackle the
challenges ahead.
We began a strategic review of our
womenswear brands two years ago.
The aim was threefold: to clearly segment
all our brands in line with our clear customer
profiles; to keep our brands fresh; and to
offer great quality and value at all price points.
We have made progress on each of these
aims. We have defined our brands and also
signposted our ‘shops’ (see below). These
mini departments provide all of the other
essentials such as footwear and accessories
– needed to provide a full lifestyle choice for
our customers, as well as covering seasonal
or special occasion pieces such as Holiday
and Cashmere.
We are continuing to focus all of our
ranges so that each brand stands for
something unique and addresses different
age and style needs. We know that there
are still some areas that need to be simplified;
being clear about each brand will enable
us to do this.
We have edited our main range so that all
of our garments are now clearly identifiable
as one of the M&S branded ranges.
As we went through this process it was
clear that we were left with a gap in
casualwear. To address this, we will
launch the Indigo collection.
'Classic' is aimed at our mature
customers who want co-ordinated designs
that are comfortable and feminine.
'Portfolio' is our new collection for our core
customer. Launched as a small collection in
January, sales have been encouraging. We are
confident we have the right product – with
smart tailoring, coordinated soft separates,
more sleeves, modest necklines and flattering
skirt lengths – and we will be putting greater
depth behind the collection, growing it to a
full lifestyle brand.
'per una' is our most feminine brand.
It is bold and colourful and features plenty
of detail. Now that it is under the direction of
our womenswear team we will be working
closely with our customers to better develop
the brand.
'Indigo' will be home to our remaining
casualwear ranges, including essentials and denim.
'Autograph' includes Essentials, Weekend
and Occasions, and is our biggest category.
It is defined by luxurious fabrics and a high
level of detailing, but its signature pared-down
look means it remains contemporary and
smart, ideal for careerwear.
'Limited Collection' is our fashion-forward
brand. Fashion must-haves and newness is
the DNA, with new stock phased in weekly.
Fashion and clothing is about affordability
as well as style. We strive to deliver on both
these aspects as illustrated by our 'Dress for
Less' campaign. Fronted by Myleene Klass,
the campaign shows our customers how to
achieve five different looks from five wardrobe
staples, costing just £15.00.
In all of our departments, and within all of
our brands, we offer a clear pricing hierarchy
so that shoppers can see whether they are
shopping from our 'good', 'better', or 'best'
ranges. For example a basic cotton blend
white shirt from our Careerwear shop, which
would fall under our 'good' pricing point,
costs £7.50; a pure cotton shirt with pleating
detail, also from Careerwear, costs £15.00
and is an example of a'better' pricing point;
while a long sleeved pure cotton shirt from
'Autograph' costs £29.50 and is an example
of a 'best' pricing point.
To achieve better pricing, but without
compromising on quality or design, we have
been focused on what we call ‘garment
engineering’, as a way of
working with our
suppliers to reduce the
cost of clothes
without reducing quality.
For instance by asking
our fabric suppliers to
increase the width of their
weave, we can get more
from a roll of fabric.
Knowing our customers is fundamental to the
way we develop products. We constantly
review our clothes through focus groups,
across core ages and among different
lifestyles. For example we work closely with
the Womens’ Institute. This is best shown
by the creation of ‘Portfolio’, which directly
responds to customers asking for clothes
that better suit older tastes. We have similarly
consulted with customers on the evolution
of the ‘per una’ brand. Consultation does
not stop when we have launched a range,
as we regularly return to our customers to
get feedback.
We want our customers to always find what
they are looking for – availability is vital to
delivering the best service. To address this
we are updating our stock planning systems
so we can replenish sizes or colours before
we run out. This is also helped by the speed
and flexibility of our buying departments,
which can now buy additional items more
quickly and efficiently.
We used to buy clothes twice a year for
the spring/summer and autumn/winter
seasons. This meant we spent almost
100% of our seasonal buying budget, giving
us no flexibility if trading or the weather
suddenly changed.
With the help of our suppliers we have
now increased our buying to 10 times a year
– holding back 25% of our budget to spend
'in season'. In its simplest form, it is about
having the flexibility to buy much closer to
the season so we can react more quickly to
trends, or buy transitional products between seasons, such as cardigans
if the summer suddenly turns,
or mac coats if it rains. It also helps us to be
faster at turning around new fashions,
encouraging customers to ‘see it, like it, buy
it’ because it will be gone within four weeks
and replaced by the next new range.
'Limited Collection' is designed to be first
to translate catwalk trends in line with the
High Street. We source from Turkey,
Morocco, Italy and Spain – with the latter two
key for sourcing footwear and accessories
for 'Limited Collection'. These markets offer
much shorter lead times, so that we can get
new products into our stores every week.
The womenswear team has been significantly
strengthened in 2008/09 by a number of new
appointments. With the right team in place
and with all of womenswear now under
the same management team, we are well
placed going forward. We are now in a
position to pull the clothing strategy together,
maximising the best opportunities and using
the best learnings from all parts of the
clothing business.
Our brands remain exclusive to us, which
means we can ensure they all do a different
job from each other. We can stock products
that appeal to women of different ages and
with different tastes.
We remain aware of the wider economic
downturn and will continue to pursue the
best value clothes and accessories for our
customers. At the same time we will continue
to produce a confident fashion offering; deliver
on-trend items for our younger customers;
produce new garments quickly; and deliver
the classic basics that our customers keep
coming back for.