M&S plans to drive reappraisal of clothing through ‘surprise and relatability’

Marks & Spencer is hoping an increased focus on product and design will help drive reappraisal of its clothing and home business – so much so that the retailer’s clothing and home marketing boss Nathan Ansell would rather customers remember its products than its ads.

“A big part of my job is that our customers remember the products they’ve seen and are surprised and driven to reappraise the brand through the products,” Ansell tells Marketing Week. “If everyone forgets the advertising but remembers the product then I’ve done a great job in that context.”

M&S has spent a lot of time over the last year trying to “really understand” what customers value, what they come to the retailer for and what they want to see it do more of.

The first fruits of that work were unveiled today (4 September) with the launch of its womenswear campaign for autumn 2019. It is the first piece of creative M&S’s clothing and home arm has done with new agency ODD, which took over the ad account earlier this year after M&S split its clothing and food businesses.

It is also the first time M&S will be using an econometric model, built by its team of in-house data scientists, to measure a clothing campaign – something it has only done with food to-date.

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