UK retail giant Marks & Spencer (“M&S”) recently announced its latest plan to reverse a long decline in financial performance…

“M&S has confirmed it will close 30 UK stores and retreat from 10 countries as it embarks on a sweeping restructuring plan that will promote its successful food business ahead of its struggling clothing arm.

The high-street retailer also recorded a huge drop in statutory profits for the first half of the year, after making changes to staff pay and closing its defined benefit pension scheme.

Under new boss Steve Rowe, who took up the top job in April, M&S will launch a five-year plan to refresh around 100 UK stores, or 25pc of its estate. Thirty stores will close, while M&S plans to open 200 smaller Simply Food stores by the end of the decade. The scheme will cost around £50m a year over the first three years, rising to £100m for the last two years.

In addition, M&S will close 53 loss-making international stores and exit 10 markets, as it switches its overseas business to a franchise model. This will result in a charge of £150-200m in the next 12 months, it said, and will see the closure of its flagship stores in Paris. M&S already has 267 franchised stores globally.”

Full details at…

“Marks & Spencer confirms shop closures…”

Since its heyday in the 1990’s, M&S has endured a long slide from financial grace.  To be fair, it’s not alone among retailers in struggling to deal with the current (extended) recession and the disruption caused by the Internet revolution.  From the November 2016 “No B.S. Marketing Letter”…

“RETAIL REELING. Macy’s is closing 100 stores by early 2017.  Sports Authority, bankrupt, closing 450 stores.  Wal-Mart closing 269 stores, slamming brakes on new stores in the U.S. and diverting a billion dollars or so into admittedly trying to play catch up to Amazon in ecommerce.”

In the UK, sort-of M&S competitor British Home Stores closed its doors earlier this year, the latest in a string of High Street casualties.

So what business and marketing lessons can we draw from this?  Firstly, a general point for retailers from Dan Kennedy… [Read more…]

I think it’s fair to say that Donald Trump’s victory in the recent US Presidential Election caught most people by surprise.  Indeed, large sections of the mainstream media and most political pundits are wondering “What the hell just happened?” and are left scratching their heads.

So, something is going on that’s outside the bounds of “conventional wisdom”.  What might all this mean for marketers?  A couple of months ago I touched on this in the post…

“Brexit, Donald Trump and What It All Means For Marketers”.

“So what’s happening? Basically a collapse in trust in government and so-called elites. According to Pew Research, only about 20% of Americans “Always or Mostly Trust the US Government”. That’s down from around 80% in the mid-60s and 50% in the early 2000s.”

I went on to make the point that more than ever, it’s important to build a solid relationship with your customers and earn their trust. Also, to be wary of using conventional authority figures to support your own credibility.

Malcolm Auld looks at the election results from a marketers perspective… [Read more…]