On your Marks for X-Factor advert

Marks and Spencer released results today showing a fall in both profits and sales, citing the “challenging economic environment”.

Although these results were in line with analysts’ expectations, it shows the challenges that M&S face in a competitive run into Christmas.

This news comes on the back of a launch of their latest TV advertising campaign where they tap into the popularity of the X-Factor. I don’t think this advert is as compelling as recent efforts by John Lewis, particularly their 2009 Christmas campaign – the two companies are striving to capture the same market but I will let you judge which you think is best. Despite my thoughts, some of my students thought the M&S advert was growing on them!

This Telegraph article details some of the strategies that M&S have adopted over the last 18 months, including cost cutting and a ‘contribution’ from suppliers. These issues would make for a useful discussion in terms of profit quality.

What may upset the M&S marketing department more is the news that Frankie has departed the X-Factor today under much publicity – the Telegraph reports events here. I am not sure this will help their campaign and it will be interesting to see if they edit the advert to distance themselves from Frankie’s image, which is not very M&S!