Marks & Spencer (M&S) offer clothing, furniture and homewares, gifts and more

Wednesday, 03 June 2009

Top-quality sourcing, smart locations and adverts that make you physically hungry. All of these things get us into Marks and Spencer. We know it’s a bit more expensive, and we know that Lidl and Asda will probably fill your trolley for the price of a basket. But, somehow, it doesn’t matter.

The M & S approach has stood them in good stead for 125 years – a fact which they are now celebrating by raising money for good causes. This may sound daft but they haven’t stayed in business for 125 years by being daft. The money-raising is laser-focused on their customer base, almost parish by parish.

For example, in Malvern they are raising money for the Acorn’s Children’s Hospice while in Ellesmere Port they are raising it for a rare ageing disorder from which a popular local girl suffers. This is part of a wider corporate trend towards local community giving. That’s very true in the retail sector where your local community is your lifeblood.

Cynics might call it marketing but it’s much more than that. M & S bacon comes from pigs that live outdoors, the paper for their till receipts is FSC certified, they’re running a campaign to help people cut down on saturated fat, they’ve set up an eco-factory in Sri Lanka ... and on it goes.

But the whole lot is hidden away right at the bottom of their website, under a button marked ‘Plan A’. It’s almost as if they’re doing it because they actually want to do some good, rather than to get the credit for doing good!

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