Years ago I used to buy from M&S. Mainly food. Sometimes clothes. Especially during my student days when times were hard. Well, if you had to endure a wedding or a formal ‘family do’ you could buy a suit from M&S on a Friday afternoon, carefully remove the labels, make sure you didn’t spill or perspire on it (or even worse if you got really lucky with a bridesmaid or a long lost cousin!), then return it on Monday for your money back. Yes I know it’s wrong in principle but times were hard. Students couldn’t afford cars, mobiles and designer gear in those days. It was all charity shop overcoats and brown ale in market pubs back in the 70s.
M&S was a brand that had good solid values. It was a British institution. Nothing too exciting, but you knew what it stood for. The trouble was times were changing and people really weren’t turned on by them anymore. Over the decades they lost touch with contemporary Britain.
Then, along came new products, new direction and eventually Dirvla with the “this is not just chocolate pudding” campaign. This is where the hate started for me.
I couldn’t stand her self satisfied, smug, decidedly middle class purring. It’s irrational I know, and you’ll probably say that this is the campaign that rescued M&S. I suppose at a time when everyone felt affluent , when property prices were high, the economy was booming and everyone was spending faster than an MP on expenses both she and the marketing strategy were bang on.
Many adored her and the lush photography style that went with her. I didn’t feel like it was my M&S though and vowed never to cross there pretentious threshold again. Never, never, never!
But, times change, the economy falls off a cliff and we all feel a little less wealthy and a little more vulnerable than we did.
The positive thing (for me).... Dirvla disappears back to Ballykissangel with her designer M&S travel luggage stuffed full of royalties and a few out of date chocolate eclairs to sustain her on the ferry and a shiny new campaign comes along that’s in tune with the mood of the nation.
This is where the love bit begins again.
With a more realistic ‘quality worth every penny’ message and ‘2 can eat for a tenner’ I forgot Dirvla and her “cat that got the cream” voice and tucked into some great value food and wine.
The point though is that one campaign very quickly and very strongly turned me (and others presumably) against a brand for no real, rational reason other than personal preference. It’s just an instinctive thing and there’s little you can do about it sometimes. I was adamant I wouldn’t buy at M&S again!!!
But thankfully our memories are short (especially when we’re advancing in years) and brand disloyalties even shorter lived. We react and change our perceptions and opinions quickly when a new message is presented and the goodies are too tempting to resist. Our buying habits are seldom set in stone and we’re willing to give a second chance. As consumers we’re quick to change loyalties if someone comes along with a proposition that connects with us and that really floats our boat.
Will I buy another M&S wedding suit and return it after the do again? Probably not, but never say never! After all you never know when hard times are just around the corner.
