Exclusive | Marks & Spencer continues to woo the fashion conscious India: Sumit Kumar

Marks & Spencer is a major British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with 703 stores in the United Kingdom and 361 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products. Marks & Spencer  entered India in 2001 and in April 2008  M&S signed a joint venture with Reliance Retail to form Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt Ltd. M&S currently has 24 stores located in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Amritsar, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Reliance Retail Limited is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited and opened its first retail store in November 2006. It today operates more than 1,000 stores in over 85 cities serving over 2.5 million customers every week.

Adgully caught up with Sumit Kumar, Head of Marketing, Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt. Ltd. to learn more about the brand and their journey since their  foray into India a decade ago.
Speaking about the brand’s journey so far, he said, “We entered India over a decade ago in a franchise model and in 2008 we entered into a Joint Venture with Reliance Retail to form Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt Ltd. The journey has continued from there and today we have 24 stores across Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Noida, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Amritsar.”

When asked about the Indian market they are in, he said, “India is an important market for Marks & Spencer.  Its large population and economic growth presents us with a huge opportunity. We now have 24 stores in India and we will continue to build our presence in the country.” Kumar says, “We saw double digit growth across all of our clothing departments in India. Linen was particularly popular with our customers in India contributing to 19% of our total sales. We sold 107,000 pieces of linen during the half up 160% on last year. We also re-launched our kids-wear range during the half by extending our essentials and baby-wear ranges, which saw sales increase by 75%.”

Marks & Spencer has come on board as the ‘Official Fashion Show Partner’ of India’s only ATP World Tour championship, the Aircel Chennai Open 2013. When asked to shed some light on the association with the Aircel Chennai Open 2013, Kumar said, “The world of tennis has always had a serious affair with fashion and style both on and off the court. M&S hosted a glamorous fashion evening showcasing the stylish and fashionable pieces.”

Given the fact that the year 2012 was a little tough, when asked how it was for M&S, Kumar explained saying that Marks & Spencer stores in India are performing well with double digit growth across all of the clothing departments. The overall brand strategy for 2013 is to grow the customer base by increasing their brand awareness in India by opening more stores to expand their footprint. “We will continue to delight our existing and new customers by offering high levels of service and great quality products,” he added.

When asked about the key markets Kumar said, “We will continue to build our presence by focusing on cities such as Delhi.” They currently have stores in Delhi, NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Amritsar and there are plans in the pipeline of opening 10 more stores by summer of 2013.

The three key marketing and promotional strategies for M&S are conventional mediums  like print, Out of Home, Fashion/Lifestyle Magazines, Online, Digital and  Facebook on which they now have over 60,000 fans.
He says, “Our strategy is to focus on creating awareness of a great international brand and what it stands for and associating with young Indian consumers as the authority on style.”
Speaking about some more consumer engagement initiatives, he said, “We also engage with the fashion media and stylist on regular basis which has also been able to help us communicate with fashion media proactively. India specific seasonal Look Book has been very well accepted by the fashion fraternity.”

“In September 2010 we introduced the “M&S Gift Cards” and the feedback from our customers has been very encouraging.  We have been able to successfully use the insights from our loyalty program “Your M&S Club” to make customized offers for customer segments. Our store windows provide an engaging experience for our customers as they shop at our stores,” Kumar further added.

With regard to new formats on the anvil, Kumar said, “We will open new look format stores in India. These new format stores have been designed with customers specifically in mind. The makeover has made the store more inviting, inspiring and easier to shop with new clothing displays.”

Each clothing brand is now very clearly segmented, with distinct brand identities that allow customers to see which brand best meets their personal style preferences. This is highlighted for customers through unique branding, visual merchandising kit and propping. For example, Limited Collection has an edgy, fashion-focused feel with an illuminated catwalk. An ethnically casual look for Indigo Collection includes trestle tables and denim mannequins, whilst a sports-inspired look for Blue Harbour has authentic wooded sporting equipment with a large canvas sail. Autograph is luxurious and sophisticated with a black glass table and grey posed mannequins.

M&S is the international brand that makes global lifestyle accessible to the young Indian through great quality products. It also  guides them to express confidence and simultaneously feel contemporary and comfortable at work and home.  | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal@adgully.com]