M&S boss Marc Bolland started to make his presence felt with last week’s rejig of the general merchandise senior management structure. The rationale for the changes was to create the right framework for delivery of M&S’s business plan.

M&S boss Marc Bolland started to make his presence felt with last week’s rejig of the general merchandise senior management structure. The rationale for the changes was to create the right framework for delivery of M&S’s business plan.

Central to the Bolland strategy is to turn M&S’s stable of fashion collections “from labels to brands”. To that end, dedicated managers are being appointed to shape stronger, more resonant brand identities.

One analyst suggested to me that Bolland is taking a department store-style approach to M&S. The focus on brands may be an example. Department stores thrive on the power of the brands they carry, whether their own or third-party. The refocus of M&S’s brands would reinforce its appeal, driving footfall and sales among distinct customer groups.

If successful, the initiative could be taken on a stage. A new fashion brand, or brands, could draw in that elusive younger shopper essential for the retailer to maintain its appeal to successive generations.

The power and distinctiveness of the differentiated brands would take away any stigma diverse customer groups might have about rubbing shoulders with each other - just as in other department stores, whether it’s Debenhams or Selfridges.

The department store analogy can be taken further. Over the years M&S has, with varying degrees of success, targeted categories ranging from technology to homewares. Its beauty range is often criticised as failing to match those of rivals. But the brand approach might enable M&S to move away from the perception that it is simply a clothes shop with a supermarket tacked on. Bolland intends to introduce exclusive food brands from around the world and there has in the past been talk of a cosmetics tie-up with Sephora. The guiding principle will be that, whatever the brand, it’s “only at M&S”.

It’s the sort of thing you might see on the Champs-Elysees, but the battle that matters to M&S must be fought not in Paris but places like Purley and Peterborough.

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