This is the story of how confident communications changed the public face of a very public company:

"The curious thing about M&S is how much we know and care about it. It's more than just another department store. We follow its ups and downs almost as if it were part of our extended family" Justin Picardie, The Telegraph, April 14th 2006

M&S is subject to public scrutiny of everything that it does. Everyone has a point of view on how it's doing and we are all quick to criticise when M&S gets it wrong. Never has a retail brand been so at the mercy of the whims of public confidence - and never has a retail brand needed an injection of public confidence like M&S needed only two years ago.

Headlines prophesised doom and gloom and screamed stories of Philip Green's proposed take-over bid, boardroom battles, 'War on the high street', declining sales and plummeting share prices.

In a tough New Zealand retail market, facing at least four percent year on year decline due to competition from supermarkets, one liquor specialist managed to increase their same store sales by 5 percent per year, more than doubling its growth rate.

It did this solely through effective brand-building advertising, a move from price-based newspaper offers to an integrated campaign encompassing television, radio, best buys, in store and staff training manuals - all designed to differentiate its brand.

This advertising not only created brand differentiation through a more emotive positioning focussing on shopper benefits, it drove customer count and sales to unprecedented levels of growth.

It takes courage for a retailer to make such a dramatic shift in advertising strategy, especially when it might seem counterintuitive. Promotional advertising always seems the sure way to drive traffic. But the environment today requires more than that. Creating growth in retail is requires changing the way we do business and engaging the entire organization in the process.

They live in a parallel world, a world unlike our own. It’s fast, furious and complex. It requires death-defying skill. In this world they hold great power, power beyond any mere mortal’s imagination. They choose to be whoever they want to be and go wherever they want to go. Each day they wake they choose to fight for good or evil. They exist in a world where flight is not fantasy.

They are the greatest problem solvers of the 21st Century. Their reactions are like lightning. They don’t read instructions and they certainly don’t play by the rules. They are gamers and gamers create their own rules. So, do you really think telling them you’ve got a half-price sale is going to turn them on?

This is a story of how Gamestation has built a powerful brand by staying true to who they really are. A brand that has not only helped them become the fastest growing entertainments retailer, but has helped double market share whilst other specialist game retailers lost share to the not-so-specialist competition.

Recently retailers have been quick to jump out of their own category and into new ground. Haute Couture moved into the transportation industry; a t-shirt shop took a plunge in the virtual gaming world; a denim label sampled hospitality. These departures, while exciting and avant-garde, force a different way of thinking about retail.

Traditionally retail has been discussed in terms of three criteria: the consumer, the commodity and the transaction. All of these dimensions had to be present and were considered equally crucial to retailing. But in this new dynamic landscape, where lines are blurred and categories collide, the definition of retail becomes fluid. As retailers crossover into new markets these three conditions are not always present and are not always the imperative.

Fashion retailer Miss Sixty broke new ground with the opening of its first designer hotel and stab at the hospitality market. Set on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, the hotel is meant to attract the same modern, chic individual for whom Miss Sixty designs clothing. The hotel features "on brand" rooms individually designed, painted, stenciled and graffiti’d by young new artists. Along with the lavish nightclubs and lounges there are also web cams and video chats in each room allowing guests to virtually connect. Both style conscious and socially savvy, the hotel creates a new way for people to experience the Miss Sixty brand sans denim, cropped jackets or skinny pants.

At MVI, much of our efforts for the last 18 years have been aimed at helping you understand how different retailers grow - and how to align your business more closely and profitably with those growth retailers.

Today many of the simple rules that govern marketplace growth remain the same - we could call these the MVI foundational points:

• Retailers that are relentlessly focused on selling products to consumers continue to gain market share vs. retailers trapped in an economic model based on selling opportunity to suppliers. These are the retailers that are growing faster than the market.
• In order for your company to grow faster than the market, you must align with retailers that are growing faster than the market.
• Therefore, faster-than-market growth involves partnering with retailers that are relentlessly focused on their shoppers.

This leads to one very powerful conclusion: the retailers that are going to enable you to achieve your growth targets will earn the right to build brands.

© WPP 2007 | Conditions