M&S needed a roar from Rowe, but all it got was a whisper
It was Steve Rowe's opportunity to deliver something big. Analysts had forecast it, and, most importantly of all, M&S' customers were expecting it.
But the man from Croydon adopted the softly-softly approach that you might expect of a lifer rather than the more radical path that newcomers tend to take. There was no Dave Lewis-style kitchen sinking of the high street giant. Rowe's battle cry was more of a whisper than a roar.
There were some glimmers of hope in what he said. Shoppers and investors alike should take comfort in the fact that, rather than chasing the next unwearable trend from the catwalks in an effort to win over fashion editors and bloggers, M&S will focus on wardrobe staples that will appeal to its core shopper.
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As you might expect from someone who started out as a Saturday boy, there will be renewed focus on stores, staff and the customer experience. Details are scarce, but the hope is that it brings more people to the shop floor. The turnaround needs to involve a freshening of the portfolio and store layout, and the ditching of some of M&S' many confusing sub-brands.
Rowe has also pledged that M&S will follow Debenhams out of the promotions rabbit hole – both retailers having become addicted to the quick fix of a sale, losing customers and margin in the process.
A promise to cut prices – without cutting quality – while returning to a strategy of fewer, regular, sales periods should benefit M&S, having served rival Next well.
Assuming M&S can retrain its customers to pay full whack for clothes they have grown used to getting with a “half price” tag, this should help bring it back from the brink.
It should have been a glorious setting out of his stall, and the start of M&S return to glory. And yet it felt limp.
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The share price closed down an eye-watering 10.2 per cent. Investors were perhaps reacting to the short-term impact all this will have on M&S' balance sheet – but given how long they have sat with the stock, to dump it now seems less a knee-jerk reaction and more of a thumbs down to Rowe's big plan.
Some analysts noted that we'd heard it all before: the last few years under Marc Bolland have certainly eroded patience when it comes to “step by step” improvements. Others questioned whether Rowe even knew who his customers were.
His description of “Mrs M&S” was also torn down on social media. Pitchfork crowd mentality, perhaps – but at the very least it's indicative of the chasm between the shop and the shopper. In this digital world, customers are used to being talked to as equals – wooed even – but most certainly not talked down to.
In the seven or so weeks since taking the helm, Rowe has done some good work. But he is up against a feeling that everything on offer is too little, too late.
Radical change might not sit easily at one of the UK's oldest and most venerable institutions, but without a real line drawn between the regimes of Bolland and Rowe, the shop floor boy-turned-chief executive will be left managing the decline of his predecessor.