Message First in Practice: Marks & Spencer

Message is the heart and soul of brand. Industry experts, agency leaders and leading CEOs know that putting message first is the only approach that delivers the best results for their marketing.

HNW might have codified a unique message first marketing approach, but a huge part of that has been watching how other brands and businesses centre their marketing around a core message. 

Brands like this one.

The Brand: Marks & Spencer (M&S)

Marks & Spencer (M&S) needs no introduction if you’ve spent any time in the UK. It’s one the country’s oldest retailers, renowned for its quality food, clothing and homeware. Millions of customers around the world recognise the M&S name as a British icon, and its heritage, quality and value have seen it voted the UK’s most trusted brand (most recently in 2022). 

The Message: Better quality is within your reach 

Breaking into the high street retail market is notoriously hard. Staying there for decades is even tougher. But positioning yourself as an iconic high street name that sits a level above all your competition… that’s genius. 

What’s even more impressive is that M&S has managed to dominate the ‘premium everyday’ market in clothing, food and homeware for well over 50 years, by focusing on a clear simple message in all their brand positioning, all their marketing and all their sub-brands. 

It’s a message that, on paper, could be put forward by any of their competitors. Take Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose, John Lewis, Next… even Primark, and you’ll see they all use variations of ‘quality’ and ‘value’ in their advertising, just the same as M&S. 

But M&S has very cleverly positioned itself as the retailer that’s always one rung above. 

One that you can always turn to when you’re looking for something a little bit special. When you want that extra quality and that extra value. Because with M&S:

“Better quality is within your reach ”

The origins of that message can be traced all the way back to the late 1800s when Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer joined forces as the originators of the Penny Bazaar. 

While the focus is on value here – and it might be tempting to look at the “Everything’s a penny” slogan and draw comparison with today’s pound stores – the difference in quality is evident even in 1884. 

It’s not just “everything costs a penny.” It’s that for a penny, you get value, variety, quality and quantity. 

For an affordable price, you get a better quality, a better experience. 

That’s a message that’s remained front and centre in M&S marketing for over a century. 

Fast forward 50 years and this printed ad delves deeper into the aspirational quality of M&S, with premium clothing “drawn by designers from the fashion centres of the world” that’s still within reach of your average woman. 

It’s that idea of a premium product, grounded by everyday reality, that has served M&S so well. That aspirational quality, rooted by accessibility. Their message may have originated with their heritage as a penny bazaar, but it’s continued to inform their position in a crowded, highly competitive retail and grocery marketplace for a century. 

In food or clothing, all M&S’ competitors talk about quality. They all talk about value. But by elevating their quality into something that’s both aspirational AND achievable by the everyday shopper, M&S’ key message lifts the brand above their competition. 

It’s a powerful message that helps M&S remain apart, whether it’s in clothing or in food, with a better quality that’s within reach. 

Nowhere is that more evident than with the M&S food brand. 

“This is not just food…” isn’t just the most iconic advertising line of the 21st Century. It’s a line that perfectly captures that core message yet again. It’s premium quality, rooted in the everyday. It’s your everyday foods – trifle, fish and new potatoes, roast dinners, chocolate puddings etc… but all with an extra level of quality and value. 

The message is crystal clear. Superior food, without being pretentious, extravagant (despite the indulgent adverts) or out of reach. 

And that’s important. 

There’s an argument that ‘superiority’ could or should form part of M&S key messaging. But while the quality of M&S products is a level above their competitors, that kind of language doesn’t fit with their everyday positioning or their tone of voice. 

It’s essential that M&S’s aspirational quality is grounded in value and accessible by everyone. 

It’s why M&S customers know that: 

“Better quality is within their reach”

The Voice: Warm Sensualist  

We haven’t yet worked with M&S, and so haven’t had the benefit of running a tone of voice workshop for them. 

With two core markets – clothing and food – it might be easy to think that M&S doesn’t have a single tone of voice for their brand. 

But they do. 

It’s one that’s grounded in everyday language. One that talks like its customers do, pretty straight-forward and always warm. But one that also lifts that everyday tone every now and then with a dazzle of something else. With a bit of inspiration here and there, a sprinkle of “ooooh” and a stirring of delight. 

All varied, but all always with the classic tone of a warm friend, infused with touches of sensualist – most obviously in the Food range but used throughout the whole brand. 

Why? Because their customers talk like this too. That warmth is essential in making sure the brand reassures a broad audience, and it keeps the M&S messaging from straying into superior, pretentious territory. Without that warmth, the tone would put M&S into a bracket of luxury brands who go all in on sensualist. 

Its tone is inspired by its key message, through and through, the everyday paired with the aspirational. Open to everyone, with a hint of something special. 

A warm sensualist. 

The Deployment: Decades of premium quality and ‘remarksable’ value for everyone 

Take almost any advert from M&S over the last 100 years and you’ll see that strong powerful message of “better quality is within your reach” underpinning it. 

Look at the language used in this print ad from the 1960s: 

“You can treat yourself to the greatest value in stocking fashion” and “they pamper your legs with smooth, wrinkle-free fit – plus lovely 6-star shades of…” 

Immediately, there’s quality and value. A quality to treat yourself to – to aspire to – but one that’s accessible ‘at only 3/11’. 

Then there’s one of the brand’s first TV adverts from 1960. 

While the video itself focuses on the clothing and the fashion style – the aspiration – it’s the voiceover that hits home that premium quality, constantly repeating:

“It’s wool, it’s St. Michael, it’s Marks & Spencer.” 

“It’s wool, it’s smart, it’s chic, it’s Marks & Spencer.”

The message? That this is real wool, real quality, and it could be yours. Better quality within reach. 

That theme of everyday accessibility is clear in all M&S advertising, from the 1960 Fashion Time advert, through the “Exclusively for Everyone” campaign of 2000, to today’s “Anything But Ordinary”  and “Remarksable Value” messaging.

This 1960 Fashion Time infomercial discusses all the merits of M&S quality, but the stand out line comes at the end:

“The man in the executive suite, and the man in the street, you’ll find them shopping here too, because like their wives and daughters, they know they will always find the right style, fine quality and a reasonable price at Marks & Spencer.” 

Business man or labourer, M&S deliver accessible, premium clothing. 

At face value, they’re not doing anything that other retailers don’t do – focusing on quality and value and trying to appeal to a wider audience. Every retailer wants to say “we’re the clothing shop or the supermarket that’s for you – with great quality and great value. Come to us.”

But because every M&S campaign is underpinned by that core message of ‘better quality that’s within reach’, M&S straplines can play on their long-standing, well-built reputation of a premium product that’s still easily accessible. Something exclusive, that’s available for everyone. 

Or something that’s for the every day… but anything but ordinary. 

THE KEY MESSAGE:  Better quality is within your reach 

Primary strapline: This is not just food, it’s M&S food
Anything but ordinary

Company mission: To make inspirational quality accessible to others
Supporting messages: Exclusively for everyone
Remarksable value
We never compromise on quality, it’s a pretty good price too
Best in class

Even when they go very specific with their advertising – with this back to school campaign for example – M&S always finds a way to bring in their core message. 

‘Best in class’ of course communicates that premium quality, but it’s the USPs underneath that get M&S’s key message across, with ‘hand-me-downable’ as the killer phrase.

It doesn’t just say ‘our school clothing is better quality’, it tells you why – long lasting, better for the environment, AND – most importantly – ‘hand-me-downable’ explains in just three words how much value M&S offers, and how it’s a value worth reaching for, accessible for everyone. 

It takes a stigma for many families – hand me down clothing – and makes it an aspirational quality. It’s a solution to the challenge of holes and tears, snags and stains, when many families can’t afford to simply replace school clothes.  

Pure class. 

Finally, we couldn’t leave a Message First in Practice study of Marks & Spencer without talking about THAT advert. The one that’s spun off a thousand imitations and cemented M&S Food has THE premium choice for Britain’s dining rooms. 

It’s changed the way M&S advertise their food for over a decade, and impacted countless other brands. The strapline, “This is not just food” has ingrained itself into society, used and referenced for almost every product or service imaginable. 

But it wasn’t the first M&S food advert that positioned the brand as the choice for better quality food at affordable value. Take a look at this advert from the early 1970’s, promoting their ‘fresh not frozen’ chicken. Here, the M&S straplines were “We never compromise on quality” and “it’s a pretty good price too.” 

Both adverts, both campaigns, are powered by M&S’ core message. Premium food that could be on your plate.

“Better quality is within your reach”

Just like better messaging.

Putting your message first is so clear. So effective. So what are you waiting for?