Primary Research: My trip to the M&S Archive

Visiting the archive I made a conscious effort to look at the history of the food production in the products history. I found the '125 years of Marks & Spencers: Marks in Time' probably the most useful of the books available.

'All Wrapped Up'
Their food department opened in 1931 selling fruit, vegetables and canned goods.
They describe how their window displays would be home to lavish displays, foods such as bananas oranges and grapefruit.
This shows me that M&S was the one of if not the first to see the potential in 'window advertising' and how promoting their products via their windows would entice people in - something that has been taken onboard by various other brands over the ages.

Note: Have a look into food window displays past and present (Harrods would be good to look at) and see how they affect the customer.

Marks and Spencer's took a lot of pride into their packaging also, with many of their designs being described as decorative and colourful. They were innovative in the way that they knew how to entice their customers and knew marketing techniques to get them to shop with them which is one of the main reasons they have been so successful for so many years.
They were also incredibly resilient; whilst hitting hard times during the World War they were in fear of their food sales completely diminishing. However Simon Marks decided to rebrand naming it what it is today with a line of quality food that was set to carry on for years to come.

'Simon Marks gave the food technology team the ultimate challenge: 'Develop a range of high quality cakes that we can be proud of and that our customers will buy. If we succeed, the future of foods in the business is assured - but if we fail, the future of foods as a whole may be in doubt.''
They saw from very early days that they must stand out amongst their competitors and with them seeing customer satisfaction low they knew something must be done. In fact their food technology team invented the use of sell by dates to make sure their products were the freshest they would be leading to higher customer satisfaction. However this idea was opposed by many of the store managers suggesting a lot of waste would occur and therefore loss of sales but this was not the case and the idea of 'fresh is best' increased M&S sales - eventually years later leading it to become a legal requirement.

As a result of all this innovation in the 1950s M&S raised the hygiene standards for food dramatically. Following on from this success in the 1960s they launched their 'Clean Food and Clean Stores' campaign which invited 8,000 members of the public behind the scenes of M&S to see their high standards for themselves. This reminds me of the previous campaign for LIDL who took their customer data on negative parts of their brand and used real life people to dispel these 'myths.' Even 50 years later, M&S is making an impact! 
Marks and Spencer's was before their time due to them being the first supermarket to source from all over the world to give their customers the best possible products (however this was met with some negativity with customers complaining of foreign objects such as stones in their food). As what often happened with M&S they met this negativity with a solution; changing this century old technique of picking sultanas to a more effective cleaner solution on mass. This type of relationship that M&S built with their suppliers made them a market leader resulting in many others following suit, a concept that is still strong in the brand today.

'The M&S food division had one common goal; to offer the best there was, whatever it may be.''

M&S also pioneered 'cold chain distribution' in the 1960s ahead of all of their competitors which had a nationwide distribution of chilled foods in circulation through the use of vehicles. This allowed M&S to get into a market not previously on offer to supermarkets - fresh food. This was the job of butchers often as in transit the food would become spoiled but the use of chilled vans allowed them to get fresh food delivered in time to be sold - as a result the customers, being enthralled with the new fresh choices, were prepared to pay a premium for what they saw as a superior product.

1972: M&S released their first TV commercial (before they were shown at the cinema)
This signalled the start of their new fresh line 'Remember when chicken used to taste like chicken.'

They were the first retailers in the UK to stock avocados, grapefruit, iceberg lettuce, king prawns and smoked salmon. Not only did they introduce Britain to a new palette from far flung places but they also pioneered food ranges such as the party range in the 1980s which is now a staple in today's supermarkets.

'One thing that M&S understood was that attractive packaging wasn't enough: food had to taste as good as it looked if the public were to be persuaded to buy. Today, there is a huge department of food product developer and food technologists, who specialise in everything ... ensuring standards do not fall.'

Timeline of various foods introduced to the British public
1974: Indian - chicken korma, lamb rogan josh and pork vindaloo
1981: Chilled vegetables - cauliflower cheese
1983: Chinese - spare ribs, egg fried rice
1985: Vegetarian ranges before any other supermarket - key insight for my dissertation
1990: Thai - satay and chicken curry
2004: Gastropub - comfort food

They also had 'organised cafes' in 1927 selling sandwiches, pastries and hot drinks which gradually expanded to which they could order steak and fish and chips amongst other popular choices.
Is this the beginnings of cafes in supermarkets?