Changing the face of beauty

When Marks & Spencer opened the first of its rein­vig­o­rat­ed beau­ty halls in its Kens­ing­ton High Street store in May 2012, it came not sim­ply with an updat­ed ver­sion of M&S brands. It fea­tured a com­plete­ly new and firm­ly glob­al propo­si­tion, sourced from around the world after months of research and tri­al. This new beau­ty offer­ing brought togeth­er a wide selec­tion of inter­nal and exter­nal brands, many of which had nev­er been seen before in the UK.

With an inter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion for qual­i­ty and ser­vice, and more than 130 years on the British high street, M&S is per­fect­ly placed to bring togeth­er a unique, glob­al edit from the best of sci­ence and nature to be found in beau­ty.

Offer­ing cus­tomers a way to shop eas­i­ly and with more choice, M&S has con­firmed its sta­tus as a seri­ous beau­ty com­peti­tor that can pro­vide an exclu­sive expe­ri­ence, with approx­i­mate­ly 140 stores now fea­tur­ing this excit­ing devel­op­ment in retail­ing. The recent­ly relaunched M&S web­site is also lead­ing the way with excit­ing inno­va­tions, such as the vir­tu­al makeover and man­i­cure tools.

Bring­ing togeth­er trust­ed and lit­tle-known exter­nal brands, includ­ing favourites and new arrivals, makes this propo­si­tion both inclu­sive and dis­tinc­tive. Cus­tomers can find REN next to Rodi­al, Sti­la near James Read Self Tan and fine fra­grances, includ­ing Shay & Blue and Nuxe. Orig­i­nal­ly launched with 25 exter­nal brands, today 34 can be found in-store with new launch­es arriv­ing soon.

As well as unique col­lab­o­ra­tions with lead­ing British lights, glob­al­ly fet­ed experts have also been care­ful­ly cho­sen by Marks & Spencer to devel­op prod­ucts that cham­pi­on the best the coun­try has to offer.

In addi­tion to team­ing up with nail tech­ni­cian Leighton Den­ny, home­ware styl­ist Emma Bridge­wa­ter and world-class spa Rag­dale Hall, this year has seen the launch of an exclu­sive range with inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned hair colour expert Josh Wood. Among hero prod­ucts is the Colour Blend­ing Wand, a brush-on tint that tem­porar­i­ly hides grey and which Josh describes as “tru­ly inno­v­a­tive and one of those ‘light-bulb’ moments”.

We want to cre­ate a tru­ly unique beau­ty expe­ri­ence in our stores and with our online beau­ty offer­ing

With a well-estab­lished and devot­ed con­sumer base for its own brands, M&S con­tin­ues to pro­vide much-loved prod­ucts along­side these British col­lab­o­ra­tions and exter­nal brands. There are cur­rent­ly 19 own brands, beau­ty acces­sories and cos­met­ics bag lines.

Fol­low­ing the endur­ing suc­cess of the For­mu­la range, M&S con­tin­ue to inno­vate with Pure Super Grape, a new skin­care line based around the antiox­i­dant ingre­di­ent resver­a­trol, sourced from a by-prod­uct of Chapel Down vineyard’s Eng­lish pinot noir grapes – the very wine you can buy in M&S food halls.

Ser­vice too is at the heart of the propo­si­tion. All con­sul­tants are M&S employ­ees who are expert­ly trained through­out the year to the beau­ty industry’s exact­ing stan­dards. Com­bined with a no-com­mis­sion pol­i­cy, this ensures cus­tomers are giv­en the right solu­tions across all ranges in a mod­ern way, rather than focus­ing on a sin­gle-brand­ed solu­tion. Con­sul­tants can, there­fore, stay ded­i­cat­ed to the cus­tomer, who wants to feel com­fort­able and have their con­fi­dence boost­ed, rather than feel any anx­i­ety about their own choic­es and knowl­edge.

The beau­ty hall area also builds on the impor­tance of mod­ern deliv­ery. Beau­ty halls are sit­u­at­ed in key areas of the store that offer the shop­per a relaxed and wel­com­ing envi­ron­ment.

“Going on a jour­ney with our cus­tomer is at the heart of our renewed beau­ty propo­si­tion,” says Jo Jenk­ins, direc­tor of beau­ty at M&S. “We want to cre­ate a tru­ly unique beau­ty expe­ri­ence in our stores and with our online beau­ty offer­ing. Bring­ing togeth­er the very best of our own brands with out­stand­ing exter­nal brands sourced from around the world, M&S beau­ty halls give cus­tomers an extra­or­di­nary shop­ping expe­ri­ence.”