The St Michael logo which has appeared on countless pairs of knickers since the 1920s is to be dropped from Marks &
Posted in General on 20. Aug, 2010
The St Michael logo, which has appeared on countless pairs of knickers since the 1920s, is to be dropped from Marks & Spencer clothes. The St Michael logo, which has appeared on countless pairs of knickers since the 1920s, is to be dropped from Marks & Spencer clothes.
M&S, often referred to as the patron saint of women’s underwear, will instead now use the words St Michael as an “assurance of quality” and only on packaging.The move is part of an ongoing overhaul at the company, which includes a new look for shop fronts, new store layouts and uniforms, and more staff. Even the distinctive green M&S carrier bag is to be redesigned and produced in a variety of shades.The retail chain yesterday denied it was dropping its logo completely, but said the decision to drop it from clothes labels had been a part of efforts to clarify the company’s image. The St Michael Promise, a circle with words such as “trust”, “reliability” and “integrity” in the centre, will start appearing in the autumn, when the store unveils its new image.Michael Ashman, a spokesman for M&S, said: “Our customers were not clear about which was the main brand — Marks & Spencer or St Michael.
We are very clear that it is Marks & Spencer, and that is what people identify with.”But we are not losing St Michael – it is becoming our equivalent of the Woolmark or Kitemark. It will act as our guarantee of the quality of our products and the intrinsic values of our company.”This is all about evolution, not revolution. When the overhaul is complete we want people to instantly recognise our products as Marks & Spencer and to say that the new look is a whole lot better, but we don’t want it to be so different that our core customers are no longer comfortable.”Richard Hyman, of the retail analyst Verdict — which has made a study of the clothing retail market, to be published this week — said the decision to dispense with the St Michael logo had been symbolic. The report found that the chain’s market share had fallen from 16.1 per cent to 13.5 per cent in womenswear in the past year and from 13.9 per cent to 12.3 per cent in menswear. Mr Hyman said: “It is a sign that the company is becoming much more focussed and that a new M&S is emerging.”M&S is doing the right things and I think these will work, but the company will probably never again be the giant of the high street that it once was.”The St Michael brand was invented in the 1920s when Simon Marks, the son of the retailer’s co-founder, Michael, suggested it as a way of paying tribute to his father, who had started the company with Thomas Spencer at a Leeds market stall in 1884.By 1928, St Michael had been registered as a trademark and had rapidly become synonymous with the M&S name, appearing on clothing labels and food packaginBut a recent severe fall in sales and profits at the company has led to a radical strategy rethink. Its new image has been drawn up with the design consultant Interbrand Newell & Sorrell, which worked on the ill-fated redesign of the British Airways tailfin..
By MICHAEL WHITE, AP Business Writer
By MICHAEL WHITE, AP Business Writer
In a media merger creating the third-largest U.S newspaper company, Tribune Co will take over Times Mirror Co. and end the dynasty that has controlled the Los Angeles Times since 1882.The $6.46 billion deal will mark the end of Times Mirror as a company. The Chandler family, which owns a majority of the company’s voting shares, has pledged to approve the deal. The new company will have a daily newspaper circulation of 3.6 million, by the Tribune’s count, with readership in the nation’s three largest cities – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago By circulation, it will rank behind only Gannett Co Inc. and Knight Ridder.The deal, approved by Times Mirror directors late Sunday, still must be approved by shareholders and is subject to federal review.It may require a waiver of Federal Communications Commission rules forbidding a company to own both a TV station and a newspaper in the same market. Tribune Co.’s broadcast holdings include KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.Because it involved noncompetitive bidding, other bidders have 20 calendar days to top the Tribune Co.’s offer.Under the takeover, Times Mirror shareholders will have a choice of taking dlrs 95 per share from Tribune Co. – nearly twice the stock’s recent value – or exchanging each of their Times Mirror shares for 2.5 shares of Tribune Co stock The Tribune Co.
also will assume about dlrs 1.4 billion in debt, the Times reported.Tribune Co. would control operations from its Chicago headquarters and John Madigan, chairman of Tribune Co., would head the new company, the Chicago Tribune said Monday.Times reporters leaving work early Monday said they were surprised by the merger and uncertain about the impact.”It’s a very unsettled feeling,” said Carlos Selva, a reporter with the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post news service. “As for me, I won’t know until I get more details.”The proposed sale follows five years of dramatic changes at Times Mirror under the stewardship of its chief executive, Mark H Willes. After arriving from General Mills in spring 1995, he closed The (Baltimore) Evening Sun and New York Newsday and sold off assets that substantially trimmed the company.Wall Street rewarded those moves. The company’s stock went from dlrs 23.25 in June 1995 to a high of dlrs 72.62 in November 1999.