The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Cameron Clarke, Editor

January 5, 2014 | 2 min read

Its glamorous Christmas advertising campaign promised magic and sparkle but the festive trading period was no fairytale for Marks & Spencer.

The high street retailer is this week expected to report a disappointing Christmas trading period, with last-minute price cuts failing to halt the slide in sales.

Today's Sunday Times reports that city sources believe clothing and homeware sales may have dropped by up to 1.5 per cent over the festive quarter, despite discounts as high as 30 per cent.

This is worse than the 0.5 per cent drop predicted by analysts last month, although food sales are forecast to rise 2 per cent.

Due on Thursday, the results will highlight M&S as "one of the high street's big Christmas losers," the Sunday Times wrote.

Marks & Spencer unveiled its autumn/winter clothing range last May, trumpeting a renewed focus on quality, in a bid to turn around two years of disappointing Christmas clothing sales.

In November the company launched its high-profile Christmas advertising campaign, 'Believe in magic and sparkle', created by RKCR/Y&R and starring Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, David Gandy and Helena Bonham Carter.