Until recently it could be argued that the social media phenomenon was the domain of a brand’s marketing team, with PR & marketing people everywhere considering how best to utilise this new communication channel.  But the beauty (and potential thorn) of social media is that it’s a two-way thing.  The recent M&S lingerie ‘boob’ and subsequent backtrack over the pricing policy of its larger cup sizes demonstrates that the force of consumer’s views via these new communication channels can influence even the pricing architecture of a brand. 

It is interesting, but perhaps not unexpected, that the lingerie market has been pivotal in demonstrating the point.  Lingerie is an issue close to women’s heart in more ways than the obvious physical proximity – especially for women of a certain bust size.  Agent Provocateur and Myla are famed for their celebration of the ‘frippery’ of lingerie, but the fact is that the vast majority of lingerie purchases are more functional and that women feel very strongly about the shopping experience, which  isn’t always positive. 

Also, women spend the most time on the internet – ‘digital mums’, probably an M&S core customer, spend approx. 4 hours more per week online than the UK average. Recent campaigns by Wonderbra with Dita Von Teese have focused efforts online to great success. 

Brands such as Leia and Bravissimo specialise in catering for women with a larger cup size, and know that it’s a more sensitive issue when you get above a D cup; although M&S take the lion’s share of the lingerie market, they are relatively new to the larger cup size market, so it’s perhaps telling that they’ve fallen into this trap.

There is no doubt that M&S dealt with the situation well – Stuart Rose stepping in to personally declare they had made a mistake and to say sorry, plus the benefit of a generous promotion on all bras, whatever size or shape, for a weekend.   However, I’m sure they would have preferred to avoid the story if at possible.

In most high street retailers we have worked with it would be unheard of for a PR team to sit in on pricing policy discussion – in our experience this has traditionally sat in the product manager’s remit and decisions have generally been made by mainly drawing on commercial data, rather than an emotive approach.   Perhaps recent events will change all that – we are pretty convinced that there will be more consultation in the M&S offices from now on. 

There’s no question that the commercial logic was sound – larger cup size bras do cost more to manufacture, but if the team had really been customer-focused they would have realised that women shouldn’t feel penalised for having a bigger bust! 

Note:  The Facebook Group Bust4justice may have been the driving force, but the media pick up was the catalyst for the campaign, demonstrating the power that the traditional printed media still has.  However, it’s arguable whether The Sun and other media would never have picked up on the story without the Facebok group – 53% of journalists admit to looking online for their inspiration these days.