PR

PR considers what the public and employee think about the company. The reputation that is promoted to the stakeholders and potential customers. M&S and Aldi both wish to be seen as an ethical organisation and employers of choice.

Aldi has done well in this case as it was one of the first supermarkets (after Lidl) to implement national living wage.

They stated that their business model was simple in that it was “always great quality at the best price, fair and honest products offered and efficient business processes’.

They now have a reputation of being an employer of choice by offering good wages, benefits and progression routes to management. Consumers will make a connection between employee and consumer care. 

Aldi also promote themselves as being responsible for their global supply chains and use of sustainable products (Group, 2017).

M&S have many of the same philosophies as demonstrated in their Plan A agenda which was set out in January 2007. Its aim was to protect the environment by utilising responsible sourcing, reducing waste and helping communities. 

This included initiatives such as ‘Food surplus’ which is a food surplus distribution scheme, ‘Shwopping’ which would resell used or unwanted clothes and ‘Marks and Start’ which is a back to work scheme. They work hard to promote themselves as socially responsible but this was overshadowed by accusations of child labour in Indonesia where it was claimed that children were working for approximately 50p for a ten-hour shift.

Although Vince McGinley (who at the time was a divisional director at M&S) claimed the company had no knowledge of this and could can cancel any contract found to be using child labour, regardless of the outcome M&S’s integrity was affected by this. This shows the importance of honestly in any marketing campaign. Any claims that a company makes must be backed up. (Milne 2017).

A good indicator of how well a company is going in this regard is to check the YouGov report. YouGov measure the public perception of brands. Their brand index score attempts to measure metrics such as value, quality and reputation. Their 2016 mid year rankings placed Aldi in first place (16.1) and M&S in 10^th place (9.8). More information can be view on the yougov link on the home page.

The differences between PR and Advertising