GROWING GOODMOVE: M&S CONTINUES TO ACCELERATE IN ACTIVEWEAR WITH A COLOURFUL NEW CAMPAIGN FOR ITS BIGGEST OWN BRAND

• In just two years M&S' activewear offer Goodmove has grown to become its biggest in-house brand, with consumers continuing to embrace health & wellness and driving growth in the activewear market
• The colourful new campaign will promote the brand during the key month of January, as new M&S Family Matters data shows customers are planning important lifestyle changes in 2022
• The Spring Goodmove product features new innovations including front adjusting sports bras and will be supported by new complementary guest brand Speedo

This week M&S is launching its Spring Goodmove range supported by a bold new marketing campaign. The retailer first launched the Goodmove brand in January 2020 driven by "British consumers' increasing focus on health and wellbeing, a switch towards more casual fashion and the rise of home working" - factors that have all accelerated during the pandemic and remain key to M&S offering a relevant range for customers. As M&S has pivoted to casualwear Goodmove has grown to be its biggest in-house brand, and today is a market-leading offer of 275 products across womenswear, menswear and kidswear run by a 12 strong team of experienced designers, buyers, merchandisers, and technologists. M&S sells 1.6m Goodmove items annually and is market leader for full price women's activewear. Activewear is a key strategic focus for M&S, with the market now worth almost £900m after seeing 35% growth over the last two years (Kantar Worldpanel) *.

The new Goodmove campaign will run throughout January - the month where the customer mindset is firmly on health & wellness. Last year M&S.com had one million searches for 'activewear' in January: double the normal monthly average. Whilst the campaign is launching to coincide with the customer mindset being firmly on health & wellbeing, the focus on Goodmove as a key part of M&S's clothing offer and wider transformation will be sustained throughout 2022. In September M&S's Family Matters index** looked at the impact of the pandemic on lifestyle choices and found nearly 3 in 5 people across the UK (representing more than 30 million adults) said that living through Covid-19 had made them "reflect on where they are with their life" and as a result were "planning major changes as we come out of Covid-19". Health and fitness emerged as the most dominant themes, with 64% of these people saying they would take their health more seriously than before and 63% saying they would do more exercise. The January Family Matters Index (which will be released fully in January) shows that 54% of people have already made a life change and 84% of these people will make more changes in 2022. The most relevant contributing factors to a healthy lifestyle are viewed to be good quality food (92%), regular exercise (91%) and spending time outdoors (90%) - making the Goodmove range an important purchase throughout the year ahead.

Richard Price, MD of Clothing & Home at M&S said:

"Shaping the future of M&S Clothing means continuing to maximise the strength of our own brand product: consistently focusing on everyday style & value, heroing product categories that matter most to our customers and developing our unique in-house brands. Launched just two years ago, today Goodmove is our biggest own brand, a credible competitor in the growing activewear market and a truly relevant offer for our customers. With health & wellness more important than ever for our customers, we're starting 2022 with a bold campaign for Goodmove that highlights both the trusted value of the product and the important innovations within the range."

Goodmove - activewear that performs

The colourful January campaign for 'Goodmove - activewear that performs' covers the full spectrum of marketing activity and is focused on growing brand awareness and highlighting the innovations within the range. The energetic and uplifting Spring collection offers the everyday style & value customers expect from M&S and spans everything from practical outerwear for those on the go, to matching 'mini me' leggings to performancewear. Highlights of the new range include:

• The best-selling (£25) 'Go Move' "squat-proof" legging (5,000 are sold in black every month) introduced in new prints including ever-popular leopard print (with a matching half zip running top and crop vest available).
• New reflective and bright items for dark January days including a womens padded reflective running jacket (£55) and orange mens anorak (£55).
• A brand new Extra High Impact sports bra (£28), with innovative cup technology and front adjusting velcro straps for maximum support and a custom fit. The product comes following customer feedback on the difficulty for some of perfecting adjusting straps from the back, particularly for sports bras.

The campaign will also celebrate the loyal customer following Goodmove has grown, and the incredible feedback customers have given on the product. Throughout M&S stores, signage will include comments lifted from five-star reviews on M&S.com (examples pictured).

Introducing complementary 'Brands at M&S'

Alongside Goodmove, now M&S's biggest own brand, the retailer is adding selected third-party brands in complementary activewear categories to support the range, including fitness watches via WatchShop and from January, Speedo swimwear. The small curation of Speedo products will include bestsellers in their fitness range such as the Endurance+ Medallist swimming costume in womenswear and the Boom Logo Splice Jammer swim shorts in menswear. As part of 'Brands at M&S' the retailer is also now selling Dharma Bums - a popular yoga brand with feminine designs.

Goodmove is available now in all of M&S's Clothing & Home stores and online for Click & Collect to over 700 locations.

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* Kantar | Worldpanel Division | Total Activewear Market (Mens & Womenswear Sport Tops, Sports Shorts, Jogging Bottoms, Track/jogging Suits, Replica Kits, Swimwear, Other Sportswear) | Spend (£000s) | YoY % Change vs 2 years Ago | 52 w/e data to 14^th November 2021 vs 17^th November 2019

**The Family Matters Index is a comprehensive survey of 5,000 UK consumers, find out more here

Further Detail - M&S's in-house brands

• As part of 'fixing the basics', over the past few years M&S has overhauled its womenswear in-house brands including the removal of Classics, Limited and Indigo.
• As part of simplifying the brands' structure the retailer has clearly defined the remaining brands - Autograph and Per Una, alongside introducing the activewear brand Goodmove.
• Today, the majority of M&S clothing sits outside of the brands structure and is 'M&S Collection' - simply labelled 'M&S' it offers great quality, everyday style, and trusted value. Whilst there's regular drops of newness, M&S Collection is focused on staples and 'never out of stocks' - from plain white tees to the bestselling black jegging.
• Autograph today is a carefully selected range of products, timelessly designed it continues to offer customers ultra-stylish product made of the best premium fabrics including leather and cashmere. It is M&S's 'best' price-point product offering - unbeatable High Street prices for the materials used.
• Per Una was relaunched in 2019 (more detail here) as a more curated product offer with a much more distinctive handwriting (previous bestsellers that didn't fit the handwriting were moved into M&S Collection). The offer has a very distinct feminine look & feel offering customers regular newness to update their wardrobes.
• In addition to M&S Collection and M&S's in-house brands (Autograph, Per Una and Goodmove) M&S also now sells guest brands including the popular collaboration M&S x Ghost. Third party brands now available on M&S.com include Jigsaw, White Stuff and Fat Face.

About Goodmove - M&S's biggest own brand

• Goodmove launched online and in-store in January 2020 with a digitally focused campaign to promote the 150 womenswear products spanning everything from performance wear for sports enthusiasts to innovative outerwear for those enjoying the great outdoors.
• In the three years leading up to launch the athleisure market had significantly outperformed the overall clothing sector and the macro drivers behind its growth showed no signs of going away.
• Goodmove was a strategic launch as part of M&S's wider transformation to deliver more products designed to cater to today's family-age customers (a market for which activewear is key). M&S aimed to use its authority in sports bras (as market leader) coupled with its garment innovation expertise to grow market share in other activewear categories.
• Goodmove today is a market leading offer of 275 products across womenswear, menswear and kidswear run by a 12 strong team of experienced designers, buyers, merchandisers, and technologists.
• M&S sells 1.6million Goodmove items annually and in two years has become market leaders for full price women's activewear.
• Goodmove is available in all of M&S's Clothing & Home stores and online for Click & Collect to over 700 locations.