M&S marketer seeks transfer from &More

The head of loyalty for Marks & Spencer’s new &More credit card, Nick Penny, is to move to another position within the retailer just months after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) asked the chain to make changes to the marketing of its card.

The head of loyalty for Marks & Spencer’s new &More credit card, Nick Penny, is to move to another position within the retailer just months after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) asked the chain to make changes to the marketing of its card.

An M&S spokeswoman says Penny has requested a move to another part of the business, having spent the past three years working on the credit card. A new role has yet to be allocated to Penny, who was head of strategic marketing before he took on responsibility for marketing the &More card. The spokeswoman adds that M&S is looking outside the company for a new head of loyalty for &More.

At &More’s launch last autumn, the retailer’s financial services arm, Marks & Spencer Money, sent out letters to M&S card-holders, saying that their charge cards would automatically be replaced with the &More credit card unless they objected.

But the OFT intervened, saying the retailer did not have the right to change one type of card for another, and forced M&S to alter its marketing strategy. In order to reduce what the OFT described as “inertia selling”, the retailer agreed to tell recipients of the &More card that if they wished to keep their charge card they need take no action, while those who wanted to replace their existing card with the new one would have to take positive steps to activate it.