Marketing Management of Marks & Spenser

Question :

This assessment will cover the following questions:

Provide marketing research skills through a relevant approach of searching, collecting and interpreting and analysing data to support the formation of the suitable marketing plan.
Mark & Spenser is a clothing and accessories brand. Implement the findings to create and position a new unique selling proposition.
Generate skills in carrying out a comprehensive marketing audit and identifying Opportunities and Threats which will change the industry.

Answer :

Organization Selected : Marks & Spenser

INTRODUCTION

Marketing management is the planning, controlling, organizing and implementing of the marketing strategies, programs, policies and tactics designed to satisfy and create the demand for the company's product's offering or services as a means of generating an acceptable profit. It important for company's to have marketing management to achieve growth in the market.

This report will take Mark & Spenser for case study because it is best example for marketing management. They are selling home products, quality clothing and food products. This report will provide brief information about Retailer industry where M&S is dealing their products and it will include marketing positioning of the company as well as their specific selling prepositions. This study will analyse marketing audit of this company will include PASTEL & SWOT analyses of The Marks & Spenser company. PESTEL analysis will helps to provide information about external factors which can affect the profitability of the company. SWOT analysis will help to know what are future opportunities for the company, so they can gain competitive advantages in the market and show their presence in the UK market. This report will cover 4Ps marketing model and it will analyse product, price, place and promotion. This report will also introduce new product in this session which is biodegradable sports bottle. Report will cover china market in the marketing Mix to overcome from their weakness.

MAIN BODY

Overview of Industry, Marketing Positioning and their USP

Retail Industry UK

Marks & Spenser company is dealing in a retail industry. Retail industry is growing every year there are many companies who are doing well in this industry and helping this industry to grow. There are some brand names who are top retail organizations in United Kingdom like TESCO, Sainsbury's and Walmart (Global metrics for the environment.2020). In the lest of top 20 supermarkets companies in the UK, M&S able to add their name, and they are showing their presence to the world by selling quality products to their customers.

It is the fastest growing industry but retailers are in under pressure because of competition in this industry. It is increasing day by day and many new competitors are taking entry which is putting them in the pressure (Kimura, 2017). Cost of the raw material is rising and demand is falling which is also a threat for the retailers. Last year was the worst for the industry because of sales fall (UK retail industry suffered the worst year on record in 2019). Retail companies on Christmas was not as good as the media predicted. Shoppers were cautiously festive as real earning grew black Friday popularly held up. Online market of this industry grew too and the shoppers told that their more than 50 percent of their Christmas spend come from the high streets areas. 2018 was extremely challenging for them and most of the retailer close their jobs and 2018 because of the financial crisis.

This happens first time in 24 years, this fall drag down many retailers on the road. In 2019 sales of this industry fall down by the 0.1 percent. According to the experts it was the lowest fall they have seen ever. It's not only affect the small retailers but also affect to the top retailers of the United Kingdom. Marks & Spenser is one of them, and it effects their profitability, but they are able to maintain their positioning in the industry, and they are still in the top 20 retailers list.

Overview of an Organization

M&S is able to keep their place in the marketplace because of their impressive strategies. M&S is one of the Popular retailer company in the world who are showing their presence with the 1330 stores in whole world. Their business has divided into the 2 different categories. General Merchandise and food both, their focus is on the companies growth and positioning as a leading international company. They are famous in the UK because of their unique products and pricing strategies of the company (Bell and Taheri, 2017). They are providing quality product in the low price range, it makes easy for middle class family to buy those products and satisfy their demands and needs. M&S is using competitive pricing strategy which provide more option to the customers to choose varieties of design in cloths. M&S also use dynamic pricing strategy during the seasonal time, and they provide offer and huge discount to the customers, so they can attract and them and gain their locality. This give them a shape to grow their business and help them to gain competitive advantages in the market. They are also promoting their product through the TV advertisement, they have launch many advertisements which helps customers to aware about their products. They are also having online retail store in which customers can buy product online. Online store of this company help them to increase their growth in the retail industry, and they are able to make better position in the market. Online shopping sites of the M&S add strong customer support system for the customers. Most of the people were facing problem related to the products quality, and they were not able to connect with the customers executive of the M&S. This company take this issue seriously and improve their customer executive services for the customers (Loebler, 2017). Now they can talk with the companies service executive and explain their problems to them. They can complain about the product and if they are having any inquiry about the product then they can contact to the customers executive of the Marks & Spencer. They are proving quality services to the customers and give their best to help customers who are facing problem regard to the product. Customers can also talk with them through the mail, they can send mail ask their questions about the product. Their team is available for the 24/7, customers can connect them whenever they want. They are providing services in worldwide. It is multinational company and having more than 1400 locations in worldwide and more than 80000 employees are working for them. They are having strong hold on the UK market, After the UK India is the second largest market for Marks & Spencer.

Unique selling proposition

Marks & Spenser company is famous for their unique product and their services. They are able to make profitability in this industry because of their ready meals food product. Within the past years, society has seen a large-scale gain in the consumption of the ready meals products, people in the UK prefer to eat ready meals. This may be because of the ready meals products are better than ever. Thanks to the advance technology which make it possible. In any case, this huge new industry is a massive chance for any food store. Marks and Spencer has long sought to dominate this industry, while it's unclear for them just how large a market share the name captures, it's reportedly one of the UK's top 10 ready meal distributors. M&S is selling this product to the customers, so they can gain competitive advantages. Ready meals save time of the customers, it is beneficial and time saver for those who are working in any company. They will not need to make their meal at their home. They just have to buy ready meal and put some hot water and it is ready to eat (Al-Surmi, Cao and Duan, 2020). This help Marks and Spencer to increase their profitability, and they able to hold their position in the market. There very few companies who are using ready meal product to the customers and this market is increasing day by day so company is selling their products in low prices to take competitive advantages. Clothing product are also unique and design of the products as well. They are having designer team who provide new product design to the company. It is helping them to attract customers and make profitability. Marketing team of the Marks & Spencer is continuously focusing on the customers demand and taking feedbacks from the customers. This helps them, to know product demand and need of the customers according to the data collected by the marketing team company develop their product and satisfy customers. Marketing team of the Marks & Spencer has played important role to grew company in the market. Their experts are having knowledge about the emerging market and demand of the customers.

Marketing Audit of Internal and External Factors

To analysis the market of Marks & Spencer understanding the internal and external factors with the help of SWOT and PESTLE framework.

Internal Factors

SWOT

SWOT analysis is a powerful tool which will help organization to develop business strategy. Strength is advantage which company has in market Weaknesses are the disadvantages an organization has in the market (Amjad, Rani and Sa'atar, 2020). Opportunities are elements organization can exploit to get advantage and threat are troubles which business has in environment.

Strengths

Brand Recognition- Due to the quality which Marks & Spencer is using to produce the products for the customers is very good and it is very important for the company to have a recognition in the market for its unique features. The latest trends are being followed by the organization which is making the company has increased the number of customers in the organization. The company has expanded themselves in men, women and kids section which is why the recognition of the organization is expanding and improving over time.
Market Experience- Marks & Spencer is working with big partners like Starbucks, GAP and others in market which is giving company a great strength which will make them capture a larger market. Marks & Spencer is leading retailer in country and journey started as Penny Bazaar at Leeds Kirkgate Market in United Kingdom (Kirova, 2017). Over years the experience which company has gained is turning out to be very useful for them, and they are being able to function in a more efficient manner which is a great strength for company.
Brand name- Marks and Spencer top leading retailer company in the UK. They come under top 20 retailers. They are dealing with food products, home products etc, the more the organization expands itself in different fields the more brand name it will be able to collect for themselves.
Trends- Marks and Spencer are taking advantages of the emerging trends of this industry, and they have advantages from the latest technology (GurÃ„Æ’u, Chiambaretto and Le Roy, 2018). There are some technology which is available on their stores such as automatic process, digital payment facilities, AI technology in their workplace etc.
Online- They are making huge profitability on the online website. People can order their product from their home, it is saving their time and cost as well.
Diversity- There are more than 79,000 employees from all around the world working in the Marks and Spencer company. Employees come from the different culture and places in the company. Marks and Spencer provide equal opportunities and group practices in the workplace to create equality and diversity in the workplace.

Weaknesses

Sales Decline- As of 2017 company planned to shut more than 14 stores because they did not make so much revenue as expected and business went in a loss. Food and clothes section in United Kingdom did not sell products and customers shifted their preference to other retailer stores.
Manual Working Cost- Use of labour for producing clothing products is a very old technique and the firm is still very strict about following the same methods. Due to the government roles and regulations the labour wages have increased and Marks & Spencer will be affected because of this factor the most because they have a lot of labour working under them (Charter, 2017).
Customer satisfaction- Marks and Spencer company is not able to satisfy their customers. Customers are switching brand because of bad experience in their stores, and they are not getting equal respect from the employees.
Supply chain- Marks and Spencer is having weakness in their supply chain scalability. They are having access on the global level but their online shopping stores unable to scale up with their supply chain to deliver to all the locations worldwide.

Opportunities

International Expansion- Marks & Spencer can expand themselves in other bigger countries like Russia, Indonesia, etc (Mason, Chakrabarti and Singh, 2017). The organization has already expanded themselves, but they should target for new markets in other countries so that they can get more customers in the organization which will be very beneficial for Marks & Spencer.
Online Opportunities- Company's presence online is average but if company knows to promote themselves right then they will be able to capture or attract a larger customer base. There are some great opportunities which company has, and they must pursue those so that they can get a competitive advantage. There are a lot of companies which have got online and have spread themselves all around the world and Marks & Spencer could do that same.
Demand- Marks and Spencer have huge opportunities in the Asian counties because people in Asia like to wear traditional clothes and the firm is changing the designs according to the customers in the market. Company can establish their business in the Asian counties to gain competitive advantages.

Threats

Competition- There is a lot of competition which is increasing in market. There are so many options which have come up in market that customers keep shifting from one business to other for products. Trends are changing and all competitors are following trends so that they can have a competitive advantage in market. Competition in market is so high that company might lose their scope because of it. Customers are shifting to online shopping which has faster delivering option and fashion change has to be followed by Marks & Spencer if they want to make the company not face loss.

External Factors

PESTLE

Businesses use this tool to understand environment under which company is operating in market. Monitoring these factors and getting changes accordingly in organization is a very important factor otherwise business will not be able to gaining control in the market for the long run.

Political Factors

Political parties of country are stable which means Marks & Spencer will not have to keep changing process of working again. Operations in organization will be smoother and under control of management (Armstrong and et.al., 2018). Free trade policy had made it easy for organization to expand themselves in other countries.
Government in future brings any changes in policies then that would affect organization on a large scale because operations will not be in process and revenues of business will get affected. Government is never stable of any country therefore there are going to be a lot of changes in the working of the organization.
Marks and Spencer is following free trade which has huge impact on them. They are import product from the international market in low prices. It is helping them to maintain healthy profit margin.

Economic Factors

GDP of country is improving because employment rates of country has got better which will make company have a lot of profit because customers will want to spend their income on good quality products which Marks & Spencer is producing.
With the increment in the competition new competitors are stealing market from the big brands with the low product prices (Shchepakin and et.al., 2018). It is forcing Marks and Spencer to decrease their prices as well, so they can hold their position in the market. Marks & Spencer is working on the economic factor which differ from country to country. GDP of each country and the inflation is taking a lot of difference in the organization.

Social Factors

Customers of country have a high standard of living which is being met by Marks & Spencer because company focuses on quality of product they are serving customers. Maintaining quality of products will attract more customers.
Marks & Spencer is not so trending with change therefore they did not have a good sale in 2017. Company is failed to meet change in trends with time which is making customers turn away from company. Customer needs and demands keep changing and it is very important for the organization to achieve those factors (Kaurav and et.al., 2016).

Technological Factors

Tracking of product of supply and delivery is present in company so that they can process better in market. Human errors and time to time update of products is present so that company can find out their over all revenue generation and inventory is also being managed with help of technology.
Products are being produced using old traditional way which includes a lot of labour work. This is creating limitation on the organization for the expansion and demand of the customer will not be met.
They are having advantages of the technology because Marks and Spencer is had huge customer bases on online market. But they are still using labour force to produce their products which is not making the company meet the demand of the customers.

Environmental Factors

Waste disposal of the organization is well maintained so that they are not spoiling the environment in any way possible. Products of Marks and Spencer is eco-friendly because they are not using technologies and labour work is not causing any environmental harm which is giving the organization a competitive advantage.
The climate can have a lot of limitation in getting the supplies and delivering the end product to the customers on time. Customers do not like it when they are not being provided with the products on time then the customers will not want to order the products.

Legal Factors

Returning of products which is the right of customers is a negative impact on the company because there are a lot of products which are being returned to the organization. The sales of the company is reducing because of this factor (Hadida, Heide and Bell, 2019).
Discrimination was a huge threat in the organization because the employees were not being fair with all the workers which after the legal order the organization has changed themselves which is making the organization have a huge profit and a lot of employees in the organization.

Marketing Mix of Marks and Spencer and New Introduce New Product According to the Strength & Weakness

Next year M&S is thinking to launch new product in clothing department because of bad performance in clothing department. They are launching sports wear for the people who are interested in sports.

Product

Marks & Spencer is facing problem in the huge fall in the market. According to the issue accruing in the company, they are bringing new product in the market. Marks & Spencer thinking to launch biodegradable sports bottles, which will attract people who are connected with the sports activities. This product can help them to boost their market growth because sports sector is growing continuously in the market. This product is unique because of their features. Biodegradable bottles. It can be recycled and reuse It will be helpful for the company to save environment as well (Zolkiewski and et.al., 2017). They can give their contribution toward the environment and increase their respect in the market. M&S will launch biodegradable sports bottle in various colour options so customers can select according to their choices.

Price

Company is using competitive pricing strategy in the market, so company can take competitive advantages. It is affecting their profit margin, so they should use value based pricing strategy for their new product. It is one of the best pricing strategy Marks & Spencer uses to attract customers to buy their products and provide satisfaction to the customers. In this strategy companies will sets their new product prices and their marketing team will promote in the market based on the value consumers perceive a service or good to have. They can improve their product specification and provide attractive design to take competitive advantages (Holmlund, Kowalkowski and Biggemann, 2016). It will increase make them understand to the customers that why their product is different from the other companies. This will attract customers, and they will start using products of Marks & Spencer. This pricing strategy is use full for Marks & Spencer because they can take competitive advantages in the market with low prices and quality product.

Place

Marks & Spencer faced problem in the expansion, and they should down 14 stores because they were not able to make profit in some markets. It is important for the company to analyse market first before establishing their new store. China is the market where they have new opportunities which can help them to gain competitive advantages. They can overcome from their weakness through market expansion in the China. People in China follow their culture and traditions (Serrat, 2017). They can open their new clothing stores based on their tradition and culture. China is the part of Asia and it is the fastest developing county in whole Asia. They can expand their business in this market, so they can achieve high success. Population of this county is also very high so it will be easy for them to attract customers in their shop. Chinese people follow their culture and it is important for the company to follow their tradition and sell clothes according to the Chinese culture. On market where Marks & Spencer can expand their business is India because they are also having the highest population in the world after China. Most of the people in India buy their clothes from the popular brands which is plus point for this company.

Promotion

Marks & Spencer is using different ways for their product promotion. They are using TV advertisement, new articles etc. It takes too much time, and they do not get any information that how many people have seen their advertisement. Advertisement on the TV and newspaper are costly so company should use digital marketing for their advertisement. It is one of the emerging marketing techniques which helps to provide promotion activities to the companies, but they should social media which is a part of digital marketing (Di Gregorio and et.al., 2019). It is helpful because social media provide analysis of the people who have watch their advertisement. Advertisement on TV and newspaper show ad to every person but social media can target people who are interested to buy their product. Company can see that how many people have seen their advertisement and how many are interested to buy their products. There are more other tools such as SEO. They can make their attractive Blog or article on the website and use of proper key world which can be used by the people for product search. It will help them to grow, and they can make high profitability of their business. This technique is useful to advertise their new product in the target market (Doshi, 2018).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report has taken Mark & Spenser for this case study and provide brief introduction of marketing management. This report has provided overview of the retailer industry. It has concluded PESTEL & SWOT analysis of M&S spacers and in the end of this report has analysed marketing Mix of the company.

CONCLUSION

As per report has been provided brief information about Retail industry where M&S is dealing their products and it also has been concluded marketing placement as well as their unique selling prepositions of the Marks & Spencer company. This report has been analysed marketing audit of this company and it has been concluded PESTLE & SWOT analyses of The Marks & Spenser company. PESTEL analysis help to provide information about external factors which can affect the profitability of the company. It has been explained each factor of the PESTEL. SWOT analysis has been help to know what are future opportunities for the Marks & Spencer company, so they can gain competitive advantages in the market and show their presence in the UK market. This report has been covered 4Ps marketing model (Marketing Mix)and it has been analysed product, price, place and promotion of the Marks & Spencer. This report also has been introduced new product in this session and it was biodegradable sports bottles. Report has been provided information that it can help to reduce weakness of the company, and they can reach to the high growth in the companies market. If you need cheap assignment help from experts that can help you score good grades and impress your professor easily, then we are your one-stop-solution.