A Marketing Report on M&S - Assignment

Running head: A MARKETING REPORT ON M&S
A Proposal of Two New Sets of Market Segmentation Criteria for Marks & Spencer
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A MARKETING REPORT ON M&S1
Executive Summary
The report aims to analyze the efficiency of the product positioning strategy of Marks and
Spencer in respect to the current market situation in the United Kingdom. It finds that M&S
faces the sales drop year by year. As identified in the study, it is more because of its product
positioning strategy in stores. The segmentation of products is not done appropriately. Besides,
the positioning of the product does not appeal to the current trend. Hence, it was being
recommended that M&S should consider a strategic reset of product positioning to include more
fresh and healthy items in the food segment. Moreover, the use of bigger barcodes and faster
operations at stores was also recommended. All these can attract more baby boomers as they love
to shop in-store mostly. Website optimization was recommended to make it suitable for
generating mobile traffic. Notably, investing more in mobile commerce can help attract the
millennials, the other recommended customer group other than baby boomers.

A MARKETING REPORT ON M&S2
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY:.................................................................................................................................4
1. Introducing the purpose of section..........................................................................................4
2. A marketing audit of the business’s current performance.......................................................4
3. An evaluation of the organizations current marketing strategy and position in the market....5
4. Two sets of market segmentation..........................................................................................10
4.1 An explanation of how these chosen customer groups will grow the business within the
retail marketplace...................................................................................................................12
4.2 The selected marketing strategy......................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

A MARKETING REPORT ON M&S3
INTRODUCTION
Marks and Spencer offer many products to consumers such as clothing, cosmetics, luxury
goods and household items. The company has used its experience over recent years to good
effect and nurtured its skills perfectly in the food segment. Since 2010, they have regularly added
more to their worldwide revenue. The revenue stood at almost 10.4 billion British pounds in
2019 (Statista.com 2020). Notably, the food segment of its business has contributed the most to
the revenue. The company has also shown significant progress in terms of its performance for the
online platform. Marks and Spencer online have accounted for an increase in revenue by around
370 million British pounds since the year 2011 (Statista.com 2020). However, the growth figures
for its online sales affected the footfall at Marks and Spencer stores.
Having been the reputed UK retailer for years it has faced its tough times over more than
the last 10 years. The clothing segment seems to be at the most difficult. Clothing along with
food makes up for a foundation stone for Marks and Spencer business (Retail-week.com 2020).
It has suffered a heavy blow to profits because of the closing of stores and restructuring of
programs (Ft.com 2020). All these have raised the urgency to decide between clothes and food
(Independent.co.uk 2020). If clothes are going through their tough faces, the time perhaps has
come for a focus shift towards food. Notably, many of the M&S stores are getting close. M&S
has planned a big shift towards its selling the foods. Moreover, it now wants to start home
delivery from 2020 onwards (Bbc.com 2020).
The report aims to conduct a Marketing Audit for Marks and Spencer. The findings of
the audit could help propose two new segmentation criteria for its food business.