Digital Marketing Strategy Report

This report discusses the role of digital marketing strategy, assessment of company's current online presence, and develops a digital marketing strategy for M&S. It includes situational analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, and actions.

DIGITAL MARKETING
STRATEGY REPORT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ROLE OF DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY.........................................................................3
ASSESSMENT OF COMPANY'S CURRENT ONLINE PRESENCE.........................................3
DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY..........................................................................................5
(1) SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS................................................................................................5
(2) OBJECTIVES- ......................................................................................................................7
(3) STRATEGY- .........................................................................................................................8
(4) TACTICS- .............................................................................................................................8
(5) ACTIONS- ............................................................................................................................9
(6) CONTROL- .........................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing strategy involves an assessment of specific goals that are achievable
through online channels (Ratnadianti, Fahmi and Hannan, 2020.) Where business became
computer and mobile based, a well-executed digital marketing strategy can be crucial to
organizational success. For the purpose of analysing the role of digital marketing strategies, the
M&S is chosen to take into consideration. It is a B2C type of organisation which is involved in
the business of food, cloth and other household items. It is a multinational organisation which is
being operated in more than a hundred countries. The report will be discussing the present
scenario of the entity and will also develop a digital marketing strategy.
ROLE OF DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
Digital marketing refers to the strategy which helps your business achieve specific digital
goals through carefully selected online marketing chain such as paid, earned and owned media.
In modern business environment where the multinational institutions are operating their business
in more than one country and serving number of people with different character. It is not possible
to personally reaching the customers and promote the product or convince them, here digital
marketing strategy plays an untraceable role and it helps the entity in not only reaching a wide
range of potential customers but also helps in convincing them for buying the products (Hall,
2020.)
ASSESSMENT OF COMPANY'S CURRENT ONLINE PRESENCE
As it is discussed, M&S is operating its business over a hundred countries which is not
possible without online presence that's why the organisation is also having a good presence in its
markets. It is following multiple channels including digital marketing channel to reaching the
potential customers. As it is working on the maxim “ A happy customer is valuable” (Juswadi,
Sumarna and Mulyati, 2020,) After launching their online platform it has experienced a great
boost in its total selling and even made new customers as well. As it had launched Percy and
Penny sweets with limited edition after their marketing campaign. For it they used Facebook to
encourage customer to create a story about Percy and his girlfriend Penny, which was then

translated into a bag of sweets. It is good piece of evidence that with the time the evolution
process within the organisation is also rejuvenated.
The company had also introduced its own Instagram account which is targetting the
people who are active on social media and looking for such products. Since the organisation is
having a good market of clothing as well so for giving a boost to cloth selling, convincing the
young customers is the key that's why it also started uploading the advertisement on the
Instagram account.
Marks and Spencer is having its own online store chain where it is selling mostly clothes
and other brands of the products. These stores are giving a huge coverage to the customers from
the place where they are, they can easily access the online store and can place their orders on it.
It has further provided better facilities like proper online segmentation for the set of customers
and provides the range of choices to get the product of preference. Along with it the M&S also
ensure a strong SEO( Search engine optimization) so that the customers can effortlessly access
the portal. In 2021 the online sales account for 34.4% of M&S clothing and home goods. At the
same time the entity is having more than 1,037 stores in UK and around 472 online stores across
the world (Abu-Dalbouh, 2020.) The unique recognition of M&S is due to their unique ideas and
rapidity in introduction of new missions. They have mixed traditional and dynamic concepts
together to attract their potential customers and it all came their way by vastly prevailing of
digital marketing.
For rejuvenation of the way of approaching customers M&S has also launched E-gift
card scheme in which after making prepaid payment ones can avail this service and such card
can be gifted to the intended people. This is a digital attraction for the customers. In UK such E-
gift cards can be redeemed at any store of M&S, this gives a full prove resilience to its
customers. Further it has issues E-vouchers as well. It is making the way easier for the company
to get closed to its customers.
But should it be called suffice for M&S since all other competitors such as- Debenhams,
Lawson, Macy's, John Lewis Partnership, Aldi UK, Asda etc. are spending more and even

performing vastly. If we see the digital figures then M&S is having jut 631.9K Twitter folloers
where Macy's is having around 897.7K, which is far ahead (Vohradská, 2021.) There is still a
huge scope for the entity to get grown in digital marketing. The competitors are targetting and
attracting customers of certain age whereas M&S is going in general to digitalize its operations.
In digital marketing lots of advertisement, promotions, appeals are useless until the right
constellation is targetted. The very first time company generated losses after the long career of
94 years due to COVID-19. It had brutally experienced supply chain crisis which harmed its
sales specially in USA. It is a great failure of their digital marketing since even in pandemic
other competitors had made satisfactory profit.
Situationally the company had shown their disability in managing different digital states
of its market. As it is earlier stated the company is being operated in so many countries where
digital market, digital access, digital reliability, ease of accessibility, these all dimensions are
vibrant in nature and company hasn't been impactive in accepting and adopting this phenomenon.
That's why it has been foiled in pointedly USA and Canada (IšoraitĖ, 2020. )
Altogether it can be concluded that the performance in the digital marketing is mediocre and
having a huge scope of introspection and widening the approach of digitalisation.
DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
Company overview- Here an effective digital marketing plan for M&S is being
constructed. This is an MNC which is dealing with clothes and other home items. This digital
marketing plan is to direct company to expand their business and launch their new product line
such as TV and other electronic items through digital line. For this purpose the SOSTAC model
will be applied.
(1) Situational Analysis
SWOT analysis- these are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats of M&S (Irwanto,
Murniati and Fauziyah, 2021.)

Strengths  It is one of the most prestigious brand in UK that has been able to attract
numerous customers.
 It is providing high-quality products at a lower price which makes this
brand special.
 Having more than 1,000 retail stores in the country which makes them
easily reachable.
Weaknesses  The problem of counterfeit products in the market.
 It did not get the anticipated reactions of customers after opening up the
stores.
opportunities  The potential of digitalisation is yet to be achieved so it can be a great
roadie for succeeding the aims.
 The prestige of the business can be utilized for expansion and for
introduction of new products.
Threats  Having huge competitors such as- Tesco, ALDI et.
 The child labour issue had spoiled the image so can expect negative
expressions from people.
PESTLE analysis- The PESTLE analysis of M&S are discussed below-
Political The free trade policy had given it upper-hand in expansion of business but the
move of Brexit has lowered down the sales figure. Currently the Borris Jonson
administration has shown eager in business reforms so it can further change the
business dynamics for M&S.
Economical The business had been severely impacted due to COVID-19 BUT latter on it
has shown positive moves. Yet the economy of UK and other EU countries are
facing downfall in term of economic growth which can be a danger sign.
Social It has introduced the concept of Green Consumerism and Ethical practices to

improve their social image, which brought a great customer lobby to it.
Technological It is using great technology in its work. Like introduction of owns website,
mobile app, which made the access easier.
Legal Over the years it had faced a few legal perils. For instance the issue of child
labour and then taxation policy conflicts had been seen. So need to be careful
with this regard.
Environmental The company is also working to reduce the carbon footprint in attempt to
reduce the anti-environmental practices.
Competitor analysis-
Tesco Ltd Walmart M&S
Product Retailing of clothing,
books, electronics,
furniture, toys, petrol,
software, telecoms etc.
Offering fresh produce,
meat and dairy products,
bakery and deli items,
household supplies,
pharmacy etc.
Leading in the products
such as- food, clothing
and home utility items,
financial services etc.
Market
cap
It is having net worth of
29.8 B USD as on February
2022.
429.337 B USD as on
February 2022.
5.27 B USD is the net
worth as on February 11,
2022.
Mission “ To be the champion for
customers”
“ Helping people around
the world save money and
live better- anytime and
anywhere- in retail stores
and through E-Commerce”
“ To make aspirational
quality accessible to
everyone, through the
depth and range of its
products”

(2) Objectives-
The objective of Digital Marketing Plan is to expand the business and introduce a new
product line which is electronic goods through the use of digital marketing channels. Here 5Ss
framework is used to summarize the objective.
 Sale- To hike the selling of existing products along with new products.
 Serve- Providing the goods of best quality by offering lower prices and more features.
 Speak- M&S will be asking its customers about the electronic products and usefulness of
digital channel via social media platforms.
 Save- By using digital marketing it wants to save its cost of storing and transaction costs.
 Sizzle- Providing ease to the customers by offering digital place to search, see, chose,
place the orders directly (Stephenson, 2021.)
(3) Strategy-
For strong strategy the STP model is opted. Which is as below-
Segmentation For expansion and selling of new electronic product the marketing
department must create a well-articulated segmentation. They should keep
the factors like age, income, culture, gender etc. so that can prepare better
segments to target for approaching. It can opt different segmentation policy
for the customers from different nations due to their variable character.
Targetting M&S should target the middle and high-income groups. They are already
serving the people of these categories. Along with it for expansion they
may target women and kids for selling more clothings.
Positioning They can go with “Price Positioning Model” since after COVID-19 the
market is experiencing recovery and people are not having too much
purchase power, here if can offer a lower price then can hike the sales.

So this model had clarified the strategies to make the aim come true. It will pave the way of
M&S (Rifai, Faqih and Meiliana, 2021.)
(4) Tactics-
This is one of the key step of digital marketing planning since here the tactics are
developed to achieve the goal. The 8Ps are discussed below-
(1) Product The business is willing to expand so all the former product lines will be given
attention to augment them. At the same time a new product line will be
evolved. Which will be producing electronic items. Mainly TV.
(2) Price For attracting more customers it will be targetting price of product. So can
keep is lower to attract the customers. For new product line it will offer
relatively reasonable price so can penetrate the market.
(3) Place It will offer both online stores and offline stores. Due to focus on digital
marketing it can give more emphasis to online stores.
(4) Promotion For hiking the sales of existing product lines the discount policy would be
implemented but for new products it can go with hyper advertisement, banner,
hoarding, and online promotions as well.
(5) People It will be hiring digital marketing experts to promote and sell the products.
Further it will be developing skills of existing employees to convince the new
customers.
(6) Process For reaching to customers it will follow a multidimensional process.
Customers can interact any time via social media platforms.
(7)Physical
Evidence
It can open new and specific store for new product line. The website can also
be improved with SEO and other tools as well.
(8) Performance For improving the performance it will be developing a new team of digital
specialists and can also install new techniques of operations.

(5) Actions-
Here are the action designed to ace the decided goals of M&S. Since the main aim of this
step is to ensure that who does what and when.
 Hiring digital marketing experts- Since the company is going to adopt digital marketing
strategies for its expansion and introduction of new product line. So for making it feasible
the entity is needed to ensure better surveillance and control. For carrying out the aimed
conviction M&S will be hiring experts.
 The higher management will be given task to measure the success of the strategy and if
there is any discrepancy then negotiate it will fullest extend. It will be directly reporting
to the highest authorities and will be presenting it with full set of information (Sintia,
2019. )
 Risk management- is one of the crucial task. For managing the risk factors timely
assessment of risk factors and their impacts will be analysed. This role will be performed
by the special group of this purpose. This would be a cyclic process and will be carried
out once in a month.
 E-Campaign- which is the backbone of the entire project. It will be managed by the
newly hired digital marketing experts, they will be entitled to look upon it once in a week
and will be reporting to the management concern to advertisement (Napoletano, 2021.)
 Human resource skill development- for making the workforce familiar with digital
marketing. The people concern to marketing department will be given additional training
to build their confidence with this regard
(6) Control-
Just drawing the plan and deciding the actions are not suffice. There must be a strong
control policy to look after the actions and their progress so that the counter actions or
advantageous actions can be taken timely.
 Review policy- The company will also set up reviewing policy. As per decided norms the
success and progress of digital marketing strategies will be reviewed and if the variations
are found then those will be analysed and will be mitigated too.

 Benchmarking- Refers to making standards which would be followed timely. It will be
guiding the performance and will also be eradicating the all potential bottlenecks in order
to maintain the quality of products. For this purpose “Six Sigma” technique can be
installed (Audina, 2020.)
 Feed backs and Reviews- The feedbacks and Reviews of the customers will be pondered
over. In order to know more about the areas of improvement and their augmented
demands to implement it in next stage of actions.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the report above that the role of digital marketing is
unavoidable in today's dynamic marketing conditions. The report had critically discussed the
current presence of M&S in the digital marketing. Further the digital marketing strategy for
M&S is developed in which SOSTAC model has been followed. Various dimensions of digital
marketing strategy planning was discussed to the fullest length to make the strategy more
feasible and achievable for the taken entity. The report had presented multidimensional views on
all the mentioned factors and notions.

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