H&M's Marketing Strategies and Impact

This assignment tasks students with analyzing the various marketing strategies employed by the fashion retailer H&M. The analysis should encompass aspects such as digital marketing tactics, utilization of celebrity endorsements, and the company's approach to sustainability. Students are expected to critically evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies and their impact on H&M's brand image, market share, and overall success.

Running Head: Marketing strategy
Marketing Strategy
H&M (Hennes & Mauritz)

Marketing strategy 1
Executive Summary
Hennes and Maurtiz or better known the brand H&M is a leading fashion retail brand across the
globe with presence in over 62 countries. The brand is renowned for its extensive presence, high
quality products, in store ambience and reasonably priced offerings. This report has laid
emphasis on the marketing strategies adopted by the company and how these marketing
strategies have changed over a period of time.
Due to advent of globalization and digitization the company has switched to social media
marketing, digital marketing as well as worked upon enhancing user generated content and its
own social listening skills. The brand consistently ties up with leading designers and celebrities
to promote the brand and enhance its consumer base. There are various opportunities for the
brand’s further expansion especially by expanding further onto online platforms as well as
entering many emerging economies of the world like Asia, South Africa and remote parts of
Europe. The brand has been a success story and continues to leave a significant mark on the
fashion world.

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Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Know the Brand – Marketing Mix of H&M....................................................................................2
Product.........................................................................................................................................2
Place.............................................................................................................................................2
Price.............................................................................................................................................2
Promotion.....................................................................................................................................3
Promotional strategies.....................................................................................................................3
Previous........................................................................................................................................3
Email marketing.......................................................................................................................3
Celebrity marketing..................................................................................................................3
Mobile Marketing.....................................................................................................................4
Current.........................................................................................................................................4
Digital Marketing.....................................................................................................................4
Fashion events..........................................................................................................................4
Social media marketing............................................................................................................5
Overcoming bad publicity...............................................................................................................5
Retail channels.................................................................................................................................5
Manufacturing..............................................................................................................................6

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Design and production.................................................................................................................6
Technological integration............................................................................................................6
In-store environment........................................................................................................................7
Brand USP.......................................................................................................................................8
Tie up with designers...................................................................................................................8
Wide variety of clothes................................................................................................................8
Future opportunities.........................................................................................................................8
Expansion in online portals..........................................................................................................8
Expansion in emerging economies..............................................................................................9
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
H & M or Hennes and Mauritz is a leading clothes manufacturer and seller which targets men,
women and children of different age groups. The company was founded in 1947 and has been a
leading name in the fashion apparel industry since then. The firm is spread across the globe with
presence in over 4500 locations worldwide. The brand has left a significant mark in the industry
by operating in over 62 countries and engaging more than 132000 employees from different parts
of the world (H&M, 2018).
This report throws light on the marketing strategies adopted by H&M and the change that their
strategies have witnessed over a period of time. The promotional strategies adopted by the firm
are explained. The brand‘s efficiency is also depicted by their smart response to being a victim of
bad publicity. Marketing of core products forms an important part of the business (Armstrong,
Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2015). This report has laid emphasis on the importance as well as the
effectiveness of the marketing strategies embraced by the firm in order to establish an efficient
brand positioning and attracting customers in a proficient manner to generate higher revenue.
Marketing channels play a vital role in competent operations management and transparent flow
of information across the business (Palmatier, Stern, El-Ansary & Anderson, 2016). H&M has
also been benefitted by the efficacy of its channels which have largely benefitted the brand.
Know the Brand – Marketing Mix of H&M
Product
H&M is better known for providing its customers, fashionable and latest in trend apparels at a
relatively low price. Their range of products is very large and caters to many different occasional
needs of men, women and children. H&M is a trusted brand with approximately 2086
merchandises under their brand umbrella (Shen, 2014). In order to consistently offer something
new to their customers, H&M puts efforts in ensuring that they continue to innovate new
products and designs at frequent intervals. This is why people prefer shopping with H&M and
the brand is positioned as a one stop shop to access the newest clothes in town. This has largely
helped H&M gain a competitive advantage over other players of the industry. This increased
brand awareness increases their chance for expansion to new markets (Lues & De Klerk, 2016).

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Place
Place plays a very important role in the marketing mix of any company. Place refers to all those
online and offline areas where the customer can buy the products of the brand (Huang &
Sarigöllü, 2014). H&M has been consistently expanding its stores in different parts of the world.
Since the inception of the firm, H&M has opened over 400 international stores in the global
market. Their ecommerce platforms are also gaining ground. They have their own mobile
application and have also tied up with renowned platforms to gain a larger customer base. H&M
has also put attempts at placing their stores in centralized locations of the city which are easily
accessible to its consumers (Ohlsson & Riihimäki, 2015).
Price
Pricing strategy adopted by H&M is referred to as broad pricing. This concept refers to having a
broadly priced range of products in order to cater a much wider audience segment (Baye and
Kovenock, 2017). This pricings strategy helps the brand in reaching out to a huge target market.
Once the company caters to a huge target market, their dependency on a single segment reduces.
This leads to the overall productivity of the firm. H&M has also adopted various cost effective
strategies in their productions to ensure that charging consumers less is not a burden on them
(Giertz-Mårtenson, 2012). By reducing bits of costs of their entire operational procedure, they
are able to ensure that their final product is priced reasonably.
Promotion
The promotion strategy of the brand is very well known. The firm largely invests in creating
buzz marketing via social media channels and creative television advertisements. All of their
social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even Pinterest have a large
following of their loyal customers. They even indulge in email marketing in order to reach out to
their loyal customers. Promotions are tools used by organizations to reach out to their target
audience and ensure the right brand positioning for their company (Barrett & Weinstein, 2015).
H&M’s promotional strategies have garnered the right attention and have especially created the
buzz among the youth segment of their market.

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Promotional strategies
Previous
Email marketing
Email marketing refers to sending discounts and offers to loyal customers and thereby inducing
repeat sales of the brand (Reimers, Chao & Gorman, 2016). H&M largely invested in Email
marketing. They gathered this information by collecting data of first time shoppers during the
process of billing at H&M stores. Their mobile application also requires users to register via a
social media platform or email ID. Thereby, generating further leads for the brand.
Celebrity marketing
H&M has largely used leading, renowned and influential celebrities like Naomi Campbell,
Pamela Anderson, David Beckham, Karl Lagerfeld, Madonna and Vanessa Paradis. Celebrity
marketing is an extremely creative strategy as these are the people that many young men and
women look up to. Therefore it is a perfect example of influencer marketing (Hackley &
Hackley, 2015). H&M has been very wise with its selection of celebrities so as to make sure that
they influence the widest range of consumers.
Mobile Marketing
Just like gathering data for Email marketing, H&M also collects mobile numbers of their
customers. This helps them broadcast an upcoming major sale or promotional movement for the
brand. This mobile marketing is slightly more effective than email marketing as not every person
checks their email on a regular basis (Bosomworth, 2015). However, mobile marketing instills a
reason to shop from H&M and drives people to open the website at their earliest convenience.
Current
Over a period of time, the target market and their lifestyles have changed. This led to H&M
adopting a range of new strategies which will lead a better impact on their consumer segment.

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Digital Marketing
Digital marketing refers to any kind of marketing strategy adopted by the firm through digital
channels. Through this presence the company aims to enhance their digital presence. The
strategy enables the company to ensure that their brand is easy to search on the internet and
continues to get marketed through various internet channels and platforms used by their target
market (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). This is known as search engine optimization and
search engine marketing. The purpose of these two is to increase the brand’s presence and reach
out to consumers on a larger and more customized manner.
Fashion events
H&M has also indulged in organizing and conducting various fashion events. The idea behind
these fashion events is to generate an event where there is abundant information about H&M.
The people visiting the event can see and be largely aware of the upcoming designs and clothing
lines by the brand. The loyal customers of the brand make it a point to attend the event. Celebrity
marketing is also conducted during these events by inviting influencing people to be
showstoppers (Wu, 2016). This depicts their interest in the brand which largely impacts the
audience who form their followers.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing simply refers to any kind of marketing which is done on social media
platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter (Tuten & Solomon, 2017).
Companies involve themselves in social media marketing because these platform now form a
way of two way communication between the brand and its stakeholders unlike traditional means
of marketing. Customers are also able to post about the brand and make their opinion available to
a larger audience. H&M’s following on social media platforms is large and has garnered a lot of
attention. Their social listening skills have allowed them to understand their consumer mindset
better and respond to it accordingly.

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Overcoming bad publicity
Recently H&M introduced a new advertisement which was aimed at introducing a new design of
hoodie in their winter wear clothes segment. The advertisement however proved to be highly
racist and invited all kinds of controversial opinions from across the globe. Many customers
insulted the brand on social media platforms, while many resorted to burning down H&M
clothes as a sign of protest.
The brand had mistakenly used a black kid as an ambassador for a hoodie which read ‘Monkey’.
Many celebrities also disapproved of this strategy and resolved never to wear H&M clothes
again. The incident completely shook the brand and largely affected its brand positioning in the
world (Ching, Clark, Horstmann & Lim, 2015). The information was carried by leading
newspapers and news channels for a span of three days.
H&M apologized publicly to their customers and removed the advertisement almost
immediately. The black kid’s mother also came to brand’s rescue and tweeted saying that she
sees nothing wrong with the advertisement. Some celebrities supported the brand too. Overall the
PR of the business did not handle this situation in the most efficient manner and hence the brand
may have to face some negativity in the recent future.
Retail channels
Retail channels refer to all the intermediaries which the product goes through before finally
reaching the consumer. For the retail industry, time to market plays a very important role due to
the every changing trends and preferences of consumers. H&M follows a direct distribution
channel which signifies that there are no third parties involved between the brand and its
consumers. Of course, in order to reach the consumer, the product moves around H&M logistics
to finally at their own retail stores.
Manufacturing
H&M does not own any factories. But their garments are brought from over 800 independent
retailers predominantly based out of Asia and Europe. These suppliers supply the necessary raw
materials for the brand. H&M has established and maintained highly profitable relationships with

Marketing strategy 9
their suppliers some dating back to over 20 years. The suppliers supply the materials to 21
strategically placed production houses of the brand. These production houses check and ensure
the quality of the product.
Design and production
Once the suppliers and given the material for the clothes, it is important to design the clothes.
This activity takes place in the 21 production houses of H&M. In order to introduce latest
designs and fashion trends, the clothes are designed by over 160 in house designers hired by
H&M who do extensive research about the ongoing as well as upcoming fashion trends and
ensure that H&M clothes live up to the demands and expectations of its consumers (Arrigo,
2018). H&M has also introduced ‘H&M Design awards’ in select design schools of the world,
where they aim to target the most talented designers from an early stage and provide a platform
to their creativity and talent.
The designing team of the brand is most important as they ensure that the latest trends reach the
customers without any delay in the market. The designers have been recruited from all over the
globe including countries like Holland, South Africa, India, Japan and many parts of Europe. The
team also includes over 70 pattern makers.
Technological integration
The company has heavily progressed with technological integration in various parts of the
business. The integration of technology between the national head office and the production
offices ensures smoother flow of material, ideas and information. Communication between all
the departments takes place electronically. This is important for the brand to preserve its designs
since they do not own any factories. Technology has always been the backbone of the operations
management of various businesses (Heizer, 2016). The advent and advancement of technology
has enabled the brand to reduce its lead time by 15-20%. This is also due to their continued
buying process.
It is important to note, that H&M material reaches from suppliers all over the world to the
production houses which holds a team of over 100 designers and over 60 pattern makers. These
designs are then developed and defined. Post which, the final piece of garment reaches the H&M

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online website, mobile application as well as many H&M stores spread across the world. From
thereon, the products are finally purchased and reach the hands of the consumer.
In-store environment
H&M stores are better known for the aura that they create. Firstly H&M stores are famous for
being located at the most centralized location in the city. Therefore they garner a lot of attention.
Their convenience of location makes it easy for their consumers to reach out to a store. Secondly,
the stores are relatively very well organized. The sections are clearly divided as Men’s casuals,
men’s formals, women’s formals, women’s casual and women’s party etc. This makes it easy for
consumers to shop and reach out to exactly what they are looking for. Thirdly, the clothes of the
same product line are placed together and available in many sizes. All the sizes of the brand 30,
32, 34, 36, 38 and so on are all placed together and hence easy to access. Fourthly, the trial
rooms of the store are very well managed. All stores have a minimum of two managers solely
looking after the trial room settings. The rooms are available on first come first serve basis and
the managers ensure that there is no partiality in this setting. Moreover, every time a customer
visits the trial room, he or she is given a large tag which depicts the number of clothes that the
customer is carrying with him or her. This also makes it easier for the staff to evaluate the
number of clothes taken by the customers and also reduces chances of loss or theft of clothes in
the process. Lastly, the billing process of the store is very smooth. The billing area as 4-10
counters depending upon the size of the store. The managers at the counters are all well-
mannered, well behaved and appropriately dressed. Loyal customers of the brand can avail
discounts simply by offering their mobile numbers at the time of billing.
Brand USP
Tie up with designers
The biggest USP of the brand is their tie ups with leading fashion designers like Isabel Marant,
Erdem and Kenzo. This has largely helped the brand as well as its consumers. They have even
marketed these tie ups in an effective manner and hence have garnered a lot of attention from
consumers. These tie ups with designers enable the consumers of the brand to wear designs of
these leading fashion icons at a much lesser price. The designers get a wide promotion through

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H&M and are able to enhance their consumer segment. Hence creates a win-win situation for all
involved.
Wide variety of clothes
Once you enter an H&M showroom, it is impossible to not find what you were looking for. The
very wide variety of clothes offered by the brand is largely the reason behind the vast customer
base catered by H&M. The brand is a one stop shop for all needs of their customers. You can
find a party wear dress, a casual jeans or even a formal attire for work under one roof. The ability
to cater to all the genders and age groups have made it easier for families to come together and
shop at the same place. This is clearly a major unique selling proposition for the group.
Future opportunities
Expansion in online portals
With the digitization of the world, it is highly recommended that the brand increases its online
presence which leads to shopping by consumers. H&M has its own mobile application which is
available on both Android’s play store as well as Apple’s iStore. The application has over 10
million downloads. However, the brand must work upon having deeper tie ups with online
shopping applications which bring many brands under a single roof. This enables consumers to
fulfill all their shopping needs through a single mobile application rather than switching
applications for different purposes. Brands like Alibaba, Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra are
largely gaining ground and it is imperative that H&M strengthens their connections and
relationships with these platforms.
Expansion in emerging economies
H&M has a massive presence across the globe and there are no two opinions on the same.
However most of their stores are concentrated to the developed parts of the world. There online
shopping and exporting facility is available in the developing countries but the presence of
physical stores is much lesser. When H&M was introduced in India in 2017, the brand had a
massive following. The news of H&M coming to India spread like a wildfire and people from
different walks of life gathered outside the store on the day of inauguration and waited patiently

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for hours for the store to open. Despite such a welcoming response, H&M has captured on 4
cities of a very large country. Therefore, it is recommended that the brand must focus on
enhancing its presence to developing economies. This will lead to larger sales especially owing
to the lower priced products of the store.
Recommendations
1. Social media campaigns: In the world of increasing digitization, social media has played
a major role in all our lives. The number of people that can be targeted simply by social
media is mammoth. H&M’s presence on social media is already extensive. However, in
order to enhance customer engagement, H&M could start certain social media campaigns
on twitter and Facebook. These campaigns could involve asking the consumers to upload
their picture in H&M clothing for a certain time and that user could get a discount on
their next purchase. Similarly, Starbucks once started a campaign on twitter where people
could gift someone a coffee by tagging them in the post. Similar campaigns enhance
consumer engagement, help these consumers relate better with the brand, enhance brand
awareness and increase the number of user generated content on these platforms.
2. Live tweeting and live videos of store openings: Usually H&M store openings and
inaugurations are witnessed by a large number of people. Facebook as well as Instagram
have introduced the ‘going live’ features very recently, which enables people to share
their activities with their followers in real time. IF H&M goes live through its official
pages on Facebook and Instagram then the chances of the video being shared by people
present there increases. This in turn increases viewership of the video and hence leads to
enhanced brand awareness.
3. Customized promotions for customers: H&M could also start keeping a track of shopping
preferences of their regular customers. This would enable the firm to offer these
customers, customized discounts and offers and lead to increased sales. This tracking of
consumer preferences is easier on online platforms like website and mobile applications
as the consumer purchase history can be effectively stored. However, the brand could
introduce H&M cards through which consumers could shop at offline H&M stores. These
cards would store consumer purchase history, their demographics as well as their
shopping frequency. Once the brand has all the data, H&M can continue to send these

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customers special discounts and offers as per their shopping needs. This enhances the
chances of these customers visiting the brand again and hence leads to higher revenue
generation for the brand (Kent, 2017).
4. Careful advertising and effective PR management: H&M evidently lost a lot of its
customer base after introducing the monkey sweatshirt which garnered immense negative
responses from various consumers across the globe including leading celebrities who
have a massive fan following. The last recommendation to the brand would be careful
advertising. This is important because another bad move by the company can shatter
positioning that the company has built and maintained through years of hard work (Hong
& Li, 2017). It is also important that the brand has an effective public relations team in
place who would adopt unique and efficient strategies to save the brand name when such
a turmoil occurs. The responsibility of the public relations team is to make sure that the
brand’s relationship with all its public stakeholders are maintained and built effectively.
Conclusion
H&M is a leading chain in global fashion. The brand has earned itself a renowned name and has
made a significant mark in the fashion and retail industry across the globe. The H&M group has
7 brands of its own under the group umbrella. These brands are well known and largely
renowned for their excellent quality products at the best price. These brands include H&M, COS,
Weekday, Cheap Monday, Monkey, & other stories and ARKET (H&M, 2018). H&M has a
wide presence across different parts of the globe.
H&M advertises its products and reaches out to its consumers through various platforms such as
social media, digital marketing, email marketing, events and tie up with leading designers. This
has led to the establishment of a positive goodwill as well as high level of endorsements about
the brand in the market. H&M procures its materials from over 800 independent suppliers. These
materials are then designed by a competent team of over 100 designers and over 60 pattern
makers. Upon finalization of the product, it reaches the H&M website as well as its offline stores
from where the consumers buy them.
Recently, H&M had to bear the brunt of its controversial marketing tactic which included
advertising a hoodie with the words ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’ through a black kid. The

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tactic was considered largely racial and received immense criticism from across the world. In
order to handle such events in the future, it is imperative the company has an effective PR team
in place. H&M’s presence in the global market can be further enhanced by tapping into emerging
markets of Asia and South Africa. The large population and increasing demands of these areas
would help H&M establish itself and gain customer base. In order to further its reach, the brand
must also focus on utilizing special features of social media and generating user generated
content for better consumer engagement and brand positioning.

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