Marketing Analysis of Marks and Spencer

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Marks and Spencer's marketing strategies, including a SWOT and PESTEL analysis to identify the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The Ansoff matrix is used to determine the company's growth potential through market penetration, development, diversification, and product development. Additionally, market segmentation criteria such as demographic and psycho-graphic factors are discussed. A Porter five forces analysis is conducted to assess the current market position of the firm. Overall, this report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of Marks and Spencer's marketing strategies and opportunities for growth.

Introduction to marketing
assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Marketing Audit...............................................................................................................................1
Marketing strategy......................................................................................................................4
Marketing research:.....................................................................................................................5
Marketing segmentation:.............................................................................................................7
Buying behaviour of consumers:................................................................................................9
Recommendation:............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process through which a firm can spread the information about its
product in market to encourage the potential buyers to buy the product or services. It is the
research function which links the consumer or buyer to marketers by identify and define
marketing opportunities. It is the business process of creating a satisfying customer relationship.
This report is based on Marks and Spencer (M&S) which deals with the retail chain stores of
quality cloths and food items. It was founded in 1884 in London. The organisation is also began
to sell branded goods. In current the company has around 960 stores arccos the United Kingdom
(West, Ford and Ibrahim, 2015). The purpose of making such report is to determine the current
marketing strategies adapted by Marks and Spencer and making evaluation of business's current
performance in the market. This report discusses about the market segmentation of M&S alone
with chosen market group which can helps to grow the firm in market. This report will shows
the buying behaviour of customers and various marketing strategy adapting by the firm to meets
the requirement of segments.
Marketing Audit
Marketing audit is refers to the interpretation of systematic analysis of business
marketing. It is the comprehensive examination of activities done in the marketing (West, Ford
and Ibrahim, 2015). The factors which are considers in marketing audit are competitors,
distributors, market etc.
SWOT ANALYSIS:
Strengths:
 Marks and Spencer is a leading retailer company with its own brand label and has created
excellent brand image in the market which is very easy to recognise (Alon and et.al.,
2016).
 Firm is offering wide range of popular, trendy and high quality designer product and is
highly involved in online business.
 Multiple numbers of stores of the company are available throughout the world.
Weaknesses:
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 Marks and Spencer has limited availability of the stock for marketing. Organisation is
availing brands at very high prices which leads into limited share in the market (Daunt
and Greer, 2017).
 The retail company is also facing high competition at international level from other
popular retail brands.
Opportunities:
 Marks and Spencer can expand its business by investing in more countries (Conrad,
Harmon and Brown, 2015).
 Online presences of the firm is bolster its market position.
Threats:
33 Due to international presence, organisation gets exposed with multiple government
policies of different countries hence, it gets highly affected by the change in government
policies (Sheth and Sisodia, 2015).33 Marks and Spencer is also threatened by the availability of other international popular
retail brands because other companies are becoming obstacles for business expansion and
also increasing high competition in the market.
PESTEL ANALYSIS:
Political factors:
 Marks and Spencer is highly affected by the alteration of the government and their laws
such as taxation policies due to which expenses of the company increases (Boyd and
Koles, 2019).
 Free trade strategy of the country's government has also affected the company by
minimising its sourcing costs and raising its profit margins.
Economic factors:
 Marks and Spencer is using high quality resources, hence offered goods and services has
higher prices while lower or discounted prices of the competitive retailers has a very high
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impact on the economy of the organisation as it decreases number of sales meanwhile
decreasing its market share.
 Foreign exchange rates or the differences in the currencies of different countries are also
effecting the firm's economy (West, Ford and Ibrahim, 2015). On increasing foreign
exchange rates, profits of the company also increases.
Social factors:
 Social factors includes customer services provided by the firm. Marks and Spencer is
giving excellent customer services by understanding needs, demands, and expectations of
their consumers which results into increasing satisfaction and loyalty of customers (Alon
and et.al., 2016).
 This also involve research on the preferences, life styles and choices of the consumers
and it has very deep impact on running of company as it gives an overview about the
consumer demands for the products which helps company to increase number of sales by
producing products which are highly demanded in the market
Technological factors:
 Marks and Spencer is highly updated on the social media for targetting large crowd
towards it. This helps firm to attract amount of people so as to increase number of
customers meanwhile raising profits (Sheth and Sisodia, 2015).
 Organisation is also expanding its business with developing technology by showing its
presence on the internet which helps in development of the business.
 Company is also using technology for eliminating risk and for implementing feeling of
security in the firm. This allows entity to maintain its environment.
Environmental factors:
 Weather or climate is also an important factor for running of business because with the
change in the natural environment, needs or demands and preferences of the consumer
also changes, due to which firm has to spend its money for new production (Richard,
2017). Production and sales of goods and services of the Marks and Spencer is highly
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based on the climate, sometimes this leads into high waste of money as well as goods
and services.
 Environmental factors also include use of eco-friendly products i.e., use of natural and
renewable resources during production of the goods and services for benefits of nature
and customers. This helps firm to reduce taxes and also target large number of audience
as natural products are healthy products.
Legal factors:
 The legal rules and regulations have an deep impact on the working of entity as it causes
working of the organisation (Daunt and Greer, 2017). Flexibility in employment act
helps business in raising satisfaction level of its staff members that helps business in
retaining staff for longer duration.
 This includes health and safety of consumers and also involve laws like consumer rights
and labour laws and packaging or product related laws. It increases burden on business
because it has to spend extra amount to create safer atmosphere at workplace.
Marketing strategy
Ansoff matrix
Market penetration
It is the type of strategy that is generally adopted by business for the growth of its
existing items in actual or existing market (Boyd and Koles, 2019).. The main aim of this tactic
is to raise its market share in existing market. One of the major advantage of this strategy is that
company can gain more success and can effectively utilise its resources. It is less risky as firm
has knowledge of existing market hence it would not be much difficult for it to meet the needs of
buyers. But it has some limitation as well. If enterprise want to grow well or if market saturation
arises then it will have to move towards Newmarket otherwise it would get fail to sustain in
market (Ding, Eliashberg and Stremersch, 2016).
Market development
In this type of tactics enterprise try to develop its market but concentrates on existing
product only. By entering into new geographical region it will be able to deal with new
consumers that will increase chances of raising sales of the firm. But expansion in new market
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can enhance failure risk because entity has less knowledge about new region and preferences of
local consumers.
Product development
This is another development strategy in which entity emphases more on offering new
products that means it develops existing product and offer satisfactory products to potential
buyers. This is effective strategy because firm will be able to offer wide range of items that
would satisfy needs of buyers significantly. It would enhance number of consumers of business.
But product development can create crises situation for firm because it might get to satisfy
buyers because of poor knowledge about new products (Sheth and Sisodia, 2015)..
Diversification
This is considered as most effective and beneficial tactic for business unit, enterprise can
offer new product in new market for growing well in market. Though high risk is involved in this
strategy but there is high chances of getting high return into it. By this way entity can gain
foothold in particular industry which will be beneficial in reducing portfolio risk of organisation.
MS applies this strategy that helps the firm in entering into global market and offering wide
range of products as per the needs of buyers. This is beneficial in minimising failure risk and
help in reducing operational cost business as well (Conrad, Harmon and Brown, 2015).
BCG Matrix:
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is very serviceable instrument which is used to
determine the position or activeness of the organisation's goods and services. In this matrix the
goods are placed in the four categorise which are show in the illustration 1.
Star:
Stars is operates in the high growth companies which maintains the high market share. It
is the basic unit in which the company may invest the capital. The website i.e. launch by the firm
is M&S.com is the star product or services of the firm's portfolio. Through upgrading and
enhancing the website and making more products available to sell in the market via online. It
enables to firm to become future cash cow.
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Question mark:
it is very necessary to divest the women wear and the beauty products as they both are
lingerie in company's portfolio. If two goods are complement each other than it impacts
negatively on marketing of company by deleting one of them. Question mark should be analysed
properly to determine the worth of investment to grow market share of the firm.
Illustration 1: BCG matrix
(source: Strategic Management And Leadership, 2017)
Cash cow:
M&S has tow goods that is food and lingerie. These goods are represent as the bone of
the firm. Cash cow mean the goods which provides the most of the profit and generates much
cash. The M&S needs to continuously up-gradation in such goods.
Dogs:
Dogs hold the low market share compared to the competitors and operators in the slowly
growing market. In M&S premium prices of the goods identify the dog category.
Marketing research:
Porter five forces:
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Porter five forces analysis is the strategic management tools to evaluating and analysing
the industry and firm's position in the market. Management of Marks and Spencer firm are using
such tool to understand the forces which influences development and profitability of the firm.
The five factors are discussing below:
Illustration 2: Porter five forces
(source: Porter Five Forces Analysis, 2017)
Threats of new entrants:
Entrants of new business in the retail market put pressure on the Marks and Spencer
(Bright, Akomea, and Owusu-Ansah, 2017). By entrance of new competitor in the market the
firm has to face challenges regarding the cost and low price strategies. The threat of new
entrance in the market is very high for the organisation. Marks and Spencer firm can handle the
situation by creating new innovative products which brings new customer and satisfy the
existing.
Bargaining power of suppliers:
Every firm needs raw material to manufacture the products. It purchase from the number
of supplier (West, Ford and Ibrahim, 2015). If the suppliers in the dominate position can cuts the
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profit margin of Marks and Spencer. The bargaining power of suppliers is low for M&S. For
handle such situation the organisation build relationship with multiple supplier and tries to make
products with different type of raw material which facilitates when the price of one raw material
increases then using its alternative raw material can maintain the cost.
Bargaining power of buyers:
Customers wants to buy only those products which have best offering available in low
prices. This will put pressure on the Marks and Spencer. The bargaining power of buyers is
high for this firm due to competition in the market. By building the huge base of buyers the firm
can overcome form such situation.
Threats of substitute goods:
Entrance of new products which can meets the similar customers needs in a different
ways can affects the profitability of the firm (Richard, 2017). The threat of entrace of substitute
goods in the market is very high for Marks and Spencer. For overcome from such threats Marks
and Spencer should being services oriented rather than Goods oriented and the organisation
should add on the switching cost for the buyers.
Rivalry among the competitors:
Competition in the existing players leads to cutting down in price which results is to
decreases in overall profitability of the organisation (Alon and et.al., 2016). Rivalry among the
competitors of Marks and Spencer is high in the market of the firm. The firm puts efforts on
sustainable differentiation and collaborates with the competitors to increase the market size.
Marketing segmentation:
Marketing segmentation is the activity to breaking the broad business market into the sub
group of consumers. It is the process of dividing the buyer market into a groups, segment based
on the various characteristics like geographically, demographically and so on. Marketing
segmentation makes an easy path for marketing department of the company to personalize their
marketing campaigns (Sheth and Sisodia, 2015). It reduces the risk of an unsuccessful or
ineffective marketing campaign. The types of marketing segmentation M&S were using to
successfully targeted the market are following below:
Demographic Segmentation:
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In Market segmentation, demographic segmentation is the process of dividing the market
based on the income, age, gender, educational qualification, socio economic status etc. Marks
and Spencer using this marketing segmentation criteria for dividing its market (Ding, Eliashberg
and Stremersch, 2016). Age based or specific character based segmentation can facilitates more
growth of the business. Marketing management of M&S explicates demographic segmentation
to focus on the better sales of their products. This is very cost effective and measurable. By
selling the products in a particular segment can facilitates easier control over marketing and
reduces the risk of unsuccessful marketing. M&S marketing team could also target the market on
the basis of income level of the consumers. Income can decides the purchasing power of the
audiences. It is the key factor to decides weather the goods is for need or luxury (Boyd and
Koles, 2019). The firm deals with the quality cloths and food which can be only purchase by the
individual who have high income level so the marketers will targets the income based
segmentation for selling the products.
Psycho-graphic Segmentation:
Psycho-graphic segmentation is the term which breaking the audiences on the basis of
their life-style, attitudes, personality. This kind of segmentation process can influence buying
behaviour of consumers through their lifestyle and personality (Conrad, Harmon and Brown,
2015). Personality refers to the characteristics like habits, attitude, temperament and so on while
life style is how an individual live their life. Marks and Spencer can target buyer on the basis of
their lifestyles. Organisation is mercantilism in retail chain of cloths and food items which
influences the individual to making high life-style. It is very easy for marketing team of Marks
and Spencer to identify such consumers (Daunt and Greer, 2017). It increases the profitability
and boost up the sales by enabling the firm to respond more effectively to the particular or
specific needs of potential customers. Lifestyle segmentation based on the interest, opinion and
values of the customers. Marks and Spencer deals in the brand goods and brand and personality
having a relationship. Customers and the brand attribute are probable to match where brand
choice is directly manifests of personal values.
Age factor and income factor in demographical segmentation can helps Marks and
Spencer in growth, by choosing the age based segmentation the firm get information about what
kind of fissionable cloths are in the trend and in demand which facilitates the high sell and
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growth of the business (Bright, Akomea, and Owusu-Ansah, 2017). It can be help to grow the
firm by making satisfied the consumer's lifestyle by providing the qualitative and brand
products which meets the needs and preferences of the consumers. While income factor is define
the level of income of individual like high, medium and low . It will facilitates Marks and
Spencer's marketing department to categorise their buyer on the basis of their level of income.
Marks and Spencer deal with quality goods so firm can adopt the psycho-graphic segmentation
in which segmentation based on the lifestyle of the consumer. By choosing such segments the
organisation can identify about the customers needs on the basis of segments which leads to
growth in the business productivity and profitability.
Buying behaviour of consumers:
Buying behaviour is the study of how an individual or a group of buyers select, buy, use
and evaluates the goods and services (West, Ford and Ibrahim, 2015). It is the decision making
process of the buyers while they are selecting the goods or services out of all the alternatives
available in the market place. It is very essential to Marks and Spencer's marketing department
to study the behaviour of consumers and understand and investigates the factors that can affect
the buying nature of consumers. There are five stages of consumer buying process which are
problem recognition, information research, evaluation of alternative, purchase decision and post
purchase evaluation.
Marks and Spencer choose the social media marketing strategy to meets the requirement
of specific segments. Social media marketing provide the way to companies to reach new
customers, promotes their culture and engages with the existing customers (Richard, 2017). It is
also known as digital marketing or e-marketing. It considers the creation of content that can
attracts the buyers to buy goods and services.
Adaptation of social media marketing strategy by Marks and Spencer may helps to meets
the requirement of income based and lifestyle based segmentation through spreading the
information among the young peoples about the new fashion and lifestyle products and makes
them know about the particular trend and goods. Social media strategy facilitates platform to buy
and sell online and advertising the products in target market through Facebook, Instagram and
many other social sites. It is an easier path to reach the target market and influence them to buy
such products. The social media marketing has an ability to unwrap the industry trends in the real
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time (Alon and et. al., 2016). Through this, Marks and Spencer can interacts with the target
customers which leads the increases in the selling of such products.
Recommendation:
Marks and Spencer is recommanded that they should work on the marketing strategies to
increases the profitability of business. The firm should use more social platforms to
communicate with the target customers and make sure that the advertisement must be effective.
Marks and Spencer should focus on the segmentation based on the age and income, which
facilitates them to identify the potential buyer's needs and want and their purchasing power.
Company should tries to make customer relation which leads to increase in the sell of existing
products.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded about the Marketing audit. It is refers to the
interpretation of systematic analysis of business marketing. The report has been summarised the
SWOT and PESTEL analysis of Marks and Spencer. Also there is brief discussion on Ansoff
matrix in which it has been discuses about the Market penetration, Market development, Product
development, Diversification and BCG matrix. Further the report were considers the market
segmentation criteria i.e. demographic segmentation which is based on the age and income level
of consumers, psycho-graphic segmentation which consider the personality and life style factors.
This report has been considers about the current market position of firm through porter five
forces and assess the market segmentation of Marks and Spencer. This report has been study on
buying behaviour of consumers and marketing strategies that are require to meets with the
segment market.
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REFERENCES
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Marketing”: Definition, Theory and Practice.
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Technology and Marketing Challenges Facing Starch Producing Companies in
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Marketing Need Reform?: Fresh Perspectives on the Future. (pp. 11-20). Routledge.
West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage.
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Online
Porter Five Forces Analysis. 2017. [online] available through
<http://fernfortuniversity.com/term-papers/porter5/lse/418-marks-and-spencer-
group-plc.php>
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