Introduction to Marketing Assignment : H&M

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Introduction to Marketing
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

2INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................5
P1: Use of Marketing Techniques to Market Products....................................................................5
P1.1 Heineken..............................................................................................................................5
Background Information of Company.....................................................................................5
Branding and Relationship Marketing.....................................................................................6
Market Segmentation...............................................................................................................6
Marketing Mix.........................................................................................................................7
Business objectives..................................................................................................................9
Growth Strategies (Ansoff’s Matrix).......................................................................................9
Survival Strategy...................................................................................................................10
P.1.2 H&M.................................................................................................................................10
Background Information of Company...................................................................................10
Branding and Relationship Marketing...................................................................................10
Market Segmentation.............................................................................................................11
Marketing Mix.......................................................................................................................12
Business objectives................................................................................................................13
Growth Strategies (Ansoff’s Matrix).....................................................................................13
Survival Strategy...................................................................................................................14
P.2: Limitations and Constraints of Marketing..............................................................................14

3INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
P3: Use of Marketing Research to the Development of Marketing Plan in H&M........................15
Marketing Plan Process (SOSTAC)..........................................................................................15
Relationship between Marketing Research and Marketing Plan...............................................16
Information Gathering in Marketing Research..........................................................................16
PEST......................................................................................................................................16
SWOT....................................................................................................................................17
SMART Objectives...............................................................................................................17
P 4: Use marketing research for marketing planning....................................................................18
Definition of Marketing Research.............................................................................................18
Quantitative and Qualitative Data.............................................................................................18
Primary and Secondary Research Methods...............................................................................18
Uses of Research- Reduce Risk in Decision Making................................................................19
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................19
M1: Compare marketing techniques used in marketing products in two organizations................19
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................20
M2: Limitations of Marketing Research Used in Developing Marketing Plan of H&M..............20
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................21
D1: Effectiveness of the Use of Techniques in Marketing Products in H&M..............................21
Task 5.............................................................................................................................................22

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D2: Recommendations for Improving Validity of Marketing Research in Developing Marketing
Plan of H&M.................................................................................................................................22
Ways to Ensure Market Research Meets Organizational Objectives of H&M.....................22
Changes and Recommendation..............................................................................................22
Reference List................................................................................................................................24

5INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Task 1
P1: Use of Marketing Techniques to Market Products
P1.1 Heineken
Background Information of Company
Heineken is the most popular global beer producing company. The company was
established in the year 1864. It has a proud and long history as an independent global brewer.
Apart from serving in its domestic market, the organization also operates in 70 international
countries and becomes the number two brewer in the world. Furthermore, the organization has
grabbed number one position in the market of Europe. Heineken is mostly popular for its
signature green bottle and red star (Ashenfelter, Hosken and Weinberg 2015). Apart from that,
the quality of beer and unique design of the beer bottle has made it unique in the global market.
The organization has grabbed 9% global market share holding a significant portion of global
market (Theheinekencompany.com 2018).
Business objectives
 To be the leading global brewing company
 To embrace innovation in the areas of production, communication, marketing and
packaging
 To grow business in consistent and sustainable manner for constantly improving
profitability

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Branding and Relationship Marketing
Marketing is the activities associated with an organization for promoting and selling their
products and services. It can also include marketing research and advertisements. In case of the
branding strategy of Heineken, the authenticity logo of the organization reinforces and
communicates the brewing authenticity and heritage. The organization uses a special advertising
campaign like Lifestyle executional framework spreads the message of unique personality
among the people (Ghose, Heiman and Lowengart 2017). In case of relationship marketing,
Heineken uses social media sites for interacting with the valuable customers on frequent basis for
leading an effective relation with them. The organization also uses loyalty program like “Star
Treatment”, where it provides free beers to the customers on special events (Akinyoade,
Ekumankama and Uche 2016). It leads to effective and long term customer relationship with
valuable customers.
Market Segmentation
SEGMENTATION VARIABLE AND TARGET MARKET OF HEINEKEN
SEGMENTATIO
N VARIABLE
Geographic Global Market
Demographic  Age: 25-50, mostly adult
 Gender: Both Male and Female
 Income: Upper middle income group customers
 Education Level: Educated people
 Occupation: Stable job holders, corporate officials
and businessperson
Psychographic  Personality: Positive Personality
 Lifestyle: Modern lifestyle

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 Attitude: Positive Attitude
 Hobby: Inclined to entertainment
Behavioral  Brand Loyalty: High brand loyalty
 Distribution Channel used: Both online and offline
distribution channels
 Benefit Sought: Seeking discounts and offers
TARGET
MARKET
 High income customers will be targeted, who can afford the price of
premium beer brand
 The people having elegant lifestyle will be selected with unique beer
brand
 The people coming to night club and pubs are mostly targeted
Table 1: Segmentation Variable and Target Market of Heineken
(Source: Aquilani et al. 2015)
Marketing Mix
Product
Heineken is mostly involved in brewing and marketing of specialty, premium, regional
and local beers and ciders. The organization produces pale larger beer having alcohol content of
5.4% (Theheinekencompany.com 2018). It has owned around 165 breweries all over the world.
Beside the main products like larger beer and light larger beer, the organization is also associated
with brewing and marketing of 250 other types of beers. It markets its beer products under
several names like Desperados, Foster’s, Cruzcampo, Heineken, Dos Equis and Anchor.
Price

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Heineken has to maintain an appropriate pricing strategy for enhancing its profit and
revenue volume. The organization has mainly adopted premium pricing strategy, which it
charges high prices for its high quality beer brand (Chen and Shieh 2016). The premium pricing
policy has been projected as value based pricing, where high end products are charged at high
prices.
Place
Heineken has an international presence of around 170 countries, having operating
countries located in Western Europe and Asia Pacific Region (Sluyterman and Bouwens 2015).
The organization has a strong distribution network for reaching at the end customers. It includes
the services of wholesalers and retailers for reaching at the customers through bars, liquor shops,
clubs, hotels and restaurants. Apart from that, the customers can also avail Heineken’s beer
products through online order system.
Promotion
Heineken believes in creation of catchy commercials, which facilitates in fostering
positive brand awareness through print media and electronic media. The commercial
advertisements of the organization are telecasted on the popular channels of television, aired on
popular radio station and displayed on billboards and magazines (Thomé and Soares 2015).
Apart from that, the organization also uses social media sites for increasing the exposure of beer
products to new generation customers.
Growth Strategies (Ansoff’s Matrix)
GROWTH STRATEGIES OF HEINEKEN
MARKET Heineken seeks to achieve market growth and increase market share

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PENETRATION with existing beer products in existing Netherland market.
MARKET
DEVELOPMENT
Heineken seeks to achieve market growth through targeting the existing
beer products into global markets.
PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
Apart from offering only beer products, the organization should also
offer some other types of health drinks in its domestic market.
DIVERSIFICATION Heineken can get huge market growth through developing new health
drinks and marketing them to international markets. The organization
should assess the international scope for their new products and based
on the scope, it should launch its new products in international markets.
Table 2: Growth Strategy of Heineken
(Source: Calvo Porral and Levy-Mangin 2015)
Survival Strategy
Differentiation Innovative packaging and unique quality of beer product of
Heineken helps its long term business sustainability.
Providing Outstanding
Customer Service
Customized bottling and unique taste of beers act as effective survival
strategy for Heineken.
Increasing Marketing and
Business Expansion
International expansion and global customers often compensate the
business loss occurred in domestic market leading to long term business
sustainability.
Table 3: Survival Strategies of Heineken
(Source: Amienyo and Azapagic 2016)

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P.1.2 H&M
Background Information of Company
Hennes and Mauritz AB (H&M) is the Swedish multinational clothing retail company. It
is mostly popular for its fast fashion clothing for women, men, children and teenagers. This
organization and its associated organizations operate in almost 62 countries having more than
4500 stores. H&M has also a significant online presence having online shopping availability in
33 countries. H&M has grabbed 7.5% market share in the global market with the unique fashion
trends in the design of clothing (H&M 2018).
Business objectives
 To be the leading clothing retailer in global market
 To lead the change towards more sustainable fashion industry
 To become the market leader in fast fashion industry
Branding and Relationship Marketing
Marketing goes beyond just selling or products and services and it is associated with
promotion and customer relationship of an organization. In case of branding of H&M, the logo
of the organization having red color represents its significant trademark in fashion industry. The
promotional message of the organization gives an appealing feeling of quality at best price
(Thompson and McLarney 2017). In case of relationship marketing, the organization uses several
loyalty programs for maintaining a positive relationship with the customers. The organization
also uses social media sites for keeping in constant touch with the customers.

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Market Segmentation
SEGMENTATION VARIABLE AND TARGET MARKET OF HEINEKEN
SEGMENTATIO
N VARIABLE
Geographic Global Market
Demographic  Age: All age group from children to adults to aged
person
 Gender: Both Male and Female
 Income: Lower Middle Class to high income group
 Education Level: Educated people
 Occupation: Stable job holders, corporate officials
and businessperson, students, retired person,
household
Psychographic  Personality: Positive Personality
 Lifestyle: Sophisticated lifestyle
 Attitude: Positive Attitude
 Hobby: Fashion trend
Behavioral  Brand Loyalty: High brand loyalty
 Distribution Channel used: Both online and offline
distribution channels
 Benefit Sought: People seeking offers and discounts
TARGET
MARKET
 The customers having high level of fashion sense will be targeted
 The women from lower middle class and working class will be targeted
 Consumers having high family value will be targeted with all types of
clothing

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Table 4: Segmentation Variable and Target Market of H&M
(Source: Dunford et al. 2016)
Marketing Mix
Product
The core range of products under the fashion brand of H&M includes accessories and
clothing like basic jumpers, cardigans, sleeved jersey dresses, vests, pants, fashion shirts, jeans,
jackets, shoes, jewelry, T-shirts and purses. The organization highly focuses on the quality of
clothing and always incorporates latest fashion trends in designing the clothing. Moreover, 25%
organization’s stock includes fast fashion clothing for attracting new generational customers
(H&M 2018).
Price
H&M mostly follows affordable pricing strategy in which the organization charges low
price for their clothing. The organization targets lower middle and high income group customers
through this pricing strategy. Furthermore, H&M also offers various offers and discounts on its
core and fresh products (Boström and Micheletti 2016).
Place
H&M uses strong distribution network for reaching at the valuable customer section. It is
a second ranked retail of clothing having spread in almost 55 countries. Apart from retail outlet,
the customers can also avail it’s clothing through online ordering system.

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Promotion
H&M comes with different creative television advertisements for promoting unique
values of the clothing. The organization has its own YouTube channel, where it initiates unique
advertising campaign for increased customer engagement (Duma et al. 2016). Social media and
public relationship is also the integral part of the organization to promote its products.
Growth Strategies (Ansoff’s Matrix)
GROWTH STRATEGIES OF H&M
MARKET
PENETRATION
H&M seeks to achieve market growth and increase market share with
existing clothing products in existing Sweden market. The market share
of the company may increase may increase, if the competitor companies
reach their capacity limit.
MARKET
DEVELOPMENT
H&M seeks to achieve market growth through targeting the existing
clothing and accessories into global markets.
PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
H&M can increase its business growth through offering some other
types like grocery and food products in its Sweden market.
DIVERSIFICATION H&M can get huge market growth through developing new product
items like fresh food products and marketing them to international
markets.
Table 5: Growth Strategy of H&M
(Source: Norum 2018)
Survival Strategy
Keeping Cost Down H&M uses low cost production strategy for enjoying economies of scale

14INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
for long term business sustainability
Differentiation The fast fashion clothing of H&M highly attracts large group of new
generation customers
Increase marketing in
International Countries
H&M can explore new customer groups and avoid tough competition in
domestic market through internationalization leading to long term
business sustainability
Table 6: Survival Strategy of H&M
(Source: Mo 2015)
P.2: Limitations and Constraints of Marketing
Unfair Trading
Regulations 2008
Both Heineken and H&M ensure this regulation that prevents them to perform
unfair trade. It actually intended to protect the consumers from unfair trade.
Consumer Protection
Regulation
 Heineken has to comply with the health interest and health
protection regulation through its beer product
 H&M has to establish informative leveling on all clothing and
accessories for protecting customers’ interests
 H&M has also to accept the return of goods from the customers in
case of any dispute in clothing

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Data Protection Act
1998
 Both Heineken and H&M are restricted to disclose personal
information of the customers to unauthentic users
 The personal information of the consumers is not also kept by the
organization no longer than it is necessary
 The consumers have their legal rights for controlling the
information about themselves
Consumer Credit Act
1974 and 2006
 As per Consumer Credit Act 1974, both Heineken and H&M must
obtain credit license from the Office of Fair Trading for using credit
facilities
 As per Consumer Credit Act 2006, the consumers can challenge
unfair debtor-creditor relationship to court
 The idea of the act is also intended towards allowing the debtors for
confronting the unfair relationship with the creditors.
Voluntary Constraints
Advertising Standard
Authority (ASA)
 As per ASA code, Heineken must not
influence the children through its
advertising content
 As per ASA code, H&M is restricted to
convey any false promotional message to
the customers
 Both the companies are always liable to
monitor the public opinion regarding the
advertisement
Pressure Group and  Pressure group always influence the

16INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Consumerism customer opinion of both the organizations
hampering the sales
 Consumerism makes the customers aware of
all consumer protection act leading to
pressure in the organizations
Acceptable language  Both the countries has to create its
promotional content based on the preferred
language of different international countries
Table 7: Limitations and Constraints of Marketing
(Source: Cleeren, Dekimpe and van Heerde 2017)
P3: Use of Marketing Research to the Development of Marketing Plan in H&M
Marketing Plan Process (SOSTAC)
 Situation: In this step, H&M assess its present business scenario for further planning
business progress.
 Objectives: In this step, the organization set its mission and goals for getting exact business
direction.
 Strategy: In this step, the organization set effective business strategies for achieving the set
business objectives.
 Tactics: In this step, H&M determines detailed approach for achieving business goals.
 Actions: This step is associated with determining the actors and initiative for achieving the
business objectives.

17INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
 Control: In this step, H&M set control measures for measuring the level of business progress
over the time.
Relationship between Marketing Research and Marketing Plan
An effective marketing plan must have to start with exploration of specific marketing
problems and market opportunities. Effective recognition of marketing threats and marketing
potentiality through market research always facilitates in establishing effective marketing plan
for business progress (Davcik and Sharma 2016). Market research also assists in identifying the
market resources for implementing the marketing plan successfully.
Information Gathering in Marketing Research
PEST
H&M successfully uses PEST framework of market research for leading effective
marketing plan. The organization uses this framework for scanning the macro environment
factors and their associated threats and opportunities for setting effective marketing plan. The
PEST framework assesses the factors like political factor, economic factor, social factor and
technological factor. The information gathered from political factors helps the organization in
understanding political stability, trade regulations, taxation, anti-trust laws and many more things
regarding an industry in a particular country. The economic factor facilitate in understanding the
economic growth of a country, which is helpful in assessing the profit potentiality of a marketing
plan (Samiee, Chabowski and Hult 2015). Social factors facilitate in assessing the social
acceptance of a particular marketing strategy. Furthermore, the technological factor helps in
deciding upon the technical compatibility of a particular market with the new marketing plan.

18INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
SWOT
H&M effective uses SWOT framework for gathering huge market information for
establishing effective marketing plan. This framework helps the organization to assess its
internal strength and weakness and external threats and opportunities. SWOT stands for strength,
weakness, opportunity and threats. The information gathered from strength factor facilitates
H&M to assess its reputation in marketplace for its potential acceptance of new products. The
assessment of weakness facilitates in improving the weak areas of the organization to
successfully implementing the marketing plan (Krafft et al. 2015). Furthermore, the opportunity
factors facilitate the organization in exploring the external market opportunity for better
exploiting the marketing plan. On the other hand, the assessment of weakness help the
organization in avoiding the external market threats for successfully implementing the marketing
plan.
SMART Objectives
SMART objective is the acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time
factors. H&M mostly uses these objectives for implementing a marketing plan successfully by
using the information gathered from the market research. In specific factor, the organization
establishes the specific objectives to be achieved for implementing the marketing plan.
Measurable and achievable factor assess the meaningfulness and degree attainability of the set
specific objectives (Eisend 2015). The organization uses realistic factor to assess the
reasonableness and realistic base of the specific objective. The time factor determines the
specific time within which the organization completes the specific objective.

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P 4: Use marketing research for marketing planning
Definition of Marketing Research
Marketing research is the systematic use of collecting, recording and analyzing data that
is actually used for solving marketing problems. The purpose of marketing research is to
recognize the marketing opportunities and threats through collecting information regarding
consumers, competitors, exporters, suppliers, distributors and others (Keegan, Rowley and
Tonge 2017).
Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Quantitative data is associated with the numeric data regarding the market environment
of surrounding a business organization. Such data is mostly used for measuring and assessing the
marketing opportunities and risks objectively. On the other hand, Qualitative data is associated
with descriptive data regarding the market environment surrounding a business organization
(Kumar 2015). Such data assesses the marketing opportunities and threats of a business
organization in a descriptive way.
Primary and Secondary Research Methods
Primary research method is used to collect first hand data regarding the marketing
opportunities and threats. This method mostly uses survey technique for collecting
straightforward information from the target market for effective marketing plan. On the other
hand, secondary method is used to collect secondary and descriptive data regarding the
marketing needs for leading successful marketing plan.

20INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Uses of Research- Reduce Risk in Decision Making
Effective marketing research effectively assesses the market opportunities and market
threats associated with a particular business organization. Moreover, the organizations can
properly assess the potential market threats, which can hamper the business success. Hence, the
effective market research helps the organizations to avoid the market threats beforehand they
affect in business progress (Davcik and Sharma 2016). In this way, marketing research actually
facilitates in reducing business risk and measure progress over time.

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Task 2
M1: Compare marketing techniques used in marketing products in two organizations
Similarities of Marketing Techniques
Marketing Technique Heineken H&M
Advertisement Heineken uses print media, social
media for promoting its products
in the market
H&M uses mass media social
media and print media for
promoting its products in the
market
Public Relation Uses sponsorship for maintaining
public relation
Uses market campaign and
sponsorship for enhanced public
relation
Value Addition More focused on adding value
through enhancing product
quality
Enhancing product quality is the
only medium of enhancing
product value to the customers
Table 8: Similarities of Marketing Technique
(Source: Eisend 2015)
Differences of Marketing Techniques
Marketing
Technique
Heineken H&M
Target Customers Heineken has mostly targeted the adult
people, who are highly inclined towards
On the other hand, H&M has
mostly targeted the people from

22INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
going night clubs, pubs, bars, hotels and
restaurants. Moreover, such customers are
highly inclined towards drinking beers
(Ghose, Heiman and Lowengart 2017).
all age group having a sense of
fast fashion clothing.
Unique Selling
Proposition
The USP of Heineken is unique quality of
beer
USP of H&M is fast fashion
clothing
PLC Cycle The beer product of Heineken has become
the dominant player in the market. It is
actually in the maturity stage of PLC stages
having substantial market share with steady
volume of sales.
H&M is still enjoying
the growth stage of PLC cycle,
where the sales volume of the
organization is increasing
significantly (Dunford et al.
2016). Furthermore, the
organization has also reduced the
cost with increasing economies
of scale.
Pricing Heineken mostly uses premium pricing
strategy for offering their premium quality
beers at high prices to the customers.
H&M uses affordable pricing
strategy for offering their
clothing at low prices to the
customers.
Market Reach The beers of Heineken is sold at almost 70
countries including the countries like USA,
UK, Thailand, Maldives, China, India,
Kuwait and many others.
The fast fashion clothing of
H&M is available in almost 62
countries including Asia and
Middle East countries.
Table 9: Dissimilarities of Marketing Technique

23INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
(Source: Boström and Micheletti 2016)
Task 3
M2: Limitations of Marketing Research Used in Developing Marketing Plan of H&M
LIMITATIONS OF
MARKETING RESEARCH
IMPACT ON H&M
COST EFFECTIVENESS Conducting extensive marketing research for developing
marketing plan has been proved to be highly expensive for
H&M. It ultimately impacts on the overall business cost of
the organization.
TIME CONSTRAINTS H&M often has to spend a considerable amount of valuable
time for conducting market research. The excessive time
gap between inception and completion of market research
may obsolete the actually meaning of collected data.
RELIABILITY AND
VALIDITY OF
INFORMATION GATHERED
H&M may often gather biased information from market
research. Such lack of reliability and validity in the
collected information can hamper the overall business
success.
LEGAL AND ETHICAL
CONSTRAINTS (DATA
PROTECTION ACT)
During data collection process in marketing research, H&M
may face the issue of data protection for protecting the
collected data from authentic access.
Table 10: Limitation of Marketing Research

24INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
(Source: Samiee, Chabowski and Hul0074 2015)
Task 4
D1: Effectiveness of the Use of Techniques in Marketing Products in H&M
H&M is using market penetration and market development growth strategies from
Ansoff’s matrix. These strategies are good for increasing marketing share in domestic and
international markets (Kumar 2015). However, the organization should diversification strategy
for avoiding the risks associated with older product lines. The branding of H&M through
appealing communication message and logo is quite successful for establishing its brand (Eisend
2015). However, the organization should give more focus on its relationship marketing through
increased customer interaction. The survival strategies of the organization are quite effective for
long term business sustainability, but the organization should be more focused on improving the
skills level of the employees towards fostering innovative fashion design for clothing.

25INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Task 5
D2: Recommendations for Improving Validity of Marketing Research in Developing
Marketing Plan of H&M
Ways to Ensure Market Research Meets Organizational Objectives of H&M
H&M ensures that market research meets its organizational objectives, when the data
collected through market research is valid and reliable. The market research is proved to be valid
enough, while it provides accurate insights regarding customer behavior. The information
collected in market research regarding customer and competition successfully meets the
organizational objectives to foster uniqueness in products. Such marketing research is proved to
be effective in meeting the organizational objectives of H&M.
Changes and Recommendation
Research Method Instead of using any one type of research method, H&M should use mixed
method consisted of primary and secondary research method for collecting
market information.
Types of Information
Used in Research
H&M should use both quantitative and qualitative information for gathering
more authentic and valid information regarding market environment.
Samples In case of primary research, the organization should always choose more
relevant samples associated with marketing objectives for collecting more
authentic information.
Sample Size The sample size for collecting quantitative data should be adequate enough for
providing bias free and valid information regarding the market environment.
Market Researchers H&M should employ right researcher, who have concrete idea about marketing

26INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
objectives. Such marketing researchers will be able to collect most authentic
and accurate market information associated with business objectives.
Table 11: Changes in Marketing Research
(Source: Created by Author)