UGB161 Introduction to Marketing Assessment

Introduction to
marketing assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Marketing audit of current performance of Marks & Spencer....................................................3
Proposal of two sets of market segmentation..............................................................................7
Market research............................................................................................................................8
Buying behaviour.........................................................................................................................9
Justification of chosen marketing strategy...................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The process of marketing involves the business activities that are undertaken by an
organisation in order to promote the selling or buying goods and services. It is considered as an
activity, set of institutions as well as processes to create, communicate, exchange and deliver
offerings that have value for potential market share. In this report, Marks & Spencer is taken into
consideration as an organisation for demonstrating different aspects of this report. Within this
existing portfolio, there will be a marketing audit of the current performance of the business and
an evaluation of existing marketing strategies and position of the organisation in the market (Bar-
Zeev and et.al, 2022). Moreover, there will be a proposal of two sets of market segmentation
criteria that could be successfully targeted by organisation. This report also involves a market
research in order to explain the ways in which customer groups will grow the business within
retail market place. Furthermore, there will be an explanation on the concept of buying behaviour
including with a research for justifying chosen marketing strategy in order to meet requirements
of suggested segments.
MAIN BODY
Marketing audit of current performance of Marks & Spencer
The process of marketing audit is considered as the comprehensive assessment of all the
perspectives of the operations of marketing within an organisation. It involves systematic
evaluation of plans, goals and objectives, strategies, business activities, marketing employees
along with the organisational structure. The concept of marketing audit facilitates the
organisation in analysing the overall promotional environment of the business.
In this report, Marks & Spencer is taken into consideration which is a UK-based
multinational retailer headquartered in London, England. The company deals in selling clothes,
food product as well as home products (Caranante and Williams, 2018). In order to analyse the
promotional environment of the respective organisation, various kinds of models and
frameworks are going to be used. The description of different models is given as below:
SWOT Analysis:
This tool helps the organisation in analysing its internal strengths and weaknesses along
with the external opportunities as well as threats that impacts the performance of business. In
order to analyse the internal environment of organisation, this tool is used by the companies.

SWOT analysis of Marks & Spencer would help in understanding the current position of
business that is described as follows:
Strengths Weaknesses
Updated technology: The company is using
highly updated and developed technologies
that facilitate it in developing as well as
innovating products and services of
organisation such as food, clothes, etc. It also
assists managers of Marks & Spencer in
reducing the cost of business as well as saving
their time (Carlson and et.al, 2019). By selling
innovative products that are made from
updated technologies, the respective
organisation gaining competitive advantages
over its rivalries in the market such as
Debenhams, Lawson, etc.
Brand value: Marks & Spencer is a well-
known brand that facilitates in offering the
quality of products to its market share. Brand
value of the company assists in attracting a lot
of customers and therefore, increases the sales
of respective organisation.
Higher costs: The business operations of the
respective company is highly depended on the
manpower in various processes. Because of
that, the costs of business goes higher and is
also consuming more time. It becomes the
major weakness for Marks & Spencer and
hence, hampers the profitability as well as
productivity level of organisation.
Reduction in sales: After the pandemic
situation of COVID-19, the volume of sales of
the company in some of the stores got
shrunken because of the non-availability of
products s well as poor system of supply chain.
During that time, the respective organisation
was unable to fulfil the demands and
requirements of its potential customers by
supplying the products as per the perceptions
and taste of market share. This resulted in
adversely influenced the brand image within
the market place.
Opportunities Threats
Segmentation of markets: For Marks &
Spencer, market segmentation is the great
opportunity for business in order to expand its
market and operations that facilitates in
earning as well as maximising profitability
level within organisation. Respective company
Changing trends: Nowadays, the fashion
industry is taking changes frequently which
can be a threat for the respective organisation
(da Gama, 2019). As taste as well as
preferences of customer base are changing in a
rapid way and also they need some new taste in