Marketing Management (Pass Criteria) - Desklib

This report discusses the key theories and models in marketing for the development of marketing strategies. It also covers the complexities of the competitive environment and its impact on developing effective marketing decisions and strategies. The report assesses the skills to analyse marketing situations and issues faced by organisations. The case study used is Marks & Spencer, a multinational brand headquartered in London, specialising in clothing, beauty, food and home products.

Marketing Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Overview of company..................................................................................................................1
Knowledge of key theories and models in marketing for development of marketing strategies.1
Complexity of competitive environment and its impact on developing effective marketing
decisions and strategies................................................................................................................5
Skills to analyse marketing situations and problems facing by companies.................................6
Recommendation and justification of appropriate and actionable marketing strategies.............8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The activities undertake by businesses in order to promote their commodities and services
comprising advertising as well as market research is known as marketing. It is an action of
bringing market attention to business services (Balducci and Marinova, 2018). It educates people
about the product, its features and its value added in customers life. Similarly, marketing
management is considered as the ways which explore the opportunities for businesses to be
profitable and forms these opportunities by satisfying needs of customers. It is the combination
of leadership, direction and control of functions of marketing. For this report, selected firm is
Marks & Spencer which is a multinational brand headquartered in London, specialises in
clothing, beauty, food and home products.
This report highlights the understanding of theories in marketing in order to develop
marketing strategies. It covers the complexities of competitive environment and its impact on
developing effective marketing decisions. It assess the skills to analyse marketing situations and
issues faced by organisation.
MAIN BODY
Overview of company
Marks & Spencer was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884. It deals
in clothing, home as well as food products and currently operates in around 900 stores across
UK. It widely use television advertising and maintains the exclusive quality and luxury of its
beverages and foods. Marks & Spencer also deals in online food services by joint venture with
Ocado group. It is considered as luxury brand which combines style with comfort (Marks &
Spencer, 2022)
Knowledge of key theories and models in marketing for development of marketing strategies
Effective marketing strategy in place is major key to success for any enterprise.
Marketing is not just one activity as it is a combination of multiple attributes which are required
to go through at each phase of firm's endeavours. Marketing strategy is termed as overall plan for
business to reach to prospective leads and turns them into customers of the proposed products
and services (Cornwell and Kwon, 2020). It comprises of firm's value proposition, major brand
messaging, information about target consumer demographics and other components which
assists marketing manager to capture largest market area. In order to develop effective marketing
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strategies, it is essential that firms undertook several model and comprehend theories to better
understand what kind of strategies will be more beneficial for firm in long term. In context to
Marks & Spencer, the main aim behind marketing is to better understand their customers and
their needs so to design products and services accordingly. This allows marketing managers of
Marks & Spencer to focus on the available resources and explore ways to utilises them in best
way to generate more sales and maximises competitive advantage. The firm's marketing strategy
is more on high level and the plans which is connected to overall brand and its objectives. The
concept of marketing is relied on four attributes which are target market, needs of consumers,
integrated marketing and profitability. STP analysis is being utilised by firms which assists them
to place a product or service to target multiple groups of customers more effectively. STP
analysis is relevance to Marks & Spencer is described below:
Segmentation- The first step is to segment the market according to their specific criteria
and traits which firm founds more useful. It is associated with dividing market into various
groups of consumers adopting practices of segmentation (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). It can
be done in various such as geographic which is based on location, nation, state, region etc.,
demographic which is based on age, occupation and gender etc., behavioural which is based on
why and how frequently consumers interact with firm's website or store. And last is
psychographic which is based on attributes such as habits, hobbies, lifestyle, activities etc. In
context to Marks & Spencer, the managers segment its market on basis of demographic and
psychograph segmentation as their products are considered to be luxury and available for all age
group. It targets cost group and people who follows fashion closely. After segmenting the firm
has been able to focus more on marketing for certain segments which is driven by the data
collected about that segment. This helps marketing manager in becoming more successful in
making marketing campaigns for segmented audience.
Targeting- Next step is targeting where the main goal of firm is to explore the segments
they have make and evaluates which segments will most likely to produce desired conversions.
Firms take on various approaches to utilise data which support targeting. Data which can be used
by companies to explore the ideal segment are size of segments as larger segment with high
growth potential are beneficial for firm. Second is profitability which is considered as taking
customer lifetime value in account and other data which can help in predicting profitability of
segments (Dobscha, 2019). Another is reachability which is essential in terms of data point
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which takes on consumer acquisition cost against profitability to reach to conclusion. In context
to Marks & Spencer, the targeted segment are upper class and upper middle class. The marketing
mangers of firm uses combination of size, profitability, scope and reachability to arrive at strong
conclusions. Marks & Spencer managers assess the size of the market and their patterns to
purchase from the brand. It targets the segments which ends up in more profits and loyal
customer base for long run.
Positioning- Final step is to position the brand which facilitates firms to set their products
and services different from their competitors as there are number of businesses dealing in same
products or services. The first two steps allowed companies to assess their niche market and
positioning helps them to gain competitive advantage in those segments. It can be done by
symbolic positioning which enhances belongingness, self image and ego of users (Kang, Diao
and Zanini, 2020). This is related to providing luxury items as they promotes customer's self
esteem and image in societies. Functional positioning is related to solving consumer's issues and
render them with authentic benefits. Experiential positioning is when firms marketing focuses on
emotional connections that the customers have with its products or brand. In context to Marks &
Spencer, marketing managers places their products as per symbolic and experiential positioning.
As the firm is a blend of comfort with luxury, it boosts self image of customers and provides
great comfort as well as quality so that the customer base which it has developed over time
remain connected with the brand.
Marketing mix is another model which is undertake by organisations and involve various
areas of focus as part of elaborative plan for marketing. It is a model used for improving the
attributes of marketing mix of a firm and the measures in which a company brings in new goods
or services to market (Kim and Moon, 2021). It assists them to determine their options of
marketing in circumstance of product, price, promotion and place so that the proposed offering
meets certain demands or needs of consumer. In aspect with Marks & Spencer, the marketing
manager grasp the concept of four P's of marketing as it is important to consider while
developing marketing plan. Marketing mix in terms of Marks & Spencer are mentioned below:
Product- This is related with the commodity or services formed to meet needs of
consumers. In order to efficiently market a product, it is essential that firms determines the
differentiation point from its rivals. It is essential for companies to take one thorough research
before forming a product as it has fluctuating cycle from phase of growth to maturity to sales
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decline. As Marks & Spencer is a popular retail chain brand of UK and its product portfolio
covers wide range of items for men, women and kids (Kotler and Et., Al., 2019). The firm
believes in eco-friendly commodities and fair trade items and worked with full potential to attain
it. Its diversified portfolio also includes home accessories, dining items, furniture, wine, food,
flowers etc. allowing the firm to garb large market share. The marketers of Marks & Spencer
frequently develops its products as per customers needs which allows them to offer different
products from their rivals. This strategy of product assists the company to build their brand
value.
Price- It is associated with cost customers pay for a product. It is dependent on cost of
manufacturing, targeted segment, ability of users to pay, supply and demand graph as well as
other direct and indirect attributes. It is an important aspect of marketing mix as this determines
profitability of firm and its survival in market (Logemann, Cross and Köhler, 2019). In context to
Marks & Spencer, marketing manager adopts competitive pricing strategy in its marketing mix
for its portfolio of products. It has its own in house brands which are generally priced between
moderate to higher category due to its premium quality. But the firm follows competitive
strategy of pricing as consumers have large variety of options to select from because of inflated
competition. Marketing manager of Marks & Spencer follows dynamic pricing strategy in
seasonal times to offers more more discount on items to attract more customers.
Place- This is related to distribution of goods and services in marketing mix. Through
this firms positions and distribute its products in place that can be easily accessible to potential
customers. It is refer to exact point of sale where retailers strives to search for right location that
attracts more number of customers (Marinchak, Forrest and Hoanca, 2018). It is considered to
deciding whether the firm wants to sale its products on physical store, online or both. In terms of
Marks & Spencer, the firm has around 1000 stores operating in across 50 countries. It has
outspread its brand presence in international market including big countries like France, China,
Germany etc. Marks & Spencer offers its items through its outlets which are strategically placed
to achieve maximum brand visibility and consumers. The firm also has its online website where
consumers can purchase items and get home delivery.
Promotion- It is termed as the activities selected to advertise the products and how it will
be different from the similar products in market. It is a communication process which aids
organisations to publicise their products and its facets to users. It is an essential attribute of
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marketing mix which helps to capture the attention of consumers and influence them to purchase
the commodity. It can be done by direct marketing, personal branding, sales promotion,
advertising etc. In aspect of Marks & Spencer, marketing manager chooses their strategically
very precisely to align their advertisement campaigns with in store strategy and digital marketing
(Misztal, 2019). They utilises print media, mobile advertisements and multiple social media
campaigns. In order to effectively promote the brand, the firm uses its own website by making
fashion blogs and tips. It also promotes its sales in season by offering loyal consumers special
rates of discounts. Marks & Spencer uses loyalty programs which provides various future
benefits to customers in exchange for their purchase.
Complexity of competitive environment and its impact on developing effective marketing
decisions and strategies
Market is consists of various elements such as changing preferences of consumers,
business competition, legal and political regulations, available resources, existing trends and
overall economic conditions. However, competitive environment also has affirmative impact on
consumers. Businesses generally offers high quality products at an affordable cost in order to
win the attention of users (Mitchell, 2020). Companies competencies such as flexibility,
innovation and responsiveness leads to collective knowledge of marketing. In context to Marks
& Spencer, the marketing managers takes on exclusive research about the market attributes so
that they can effectively make marketing strategies. For this Porter's five forces has been
assessed which is a concept that identifies competitive forces which shapes organisations in any
industry and helps in evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Porter's five forces in relevance
with Marks & Spencer is described below:
Competitive rivalry- This force determined the intensity of competition in the industry. It
assess the number of current competitors and how much power each holds in market. It can be
seen in the conflicts and confrontations manifested in prices, commodity innovation,
advertisement or after sale services. In context to Marks & Spencer, the competition in retail
industry is high as there are many organisation dealing with price sensitive customers (Mizik and
Hanssens, 2018). The switching cost of consumers is almost zero as they have wide variety of
retailers available Marketing managers of firms have assess its competitors strategies and
initiated loyalty program as well as personalisation as their major marketing strategies to
differentiate its brand from rivals.
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Suppliers bargaining power- This force evaluates power of business suppliers and their
control on raising the end prices and lowering profitability of business. In terms of Marks &
Spencer, this force has low impact as the firm operated in several countries and has large brand
equity. Thus, it acquires its raw materials from several suppliers making their power low in
business (Möller and Halinen, 2018). Therefore, the marketing decisions of Marks & Spencer are
not largely relied on its suppliers as their switching cost of shifting is low.
Customers bargaining power- This force is associated with power of customers and their
impact on pricing. In retail industry, the number of customers are high and each customer is
significant for firm's profitability. In aspect of Marks & Spencer, buyers power is high as
because of competitive nature of retail industry. Customers have various options available at
their disposal with low switching cost (Pachamanova, Lo and Gülpınar, 2020). Thus, it is
important for marketing managers to assess market trends with time to understand what
customers want. This will facilitates them to make strategies which will attract more customers
in the firm.
Threat of new entrants- This force considers the difficulty level for rivals to join the
industry. This maximises the risk of current brands as the new entrants can divide their
customers base. In context to Marks & Spencer, the firm has strong presence in industry with
international appeal (Park, 2020). It has good amount of brand loyalty which provides them
competitive edge from new entrants. Therefore, marketing decisions of Marks & Spencer are not
highly impacted by this force as they poses high knowledge of market and its elements which
new entrants do not have.
Threat of substitutes- This force is related to consumers switching from one brand's
products to their rivals. It evaluates number of rivals in market, their pricing and quality
compared to the business. In context to Marks & Spencer, the firm operates in apparel and food
industry which are considered as basic necessities for humans. But this force has high impact on
the brand as there are number of brands selling similar items (Patel, Feng and Guedes, 2021).
This highly impact marketing strategies of firm as the marketing managers needs to forms such
strategies which attract consumers in their brand instead of rivals.
Skills to analyse marketing situations and problems facing by companies
To clearly assess the situation of marketing, managers of organisation should know the
mechanisms of market forces. They must have the ability to gather data, analyse it and draw
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outcomes to solve issues facing by company in competitive market as well as to make effective
decisions. This helps marketing managers to notice early trends and comprehends the steps
which needs to be taken to take timely action. In context to Marks & Spencer, marketers can
undertake situation analysis which is a procedure of identifying micro and macro conditions
which can impact firm. This provides them the knowledge of determining existing opportunities
and issues in products or services. This helps marketers to develop strategies in order to move
forward from existing situation to desired situation. Thus, it is essential for marketers for Marks
& Spencer to develop skills to better analysis market situation. The required skills are mentioned
below:
Critical thinking- It is the skill which allows marketers to question an idea and determine
the main reason of a problem. This helps them to deal issues with patience and resolve problems
which were impacting firm's profitability. It can take several forms in marketing such as brand
auditing, decision making, case analysis, data interpretation, market research analysis etc.
Developing this skills will facilitate marketers of Marks & Spencer to effectively research about
the market forces and make marketing campaigns accordingly (Pencarelli and Forlani, 2018).
This will resolve the problem of wasting firm's resources and time on obsolete marketing plans.
Data analysis- This is one of the essential skill which will allow marketers to take
decisions as per data collected and not just guessing. It is important as interpreting information
by connecting patterns and assessing trends can be beneficial for firms in long run. Proper skill
of data analysis will allow managers to take out insights from large amount of data and share
with firm to make proper marketing decisions. In context to Marks & Spencer, the marketers
have the responsibility to take in SWOT analysis, data visualisation, process analysis,
presentation skills, customer segmentation strategies etc. This facilitates them to understand their
weak points which they need to work on and their strengths which can be used to grab more
opportunities while making marketing strategies.
Creative thinking- A managers needs to develop critical thinking as a skills in order to
draw out the best strategies between the various presented. This will solve the problem of
organisation of having similar marketing strategies as their rivals and not being able to gain
competitive edge in market. In context to Marks & Spencer, marketers need to develop creative
thinking to figure out plans out of the box. It involves continuous brainstorming of ideas
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proposed, adaptability of market trends, proper budgeting, planning strategically and company's
restructuring.
Communication- It is one of the skills in marketers which will facilitate strong
communication between firm and its customers. It assists in keeping all departments and
resources of firm on one track and resolves a issue with deadline as and when it arrives. In terms
of Marks & Spencer, marketers needs to develop communication skills to have convey their
plans as well as strategies in market (Sharma, 2020). It involves adapting active listening,
conducting presentations, sharing continuous feedback, delegate responsibilities etc.
Problem solving- This skills helps in solving issues within organisation and its market.
This will facilitate firms to prioritise their strengths and distribute adequate advertising budget
which will resolve its marketing related challenges. In relevance with Marks & Spencer,
marketers needs to properly research the market and gather accurate data which helps in making
marketing strategies. It will help them to check for accuracy, taking more risks, paying more
attention to details, building team and effectively handle crisis management.
Adoption of these skills will highly assists marketers of Marks & Spencer to adapt to
dynamic and uncertain future. These analytical skills will facilitate them to take advantage of
current trends and market situations to efficiently devise marketing strategies. It will help in
figuring out the revenue channels and track the performances of marketing campaigns. This will
clearly represent which product needs innovation and which items are in sales decline phase.
Adopting techniques like search engine optimization will help marketers to maximise their
quality of content and accelerate more traffic towards that (Sigala and Robinson, 2018). Critical
thinking skill will helps marketers of Marks & Spencer to evaluate what is resulting best results
and problem solving will assists in adjusting focus to new marketing approaches.
Recommendation and justification of appropriate and actionable marketing strategies
Strategic marketing provides enterprises a roadmap to generate valuable connections
with their consumers and cement their brand in effective manner. Carefully planned marketing
activities can bring multiple benefits to an entity such as it helps in reaching target audience,
company can save their resources in right places and assists them to keep their market consistent.
Similarly marketing tactics are those actions which directly promote a commodity or service to
emphasis certain goals of marketing. It is recommended to Marks & Spencer to invest in paid
content publication, website, social network, search engine etc. The managers can also opt for
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pay per click paid marketing tactics which displays digital advertising in media such as Google
Ads, bing ads etc. Another type of marketing tactics can be where firm can collaborate with big
events for representation of their brand at big level. Marketing automation is recommended to
Marks & Spencer as this way can send content to customers as well as target audience as per
their activities and interests.
Developing strategies for marketing can help firm to describe their business and its
products, determines the position and role of brand in market, profile your customers and rivals
as well as measure the effectiveness of marketing plan. A good marketing plan sets the overall
direction and goals for firm's marketing which specifically outlines particular actions which
needs to be implemented by marketing strategy. It is been recommended to Marks & Spencer to
identify their goals of their brand and clearly their marketing objectives. The goals made should
motivate the team of the firm and must enable them to track their success. The marketing
manager must research about the market it wants to capture, its size, growth, social trends and
demographics. This can be done by internet marketing which combines email and web to
advertise e-commerce sales. Social media platforms can also be involve to leverage presence of
brand and promote items and services of Marks & Spencer. The firm can take in referral
programs where they can offer instant credibility to current customers to grow further loyal base
of customers. The marketing manager of Marks & Spencer can take on the advantage of
recommendations of satisfied customers. Conversational marketing is another real time
marketing strategy which can facilitate Marks & Spencer managers to interact with customers
via chatbot or live chat to get the accurate information to prospects customers at right time and
follow up any queries which can be resolved timely. This strategy can assists in providing
personalised and enhanced engagement which can leads to improves experience of user in
business. Therefore, it is justifiable that marketing strategy is essentially an extension of entire
business strategies and objectives. It guides companies to make future decisions of marketing
which helps in generating more revenues.
CONCLUSION
From the information presented above, it has been concluded that marketing management
is a discipline of organisation which aims on practical application of approaches of marketing
techniques and methods. It is important for firms to adopt robust marketing strategies so that they
can transform potential customers into end ones. For this, they take on STP analysis which
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allows them to know how to segments market and strategically place products to stand out in
competitive environment. This emphasis on implementing marketing mix to devise price,
product, place and promotion strategies in market. To assess the competitiveness of industry,
firms take in porter's five forces and makes their marketing strategies accordingly.
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REFERENCES
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Online:
Marks & Spencer, 2022. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.marksandspencer.com/>
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