Marketing Management Report

This report provides a comprehensive marketing audit of Marks and Spencer, a leading British multinational retailer. It analyzes the company's macro and task environments, marketing strategies, and organizational structure. The report also reviews the current marketing mix and proposes a new marketing mix to address the challenges faced by the company in the current market environment.

MARKETING
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Marketing Audit..........................................................................................................................2
Review of Marketing Mix...........................................................................................................7
New Marketing Mix..................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to a process of business under which relationships are created and the
customers are satisfied. Marketing is one of the most important functions of a business. It helps
the organisation to advertise and promote its activities and gain customer attraction and attention
in order to earn required profitability and achieve set growth. The activities of marketing
includes selling, advertising and distribution. These activities allow the business to promote itself
and gain a required market reputation within its customers base, its competitors and the overall
industry which the business is a part of. The chosen organisation for the present report is Marks
and Spencer.
M&S is a major British multinational retailer headquartered in Westminster, London. The
organisation specialises in selling of high-quality clothing, food products and home products.
Along with it, it is listed in London Stock Exchange with being a constituent of the FTSE 100
Index (Aghazadeh, 2015). Founded in 1884, by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds,
M&S started selling branded goods such as Kellogg's Corn Flakes in November 2008. The
organisation is currently having 959 stores across the United Kingdom, under which only 615 of
them only sell food products. The company in 1998, became the first British retailer which made
a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion. However, in the recent past the company has seen to be facing
issues related to growth and development and on 22nd May 2018, it was confirmed that over 100
stores of the organisation are going to be closed by 2022 in a radical plan. It is yet to be
confirmed that more stores are going to be closed or not. The organisation is one of the leading
organisations in the selling of retail products and services and its marketing practices are one of
the best which tends to allow the organisation to reach set growth and development.
Retail refers to a process in which consumers goods and services are sold to the
customers through multiple distribution channels in order to earn required profits. The industry
of retail is valued at USD 23 billion in 2017. The major products today sold in the retail markets
includes food, apparels, furnitures, jewellery etc. These stores are classified as convenience,
speciality retailers, internet retailing etc. The market of retail is seen to be highly competitive in
the economies which are developed such as North America and Europe. The developing
countries economies are still instrumental in driving market growth including countries such as
Latin America, Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The consumer spending typically accounts for
around two-thirds of Gross Domestic Product which is a key indicator of health of a retail
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market. The increasing strength of the online shopping is been a major drive in the growth the
retail industry in the last decade. Along with this, the growing penetration of smartphone across
the countries which are driving the e-commerce channel, also, the Internet of Things (IOT) is
seen to be reshaping the overall retail industry. However, the price variation between the offline
and online stores is the biggest challenge which the industry is facing in its retail market growth.
Marketing Audit
Marketing Audit refers to a process in which a comprehensive, systematic, analysis,
interpretation and evaluation is done of the business marketing environment, both external and
internal. The objectives, strategies, goals and principles are ascertain to the areas of opportunities
and problems with recommending a plan of action in order to enhance the marketing
performance of Marks and Spencer. Below done is the Marketing Audit of Marks and Spencer:
(Source: Marketing Audit, 2016)
 Macro Environment Audit: The Macro environment audit tends to include all the
external factors impacting the marketing performance of Marks and Spencer. The below
explored PESTEL analysis showcase the macro environment of the organisation:
Political The political situations of the United Kingdom are not supportive enough for
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Illustration 1: Components of Marketing Audit

the organisation's marketing performance. It is because of the Brexit
situation, the organisation has started facing issues in ensuring appropriate
development for its products, services and customers etc. In order to ensure
better marketing and organisation's development, it is important for the
organisation to look for better approaches to ensure appropriate growth. The
political factors are at present hampering the growth of Marks and Spencer
but there's an opportunity for the organisation to improve its marketing
performance in the near future (Atwal and Williams, 2017). Brexit will open
new markets for the organisation and would allow it to reach new growth
aspects and customer attraction.
Economical The economy of the United Kingdom is getting weak and the constant price
fluctuations has made the retail organisations of the country to suffer in their
marketing performance. In order to reach set growth, it has become important
for the company to develop its resources as per the present market needs and
market its products and services accordingly. The weak economy is making
the organisation suffer at present but globalisation has added up to the growth
and development of the organisation (Baker, 2016). The organisation is
constantly developing itself into new markets which is making the
organisation gain new customers and achieve productivity as well. This is
going to help the organisation in its marketing and ensure that set growth and
development is taking place.
Social The choices of people and trends are seen to be changing constantly. It is
important for the organisation to ensure that it is producing its products as
per these needs and are marketing them accordingly. Without considering
these factors the organisation can face issues regarding growth and selling of
its products and services in desired community. The choices of people are the
major reasons impacting the growth and development of the organisation and
its marketing performance (Chernev, 2018). There are opportunities for the
organisation to develop itself into new markets because of lack of social
support from its people. This can help the organisation in reaching new
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growth and market its products and services on large scale.
Technological The technological changes being faced by the retail industry tends to impact
the overall profitability of the business. It is because there are new and
constant updates in the technology in retail industry including Artificial
Intelligence, nano-technology etc. It is important for the organisation to deal
with these changes and direct itself towards chosen growth. The changes in
technology tends to make the organisation suffer from provision of best
products to its people as well. In order to cope with it, Marks and Spencer
focuses on investing in advertising and promotional activities. Their is a
opportunity for the organisation to adopt new technologies and involve itself
more into the practices of digital marketing and improve its marketing
performance.
Environmental The environmental factors are the major ones impacting the marketing
performance of Marks and Spencer. Global warming and climate change are
some of the environmental changes making the organisation suffer in terms
of market its products and services at required places. Before launching its
promotional campaigns the organisation has to consider the environment
changes being faced and has to act accordingly in order to reach set growth
and development (Gummesson, 2017). Globalisation has allowed Marks and
Spencer to promote its products and services easily in the market without
being affected from the factor of environment. This can help the organisation
to reach set growth and ensure that appropriate growth and development is
taking place in its marketing activities.
Legal The policies of the government tends to make the marketing department of
the organisation suffer in terms of ensuring that appropriate practices of
marketing are taking place. The organisation has to consider the laws and
regulations of the government before making required decisions and move
forward with marketing practices such as advertising and promotions. After
Brexit, the government of the United Kingdom is allowing retail sector to
grow and flourish by making changes in its current policies. There's is a
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chance for the organisation to sell its products and services with more
freedom and most importantly market them freely. This opportunity is
allowing the organisation to reach new growth and ensure that appropriate
development is taking place in its marketing practices.
 Task Environment Audit: These factors are the ones closely associated with the
organisation including customers, markets, competitors, retailer and distributors,
marketing firms and facilitators, public etc. which effects the marketing programs
efficiency (Homburg, Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017). The market in which the organisation is
serving into makes it important for the marketing department of the organisation to
understand the ethnicities, likes and dislikes, understandings of the people. As per these
understandings, the United Kingdom's people trust the products and services of Marks
and Spencer which allows the marketing practices to achieve required growth. The
choices made by the customers needs to be considered before making any marketing
choices or decisions. The competitor also plays a major role as their marketing practices
should differ from the ones chosen by Marks and Spencer and they should have an
advantage as well. Globalisation is allowing the organisation to reach to new customers
which is increasing the potential of the organisation. The organisation is now reaching to
different places such as China, India, Japan, Malaysia etc. where marketing practices can
help the organisation to reach new growth and ensure that set goals are being achieved. Marketing Strategy Audit: The marketing objectives and goals, business mission and
marketing strategies tends to have a direct impact on the marketing performance of
Marks and Spencer. The marketing department have to consider the set goals and targets
of the organisation and have to act accordingly. They have to make their decisions are per
the set goals and objectives of the organisation and have to create strategies in order to
take the tasks further accordingly. It impacts the overall freedom of marketing and its
performance as well. Their is an opportunity for the organisation to reach new aspects of
growth and develop its potential in order to gain market advantage through its marketing
practices. This can help the organisation in reaching new growth and ensuring
appropriate development is taking place as per its set goals and objectives.
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 Marketing Organisational Audit: Under this, the performance of staff at different levels
of hierarchy comes under this audit (Järvinen and Taiminen, 2016). It is important for the
employees of the organisation to work at their complete potential and achieve appropriate
set growth. The management of the organisation follows the direction of the CEO, who
ensures everything is going as per the set needs and requirements. The managers of
different departments follows the directions of the CEO and works accordingly. The set
hierarchy is efficient in achieving set goals and objectives. Along with it, the
performance of the staff is positive and tends to make the organisation achieve its set
goals. The marketing goals are one of the most important goals of the organisation, it is
because marketing tends to help the organisation in attracting new customers, and driving
development. The marketing department of the organisation is effective in achieving
chosen goals and achieving required growth and development. While facing the
challenges the organisation always ensures that it is having appropriate energy and
manpower to deal with the risks and challenges and ensure that set development is taking
place. This makes the organisation capable in dealing with the problems and ensuring that
required goals are being achieved. This explains that the organisation is effective in terms
of reaching marketing goals and developing its potential accordingly. It helps the
organisation in reaching new growth and ensuring that required growth is taking place. Marketing Productivity audit: The organisations marketing department is productive in
terms of achieving chosen goals and objectives as per the requirements. The productivity
is one of the most important requirement for the employees of the organisation in terms
of working as per the requirements. The marketing head of Marks and Spencer tends to
provide directions to the marketing assistant and the same directions are followed by the
other employees of the organisation. This efficiency allows the organisation to reach and
work as per the set potential and achieve desired growth and development. Along with it,
it helps the organisation in improving itself constantly and work as per the needs and
requirements of the market (Johnsen, 2018). This explains that the organisation is able to
deal with the issues which are seen above in the macro-environmental analysis. Along
with it, it is having on opportunity to develop itself as per the needs and requirements of
the market and achieve required growth. The marketing activities of Marks and Spencer
includes usage of digital technologies, outside agencies etc. This allows the organisation
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to work at its complete potential in order to attract new customers and sell its products
and services to the chosen market segments. This explains that the organisation's
potential is as per the required developments and is allowing the organisation in reaching
new growth.
 Marketing Function Audit: The function audit tends to keep a check on the core
competencies of the firm such as product, pricing, distribution, marketing, sales force and
communication. The products of the firm are best in class and are being consumed by the
people of United Kingdom from a very long time, their prices are under the consumers
budget as well. The distribution is mostly being done through means of outlets which are
easy to go for customers and they are also sold on online platforms. The marketing
communication of the company makes use of advertising, personal selling, directing
marketing etc. It helps the organisation in reaching new growth and ensuring that
appropriate development is taking place in its practices of marketing. This makes sure
that the organisation is able to grow in its chosen markets and is able to reach set growth
and development because of the availability of these resources (Kerr and Patti, 2015). It
explains that the organisation is having a set potential to expand itself into the new
markets and ensure that required growth and development is taking place effectively.
Along with it, it is capable to gain a competitive advantage and expand itself into
different dimensions and reach set growth.
Review of Marketing Mix
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(Source: The Marketing Mix 4P's and 7P's Explained, 2017)
Marketing Mix is used by Marks and Spencer in order to put the right product, in the
right place at the right time. There are 7P's of marketing which includes product, price, place,
promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. Below explored are these marketing mix: Product: As being a retail organisation, the products sold by the organisation includes
clothing, home and food products. These products are sold under the main brand name
which is “Marks and Spencer”. The other brands which arrive under the name of Marks
and Spencer includes Per Una (specialising in women's clothing), North Cost
(specialising in men's clothing), Portfolio (specialising in Unisex clothing), Indigo
collection (specialising in Unisex clothing) etc. These all brands help the organisation in
selling in reaching set growth and development and ensure that appropriate growth is
being achieved. This helps the organisation in reaching new growth and ensure that
appropriate development is taking place. From selling of products under different brands
the organisation chooses to attract new customers from different age group, classes etc.
This help the organisation to achieve new growth and ensure that effective development
is taking place along with earning required profitability (Shaw, 2016). The other products
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Illustration 2: Marketing Mix

sold by the organisation includes food products under which is sells different types of
groceries and packaged foods. The home products sold by the organisation includes beds,
sofas, tables etc. It helps the organisation to sell products and services under different
segments and reach set market growth. Price: The prices charged by the organisation are medium to high in its clothing
products. These prices are dependent upon the quality of the products, their comfort and
most importantly the reputation of the brand in the market. Most of the products sold by
Marks and Spencer have premium prices in which its only targets a specific upper class
of customers. This allows the organisation to sell its products and services into the
desired market segment and achieve required growth and earn set profitability. Place (Distribution): The organisation is having 600 plus retail stores in the overall
country and as well as establishing an international presence. Developing itself into the
new countries is making Marks and Spencer reach new growth and ensure that set growth
and development is taking place appropriately. This explains that the sold products of
Marks and Spencer are easily available in the towns and cities of United Kingdom as well
as in the countries where it is trying to establish itself such as India, Japan, Malaysia, etc.
Along with the organisation is known for selling its products and services on online
platforms such as Amazon and on its own website too. Promotion (Communication): In order to promote is products and services, Marks and
Spencer tends to make use of a variety of marketing mediums. These mediums include
social media, broachers, television, newspapers, fashion magazines, etc. These are one of
the most important mediums used by the organisation in order to promote its products
and services in the chosen markets effectively (Watrobski, Jankowski, and Ziemba,
2016). It also helps the organisation to provide better control over its products selling and
ensure that appropriate growth and development is taking place. The promotional
practices are the major mediums used by Marks and Spencer to reach new audience and
earn required profitability. People: The people working under the sales team of the organisation helps in playing a
vital role in its marketing efforts. They are trained with persuasive techniques, but also
shows respect to the customers of the business by taking their preferences into
consideration. In the service department of Marks and Spencer, the people working are
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contacted with customers, at times when they find issues within the product. These
employees tend to guide the customers and resolve their issues immediately. Along with
it, they are trained to respect their customers and try their best to get their issues resolved.
The purchase department tends to obtain required raw materials from the best suppliers.
These all functions ensures smooth functioning of the company and maintains efficiency
within its people. Process: It is important for Marks and Spencer to ensure that its products are available at
the stores and it is having the systems installed where retailers can notify the organisation
at times while their inventory is low. In this manner, the organisation tends to maintain its
stock and ensures that customers are always having the availability of its products. Along
with it, the company is having an online delivery process in which orders are received in
a computer system and as per these orders the relevant product from the inventory is
shipped to the delivery service provider.
 Physical Evidence: The products of Marks and Spencer are sold in distinct colour
packaging which makes the product easily identifiable on retail shelves. The products are
placed on special shelves which are provided by the company, and the same products
tends to have a distinct colour and design (Weinstein and Pohlman, 2015). This makes it
easier for the customers of Marks and Spencer to locate such shelves in its busy retail
stores. These aspects allow the customers of the organisation to ensure that appropriate
growth and development is taking place.
New Marketing Mix
As seen above, Marks and Spencer acquires marketing practices which are appropriate
for its growth and development, yet it is important for the organisation to make changes in them
in order to achieve success and gain market advantage in this age of globalisation. Below
mentioned is the new prepared marketing mix of Marks and Spencer: Product: The organisation tends to sell its products under different categories and under
the different brand names. In order to achieve gaps between the present marketing
strategy and external environment of the company, it is important for the company to
focus on selling its products into new areas. The political situation of United Kingdom
has made it difficult for the company to sell its products and services easily in its present
markets. In order to deal with this, the company can market its products and services in
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developing countries such as India, China etc. This can help the company to fill this gap
and earn required profitability. Price: The products of Marks and Spencer are not too expensive and people from
different classes are able to afford them. While selling its products in other countries, the
company can keep the prices as per the living standards of the people residing within the
particular community and economy (Aghazadeh, 2015). This can help the organisation to
ensure that it is earning required profitability while taking the social factors and
perceptions of the society into consideration. Place: As seen in external environment evaluation, technology is one of the biggest
factor that is impacting the organisations growth and is not making it able to reach new
platforms of growth. In order to fill this gap, the organisation can sell its products at
places where they are still in demand or their trend is still fresh. Often there are times,
when a trend reaches to the developing countries a little late than usual. This opportunity
can be used by the organisation to produce the products with the same trend and
technology available and market them into new markets. This would help the
organisation to reach new growth and ensure that appropriate growth is taking place. Promotions: The organisation currently uses social media platforms, television, radio etc.
in order to market its products and services. As per the external environmental situations,
it has been seen that weak economy of the country are not making it able for the
organisation to reach required development. The organisation needs to start interesting
campaigns both online and offline in order to fill this gap and ensure that it is attracting
people both in UK and other countries (Atwal and Williams, 2017). This opportunity can
be used by the organisation in order to promote and sell its products and services in order
to reach new market growth. People: The people working for or within the organisation are able to achieve set goals
and objectives of the organisation. This is helping the organisation in reaching its present
marketing goals. The external situations are making it difficult for the organisation to sell
its products and services in the market successfully with the help of its people. In order to
fill this gap, the organisation can provide training and development to its employees
about the present conditions and ensure that appropriate growth and development is
taking place.
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 Process: The organisation in order to sell its products and services effectively can install
new systems in its stores. Systems such as POS (Point of Sale) provides efficiency in the
practices of billing and helps the customers in the process of buying of goods and
services. This makes the process fast and easy. This would allow the organisation to fill
its technological gap and improve its overall processes.
 Physical Evidence: In order to improve the physical evidence of its products and
services. The organisation can hire a creative team in order to make the packaging of its
products as per the traditional and cultural likes and dislikes of the people of the
community in which it is going to sell its products and services. Also, they can make the
packaging sustainable and plastic free (Gummesson, 2017). This can help Marks and
Spencer in filling the gap of environmental damage and would create better reputation as
well.
CONCLUSION
Marketing management is one of the most important aspect of an organisation. It allows
Marks and Spencer to successfully sell its products and services by using appropriate
promotional and advertising techniques. As per the above evaluations, it can be seen that and
Spencer needs to rebuild its marketing team in order to deal with the changes brought by Brexit
and the by strong legal implications on retail sector by the government of United Kingdom. The
drawn conclusions showcase that the organisation is going to sell its products and services in the
developing countries to deal with the present condition of United Kingdom and retail sector. This
is going to allow the organisation to maintain its market reputation and achieve achieve required
profitability through its marketing practices.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aghazadeh, H., 2015. Strategic marketing management: Achieving superior business
performance through intelligent marketing strategy. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences. 207. pp.125-134.
Atwal, G. and Williams, A., 2017. Luxury brand marketing–the experience is everything!.
In Advances in luxury brand management (pp. 43-57). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Baker, M. J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Chernev, A., 2018. Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.
Gummesson, E., 2017. From relationship marketing to total relationship marketing and
beyond. Journal of Services Marketing. 31(1). pp.16-19.
Homburg, C., Jozić, D. and Kuehnl, C., 2017. Customer experience management: toward
implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science. 45(3). pp.377-401.
Järvinen, J. and Taiminen, H., 2016. Harnessing marketing automation for B2B content
marketing. Industrial Marketing Management. 54. pp.164-175.
Johnsen, T. E., 2018. Purchasing and supply management in an industrial marketing
perspective. Industrial Marketing Management. 69. pp.91-97.
Kerr, G. and Patti, C., 2015. Strategic IMC: From abstract concept to marketing management
tool. Journal of Marketing Communications. 21(5). pp.317-339.
Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.
Watrobski, J., Jankowski, J. and Ziemba, P., 2016. Multistage performance modelling in digital
marketing management. Economics & Sociology. 9(2). p.101.
Weinstein, A. and Pohlman, R. A., 2015. Customer value: a new paradigm for marketing
management. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference (pp. 132-133). Springer, Cham.
Online
Marketing Audit. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <https://businessjargons.com/marketing-
audit.html//>
The Marketing Mix 4P's and 7P's Explained. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://marketingmix.co.uk//>
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