SWOT Analysis as Mediator in Marketing Planning

This assignment examines the concept of SWOT analysis as a mediating factor in strategic marketing planning. It investigates how marketing intelligence influences SWOT analysis, which then informs the development of effective marketing strategies. The assignment draws upon relevant literature and theories to analyze the relationship between these elements.

Marketing Planning for
Tommy Hilfiger

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Perspectives in marketing planning......................................................................................1
1.2 Organisation's capabilities for future marketing...................................................................2
1.3 Examine techniques for organizational auditing...................................................................3
1.4 Organisational auditing.........................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
TASK 3-MARKETING PLAN.......................................................................................................4
Executive summary (3.1)............................................................................................................4
Role of marketing plan in corporate strategy (3.1/3.2)...............................................................5
Techniques for new product development (3.3).........................................................................5
Recommendations for pricing policy, distribution and communication mix (3.4).....................6
Factors affecting the effective implementation of marketing plan (3.5).....................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
4.1 Ethical issues influencing marketing plan.............................................................................7
4.2 Response to ethical issues.....................................................................................................7
4.3 Consumer's ethical misconducts...........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The marketing planning is a written document which will be containing the market
strategy and tactics. It is the process of evaluating more than one market places to determine the
techniques and methods used in completing the goals set by the company (Armstrong and et.al.,
2015). It is generally described in the form of marketing strategy and promotion activities to
increase the sales rate and profitability of the business. The marketing plan of Tommy Hilfiger is
just like a road map which will provide the direction to the company so that they can reach the
objectives. This report is showing the strength, weaknesses and financial condition of the
organisation. Further it will show the essential which are required in marketing and the factors
which can affect the business.
TASK 1
1.1 Perspectives in marketing planning
Tommy Hilfiger born on 24 March, 1951, is an American fashion designer and the
founder of the company. At first the company was more focused on sports wear for men. Later
on the company was expanded in women's clothing (Ayub and et.al., 2013). As the market was
changing, the company started realising that they need to change their perspectives in terms of
the product as they need new and stylish products to beat their competitors. So the company
started to focus on new products to attract more number of consumers.
Objectives
 To create classic, cool and committed product by reducing the effect on environment.
 To operate lean and clean with sustainability. To connect people in a positive and inclusive way.
Assessing the condition of Tommy Hilfiger
Currently the revenues generated by the company has increased by 5% from last year and
in terms of money it is $131 million. This type of performance will keep on driving the brands
image forward (Baker and Saren, 2016). The company is having heavy opportunities to expand
the business in Asia and Latin America. The company is establishing the brand image in other
countries also by making use of the revenues they have generated and by adopting the
consumer's satisfaction strategy they are making tremendous progress in the market.
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Strengths and weaknesses of fashion industry
Some of the designer's in the fashion industry is having two avenues for the distribution.
This can be the strength because first thing it will allow the designer to sell the products on the
large scale and secondly the ready to wear, off the track line is easily affordable and accessible to
the buyer. Some times the designer is not having the knowledge of a particular region, so the
company can not be able to attract the consumers. This will result is decrease in revenues.
1.2 Organisation's capabilities for future marketing
Human Resources
The staff and the management of Tommy Hilfiger believes in the culture of diversity. So
by using more diverse staff they are attracting more number of consumers. Many leadership
programs and skill improvement seminars were organized so that it will improve the efficiency
and skills so that they will do work in more efficient way (Chaffey and Bosomworth, 2013). For
new fashion designer, they are having graduate programme. The new employee will be highly
motivated by this but it can be very costly.
Financial Resources
There are one of the most important aspect in the process of marketing. The revenue
generated in last one year was $464.011 millions. The flow of cash from incentives are estimated
to be $78.36 million. But in the middle east due to the high cost of products, the financial
resources are getting affected (Chaffey, Smith and Smith, 2013). All it can be concluded that
Tommy Hilfiger is having quite stable financial conditions and in coming three to five years it
will going to be high only. One thing which can be problematic is the frequent change in trends
and in the needs of the consumers.
Physical Resources
They are the net asset of the company which are evaluated around $40 trillion or more.
The trend in context with net asset in increased, so it gives the opportunity to the company to
implement that money in investment plans. Thus in the near future, it will further going to
increase and will make the financial condition more strong.
1.3 Examine techniques for organizational auditing
Two techniques used to carry out internal and external auditing of Tommy Hilfiger, are
SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis respectively. For the internal factor, SWOT analysis is
used, which is the best way to identify the examine the performance of the company internally.
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The firm is having quite unique products which can be helpful in generating more profit. The
first stage of marketing planning is SWOT, which will be very helpful for the marketers to take a
note on the internal factors which are affecting the business more (Donnelly and et.al., 2015).
The main objective of this is to add the value to the services and products offered by the
companionship.
For understanding the impact of external factor PESTLE is used. In developing any kind
of marketing plan it is compulsory for the company to understand the impact of external factors
which are political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental. The government
policies can make a huge impact on the plan because of the changes in taxation over the course
of three to five years (Hollensen, 2015). The economical factors like exchange rates, inflation
rates and the unemployment rates of the different countries will also put an impact the product
sales rate of the company.
1.4 Organisational auditing
Internal audit: SWOT analysis
Strengths
 Strong and firm recognition as a
global brand
 Outlets in more than 90 countries
with more than 1000 stores Brand visibility and advertisement is
very popular
Weaknesses
 Facing huge competition from other
well established brands
 Maintenance cost and production cost
is very high
Opportunities
 Expanding product line
 Increase in disposal income innovation in fashion industry
Threats
 Slow growth of economic condition
will result in decrease demand
 inventory issues because of changing
trends in fashion industry
External audit: PESTLE analysis
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Political factors: Currently in US, the political situation is very stable. It means that
Tommy Hilfiger can operate in such kind of external environment which they wants. The
company is also having good back up support.
Economical factors: UK is having very strong economic position. GDP rates are high
and the fashion technology is well ahead from the other countries. Diverse economy will help the
firm in attracting more consumers resulting in increase in profitability.
Social factors: In UK, the social living standards are very high which will lead to a all
round performance of Tommy Hilfiger. People are not afraid of buying expensive clothes but it
should be of the highest quality (Lee and et.al., 2013).
Technological factors: UK is having very innovative technical skills. They are having
high expertise in manufacturing technology which will be helpful for Tommy Hilfiger in
developing quality products.
Legal factors: Worker's right and child labour laws are some of the legal factors which
can affect the fashion industry. Company is making sure that they are doing the work by
following the legal rules set by the government.
Environmental factors: The production plant of the organization is having producing the
product which will be less harmful to the environment.
TASK 2
Enclosed in PPT.
TASK 3-MARKETING PLAN
Executive summary (3.1)
Tommy Hilfiger proposes a marketing plan so that they can sustain in the fashion
industry. The corporate strategy is used by the company so that they can achieve their goals. The
organization has used experimentation and learning from failure as their new product
development technique. The pricing policy used by this firm is economic pricing and distribution
policy is pricing for market penetration.
Role of marketing plan in corporate strategy (3.1/3.2)
The corporate strategy is the entire strategy of Tommy Hilfiger. This strategy will give
the direction on how the business will progress in future. This strategy can also be considered as
the long term planning so that the company can reach the final goals and objectives. This
particular strategy is influenced by the stakeholders, culture, resources etc. (McDonald and
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Wilson, 2016). This strategy will be focused on areas of organizational structure, joint ventures
and reducing dependency. The prime focus of this strategy is to increase the sales which will
give them competitive advantage. Marketing mix will be used in this, so that future plans can be
set by Tommy Hilfiger. This contains only one stage in the development of the organization.
This will include short-term objectives, day to day functions, customer care, new product
development etc.
The goal of the company is sustainable evolution. The goal set by Tommy Hilfiger is to
produce 100% cotton with the help of more sustainable sources, so that it can be recycled.
Marketing strategy is selected by the company so that they will increase the profitability. This
can be done by attracting more number of consumers through the help of advertising.
If the company is not doing proper marketing then most of the consumer will not get to
know about the product and services offered by the company (Nijssen and Frambach, 2013).
This strategy will act like a guide where all the goals are pre defined so that the company have
clear idea about what they want to achieve. Affective marketing will make sure of the products
of the company and its competitors. So the company either will improve the quality of their
products or reduce the price to gain the competitive advantage in the market.
Techniques for new product development (3.3)
Two techniques used by Tommy Hilfiger for the development of new product are
experimentation and learning from failure.
Experimentation
The design of the clothes will be very unique and different from market. The design will
be based on the performance of the product in the market. The company is producing a variety of
products, so it will be very difficult for them to inspect the quality of each product ( Payne, Frow
and McDonald, 2013). That will not be cost-effective. Their focus is more on minimizing the
variable products and more on design and process control. This technique will provide an
approach to design the product more effectively and do experiment on that particular product.
These tests will take some efforts from the employees but it can reduce the cost of the products
and improve the quality of cloth.
Learning from failure
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The earlier product developed by Tommy Hilfiger is not giving good response from the
market. So the company has decided to improve the quality of their products which will attract
more number of customers. Their R&D team is doing significant job in finding out the reasons
for the failure of the product (Perreault, Cannon and McCarthy, 2013). The new product was
having good colour as well as it was available in all the sizes so that all the consumers can use it.
This cost of this product is low as compare to the older ones. This will be cost beneficial for the
buyers and the quality is better than the last one. This will solve the quality problem for the
customers.
Recommendations for pricing policy, distribution and communication mix (3.4)
The pricing policy used by Tommy Hilfiger is economy pricing. This strategy is aiming
to attract the price conscious consumers. The advertising and marketing cost will be reduced by
this in order to keep the cost of the products down. This will changed according to the economy
of the country so that all the customer's can buy the product without any hesitation. The
distribution strategy of the company is pricing for penetrating the market. This strategy attract
buyers by giving them lower prices for the same products and services. This price will initially
result in loss in initial income but it will set up more honest and attached consumers (Renz,
2016). For the long term, after the success of market penetration, companies can wind up this
strategy by raising their prices so that they can gain more profit. The communication mix are the
methods by which the company promotes their products or target their customers. This can be
done by advertising, personal selling, discounts and promotions, public relations, direct
marketing and from various event sponsorships.
Factors affecting the effective implementation of marketing plan (3.5)
There are 6 factors which can affect the effectiveness of the implementation of the
marketing plan. The first factor is the current economic conditions of UK. Right now it is very
stable so it will not have that much effect on the marketing plan. This is followed by market
potential and market shares. Tommy Hilfiger is having high market shares so that they will
attract more number of consumers. Next will be the customer's composition (Strauss, 2016). This
will include the buying behaviour and the buying frequency of the consumers. This age and
income level can also put an impact on the marketing plan. Then, they will have the demographic
conditions means the problem they are facing while implementing that plan into market. The last
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is size, growth and prosperity of the market. The size of fashion industry is huge, and it will keep
on growing. Therefore it can impact the company's plan in a positive way.
TASK 4
4.1 Ethical issues influencing marketing plan
The problems company are facing while dealing with the other parties in the market. This
include:
Market Research: In researching the problem occurs are the invasion of privacy and
stereotyping. If Tommy Hilfiger is not keeping the privacy of their stake holders and consumers,
this can lead to the variety of undesirable ethical results (Toledo and et.al., 2014).
Market audience: If the company is not paying attention to the other ethical community
of market like gay, ethnic minority and other plus size market, then it can raise various ethical
issues.
Delivery channels: The most controversial advertising channel is direct marketing. This
will lead to electronic spam or other telemarketing issues which will generate ethics legality
more strongly.
Ethics in advertising and promotion: The advertising of certain product in the market
are raising ethical issues for some portion of the community. People do not want the company to
advertising the products in such manner (Wood, 2014). Therefore, it will directly influence the
sales rate of the product resulting in decrease in profitability.
4.2 Response to ethical issues
The best way to response to those ethical issues is to develop such kind of workplace
policy which is based on the philosophy of the company, their code of conduct and their mission
statement. Tommy Hilfiger have to make sure that they are developing and advertising the
products in such a way that it will not effect the ethical conditions of local people (Ruth, 2017).
The company can further provide the ethics training to all of their employees so that all the
workers respect each others values and religion. The delivery channel which is marketing and
advertising, they have to keep in mind that not to use such kind of advertisements which will put
a negative image of the company in front of the population. If the consumers are happy, then the
company will definitely generate more profit. Another thing, the company have to act under the
municipal labour law and employment laws to keep their employee happy. This will improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of the employee resulting in the good product development.
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4.3 Consumer's ethical misconducts
False advertisements: This is one of the critical element of consumer's ethics in
marketing planning. If Tommy Hilfiger is showing the advertisement of the new products they
have developed, but when the consumer is going to buy that product, they are giving completely
different product. This will be misconduct of consumer's ethics (Ethics and Misconduct, 2017.).
They are showing something else and selling something else. It will put instant negative impact
on the brand image of the company. Customer's will not going to buy those products because
they think that the company is lying to them about the products and its quality.
Pricing: Now this one is important to those consumers who are price conscious. The
poduct offered by Tommy Hilfiger is same in terms of quality, looks, design to the competitors
product but their price is very high. That product is not cost effective. So the consumers will not
going to buy that product results in reduction in sales and loss in profitability.
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CONCLUSION
Tommy Hilfiger has made the marketing plan in such a way that it will achieve all the
objectives set by them. From thuis report it has been concluded that human and financial
resources are very important in the effective plan of marketing. It has been found that the
company is using corporate marketing strategy with economic pricing strategy. This will be
helpful for generating more revenues by increasing the buyers. All the ethical issues are taken
into consideration while developing that plan so that in future it will not influence the sales of the
company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong and et.al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Ayub and et.al., 2013. A conceptual framework on evaluating SWOT analysis as the mediator in
strategic marketing planning through marketing intelligence. European Journal of
Business and Social Sciences. 2(1). pp.91-98.
Baker, M. J. and Saren, M. eds., 2016. Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.
Chaffey, D. and Bosomworth, D., 2013. Digital marketing strategy Planning Template. Smart
Insights, jan.
Chaffey, D., Smith, P. R. and Smith, P. R., 2013. eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and
optimizing your digital marketing. Routledge.
Donnelly and et.al., 2015. Digital loyalty card ‘big data’and small business marketing: Formal
versus informal or complementary?. International Small Business Journal. 33(4).
pp.422-442.
Hollensen, S., 2015. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.
Lee and et.al., 2013. An agent-based fuzzy cognitive map approach to the strategic marketing
planning for industrial firms. Industrial Marketing Management. 42(4). pp.552-563.
McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2016. Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from
them. John Wiley & Sons.
Nijssen, E. J. and Frambach, R. T., 2013. Creating customer value through strategic marketing
planning: A management approach. Springer Science & Business Media.
Payne, A., Frow, P. and McDonald, M., 2013. Marketing Plans for Services: A Complete Guide.
Wiley.
Perreault Jr, W., Cannon, J. and McCarthy, E. J., 2013. Basic marketing. McGraw-Hill Higher
Education.
Renz, D. O., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. John
Wiley & Sons.
Strauss, J., 2016. E-marketing. Routledge.
Toledo and et.al., 2014. Structure of Marketing Planning: A Reflective Analysis. Future Studies
Research Journal: Trends and Strategies. 6(2). pp.48-73.
Wood, M. B., 2014. The marketing plan handbook. Pearson.
Online
Ethics and Misconduct, 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.consumersenergy.com/community/sustainability/people/culture/ethics-and-
misconduct>. [Accessed on 27th June 2017].
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Ruth M., 2017. How to Handle Ethical Issues in the Workplace.[Online]. Available through:
<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/handle-ethical-issues-workplace-10157.html>.
[Accessed on 27th June 2017].
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