Marketing Strategies: A Case Study of Marks & Spencer

Marketing Strategies 1
INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Marks & Spencer

Marketing Strategies 2

Marketing Strategies 3
Introduction
This report deals with different basic aspects of Marketing. For effective analysis, Marks &
Spencer’s current marketing performances and strategies are discussed. In addition, new
marketing strategies and market segmentation are projected for Marks & Spencer. The main
purpose of this report is to understand importance of marketing planning and identifying
customer’s buying behaviour. This report would help readers to gather knowledge about
different marketing strategies and gain required proficiencies to develop useful marketing
plan for any other company. It is fact that marketing planning is an essential function of
marketers. It is considered as the most crucial clamour for any profit making companies. It
provides an elaborative notion about company’s target market, strategies to increase sales, and
gains on profit. The selected company for this marketing project is - Marks & Spencer, which
is one of the biggest brands in UK’s retail industry. It sales fashion and food-products in UK
as well as some other parts of the world. The company has near about 1400 retail stores all
over the globe. It holds varieties of stylish and quality products at its stores. Marks & Spencer
has started its journey in the year 1884, since then it has become one of the popular brands in
clothing and food business.
However, in early 90s and most recently in 2008-09, the company has witnessed a sharp
decline in sales. It is reported that emergence of new brands and global economic depression
have been the two major causes for such decline. Besides, trends of online shopping, fast
fashion, etc have enduring impacts on company’s sales figures. In this context, evaluation of
current marketing performance and strategies of the company is rather meaningful. Plus,
creating innovative marketing strategies and search for new markets are going to be necessary
for its revenue and growth (Marks & Spencer 2017).
Assessment of the present marketing performance and strategies
It is reported that Marks and Spencer (M&S) was established by Michael Mark in late 1880s.
The company has started its business as renowned clothing retailer. Later on, it had included
selling foodstuffs as another segment of business. In present times, Marks and Spencer
(M&S) is one of biggest retail brands in UK. However, the company has expanded its
business in different parts of the world. As a matter of fact, it has been operating sales activity

Marketing Strategies 4
in countries like Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Middle East nations (Pratley
2014).
According to a report, Michael Mark was the sole founder of Marks and Spencer (M&S), and
by his own excellence the company become quite successful in UK. In 1894, he decided to
merge the business with Tom Spencer’s. Since then, the company had started growing
significantly and become a global leader in retailing. However, in late 1900s both of them had
died and Simon and Sieff – two children of Michael, has become the in-charge of the
company. They always prefer to give more importance in value creation and providing
superior quality products and services to customers. Plus, they have given importance to
create healthy business relationship with suppliers, distributors, and other essential factors of
retail chains. Customisation of business has been their basic marketing strategy. They
believed that building trustworthy relations with customers, suppliers, dealers are the foremost
things to do. Truly, this strategy has provided great support in its long term successes
(Spencer 2017).
With this successful run, in the year 1926, Marks and Spencer (M&S) has listed as public
company in UK. It is fact that Marks and Spencer (M&S)’s strategies regarding quality, value
and relationship are also quite effective in present business situations. In clothing business,
the company always has given focus on delivering quality products with stylish outfits. It tries
to hold products in stores which are modern in looks but simple in use. M&S has been
providing these products in all of its stores across the world. They believe that quality and
availability of products are two most important factors in retailing business. People
irrespective of their nationality; do want quality cloths and food products (Wagner & UPEI
2014).
A study shows that Marks and Spencer (M&S) has implemented a new marketing strategy
called as – only M&S, in its stores. It is basically a unique method of attracting customers for
products and services. It highlights some briefing and history associated with each product.
Besides, company’s management has given much emphasis on digitalisations of its products
and services. As a matter of fact, Marks and Spencer (M&S) has realized that online shopping
is going to lead the market. If the company is not able to compete with online shopping
companies, it may not survive for long. For this, M&S’s marketers are planning new ways of
exploring markets through digital technologies (Harrison 2017).