Marks & Spencer Marketing Report

This report analyzes the marketing strategies of Marks & Spencer, a leading multinational retailer, focusing on their grocery business. It examines their promotional mix policies, the effectiveness of their promotional mix, and the application of the AIDA model in their marketing efforts. The report also discusses their push and pull strategies and provides insights into their current marketing situation.

Principles and practice of
marketing

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the activities of a business related to buying and selling a product or
service. It involves finding out what consumer want and determining whether it is possible to
produce it at the right price. The company then makes and sells it. Present study is based on
Marks & Spencer company which is a multinational retailer company founded in 1884, deals in
clothing, grocery and furniture etc. It is also listed in London Stock Exchange. Over thousands of
employees are working with this company.
Report will include the role of marketing consultant to describe marketing strategies and
different promotional tactics that is used for Marks & Spence grocery's marketing. It explains
promotional mix police as well as current marketing mix that is implemented by Marks &
Spence for their grocery's target market. Last point explains the AIDA model that is followed by
Marks & Spencer to achieve business growth and profitability in relation to its competitors.
TASK 1
Explain Marks & Spence's marketing strategy, promotional tactics and promotional mix policies
Marketing strategy: -
It is a long-term, forward looking approach to planning with the fundamental goal for
achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. it is also the section of the business plan that
outlines your overall game plan for finding clients and customers for your business. Marketing
strategy provides an organization an edge over its competitors. The marketing-strategy used by
mark & spencer might be totally innovative or they can be previously tried or tested strategies.
Effective marketing strategies help to get ahead in the competition. Marketing strategy is used by
Marks & Spencer to collaborate with their customers. It is also employed to aware the customers
about the features, specifications and benefits of mark & spencer's grocery products. It is
basically focused on encouraging target population to buy grocery products.
Defining target population is main and necessary step in choosing mark & spencer
marketing strategy. It gives the proper demographics which help in selecting the most
appropriate marketing plan for grocery products. Create a hypothetical process of buying to test
their audience. Once you know the buying behaviour of their target customer than they can select
more appropriate marketing strategy.
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A marketing strategy helps to fix the advertising budget in advance, and it also develops a
method which determines the scope of the plan, i.e., it determines the revenue generated by the
advertising plan.
The marketing strategy of mark & spencer includes multiple approaches like tvc's and
print media advertising. Also, one of the most well-known marketing approach is internet
marketing. It includes various methods like pay per click and paid advertising.
Mark & spencer also use word of mouth in their marketing strategy. It totally relies on what
impression you leave on people. It is traditionally the most important type of marketing strategy.
Being heard is important in business world. When you give quality grocery product to customers,
it is likely that they promote their grocery product. Mark & spencer marketing strategy helps in
developing new ideas for grocery product with best profit making potential and also discovering
the areas that affects mark & spencer's growth and thereby helps in creating an organizational
plan to cater to the customer needs.
Marketing strategy of Marks & spencer's: inside the store-
M&S is the leading supermarket firm that perform very well in supermarket industry and
has global presence. In order to promote the brand inside the store Marks and Spencer provides
various offers such as discount offers to consumers. This discounting strategy supports the firm
in accomplishing goal of business unit to great extent.
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Figure 1:M&S STUDENT DISCOUNT CODES, 2018
Furthermore, Marks and Spencer plays slow music in order to provide amazing
experience to consumers so that more people can get attracted towards the store. This musical
promotional thing always supports to organisation in enhancing sales of business unit to great
extent. M&S always organise event for new product launch. This tactic of organisation aids the
firm in gaining attention of regular buyers and influence their mind. By this way they also
promote the products and services of company to great extent.
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Figure 2:Marks & Spencer just launched a major sale on all their low calorie ready meals,2018
Marks and Spencer use CRM strategy, it time to time organises social event so that it can
fulfil its corporate social responsibility. Company uses demographic segmentation strategy and
apply differentiated targeting strategy in order to attract more people towards the brand.
Marketing/Promotional tactics use by Marks & Spencer outside the store: -
This is the strategic actions that direct the promotion of a product or service to influence
specific business goals.
Special sales for Facebook fans:
With help of this promotional tactic, Marks & Spencer offers their Facebook fans 50%
off all grocery products. They have over 300 thousand fans and they may be able to get almost a
thousand orders from that promotion.
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Figure 3:Marks and spencer customer dialogue,2018
Free shipping:
As a marketing consultant for Marks & Spencer in the international market of grocery
product, free shipping incentives are becoming a trend, provides free shipping for the buying of
1000$.
Flash Promotions:
Through flash promotions such as Marks & Spencer's “grocery products” – where
customers who become visit their website, Facebook and twitter and order their grocery first
time that get free frozen foods with their buying grocery has been able to increase its social
media base, ultimately impacting its number of customers.
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Figure 4:Marks and Spencer Black Friday 2018 deals: Furniture, wine and clothing up to 50%
off, 2018
Shorter promotional windows:
The promotion that has worked best for us to win back former customers is a discounted
promotion with an expiration. While our normal subscription is $444 for a year, we offer former
customers a discounted price such as $199, but it expires after a promotional window of a couple
weeks. We predictably see many customers come back with that promotion.
Customer bonus:
Marks & Spencer's offer a repeat customer bonus. Returning customer who buys ten or
more grocery product gets a free one.
Pay to promote:
Advertising Marks & Spencer content is a fairly new concept that can work well,
especially compared to traditional direct marketing tactics. Pay per click or by number of
impression to help your content get more reach on a variety of platforms.
Connect with influencers outside of social:
Social media is not the only place you should target influencers. Email is another option
likely to capture more attention, especially if their influencer has a busy social profile. A cold
email to a previously identified influence can help Marks & Spencer with a lot of things-
building links, getting comments or encouraging sharing.
Ask to include your content:
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Marks & Spencer getting their content to appear in round-ups. Round-ups is a great way
to get more reach and build backlinks at the same time. They can find relevant link round-ups to
target with the help of google.
Build content that solves problems:
One of the fastest routes to success in the Marks & Spencer is to solve a problem that's
plaguing a large enough group of people. Look to see what questions and complaints they
receiving on social media and build content that answers those questions and helps resolve their
pain points.
Marketing strategy use by Marks & Spacer digitally
Consider paid ads:
Snapchat, Facebook and twitter are just a few of the many social media platforms that
provide paid advertisement services. On a large scale, paid ads can tell anything that Marks &
Spencer’s want to know about their audience including their location, their age, the device
they’re using and even the time they’re most likely to be on social media.
Social media
This is another promotional tactic that is used by Marks and Spencer to promote its goods
and services. It uses Facebook, Twitter in order to circulate information about goods and services
and by this platform company gets connected with mass audience.
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Figure 5Marks & Spencer And Customer Have Some Excellent Pokémon Banter On Twitter,
2019
Outside agencies are saying about mark and spencer’s performance
 The performance was worse than analyst consensus forecasts in clothing and home, but
slightly better in food. Online sales grew 14% and now account for 22.5% of the total,
driven by improvements to the website and investment in logistics.
 M&s is transforming its marketing team into specialists rather than generalists
 M&s has been losing share for more than two decades. In 1997 it achieved its peak
clothing market share of 13.5% in the uk. Its position seemed unassailable, but since then
its market share has been on a declining trend
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Illustration 1: market share
(source:-global data retail intelligence centre,2018)
 marks & spencer and ocado have confirmed a deal which will give the high street retailer
a home delivery service for the first time. M&S will buy a 50% share of ocado's retail
business for £750m. The joint venture will be called ocado and will deliver M&S grocery
products from september 2020 at the latest, when ocado's deal with waitrose expires.
promotional mix polices
business information:-
Marks & Spencer is a leading multinational retailer based in the united kingdom. The company
has a long history within the UK market, with its first store dating back to 1884. as of 2018, there
were 1035 marks & spencer stores located in the UK, and 428 other store locations situated
around the world. Across its operations worldwide, the company employs approximately 81
thousand people, 72 percent of which are female.
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Competitors:-
Bases Mark& Spencer Tesco
location London, GB Welwyn Garden City, GB
Annual revenue £10.7b £57.5b
Employee 80787 327916
Gross profit £4b £3.4b
Customers 32m N/A
Stores(UK) 1k N/A
Marketing strategy:-
Marketing strategy of marks & spencer analyses the brand which covers following factors i.e.:-
11 Product11 Price11 Place11 Promotion
Product:-
It outlines a company's strategic vision for its product offerings by stating where the
products are going, how they will get there and why they will succeed. The product strategy
enables to focus on a specific target market and feature set, instead of trying to be everything to
everyone.
Marks & spencer tries to follow certain value system to maintain the good quality of the product.
Price:-
A business can use a variety of pricing strategies when selling a product or service. The
price can be set to maximize profitability for each unit sold or from the market overall. It can be
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used to defend an existing market from new entrants, to increase market share within a market or
to enter a new market.
Marks & spencer will follow competitive pricing strategy in its marketing mix for its
grocery”s product. It will include medium to high category because of its premium quality. It
will also include dynamic pricing strategy as during seasonal time.
Place:-
It outlines how and where a company will place its products and services in an attempt to
gain market share and consumer purchases.
Today, even in situations where the actual transaction doesn't happen on the web, the
initial place potential clients are engaged and converted is online. Marks & spencer will develop
their own website from where the customers will buy grocery products and get home delivery.
M&s will also provide an option for international delivery for limited products.
Promotion:-
Product promotional strategies inform, persuade and influence the consumer's decisions.
A business is able to differentiate its good and service from those of the competitors. The main
objective of a promotional strategy is to increase sales value.
Marks & spencer will choose its marketing strategy very carefully to align its
advertisement campaign with digital marketing and in store strategy. Mark& spencer will use
print media, tv ads, mobile ads and other social media campaign. The company will use its own
websites to promote its grocery products.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning:-
The STP analysis plays a crucial role in an organisation. It assists the organisation to understand
the customers and to develop a product that the customers can relate. Segmentation identifying
and meeting the needs of certain kinds of customer, not all customers. With targeting and
positioning Marks and Spencer are able to understand their current business scenario. Each
factors of the STP describes the profit measures that can be taken by Marks and Spencer.
Segmentation:-
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According to the market the organisation Marks & Spencer divide the market in few
segments.Segmentation assists the organisation to maintain sustainability in their business.
Marks and Spencer divide their audience in few parameters. According to the demographics, the
institution divides the consumers into age, gender etc. psycho-graphically by consumer's attitude,
values etc.
targeting:-
with an ethical business structure Marks & Spencer is running a successful business. Still they
need to maintain some market oriented target in their business to maintain sustainability in the
organisation. According to the size and potentiality, the organisation needs to set a target that is
easily accessible to them. If the target is not achievable then they must think of an alternative
target for their organisation.
Positioning:-
marketing mix helps the organisation to position their products and business structure
properly. Marks and Spencer needs to focus on 4P's to improve more. For example, Marks &
Spencer needs to plan their grocery products according to their customers need. the organisation
needs to concentrate on their customer’s choices more and according to that the company needs
to be specific on their price list.
TASK 2
Theoretical aspects of the promotional mix
Promotional Mix
Promotional mix describes a blend of promotional variables chosen by marketers to help
a firm reach its goal . It has been identified as a subset of the marketing mix . It is believed that
there is an optimal way of allocating budgets for the different elements within the promotional
mix to achieve best marketing results , and the challenge for marketers is to find the right mix of
them . Activities identified as elements of the promotional mix vary, but typically includes the
following: Advertising , personal selling , public relation etc.
Effectiveness of promotional mix
Effectiveness of promotion mix can only be achieved when the company has
communicated about its brand and customer get exact the same what company is trying to
deliever . A company can achieve it by -
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11 Choosing an appropriate promotion method : To convey a message effectively , a co.
should understand the best way to reach its target market .If its key customers are
manufacturers and it is supplying specialized equipment , communicating through an
advertisement in a general interest consumer magazine will waste time and money . But it
is suitable for retail businesses like Marks and Spencer use advertisement to promote its
product which is an effective tool for reaching its mass and targeted audience.11 Use precise and effective tag lines : for creating a proper understanding and brand image
in the minds of customer ,company should use short punchlines and tag lines so that it
becomes catchy and customer can be targeted.11 Appointing an experienced media agency : a company should hire an experienced media
agency to create plan and handle its advertising activities so that it can take benefit of
outside perspective , marketing expertise etc. Currently M&S using 'Grey Agency' for
carrying its advertising activities.
Advantages and disadvantages of promotional Mix
Advantages and disadvantages of each element of the promotional mix
Mix Element Advantages Disadvantages
Advertising Good for building awareness
effective at reaching a wide
audience
Repitition of main brand and
product positioning helps build
customer trust
Impersonal – cannot answer all
a customer's questions
Not good at getting customers
to make final purchasing
decision
Personal Selling Highly interactive – lots of
communication between the
buyer and M&S
Excellent for communicating
complex / detailed product
information and features
Relationships can be built up-
important if closing the sale
Costly – employing a sales
force has many hidden costs in
addition to wages
Not suitable if there are
thousands of important buyers
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make take a long time
Sales Promotion Can stimulate quick increases
in sales by targeting
promotional incentives on
particular products
Good short term tactical tool
If used over the long term,
customers may get used to the
effect
Too much promotion may
damage the brand image of
M&S
Public Relation Often seen as more 'credible' –
since the message seems to
coming from a third party (e.g.
magazine, newspaper )
Cheap way of reaching many
customers -if the publicity is
achieved through the right
media
Risk of loosing control –
cannot always control what
other people write or say about
product
Promotional Mix Used in M&S
Current Marketing situation of M&S regarding its grocery business
Marks & Spencer has quietly hired Samantha as its new head of food online , who will
be responsible for the bellwether retailer's existing online food offering and any future
developments . M&S grocery division currently sells limited food products online , such as wine
and food-to-order.
Promotion Mix of M&S supermarket
Marks & Spencer chooses its marketing strategy very carefully so as to align
advertisement campaign with digital marketing and in store strategy . M&S emphasizes to
provide a common message on all medium of communications. Marks and Spencer uses print
media, TV ads, mobile ads and other social media campaign .The company uses its own website
to promote its brand, cloths for women , men , kids . Customers can find blogs and fashion tips
on its website . Marks & Spencer also promotes its season sale to its loyal customers by giving
them special discounts . M&S also runs special loyalty program 'sparks' which adds points to the
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customer's account on the basis of amount spent on shopping. This reward points can then be
spent on future purchases from Marks & Spencer stores
AIDA model
The AIDA model identifies cognitive stages an individual goes through during the buying
process for a product or service . It's a purchasing funnel where buyers go to and fro at each
stage, to support them in making the final purchase.
It's no longer a relationship purely between the buyer and the company, since social media has
extended it to achieving the different goals of AIDA via information added by other customers
via social networks and communities.
AIDA explains: Awareness: creating brand awareness or affiliation with the product and
services., Interest: generating interest in the benefits of product or service , and sufficient
interest to encourage the buyer to start to research further, Desire: for a product or service
through an 'emotional connection ' , showing brand personality . Move the consumer from 'liking'
it to 'wanting it'. Action: move the buyer to interacting with the company and taking the next
step that is downloading brochure , making the phone call , joining newsletter , or engaging in
live chat.
AIDA used in M&S
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Illustration 2: M&S on how its success at ‘rewiring people’s
brains’ for food porn ads could help save its ailing clothing
business, 2016.

Awareness: Marks & Spencer is promoting a “shared attitude” that connects with
consumers regardless of age or demographic in a bid to promote itself as an “inclusive brand”
and following philosophy of 'single front door to the brand'. M&S wants to have a shared
philosophy across all their business units
It plans to reduce promotional activity, too, which should help the brand be bold in establishing a
trusted brand/price that isn't diluted by constant promo messaging
Interest: For generating interest they are working on 'rewiring people’s brains’ for food porn
ads.
Desire: For creating desire they are focusing on quality improving for their brand.
Action: For feedback from their customer they have taken decision to invest in Fresh Voice of
Customer (VOC) approach and software application was driven by a desire to get customer
insights into the Marks& Spencer faster and more comprehensively
Push and pull strategy
Push strategies include trade shows, showrooms, getting retailers to stock a product , and
creating a supply chain to facilitate distribution .
Pull strategy motivates customer to actively seek out a specific product and it is best for
new products or in the case when manufacturer has a strong and visible brand.
Push and pull tactics within the larger strategy should work together seamlessly to move
the customer of Marks & Spencer through their journey.
M&S aims to adopt balance between both the strategies to boost its online sales to offer
customers individual product recommendations, advice and inspiration as it looks to building on
improving sales and boost its online performance. Occasionally they do various promotional
activities to attract customers they run mother's day promotion that offers a family roast and a
valentine 's day promotion that includes champagne and a box of chocolate. M&S has also
begun using the Dine In promotion as a vehicle to showcase product innovations in its food
business and often includes new meals and variants in the offer and uses feedback from
customers and sales data to track consumer's preferences.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it can be concluded that marketing is very essential to achieve the
determined targets, objectives of an organisation and build customer's ratio. Present report has
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concluded that the marketing of Mark& Spencer company helps in achieving success. The
aspects of marketing strategy and describes the internal factor and current status of an
organisation. With the help of marketing, Mark& Spencer company developed its future
marketing mix strategy.
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REFERENCES
M&S STUDENT DISCOUNT CODES. 2018.[Online].Available through <
https://studentdiscountsquirrel.co.uk/marks-spencer/>
Marks & Spencer just launched a major sale on all their low calorie ready meals.2018. [Online].
Available through < https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/marks--spencers-just-launched-11836879>
Marks and spencer customer dialogue. 2018. [Online]. Available through <
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=657&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=VYaLXI--
Ndaw9QP3xI7gDg&q=facebook+images+of+by+Marks+and+spencer&oq=facebook+images
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1......0....1..gws-wiz-img.5rbWl2CskoE#imgrc=mwG6ocL94mQAOM:>
Marks and Spencer Black Friday 2018 deadls: Furniture, wine and clothing up to 50% of., 2018
[Online]. Available through < https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/1049211/marks-and-
spencer-black-friday-2018-deals-discounts-sale >
Marks & Spencer And Customer Have Some Excellent Pokémon Banter On Twitter. 2019.
[Online]. Available through < http://www.ladbible.com/funny/viral-marks-spencer-and-
customer-have-some-excellent-pokemon-banter-20160812>
global data retail intelligence centre,2018[Online]. Available through
<https://www.globaldata.com/ms-lose-decades-long-status-number-one-clothing-retailer-
primark/>
M&S on how its success at ‘rewiring people’s brains’ for food porn ads could help save its ailing
clothing business. 2016. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/04/22/ms-how-its-success-rewiring-people-s-brains-
food-porn-ads-could-help-save-its-ailing>
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