Strategic Marketing Planning

This report provides an overview of strategic marketing planning and its significance in achieving business objectives. It discusses marketing theories, corporate strategy, and the marketing mix. The report focuses on John Lewis Partnership, a retail industry company, and its strategic marketing objectives.

Strategic Marketing
Planning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview of organisation............................................................................................................3
Marketing theories......................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing can be referred to as the practice which involves communicating and
promoting the offering of the company. It is the action of business which involves conducting
market research and undertaking promotional activities in order to achieve the strategic
marketing objectives. It is important for company to differentiate itself from the competitors by
focusing on the strength of it so that it can provide better value and offering to the customers
(Tomczak, Reinecke and Kuss, 2017). The organisation chosen for this report is John Lewis
Partnership, which is a retail industry based company founded in the year 1929. This report shall
cover the overview of company, strategic marketing objectives of the firm together with
marketing theories.
MAIN BODY
Overview of organisation
John Lewis Partnership Plc is the British organisation which runs financial and banking
services, supermarkets, departmental stores, and other activities relating to the merchandising
industry. The organisation is closely-held by the trust on behalf of its workforce who are called
as partners and the bonus which is related to the profit share was also paid to the workforce till
the year 2020. A company was founded in the year 1929 and is currently headquartered in
Westminster, London. It deals in products which includes watches and jewellery, clothing,
furniture, beds, food direct services, cosmetics and many other.
The main objectives of the company are-
 To attract new consumers and keep and develop with their existing customers a positive
relationship. To meet the needs of the families with wide variety of products and services under one
roof and also online (Hanlon, 2018).
Corporate strategy for John Lewis
As the objective of company is to attract new customers and meet the needs of customers
from wide range of products, the company John Lewis can use the Diversification as a new
corporate strategy where it can enter new market with new product line so that it can attract new
customers and work to meet the new needs of customers. Diversification is the form of corporate
strategy which seeks to enhance the profitability by high sales volume through new offering or

the new market. It is a kind of growth strategy where it expand its business new market or
introduces new product line for customers.
Another strategy of John Lewis is to make its products sustainable and ethical. It is
committed to produce zero carbon by the year 2035 and is engaging itself in three bold
commitments which includes to have product category of buy back or take back by 2025, to use
raw materials which are sustainable and recycled and develop the sustainable resale and rental
options for the customers.
Marketing theories
The theories of marketing plays An important role in promoting and communicating the
product or service to the customers. It is important in order to achieve the business objectives
relating to strategic marketing (Alsem, 2019).
The strategic marketing objectives of the John Lewis organisation are-
 To increase the sale of its products and services.
 To capture the large market share by 40%.
 To maximise the profitability of the company.
Marketing Mix
It consists of 7Ps of the marketing which refers to set of tactics and actions which a
company uses in order to promote its product or service (Sharp, 2017). The 7Ps of marketing mix
in context to John Lewis is illustrated below- Product- It is defined as the offering of the company which is offered to the customers.
In context to John Lewis, the organisation have premium retail stores in and out of UK. It
offers wide range of services from the personal styling together with advice for nursery to
the appliance installation and the support which is technical in nature. The product range
of John lewis extends to home and design, gifts and celebrations, electrical and
technology. Price- It is the value of the goods which is being charged by the customers. John Lewis
uses competitive pricing strategy for all its product line, thereby assuring the quality and
the value in the minds of people. The company strictly benchmark its offerings against its
competitors as its core policy is to ensure capture of the market with the competitive
pricing strategy.

 Place- It refers to the place where the product or service is made available to the
customers. In relation to John lewis, it utilises strategy of multi channel by using various
channels of distribution in order to cater the customers. The company have its exclusive
retail outlet in UK and also aggressively uses E Commerce like Facebook, you tube,
twitter. It have also launched its mobile application for the convenience of consumers. It
whole approximately 50 stores in whole England. Promotion- It involves the promotional activities in order to communicate the offering to
the large audience. John Lewis uses innovative strategy for promotion and uses the
occurrence of festivals creatively in order to create special advertisement. It utilises
digital marketing like campaigns such as Christmas campaign buster the box and many
other. It also used the Olympic games as a platform to increase its brand awareness and
sponsored the game. People- It involves the people who are behind the company and contributes in the success
of the firm. John Lewis have around more than 38000 employees who are well skilled
and knowledgeable and the store managers assure that each consumer's request is looked
into by the employees. The company focuses on both its customers and employees an
ensure that its consumers have a good experience at each store. Process- It refers to the way in which the delivery is done once the customer have paid
for the product or service. In relation to John Lewis, the company has many business
processes which helps it in smooth operations of the retail brand. The process includes
the dispatch of goods right from warehouse to the retail store. It also allows the customer
to use website in order to shop online.
1. Physical evidence- It includes the physical elements for what the customer is paying. In
context to John Lewis, the store of this brand is its biggest physical evidence. It has a
different look and the atmosphere is consumer amiable and forms the environment
comfortable for customers. The in house brand, shopping bags, loyalty cards, and many
other also includes in its physical presence (Hansen and Juslin, 2018).
Segmentation, targeting and Positioning
Segmentation: It is a procedure which includes classifying the people on the basis of
their common characteristics and interests. There are four types of segmentation, each of which
is discussed below-

 Geographical- It involves grouping the customers on the basis of their geographical
location. Demographic- It includes grouping the customers on the basis of people descriptors like
age, income, gender, etc. Psycho- graphic- It includes segmenting the customers on the basis of lifestyle, personal
value and the aspirations.
 Behavioural- It involves grouping the customers on the basis of their behavioural pattern
in order to identify their common traits (Direction, 2018).
John Lewis segment its customers on the basis of demographic segmentation, mainly on
the basis of gender and income.
Targeting- It is a strategy of marketing which involves the identification of the specific
persona or the market for a specific content. It mainly involves a strategy where the large market
is broken into small segment in order to concentrate on specific group of customer within the
audience (Schiavone and Simoni, 2019).
In context to John lewis, the target customer of the company is on the basis of
demographic where it targets younger and status conscious people who are also technology
savvy.
Positioning- This concept is of associating and developing the mental position in the
consciousness of the public regarding the brand and its offering. It is the ability to influence the
perception of the consumer. The main aim of this is to establish the identity and image of the
brand in the minds of people (Khan, Freeman and Lee, 2020).
In relation to John lewis, this brand position itself with the strong emotional engagement
with the customers. The preposition of the brand is based on trust which drives anything from
both online and offline mode thereby enforcing the commitment to the value, subject to the
condition that service and quality is not compromised.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that marketing plays a vital role in achieving the
business objectives as it is based on increasing the sales and profits of the business. The
company John lewis is a retail based company which has its marketing objective to increase sale
and market share. The theory of marketing mix which involves 7Ps is essential in its strategic
planning as it offers the framework to achieve the marketing mix. Further it is concluded that the
model of STP helps the company to offer its products to the target market. The target customer
of John lewis are the people who are status conscious and young generation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alsem, K.J., 2019. Applied strategic marketing: a step by step approach. Routledge.
Direction, S., 2018. Raising the effectiveness of strategic marketing: Why firms must consider
the operating environment.
Hanlon, A., 2018. Digital marketing: Strategic planning & integration. Sage.
Hansen, E. and Juslin, H., 2018. Strategic marketing in the global forest industries.
Khan, H., Freeman, S. and Lee, R., 2020. New product performance implications of
ambidexterity in strategic marketing foci: a case of emerging market firms. Journal of
Business & Industrial Marketing.
Schiavone, F. and Simoni, M., 2019. Strategic marketing approaches for the diffusion of
innovation in highly regulated industrial markets: the value of market access. Journal of
Business & Industrial Marketing.
Sharp, B., 2017. Marketing: theory, evidence, practice. Oxford University Press,.
Tomczak, T., Reinecke, S. and Kuss, A., 2017. Strategic marketing: Market-oriented corporate
and business unit planning. Springer.