Digital Marketing Strategy: MKT6800 Assessment Report, 2020/21

This report provides a detailed analysis of digital marketing strategies, focusing on the fashion industry, specifically using Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Zara as examples. It begins with an introduction to business strategy and then moves into a PESTEL analysis of M&S, evaluating the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors influencing its digital marketing campaigns. The report then critically evaluates the effectiveness of the social web for building brands, comparing M&S and Zara to demonstrate arguments. Finally, it analyzes how modern organizations integrate traditional marketing with digital marketing to achieve strategic objectives. The report utilizes relevant theories and provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in digital marketing, culminating in a conclusion and a list of references including books and journals.

Digital Marketing
Strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
External: Fast Fashion Industry Analysis: Using relevant strategic tools to analyze the external
environment.................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Critically evaluate and analyse the effectiveness of the social web for building brands.
Compare two organisations of your choice to demonstrate your arguments...............................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Critically analyse how modern organizations integrate traditional marketing with digital
marketing to achieve strategic objectives....................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
Books and journals......................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
A business strategy can be defined as a system which is used by the business in order to
plan the different activities which can be used to achieve the objectives of business organization.
In context of the current report there is use of M&S it is a global firm which is performing its
function in fashion industry (Schilling and Shankar, 2019). Organization is providing number of
clothes to different individuals in order to meet their requirements. This report includes
discussion about the various strategies which are adopted by the organization in order to meet the
requirement by using internal and external environment. In context of the current report there is
discussion about pestel analysis which is related to scanning the external environment of marks
and Spencer in order to conduct appropriate functions related to digital strategies full stop along
with this there is also a discussion about social web as well as use of traditional and modern
marketing tools in order to conduct the appropriate system and maintain functional requirements
up to date.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Using an organisation of your choice, identify and critically evaluate PESTEL factors
influencing the success of their digital marketing campaigns
PESTLE Analysis of M&S
Political Factors:
Political factors basically mean that how the government impacts our company or
industry. Factors like taxes, political stability or instability, trade policy etc. comes under
political factors.
M&S has the benefit of trading they have their head quarter in UK but other centers in
many countries which helps to import at less price because of which they get high profit margins.
They also have benefit of working with European market where they can trade freely without
any restrictions of tariffs and taxes (Ginter, Duncan and Swayne, 2018). They believe it is
important to maintain good relations with government to work smoothly so they timely reply the

queries of government which are posted on their site. So the government is in full support of
them as they maintain good holistic values and a fair way of working.
But the decision of Brexit under which UK left the trade policies of Europe which
impacted M&S as they used to trade freely without any problem of taxes and tariffs not the cost
will go high and it will negatively impact the company. Political stability and taxes are the two
political factors that impact M&S.
Economic Factors:
Economic factors are those which impact the our business significantly like inflation,
economic growth, exchange rates, interest rates etc. these factors have direct or indirect long
term impact in business.
The factor that impacted M&S was prices as the company offers quality products there
price of the product is relatively high if compared to competitors and at the same time
competitors are providing discount which led to problem for them. And at time of financial crises
people don't spend on quality products. The company got impacted by the crisis as it made led
off 2% of the staff and drooped the idea of giving 20% discounts that were initially decided. So,
in 1999 they decided to switch to foreign suppliers (Rothaermel, 2016).
Social Factors:
Social factors are also called socio-cultural factors these basically means what are the
beliefs and attitude of the population it is important for the marketer to understand these factors
to launch a product according to the needs of customers (Lasserre, 2017). M&S is a name from
1800 and every one in UK know about it very well but the thing is people have started thinking it
as an old band which need some new styles mainly for young people as many new retail chains
are coming every year. When the Credit Cards were launched M&S took the opportunity and
allowed people to use credit cards at their stores which was a profitable affair for them at that
time.
From last 10 years the demand for ready meals is also increasing so they captured the
market by providing ready foods. It is important to understand what society needs and providing
it at the right time is equally important.

Technological Factors:
New technology is always required for any business to work effectively and efficiently.
The level of innovation, research and development and technological changes come under
technological factors.
M&S use the system self check out for food unit which has not only saved time but also
money which would have spent on cashier. They have announced technological transformation
programme which will help the company to become first digital business and would result in
growth of the business. They have a strong e-commerce platform for clothing (Moutinho and
Vargas-Sanchez, 2018).
Environmental Factors:
These factors have come into existence in past few years due to scarcity of resources and
increase in pollution level. As Marks ans Spencer want to create a good brand image they focus
of sustainable way of collecting and using resources. They also believe in fair trade which also
leads to sustainability (Hill, 2017). In 2019 November when there were climate issues in UK
they established their own policy called “Green Policy” for well-being of the community as well
as planet. They also worked with Better Cotton Initiative which was in support of sustainably
procuring cotton.
Legal Factors
There are some laws that companies need to follow for trading ethically and successfully.
The laws are employment laws, consumer protection laws, discrimination laws etc. As the laws
of every country keep on changing M&S conduct training programs every year to keep their
employees up to date but once a store was getting renovated and a cancer causing chemical fall
down which caused risk for employees and workers and company didn't even took the charge of
incident so was charged under Health And Safety at Work Act 1974 and were told to take
measures and make norms for safety of employees and were also finned 500,000 pounds for each
offence (Trigeorgis and Reuer, 2017).
PESTLE analysis is a tool to analyze macro-economic factors and there implication on
business. M&S is such an old brand which has an established name in UK market but has faced

issues like Brexit and discount competition. The company competed due to its sustainability
concept and fair way of working, maintaining good relations with government and taking all the
technological changes as when required.
TASK 2
Critically evaluate and analyse the effectiveness of the social web for building brands. Compare
two organisations of your choice to demonstrate your arguments.
Social web can be defined as a link between different peoples and organisation which is
helpful to the organization in order to connect with different individuals and establish
relationships in order to maintain the marketing function. The social web use the platform of
world wide web which is related to maintaining an appropriate site and using the social media
platforms in order to market the products and services of the organization (David and David,
2016). In context of marks and Spencer organization is using an appropriate system where there
are a number of functions which are performed by the manager in order to maintain the social
web of organization. Company is also maintaining a separate image within the market by using
the social networking sites so that it can easily perform its function and achieve the objectives. In
context of marks and Spencer there are a number of products and services which are listed on the
social web where organization use an appropriate marketing campaign so that it can perform the
functions and compare its products and services with other competitive within the market.
Tesco Sainsbury
Marks and Spencer is performing its function
at global level where it is required for the
organisation to use an appropriate social web
system so that it can attract the customer and
retain them for a longer period of time. In
context of this organisation is using
appropriate system which helps the
organisation in managing media platforms
and using them in accordance with the
products and services offered by it within the
market (Morden, 2016). There are a number
Zara is a main component of marks and
Spencer which is also operating and social
web which help to the organisation in
improving its function returning the
objectives of online system. In context of
digital platforms Zara is lacking from its
competitors where it is not using an
appropriate system as well as its function in
online systems. This is also identified that is
not performing appropriate tools and
techniques in order to maintain the social

of functions which are performed by it
according to the requirements which include
the social web system. In this marks and
Spencer is operating an appropriate site
which consist different kind of information
regarding the production services which are
offered by the firm within the market. In
context of this organisation is also using
various kinds of social media platforms such
as Facebook WhatsApp, Instagram Twitter
LinkedIn to promote the production services
and perform its function according to the
requirements so that it can manage its
platforms and use them in accordance with
the current business environment of digital
technology.
web effective and performing the function at
these online platforms. This will impact on
the profitability of organisation and to
dissatisfaction among the customer because
of low availability of production services at
the social websites.
TASK 3
Critically analyses how modern organizations integrate traditional marketing with digital
marketing to achieve strategic objectives.
Marks and Spencer is a global organization which is performing its function at global level
it is essential for the organization to use both traditional marketing concepts as well as modern
marketing concept so that it can easily match them in accordance with the requirement and
perform the function in an appropriate way. It is mandatory for the form to achieve the objectives
by using these resources in an appropriate manner and marketing the production services
according to the needs and requirements. This is also essential for the firm to maintain an
appropriate system within the market and perform its function by integrating both traditional
methods of marketing and non-traditional methods of marketing (Aguinis, Edwards and Bradley,
2017).
Traditional marketing: traditional marketing can be defined as that part of marketing
system which is related to using the traditional methods of marketing in which advertisement of

line newspaper advertisement and various other kind of tools and techniques are included. And
this system organization used to advertise the about the products and services within the market
by using appropriate channels of distribution. there are a number of advantage and disadvantage
of traditional marketing which are discussed below:
 Traditional marketing is essential part of every organization does it provide benefit of
attracting customer at the larger level where it include mass media campaigns which will
help the organization in attracting the customer at larger level.
 One more benefit which can be availed by traditional marketing is related to using the
concept to identify the potential risk within the market and building a brand image in
offline manner. This is helpful to the organization in attracting the large number of
customer throughout the organization in offline manner and retaining this customer by
using appropriate tools and techniques in future advertisement methods.
Disadvantages
 The major disadvantage of this model is related to using high level of cost within
advertisement campaigns as well as time consuming process which impact on the media
system of organization and will lead in effectively.
 One more disadvantage of using traditional method is that there are no same ability as the
digital marketing concept because digital marketing target the customer in a particular
manner and help the organization in improving its functions where traditional market and
techniques used to target the customer at larger level where they cannot target a specific
customer within the market.
Digital marketing: Digital marketing concept can be defined as a system which is used
by the organization in order to market the product by the use of digital technology and processes.
In order to improve the organizational functioning and achieve the objectives of organization in
context of marketing marks and Spencer also is digital marketing concept so that it can easily
market its product within the market and perform the function in accordance with the current
requirements (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2016).
Advantages of digital marketing

 The major advantage of digital marketing is that organization can easily explain its
market and perform the function in an appropriate manner where it can target the
customer at global level by the use of single platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
 Global marketing is also important for the organization as it help in attracting the
customer in an appropriate manner by improving the conversion rates in easy to system
maintenance. This is because digital marketing target the customer in a direct vendor
which help in targeting customer appropriately and improving the conversion rate of
advertisement into the customer.
Disadvantages of digital marketing
 Digital marketing include different kind of tools and techniques with required number of
knowledge’s in order to perform the functions of digital marketing. This also requires
appropriate research as well as identification of appropriate tool which can be used to
market the product within the market in accordance with the digital platforms.
 It is difficult under the digital marketing system to bring new content within the market
because of continuous changes within the trend and in identification of an appropriate
research system. This makes it impossible for the form to use the system and perform the
function in an appropriate way and lead to dissatisfaction among employees.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above mentioned information that there are various
functions which has to be performed by the organization according to the needs and
requirements. This is also identified that there are various functions which help in managing the
objectives and using these objectives according to the requirements. There are a number of
functions which help in improving the objectives and matching them according to the
requirements of organization and achieving them in an appropriate way.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Schilling, M.A. and Shankar, R., 2019. Strategic management of technological innovation.
McGraw-Hill Education.
Ginter, P.M., Duncan, W.J. and Swayne, L.E., 2018. The strategic management of health care
organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Rothaermel, F.T., 2016. Strategic management: concepts (Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill Education.
Lasserre, P., 2017. Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Hill, T., 2017. Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing function.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Trigeorgis, L. and Reuer, J.J., 2017. Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic
Management Journal, 38(1), pp.42-63.
Morden, T., 2016. Principles of strategic management. Routledge.
David, F. and David, F.R., 2016. Strategic management: A competitive advantage approach,
concepts and cases. Florence: Pearson–Prentice Hall.
Aguinis, H., Edwards, J.R. and Bradley, K.J., 2017. Improving our understanding of moderation
and mediation in strategic management research. Organizational Research
Methods, 20(4), pp.665-685.
Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R.E., 2016. Strategic management: Concepts and
cases: Competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning.