H&M Marketing Mix and Inter-departmental Relations Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of H&M's marketing strategies and internal relations. It begins with an introduction to marketing management and its importance in achieving customer satisfaction and business growth. The report then delves into the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within H&M, exploring different marketing concepts such as production, product, and selling concepts, and their application within the company. It also examines the interrelationships between the marketing department and other functional departments, including Human Resources, Research & Development, and Finance, highlighting the value and significance of effective interdepartmental coordination. The report further compares the application of the marketing mix 7Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence) by H&M and Zara to achieve their overall business objectives. Finally, the report covers the production and evaluation of a basic marketing plan for H&M, including strategic recommendations. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of effective marketing strategies for business success.

Marketing Concepts and
Internal Relations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1: Key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function................................................1
P2: Roles and responsibilities of marketing related to the wider organisational context......2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3: Comparing the ways in which different organisation apply marketing mix 7Ps to achieve
overall business activities.......................................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
P4: Producing and evaluating a basic Marketing plan for an organisation............................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
.........................................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Marketing management is continuous process of developing strategies for products or
services, advertisement, promotion, sales in order to reach the desires of customer segment and
attain customer satisfaction. The marketing management process deals with various activities
which includes optimization of marketing mix, sourcing new marketing mix ideas, implementing
the ideas and analysing the results. In order to increase customer value and increase business
growth marketing plays important role (Biswas, 2014). The marketing process deals with the
analysis of the opportunities in the market, selection of the target market, developing the
marketing mix and managing the marketing process. This report mainly emphasis H&M stores,
one of the famous global fashion company. H&M offers a wide variety range clothing that
allows customers to find their own personal style. This assignment covers about the H&M
marketing process and their interrelation with other functional units within the organisation. This
report also covers about the marketing mix 7Ps of H&M to achieve overall business objectives. It
also includes marketing planning and strategies of H&M to achieve organisation goals.
TASK 1
P1: Key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function
Marketing deals with the groups of activities of a company that is associated with buying
and selling of a product or services. It also includes advertisement, selling and delivering
products and services to customers. There are different concepts of marketing that is adopted and
implemented by H&M stores in order to gain competitive advantage. Each concept of marketing
varies in the function that they deal with. H&M are using different marketing concepts as per as
their market share and demand of the product. Some of them are discussed below:
 Production concept: As customers favour those products that are easily available and
affordable (Chow, Lai and Loi, 2015). H&M are focusing on their own operation
management along with improving production process and distribution channel.
 Product concept: H&M focuses on their products and produce best quality clothes for
their customers to gain customer loyalty.
 Selling concept: H&M focuses on expanding the companies promotional strategies.
 Marketing concept: H&M focus on understanding the market and other undertaken
activities which includes market research.
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Different marketing process:
Marketing process deals with the analysing the opportunities, selection of targeted market
, developing the market mix and then managing the marketing efforts. H&M has competent
marketing process which includes setting up the mission, situation analysis, marketing planning,
developing and taking marketing mix decisions. They find out the opportunities to expand their
market, then makes appropriate marketing planning to develop marketing mix and implement
their marketing strategy to achieve competitive advantage (Dinnie, 2015).
Roles and responsibility of marketing managers in context with H&M:
As marketing manager at H&M the main roles and responsibility that should be covered
are follows:
 To build up strong sales force in order to give proper demonstration about product
quality.
 Pricing and building reputation for the company.
 Customizing for different market shares and reporting different external opportunities.
 Developing the marketing strategy and managing customer relationship management.
 Managing the marketing mix and agencies.
P2: Roles and responsibilities of marketing related to the wider organisational context
It is necessary for the company to coordinate the plans of its various functional
departments to achieve desired goals. The interrelationships of marketing department with other
functional department of H&M are as follows:
Marketing and Human Resources: HR Department recruits, selects and train the best
possible employees for the firm. It helps recruiting potential employees for marketing
department of an organisation. . Along with this, the human resource department would also
undertake appraisal and enhancement of each employee’s performance (Huang and Rundle-
Thiele, 2014). If the marketing managers H&M wants to hire employees for marketing research,
then the HR department would help them in scoping out a person profile, job descriptions and
advertising required for the job.
Marketing and Research & Development: Effective research process of a company helps
marketing in various ways. R&D department of an organization is responsible for generating
innovative ideas and creation of new products for the firm through extensive research.
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In order to modify the quality of clothes and material used for product, research and
development departments helps in implementing new creative ideas with proper survey.
Marketing and Finance: The marketing plans of the company must include all the
financial dimensions of the firm. The marketing department of H&M works with the finance
department of the organisation to ensure that there is sufficient budget for market research,
product promotion and its distribution. Finance department of H&M works towards cost
effectiveness, the marketing department concentrates on increasing the sales volume and
building an effective market share.
Value and importance of the marketing role
Marketing plays a vital role in of an organization. The success of a company heavily
depends upon its effective marketing strategies (Kanyurhi and Bugandwa Mungu Akonkwa,
2016). H&M understood the importance of marketing way back in the past and since then, it
keeps on developing new and effective ways of marketing its products. For instance, H&M used
an innovative different advertisement methods for both in-stores and online shopping. In order to
advertise products and brands they use mannequin models and famous celebrities. For online
marketing they use pictures of models wearing the items that they wants to be sold. Also,
marketing helps the firm to raise the standard of living of its consumers by making cost effective
and quality products available to them through uninterrupted supply chains. Effective marketing
of its products has helped the organization in increasing its sales by adding value to its products.
Significance of having effective interrelationships between different functional departments
For any organization to succeed, it is essential to coordinate the activities of its various
functional departments. These interrelationships would allow marketing to develop new
concepts, which are flexible towards achieving the other important organizational goals.
Marketing decisions, in order to be effective, needs to incorporate and consider other business
functions in designing and implementing the market research, market planning and management
information system (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra, 2014). Greater coordination of marketing
with other departments would enable a better research for marketing the clothes of the firm.
Hence, it is important for a company like H& M to establish effective coordination between its
different functional departments.
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TASK 2
P3: Comparing the ways in which different organisation apply marketing mix 7Ps to achieve
overall business activities
H&M is always concerned about the best customer offering in each and every market.
They offer collections that are wide ranging and varied for men, women, teenagers and children.
They also sells own branded cosmetics, accessories, footwear in different countries. In order to
achieve overall business activities H&M focuses on different marketing mix. This marketing mix
are discussed below:
Product : H&M has wide variety of clothes, accessories, cosmetics and footwear with
reasonable quality and affordable rate. The main mission of H&M is to provide their customers
their own dressing styles (Piercy, 2014). H&M are believes is selling those product that are in
demands of customers and latest trends.
Price: H&M emphasis on pricing strategy, they sell their products at cheaper and
affordable rates so that it can be economical to all types of customers.
Place: H&M stores are located in nearby the well known and famous streets. It has their
own shopping websites that allows their customers to accesses variety of products and
accessories at same time and same place. It is quite convenient for customers to browse and look
for product.
Promotion: For promotion they uses the concept of e-marketing along with this they uses
print advertisement and video advertisement.
People- The employees of H&M are well trained and professional. The work culture is
quite comfortable and modern where the employees are given rotational shifts. The staff
members come from diverse background which means they have different skills, knowledge and
other qualities. The development of an employee is promoted on their personal and professional
level with the help of several training programs and activities. The company also pays equal
attention on the health and safety of the employees. The respective company also have tie ups
with various designers throughout the globe in order to have unique fashion trend in the market.
Process- H&M pays high attention on its customer relationship management as it helps
in maintaining the loyal customers and assures quality of service is provided by the organisation.
The employees are trained to resolve the problems of the customers. There is also a free helpline
number that is provided by the respective company in order to assure that issues are resolve at
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earliest. The staff members of the company helps the service users to select the best merchandise
for them. H&M also assures that the service process and delivery time is quick which helps in
maintaining the quality of the services and maximum satisfaction of the customer.
Physical Evidence- H&M have various stores across UK and in more than 60 countries
which are well constructed enriched with great interior décor. The apparel are arranged in an
attractive manner which raises the appeal of the store and the products. The total number of
employees that work in the company are more than 1,30,000 which can be considered as
physical evidence of the company. Various celebrities are invited during new launch of the
product in order to promote the brand name of the H&M. The company has a huge market share
and number of customers which are involving in consumption of products and services.
Zara:
Product: Zara becomes one of the well-established brand in the world which captures the
needs of all age groups in terms of providing clothing products. Its main offerings is jeans,
trousers, tops, skirts, knitwear and accessories. It brings almost 10000 new designs in a year
which is their strength.
Price: Its products are high on fashion and low on prices. It offers very much lower
prices at their international stores as compared with their rivals products. Zara follows low
pricing strategies to influence buying behaviour of maximum number of customers.
Place: Zara is operated in more than 88 countries with over 6500 outlets. Along with this,
it sells through online stores as well due to which its distribution channel are more stronger.
Promotion: Zara rarely spends money on advertising. It doesn't engage in any flashy
campaigns due to which they are invisible on television. Its main advertising platform is social
media as the company has 2.5 million followers and 150 million on Instagram.
Process: Zara has different processes within a company such as process of purchasing,
process of manufacturing and process of delivery. Zara displays their clothing products in order
to influence the interest and buying behaviour of targeted people. By using the internet, it
communicates most of the customers about their quality and pricing policies towards the
customers.
People: There are number of stores in different locations where the huge staff are
working to promote and sell its products to the customers. It recruits experienced and skilled
employees which can effectively deal with the customers at their stores.
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Physical evidence: Zara uses physical evidence as a marketing strategy as their loyal
customers can see and experienced the services. Customer seen Zara products on the basis of
their quality, comfort and experience within the store.
TASK 3
P4: Producing and evaluating a basic Marketing plan for an organisation
The marketing plan can be described as a bushiness document which includes effective
strategies and techniques in order to promote new launched product or improve sales of current
services. It is necessary to make appropriate practices for promoting products or brand along
with making desired budget so that marketing events can be carried out in proper manner in
respect of achieving required outcomes of the same. In case of H&M, they are going to introduce
new product with different concept and required to conduct more effective as well as efficient
promotional activities for success of new products.
Marketing plan – The H&M is going to launch body mist named as “Sparking Evening”
to fulfil extra desires of changed lifestyle of people. It is required to complete modified needs,
wants and demands of customers as per changing trends of market in order to remain update
accordingly along with satisfying clients (Shank and Lyberger, 2014).
Company overview – The H&M company is consider as Swedish multinational clothing
retailing business which is known for fast fashion varieties of clothes for men, women, teenagers
and children. This organisation and associated companies deals in around 62 countries with 4500
stores to fulfil demands of customers.
Mission and vision – The vision statement of H&M is to enhance business by
introducing new products in different nations along with elaborating branches at global level.
Meanwhile, the mission statement is all about to fulfil actual needs of customers by improving
their quality at reasonable prices.
Strategic objective – The main objective is to gain customers attraction in order to
increase profit margin up to 12%.
4P'S of H&M
Product: H&M has wide variety of clothes, accessories, cosmetics and footwear with
reasonable quality and affordable rate.
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Price: H&M emphasis on pricing strategy, they sell their products at cheaper and
affordable rates so that it can be economical to all types of customers.
Place: H&M stores are located in nearby the well known and famous streets. It has their
own shopping websites that allows their customers to accesses variety of products and
accessories at same time and same place.
Promotion: For promotion they uses the concept of e-marketing along with this they uses
print advertisement and video advertisement.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths Weaknesses
 It has attained about 2300 stores in
more than 45 countries due to which
capturing huge market share.
 It has employed more than 95000
employees which is huge in figures.
 It offers quality and trendy clothing at
an affordable prices.
 Purchasing huge number of clothing
products could lead to overstocking
which later on lowering at an
affordable prices.
 It spends lots of capital and
maintenance fee for all different kins of
machines.
Opportunities Threats
 Online shopping will increases the sales
and revenue of company.
 Expand to developed nation increases
their customer base.
 Should positioned to the niche market
organic apparel market.
 Increasing unemployment continuously
pressurizing their target segment to
discretionary spending.
 H&M newest business line home are
has not been able to click in Europe and
leading to lowering sales.
Market research – The market research is required to carried out by given company in
order to determine actual scope of specific product which is going to be launched further. The
H&M can conduct markets surveys, PEST analysis or take feedbacks of customers to known
about present market conditions.
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Target market – This can be described as target market including specific population of
potential customers along with geographical area. In case of H&M, the segmenting, targeting and
positioning is given below –
Segmenting – The segmentation of new product launched by company is lifestyle
because needs related to body mist is depends upon actual desires of life of a client.
Targeting – The target customers of new product include group of people including
mostly youngsters of a particular place who usually prefers body mist in their regular lifestyle.
Positioning – The company want to establish itself as an innovative quality brand by
launching fresh product of body mist for customers.
Marketing Budget -
PARTICULARS 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year 4th Year 5th Year
INITIAL MONEY 8000 9000 11000 13000 15000
INVESTMENT 5000 5000 6000 7000 9000
TOTAL 13000 14000 17000 20000 24000
MARKETING
OUTLAY
PROMOTION 7000 8500 9000 10000 16000
SALES
PUBLICITY
5000 7500 8000 10000 15000
TOTAL 12000 16000 17000 20000 31000
CONCLUSION
It is found that H&M has adopted and implemented different marketing strategies in
order to achieve competitive advantage. They work in interrelation with other functional
departments like human resource, finance in order to achieve overall organisation goals. These
interrelationships would allow marketing to develop new concepts, which are flexible towards
achieving the other important organizational goals. It is also identified that H&M used an
innovative different advertisement methods for both in-stores and online shopping. H&M offers
a wide variety range clothing that allows customers to find their own personal style.
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REFERENCES
Books And Journals
Biswas, S., 2014. Relationship marketing: concepts, theories and cases. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
Chow, C.W., Lai, J.Y. and Loi, R., 2015. Motivation of travel agents' customer service behavior
and organizational citizenship behavior: The role of leader-member exchange and
internal marketing orientation. Tourism Management. 48. pp.362-369.
Dinnie, K., 2015. Nation branding: Concepts, issues, practice. Routledge.
Huang, Y.T. and Rundle-Thiele, S., 2014. The moderating effect of cultural congruence on the
internal marketing practice and employee satisfaction relationship: An empirical
examination of Australian and Taiwanese born tourism employees. Tourism
Management. 42.pp.196-206.
Kanyurhi, E.B. and Bugandwa Mungu Akonkwa, D., 2016. Internal marketing, employee job
satisfaction, and perceived organizational performance in microfinance institutions.
International Journal of Bank Marketing. 34(5). pp.773-796.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication.
51(2). pp.183-202.
Piercy, N., 2014. Marketing Organisation (RLE Marketing). Routledge.
Shank, M.D. and Lyberger, M.R., 2014. Sports marketing: A strategic perspective. Routledge.
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