Marketing Report: H&M's Function, Mix, and Strategic Plan Analysis

This report delves into the marketing strategies of H&M, a prominent player in the clothing industry. It begins by outlining the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within H&M, covering aspects like brand awareness, market research, and customer engagement. The report then compares H&M's marketing mix—including product, price, place, and promotion—with that of Zara, highlighting key differences in their approaches. Furthermore, the report prepares a comprehensive marketing plan for H&M, suggesting strategies to effectively market its products and maintain a competitive edge in the global fashion market. The analysis considers market expansion, customer preferences, and the importance of adapting to the dynamic nature of the fashion industry. The report also explores how the marketing department coordinates with other departments within H&M and acts as a watchdog to monitor the market and competitors.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................2
P1 Marketing function's roles and responsibilities in H&M.......................................................2
P2 Roles and responsibility of the Marketing in wider scope in H&M......................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
P3 Comparison of marketing mix of H&M and Zara..................................................................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Preparing a marketing plan for H&M....................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is essential function in business unit, it helps organisations in promoting their
brand and attracting more people towards the firm. Present study is based on H&M, that operates
in clothing industry. Entity offers trendy cloths to all consumers that assist firm in increasing
demand. Current assignment will discuss role of marketing and its responsibilities with reference
to H&M. Furthermore, it will compare marketing mix element of business with ZARA. In
addition, report will prepare marketing plan so that organisation can market its products
effectively.
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LO1
P1 Marketing function's roles and responsibilities in H&M
Marketing functions in any organisation consist of price, product, acquiring new
distribution channels, arranging funds, protecting market research information, buying and
selling. In H&M marketing function plays a significant role as it is the marketing department
who is responsible for letting people know about the products and services they are offering,
providing vital information about the market trends to the production, finance departments of the
H&M which helps other departments to provide quality products at the most reasonable price to
the target audience (Majeed, 2018). The roles of and responsibilities of marketing function in
H&M are given below:
1. Awareness of brand in the market: The H&M marketing department makes people
know about the product range they are offering at the competitive price through various
print, visual, digital media.
2. Conducting market research: Marketing department of the H&M is responsible for
preparing feasibility reports which states whether the proposed products will be able to
survive in the markets against its competitive brands.
3. Building and maintaining the brand image: It is very easy for an organisation to build
a brand image for once but maintaining the brand image for long run is difficult task for
the H&M. Managing the brand image through innovation in products, cost effective
marketing to reduce cost of the products, building loyal customer base, ensuring quality
products to its customers are all the responsibilities of the marketing department of the
H&M (Martha, 2017).
4. Creating an easy and attractive user interface on online website: The H&M's
marketing department is responsible for an easy to use online portal for the users to buy
H&M's products. Designing of the website page, making it look different from other
brands, differentiating its products from rival products, displaying the best products at the
online shop are the work of digital marketing department of the H&M company.
5. Discounts, offers, perks to the customers: Marketing department plays a crucial role in
deciding the right amount of discounts and other perks that can be offered to the
customers in order to increase the sales and the handle the competition in the market.
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6. Increasing the markets globally: Market expansion is the ultimate goal of H&M, and it
is the duty of marketing department to effectively search the opportunities where H&M
can enter and its products in different international markets by taking into consideration
various factors such as customers preferences in the different nations, purchasing power
of the consumers, legal environment of the proposed countries, political stability where
they see the opportunities (Vargo, 2018).
7. Coordination with other departments of H&M: The marketing department of H&M
doe not work in isolation, it has to coordinate with account and finance, production, HR,
research and development departments. It is the marketing department that provide
information to the production department that what the customers are expecting from
them, what quality of products are to be produced, how much the customers are wiling to
pay for their products, what should be the competitive price they should fix for their
products to earn a fair margin, it provides the marketing budgetary information to the
finance department, the amount needed for preparing marketing promotional materials
essential for increasing the sales. It coordinates with research and development
department also for the innovation and creativity in the company and its different
products
8. Acting as a watchdog: The marketing department of the H&M act as a watchdog as it
always keeps an eye on its rival's move in the market, on new entrants which could be
threat for the company, new mergers and acquisition occurred in the industry which could
severe the competition in the market. The department oversees everything happening in
the market and prepares its plans and strategies accordingly to beat the competition and to
maintain its position of trusted lifestyle and clothing brand.
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P2 Roles and responsibility of the Marketing in wider scope in H&M
Marketing in H&M organisation is one of main management function. Its importance lies
in the fact that this department is capable of affecting the company's revenues in either direction-
positive or negative. It is the way of marketing that builds the customers' perception towards the
brand and affects their decision whether to buy H&M's products or not which means that the
department is held responsible for the increased sales or the downfall in the sales of the company
(SZROMNIK, 2014).
The organisation faces various business problems where the marketing department act as
a saviour for the company's existence. H&M when facing trouble in selling its clothes have
decided to let marketing team play a front role in coping with the declining sales. The marketing
department have offered reasonable cuts in their products, lucrative offers to attract the
customers.
Marketing department uses its aggressive promotional tools when the company wants to
increase its sales and build a competitive edge over its rivals. High level of print and visual
media are used for promoting the products to make a place in the minds of the customers which
might induce them to try the brand if they are new customers.
H&M is a big concern which consist of various department one of which is production
department (Cherapanukorn, and Charoenkwan, 2017). Production and Marketing departments
go hand in hand because the marketing department have direct interaction with the customers,
they know what are the customers’ needs and requirements, how much the customers will likely
to pay for their products and what is their paying capacity. The marketing department also tells
the production department the quality of the products that needs to be produced by seeing the
response of customers towards brand's quality of products. It also compares the others brands
products and make quality base reports and gives to the production department which becomes
the guideline for this department to produce the products according to customers taste and
preferences (Lu and Yang, 2015).
The marketing department of H&M have the responsibility to find cost effective supply
chain for the production department. Acquisition of raw material from different supplier plays an
important role in deciding the price of the products H&M is serving to its customers. Marketing
department conducts research for finding out the trusted suppliers for the purchase department
and also it provides guidelines on how much the inventory should be kept in boom period. In
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return the purchase department tells the marketing department about the unsold stock company is
having and this is decreasing their profits and marketing department then makes strategies to
clear the stock by conducting sale programmes, discounts on the products without drastically
affecting H&M profitability margin (Pancho, A. I. S., 2017).
H&M's Marketing department's eventual organisational goal is to expand its operations
and market development is the strategy they use. Marketer of H&M are continuously searching
the different markets internationally where they can open its physical retail stores.
Diversification of their operations in different markets shows how big the brand is and how
efficiently it is serving their customers specifications. Marketing department seeks international
markets because of higher potential profits, talented employees, grabbing new culture so that the
company can widen its product range, creating more value of the brand by expanding its
customer base and providing the customer a good experience with its products (The marketing
mix, 2018).
Marketing department also look after managing H&M's brand image globally. H&M's
marketer ensures customers satisfaction is achieved by the company and in case the company is
falling behind in respect of what it has promised to the customers, takes the appropriate actions
and prepares the strategies to retain its customer's loyalty and tells other departments that
innovation in the products are required in order to survive the cut throat competition in this high
fashion industry and sustain its market share.
LO2
P3 Comparison of marketing mix of H&M and Zara
The marketing mix model contains following parameters upon which companies prepares
its strategies and they are price, product, place, positioning, promotion, packaging, people.
Marketing mix H&M Zara
Price H&M uses strategy of selling
the products at cheaper rates
than its rivals. It pricing
strategies are focussed on low
price of the products.
Reasonable quality at low
Zara puts its focus on customer
satisfaction. The value
customers derive from using
their products is the mantra for
Zara. The Zara applies the
market oriented pricing
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prices grabs the attention of
the youth and results into
increased sales (Majeed,
2018). It implements price
penetration strategy that helps
in offering low cost products
to consumers.
strategy which means it fixes it
product's price according to
target audience's willingness of
paying the price in different
markets globally. It
implements competitive
pricing strategy.
Product H&M focuses on widening the
product range. It offers wide
range of products from
catwalk designs to the regular
wears including sportswear. It
is partnered with big designers
around the world.
Zara offers luxurious clothing
and its product range covers
everything from casual to
formal outfits for men,
women, and kids and all these
forms the product strategy of
the Zara (Vargo, 2018).
Place H&M owns more than 4000
retail stores in the world and
also sells its clothing line and
accessories from its online
channel internationally to
reach masses. It physically
reaches different markets by
selling its franchises to local
partner. H&M produces its
items in the countries where
they find the cheapest labour
in order to achieve its pricing
strategy of selling products at
low rates to have competitive
edge It operates in Sweden,
Zara operates in more than 85
countries with more than 6400
physical retails. It also reaches
to its customers through online
media and sells it cloths and
accessories from its online
official site. Zara stores are
situated at very high class
areas in the cities designed by
their own teams.
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UK, US etc.
Promotion As the H&M brand operates
internationally and offers a
portfolio of items, it uses mix
of different promotional
strategy. It uses print media
like newspapers, fashion
magazines, journals to
promote its brand. Visual
media like advertisement on
televisions, advertisement on
social sites, promoting through
own you tube channel, uses
digital marketing to its fullest
and turning the likely people
into actual customers.
Zara does not actively
advertise its brand and is
known for being media resist
brand. Unlike its competitors
GAP and H&M it does not
engage in aggressive and eye
catching advertisements. It
relies on the customer's
experience and believes in
articulated concept that is what
the customer has felt while
using its products will say to
others. Customers' opinion is
what matters for Zara and
prefers the word of mouth
publicity rather than
advertising it on television
(SZROMNIK, 2014).
People H&M follow the policy of
shifting the employees from
one department to other
department to have sufficient
knowledge required for
working in the organisation. It
is also collaborated with
different designers around the
world to make its collection
trendy and exclusive. It
develops the employees
Zara hires highly skilled
personnel for the different
departments and currently
employs around 150000
people. It focuses on retaining
employees through continuous
growth, development and
promotion of the people
employed in Zara.
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personally and professionally
for the growth of the company.
Process H&M has smooth process,
consumers can raise their
quarries easily and entity gives
them immediate solution for
thi issues. This helps the firm
in making people loyal
towards brand.
Zara’s process is quite lengthy,
customers have to wait for
longer duration to get solution
for their issues related to
products and services (The
marketing mix, 2018)..
Physical evidence Stores, logos, infrastructure of
H&M are very eye catching.
Consumers like to come to its
outlets, there are adequate
space that makes the
consumers comfortable in
outlet (Cherapanukorn, and
Charoenkwan, 2017)..
Zara’s logo is very attractive
and its tag line as well is
amazing. It has stores in high
street locations that gain
attention of consumers.
LO3
P4 Preparing a marketing plan for H&M
A marketing plan starts with stating the marketing objectives, analysing the company's
internal and external environment, formulating 4P's and segmentation, targeting and positioning
strategies, preparing budgets, monitoring of the plan and lastly controlling of the plan if the
actual results are significantly deviating from the estimated results.
Objectives of Marketing Plan:
 To raise profit of company by 35% till the end of 2019.
 To open six more branches in other counties by the end of 2019
Marketing head of H&M will firstly identify the objectives that why the plan is required for
example to increase the sales, making people aware about the brand, building large customer
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base, entering into international boundaries, introducing new products, enhancing customer
relations. All these objectives will be set by the marketing head keeping in mind that they are
within the boundaries of organisational overall goals (Majeed, 2018).
SWOT Analysis: The marketing department of H&M will conduct research by assessing
company's strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.
Strengths
 One of the biggest approachable
clothing brand.
 Running more than 4500 stores
worldwide.
 fashionable, cat-walked and trendy
clothes at low prices than its
competitors
 Less delivery time in making clothes
available from designers' place to retail
stores.
 Engaged in auxiliary business to
support the core business to reap the
benefits of diversification.
 Big names are collaborated with the
brand.
Weakness
 Bulk purchasing is problem for H&M
as it leads to excess amount of unsold
stock which makes it for it to clear at
the existing price.
 Not so successfully in auxiliary
business
 Financial results below the industry
benchmarks.
Opportunities
 expansion of customer base by online
channels
 Developing nations an opportunity for
H&M to expand its business
operations.
 Focusing more on core areas to achieve
efficiency in the organisation.
Threats
 Lack of skilled labour,a threat for
H&M.
 Cut-throat competition internationally.
 Slapped with various lawsuits pending
regarding the product standards in
international markets.
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4P's of marketing : The 4P's of marketing are product, price, place and promotion.
 Product : The marketing department will go through the number of products its serving to
the customers and will look if there is any scope for adding more into their product lines.
 Price: A marketer will make a suitable pricing strategies which can be the affordable to
middle class people and different pricing strategies for the high fashionistas.
 Promotions: Traditionally H&M depends mainly on the visual media for advertising its
products, thus marketer will need to create more good customer satisfaction as it is the
best form of promoting the items as people tend to believe what other people say about
the brand.
 Place: The marketing head will need to explore the markets of emerging nations to reach
masses and makes its presence felt globally (Martha, 2017).
Segmentation, Targeting and positioning : The marketing department will form strategies for
proper segmentation of the market as to where the products are to be served internationally. It
will use demographic segmentation strategy for targeting the young people towards trendy
cloths. Targeting the audience will be an important task for the marketer as to whom they have to
serve or create a niche market for their products will decide the success of the brand.
Differentiated targeting will be implementing by H&M, this will help in attracting mass
audience. Positioning strategy will include either to back off from the market or to expand its
business, to introduce new products or to innovate the existing products (Vargo, 2018).
Preparing the budgets: A marketer will prepare the budgets which will state the funds he will
require for carrying out the marketing operations, for conducting promotional activities. The
budget of entire marketing plan would be 25000 Pound.
Monitoring: A plan is never successful until it is properly executed. So monitoring of the
prepared plan will be done by the marketing head to ensure that it is heading in the right
direction.
Controlling: Only monitoring is not enough for a plan to be successfully, taking follow up
actions are necessary. The marketing head will review the performances of the employees and
will compare the standard performance with actual performances and will find out the deviations
and will take the corrective steps accordingly (Majeed, 2018).
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