H&M's Marketing Mix, STP, and Relationship Marketing Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of H&M's marketing strategies. It begins with an introduction to marketing management and the H&M brand, highlighting its global presence and business model. The report then delves into an STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) analysis of H&M, examining its geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation. It identifies H&M's target audience and discusses its positioning as a fast-fashion brand with an economical and environmentally sustainable image. The report further explores H&M's marketing mix, detailing its product offerings, pricing strategies, distribution channels, and promotional activities. It also applies the Product Life Cycle (PLC) theory to H&M's products, outlining the stages from introduction to decline. Finally, the report examines H&M's relationship marketing strategies, emphasizing the importance of customer loyalty and long-term engagement. It highlights the benefits of relationship marketing, such as increased customer lifetime value and reduced marketing costs, and suggests various relationship marketing strategies, including networking, customer appreciation, and active listening. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for H&M's marketing approach.

Marketing Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
STP Analysis of H & M...............................................................................................................3
Marketing Mix.............................................................................................................................5
Relationship Marketing...............................................................................................................6
Analysis of STP and 4Ps of H&M and relationship marketing...................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing management is defined as the market structure which helps in identifying
marketing opportunities by applying appropriate strategies for profit making of organization and
contributing to effective and efficient management for the company's marketing analysis
construction (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). H&M a Swedish clothing retailer company was
founded in 1947 is grown into one of the most recognizable brands of clothing in the fashion
industry. It has almost 4000 stores worldwide and has more plans for the expansion in different
countries worldwide. It is one of the most expensive fashion brand which deals in selling of
clothes, accessories and in different fashion related areas. Hennes and Mauritz have proliferated
this brand in their name by acquiring large market area for the high – class consumers who desire
to buy the products. H&M has distinct business model for the growth aspect in the market
structure. The brand outsources its production to more than 900 suppliers across the world which
takes in concern the business factor for spreading more awareness about the products the
company sells. To ensure safe working conditions for the employees H&M has introduced pilot
programmes. The report will consist of segmentation basis, targeting strategies, positioning and
using perceptual maps to establish the brand's position in the market by defining marketing mix
plan and applying key theories PLC and NPD along with relationship marketing with
recommendations of STP, 4P's of H&M Company. Relationship marketing is defined as the
compilation of marketing strategies for long – term engagement between the customers and the
management.
STP Analysis of H & M
STP is the abbreviation of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. It compiles the factors of
marketing strategy in which the base customer is identified and accordingly product is marketed.
Segmentation

It involves a number of factors like age of the customer base, gender ,income group, the lifestyle
followed etc. Segmentation thus focuses on customers who require specific products. Thus,
dividing the marketplace in small segments which has buyers to support the actual needs of the
customers. Markets are thus divided into geographic, demographic,psycho graphic and
behavioural segments.
Geographic segment: Company has stores at prominent places of market area in UK. It serves as
convenience to customers to go for one time shopping and buy the products at their convenience.
Demographic segment: H & M mainly targets youth age group of 15-30 years specially women
who have a crave for shopping fashion clothing and buying homeware.
Psycho graphic segment: H & M focuses on the lifestyle and interests of people who may be
interested in buying fashionable wear and are ready to shelve out extra money to buy luxury
clothing.
Behavioural segment: Company focuses on the purchase habits of customers when they would
like to purchase the products and what additional benefits they are seeking while making a
purchase.
Targeting
The customer which the company thinks can be the target group to focus upon is known as
targeting. For H & M the target group is youth of age group 15-30 years who are in the pursuit of
looking fashionable and are looking for clothing which can suit their budget requirements. Since
H & M also deals in homeware the other target is women. Women in the households are in look
for budgetary homeware which is balanced with a modern look as well as durable. Although H &
M caters to the clothing needs of children as well as men, still when women come to make a
purchase they buy for their children as well as husbands. H & M have a strategy to focus on
lower and middle income groups as it does not price its products high. Thus it caters to a large
segment who are in look for branded products which are in convenience mode for them to buy in
market localities and also keep them bind towards the product range through targeted offers at
special festive occasions (Išoraitė, 2016).
Positioning
The positioning of a product means building a brand image in the minds of customers. It can be a
product's selling point which makes it stand out from other products of the same range or
category. It is also necessary to position your product as there is competition prevailing in the
market. H & M has placed a factor named as 'fast fashion' which distinguishes it from other
brands. H & M has used this model to become one of the top retail chains in clothing. It involves
getting the merchandise from the designers to the stores for purchase in the shortest time
possible. New innovations with a modern outlook is appreciated by everybody and specially

youth. When they see the celebrities wearing design fab they also want to wear the same outfits.
H&M realises this fact and thus has worked on it for years now.
Secondly, the company has made its image as an economical and environment
sustainable brand. Company has priced its products in lower to medium range and not
compromised with quality which has satisfied customers and they have been attached to the
brand for a long time now.
The company's participation in environment concern events and taking up sponsorship of these
events have further added to its social responsibility image.
Marketing Mix
The marketing mix is the combination of a set of factors that is used by a company to promote its
products in the market. There are 4Ps of marketing which together form marketing mix of an
organisation (Blut, Teller and Floh, 2018).
Product
H&M has a diversified portfolio of products ranging from clothes, accessories, shoes, bags and
beauty care products. Although the main product which it specialises in is clothing which caters
to all the three groups of women, men and children. H&M has designer suits to latest fashion
garments which can attract sales from various households. Its products have unique features of
latest fashion trending which differentiates it from other brands. Apart from it one product
segment caters to the section of traditional wear.
Price
H&M prices its products at a lower price than market average and thus caters to a larger segment
of lower to middle income group. It has economies of scale achieved and therefore is able to
distribute the costs over a large number of manufactured products. It helps in low pricing and
maximise sales.
Place
H&M has a large number of wholesalers and suppliers thus having a long distribution chain of
network which supplies to a number of retail stores all over the country. Also H&M has its online
presence with its own website to promote and ease of sell for online customers (Išoraitė,2016).
Promotion
H&M uses traditional as well as modern approaches to promote its products with giving
advertisements on radio and television. Also, it promotes its products on social media platforms.
Its sales staff are active on road shows and simultaneously hoardings and banners also are there
to promote the products.

PLC Theory
PLC refers to the product life cycle. It describes the stages from when the product is launched till
the product is discontinued. It involves four stages:
Introduction
The stage when the product is introduced in the market when the production is very less in
market and it is one of a kind product which is able to attract the attention of customers.
H&M uses this method when it is launching a new designer brand with catchy
advertisements on hoardings and banners at prominent places. This invokes curiosity in the
minds of customers.
Growth
This is the second stage where product start getting famous and increasing its market share. It
grows up to start building a brand name for itself and achieves market penetration.
H&M in this stage does widespread publicity of communicating the benefits and unique
features of its products and thus achieving market penetration to gain market share (Blut, Teller,
and Floh, 2018).
Maturity
This is the stage where product starts facing competition from other alternatives in the market.
The pricing of the product drops and it has to be made within customers' nearest convenience to
make selling.
H&M in maturity stage of the product focuses on making the distribution process more
intensive with product being accessible to customers at the nearest retail centres to the
customers. Also it focuses on spreading more awareness about the product by emphasising on its
unique features than the other brands.
Decline
The product has reached its end stage. It has fewer competitors than before and distribution has
also declined. This is the time when people have started looking for better alternatives available.
H&M at this stage gives discounts on the product to catch customer's attention about
product existence and company tries to move the stock out with lucrative to avoid losses.
Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing is customer relationship management that generally focused on loyalty of
customer and maintain long term engagement rather than short term relations. The main goals of
relationship customer is brought strong, emotional connected that may lead to carrying business
for future. In H&M relationship marketing stands for conventional transactional market
formulation which have less adjusted on respective selling (Gummerus, von and Kowalkowski,
2017). Target audience can be convinced for selecting their brand for one time, but without
having powerful marketing relationship strategies. While H&M might pool both weather
relationship and transactional marketing. Hence, customer relationship play crucial role while in
developing their business strategy.
Benefits of RM:-
High consumer lifetime measure- RM in H&M develop loyal customer which can advantage to
high acquisition and consumer lifetime value. Loyal clients are to like brand ambassadors and
usually used highly luxury products and services on regular basis. Try to recommend about their
goods to friends, family and some business clients.
Decrease in marketing and spend on advertisement- Spending on marketing can be acquired new
customer that can be more expensive. In promoting their H&M product that can help to increase
more customer relationship value along with their business development.
Strong organizational alliance about the consumer- H&M express the strong relationship with
their customer in market have brand value among their audience (Gummesson, 2017). The teams
in company work together to develop satisfaction and happy their customer for long term.
Relationship marketing strategies-
Market strategies based on relationship with their customer which is very important for today's
business. Here are some relationship marketing strategies that can be hopeful for making
business successful:-
Networking:- Online and offline networking can leads to be powerful tools for building
relationship. It would be more interesting for H&M as they make group and share attraction.
This could not only help customer brand awareness but also create potential consumer base.
Taking and keeping in mind that might be better strategies for marketing against their
relationship.
Treasure each customer:- H&M should make sure that their company interaction with customer
being valued. When customer feels the value for their products, they just lets to other knows.

While maintaining relationship company can use many tools like social media, advertisement
etc. particularly with attachment a corporal cause to digital advantage.
Listen to customer:- Listen to customer is most important prat for H&M to build up their
relationship (Lo and Campos,2018). Organization may also come to know about their products
and have feedbacks and suggestion that would help them in making more target audience (Payne
and Frow, 2017). Equal listening and respond to compliment towards products can be beneficial.
Relationship strategies among them business and customer created for listening their conflicts
having in products and services, it must be mandatory for them as meanwhile people rather share
their products problems to other people.
Develop brand identified:- For making brand memorable among customer somehow can be
difficult for H&M. Once if fashion, food and cosmetic products have strong identity it will be
simpler for H&M to attracts more customer towards them and people will try to encourage other
customer for use that brand products.
Provide free information to customer:- Consumer have rights to know about their using brand
and must be familiar with that products which they are using. In developing relationship
strategies H&M should follow up online business and home delivery services (Sheth, 2017).
H&M provide their brand information on website or through mobile app which might be
recommended to clients.
Loyalty rewards:- Company created strategies for their customer on shopping. If consumer go
shopping online they will have some points on specific purchasing that could, may lead to
develop their strategies and maintain their relationship with customer in market. While having
store offline shopping H&M provided loyal card to large billing that could help them to stay
customer keep purchasing.
Better communication:- They can often better communication for consumer through website
feedback or suggestion in each store which might be helpful H&M in generating their
relationship strategies. Social media, advertising, email are always in communicating to
customer that want to receive messages or information in that direction. Be sure that must be
appropriate information and meaningful for them.
Special events:- Handling special events for existing and target audience customer is great to
develop their relationship. If H&M company put great event topic that customer tending about,
then they can retrieve the experience and business strategies (Steinhoff and et.al., 2019). It could

be also probable possession to customer for having top events, they can add incentives, but it is
simplex thanks to tailored.
Analysis of STP and 4Ps of H&M and relationship marketing
H&M has used a robust marketing strategy to become one of the largest clothing retail chains in
UK.
The segmentation done is on scientific basis consisting of all the four factors viz.
Geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural aspects of customers.
The targeting is aptly done on youth and women which are the biggest buyers of its
products. Although, it needs to catch men's and children attention equally as to create further
interest.
The positioning through the unique feature of fast fashion model has made the brand
famous and has been set in the minds of customers as an ever evolving brand.
Now considering the 4 Ps the marketing strategy is apt but has a further scope of improvement as
follows:
Product (Recommendations)
It can extend additional benefits of after sales service and by taking feedback of customers as and
when they return to the store. This will bring individualised attention.
It can check the products durability before launching it in the market (Thabit and Raewf,
2018).
Price
It uses low pricing but on certain products can put a premium if it is of top quality. People
willing to buy higher quality will also be ready to pay the premium. At festive seasons it can
relax those prices.
Place
It can increase awareness about products on social media and take up more sponsorship of
environment causes to make its brand image of an eco-friendly corporate. It can also increase its
presence in rural areas as people are ready to purchase brand products there also
(Lahtinen, V., Dietrich, T. and Rundle-Thiele, S., 2020).
Promotion
It can do more road shows and advertise the products in a new launch. It can use digital
techniques to help making product search better on its websites and help in online selling.
Innovative ideas of employees should be welcome in promoting the products.

Recommendation for relationship marketing
Long term relationship can build sales, increase number of customer and also improve overall
business strategy. H&M can create business strategies for keeping long term customer. It must be
more comfortable and cost effective to sell their product to customer than to bring new clients
and sell them. Probably H&M have spent much money to bring new customer and try to put
some efforts for making strategies and increase customer base. H&M have many stores in
different countries and if one customer trust on their products, and they can give suggestion to
other customer about their brand products. Organization can design long term strategies business
plan in generating customer loyalty. While implementing that plan they have work continuous in
improving their plans and strategies (Zhang And et.al., 2016). Organization do not directly give
them offer, keep chosen option for them along with this have to keep patient level to developing
customer relationship. H&M with different stores and with many peoples must be honest for
their work and become more friendly in making them comfortable. Pass them information of
products being launched or already exists which could be most important for H&M.
Organization implements two-way communication channels with unique tools either use social
media to talk with their potential clients, all innovation and ideas are possible in improving their
products and services. Company can also start using suggestion or questioners through H&M
online website or use contact directly from stores. Every small things based on information or
initiatives must be value bale and communicate smoothly.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is analysed that segmentation of the company is done on the
basis number of customers the brand has covered, the marketing base in buying the products of

those customers along with the different marketing strategies which help in the growth of the
brad's market value on the financial basis. The demographic and geographic factors in the
marketing strategies include the age and income of the customers which helps in analysing that
how greater the customer base is along with the geographical factors which aid in defining the
areas or countries which increased more profit of the company. The brand's position is identified
by forming the Fast Fashion Model in positioning strategies with reference to H&M. Marketing
mix strategies assist in defining the variety of products the company produces along with the
price structure by promoting the brand and the product through social – media marketing
strategies like Facebook, twitter, Instagram and the official website of H&M in different
countries and worldwide. Different distribution and promotional strategies aid in analysing the
products value and the market position of the brand by applying key theories such as PLC and
NPD. The relationship marketing and its strategies assist in the formation for growth of the
company and achieve the target market by attracting more customers which is formed
maintaining the relationship between the customers and the management of the company. Also,
the recommendations assisted in the analysis of STP, 4P's and relationship marketing of the
H&M company.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marketing management of H&M company defines the various strategies and analysis for
the growth and development of the company along with spreading its market structure in
different countries efficient and effective achievement of goals that are set by the company with
reference to selling varied products in the markets and generate large customer base for the
brand.