Marketing Strategy and Plan for House of Fraser (Module Name)

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis and digital campaign proposal for House of Fraser. It begins with an executive summary outlining the report's objectives, followed by an introduction that sets the context for the study. The report then delves into the company's background, including its history and recent challenges, particularly in the UK market. A detailed SWOT analysis evaluates the brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Segmentation and targeting strategies are defined, focusing on the UK consumer. The report analyzes House of Fraser's brand position and sets brand positioning goals. SMART objectives are established for a digital marketing campaign, followed by a detailed discussion of the proposed digital campaign, including specific strategies and tactics. The report concludes with a summary of challenges and recommendations for House of Fraser, providing actionable insights for improving its marketing performance and addressing its current difficulties in the retail market.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
Executive Summary:
The main aim of the paper is to recommend a digital campaign, which needs to be
implemented in House of Fraser for responding to the identified challenges in regards with
the existing marketing strategies. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the existing
positioning strategies for deducing the framework of marketing communication goals and
SMART objectives. The paper has discussed the existing strength, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats of the organisation in the UK market. It is concluded by presenting a summary of
the challenges and recommendations for House of Fraser.

2MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Company background............................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis of House of Fraser in UK:...........................................................................4
Segmentation and targeting:...................................................................................................5
Brand position analysis..........................................................................................................6
Brand positioning goal:..........................................................................................................8
Brand Communication objectives -SMART Goals:..............................................................9
Digital campaign:.................................................................................................................11
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................13

3MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
Introduction
The blueprint or comprehensive document, which outlines marketing and advertising
efforts for the future, is known as marketing plan. A marketing plan is prepared for
accomplishing marketing objectives within a stipulated time period (Baker 2016). It depicts
the operational document of business targeting and advertising for expansion of the target
market. The main purpose of the report is to prepare a strong digital marketing plan for
House of Fraser in order to strengthen the existing marketing strategies. This will help in
extensive product development as well as market expansion of the organisation. The
marketing plan helps in tailoring main messages for various bases of segmentation. Proper
selection of media platforms for the facilitating the communication of the new markets, is
possible by preparing a feasible marketing plan. It also helps in setting a success metric for
(re)structuring the product and positioning timeline. The first phase of marketing planning
comprises of sales projection and the assessment of promotional incorporation effectively and
efficiently. The process allows the product or service offerings to identify the areas for
planning as well as strategizing customer engagement. The assessment involves both
competitive position evaluation as well as new strategic implementation. The next stage
included organizing strategies and objectives. It establishes the relationship in proposed
activities and business operations.
Apart from the digital marketing campaign, the purpose of the paper also includes the
analysis of the existing positioning strategies for deducing the framework of marketing
communication goals and SMART objectives. The paper will also emphasize on the existing
strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the organisation in the UK market.

4MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
Discussion
Company background
The British group of departmental store, House of Fraser comprises of around 54
stores in the region of United Kingdom and Ireland. The brand was established in the year
1849 in Scotland. It started declining and facing increased challenges in regards to online
retail platforms growth. House of Fraser was bought by Sports Direct after being
administered in August 2018. The online presence was taken down immediately and it was
launched again in December 2018. The company is entering the challenging transformational
phase and has steadily developed during 20th century to prevent further collapse. It
transformed into national chain as the company strategized a number of alliances as well as
the formation of the acquisitions in order to reposition the band that are discussed in the
following paragraphs.
SWOT Analysis of House of Fraser in UK:
Strengths-
o An old and huge heritage of around
168 years.
o Introduction of new refurbished
stores at sought-after locations.
o Flexibility of the business model
o Company’s wide reach through the
contributions of multiple channels.
o The brand is known for embodying
customer loyalty, practicality and
quality.
Opportunities-
o Helping the house brands with
growth.
o Increasing online infrastructure in
the channel mix.
o Focus on the field of digital
marketing channels.
o Online sign-up option for
recognition card/membership card
for building brand loyalty.

5MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
o Incorporation of technology for
addressing customer preferences.
o The need for trendy clothes will
never be affected by the changing
financial condition.
Weaknesses-
o The inefficiency in the stock buying
process and warehouse operations.
o The company is not experiencing
expected returns from the iconic
brands.
o The sales in the category of food,
travel items and women wear
decreased (Chernev2015).
o Lower sales rates caused the
financial crisis of the company.
o Highly seasonal business
o Dependency on IT systems and
distribution centres.
Threats-
o The phenomenon of Brexit can
cause negative impact over business
operational activities.
o Highly competitive market
o Uncertainty in the economic and
political scenario.
o Decreasing/Declining customer
spending.
Segmentation and targeting:
The segmentation base of the brand which are targeted in the population of United Kingdom-
o Geographic segment- The geographic segment of House of Fraser is based on the
population of UK (Kubacki, Dietrichand Rundle-Thiele2017).

6MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
o Demographic segment- The segment is divided based on gender, age, family size,
education level and income level. The brand specifically targeted women in the age
group of 35-40, income level is similar or higher than the national average of the
country with high educational qualification (Andaleeb2016).
o Psychographic- The brand segmented the population of United Kingdom based on
lifestyle as well as the interests of the potential market (Venter, Wright and
Dibb2015). The population with high fashion sense, have a strong opinion about their
likes and dislikes and have the tendency or interest for discovering new things. People
with the strong interests towards quality and price(Blakeman2018).
o Behavioural segmentation- The behavioural segmentation is facilitated by focussing
on the targeting customers with high usage rate with high value standards. They
segment the category by incorporating brand loyalty card (Camilleri2018).
Brand position analysis
o Internet- The House of Fraser have reflected slow growth for responding to the
changing business environment in terms of technological implications. On the other

7MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
hand, growing digital retailers like Amazon have incorporated technological features
for increasing the customer satisfaction and market reach (Gupta2017).
o Weakening Unique Selling price (USP) -The physical departmental stores are still
operating with a decent rate of customer footfall as well as the engagement with the
brand because of the ever increasing requirements. However, the brand position of
House of Fraser is changing with the diminishing range of USP for attracting
customers or revisits (Chernev2018).
o House of Fraser is failing to maintain its established position in the market by aligning
with the changing consumer preferences (Hamelin, Gbadamosiand Peters 2017). It is
failing in spite of operating with around 54 departmental stores, which is greater as
compared with Debenhams and John Lewis. The company is experiencing high level
of competition from both offline and online offerings.
o The retail store brand has also experienced issues with ownership and management as
it experienced changes in terms of the bid target.
o Another challenge, which occurred in regards with the brand positioning of House of
Fraser was the phenomenon of Brexit that marked significant changes in trade and
labour policies of the United Kingdom.
o The increasing improbability in export as well as import of the economic market.
o The changing economic scenario of United Kingdom results in the formation of
operational risks and challenges in the organization.
o The increasing rate of competition from other supermarkets like Sainsbury and Asda.
o The tax rate in United Kingdom increased.

8MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
o The economic condition of the country post the implementation of Brexit will
decrease the disposable income of the population of United Kingdom.
o Increase in the raw material cost will result in the shift of customer buying behaviour.
o The changing customer spending structure by cutting down the expenditure.
o The brand lacks a clear as well as recognisable identity as well as the clear
understanding about the target market.
o The company is experiencing a diminished level of high street operations because of
widespread closure of store.
Brand positioning goal:
The phenomenon of changing the status of the brand in marketplace by changing the
elements of the marketing mix is known as brand positioning. The phenomenon is facilitated
for addressing customer needs and wants.
For implementing the repositioning strategy, House of Fraser will have to incorporate
the ‘transformational phase’ which will include the strategy of dropping a range of women
wear brands including home brands for increasing the focus of the customers on a larger scale
with the attention on more-profitable brands (Prideand Ferrell2016). The repositioning goals
may include-
 House of Fraser can start introducing newer brands as well as the approach in a
minimum of five stores
 Incorporating Athleisure collection in around 40 stores in United Kingdom.
 The strategy of incorporating a year round option of ‘gifting items’.
 The categories which are not considered as core products can be dropped (McDonald
and Wilson2016).

9MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
 The marketing strategy involved in the brand positioning goal can be the focus on
family-oriented approach which is not only concentrated in the demography of young
population by using advertising strategies.
 The strategies will aim to achieve the strategy of increasing customer satisfaction and
engagement by analyzing the customer preferences and changing business
environment (Laurieand Mortimer2019).
 The objective of brand repositioning is to direct the focus from just sales to brand
selection.
Brand Communication objectives -SMART Goals:
1. S- Specific: Clarity of vision for expanding the target market and market
attractiveness.
M- Measurable: Positioning or transforming the brand positioning into ‘Harrods of
the High Street’ as it will allow the new takeover to change the perception of the
brand by wider targeting strategies(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2019).
A- Achievable: The repositioning goals can be achieved by re-establishing the
company into a luxury brand (Bjerke and Renger 2017). The transformation can
be implemented with the help of Kotter’s eight step model which will enable the
company in forming/creating a sense of urgency, by recruiting strong as well as
efficient leaders and by building and communicating the transformed vision of the
company (Bjerke and Renger 2017).
R- Realistic: The company needs to implement new strategic goals by the presence of
new marketing and Chief Operations Officer for reaching the goal of repositioning.
T- Time-based: The time required for achieving the desired strategy is 12 months.

10MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
2. S- Specific: The goal of creating a strong as well as significant competitive advantage
in the market among other retailers like John Lewis and Debenhams by introducing
effective media strategies.
M- Measurable: The goal of repositioning can be evaluated by the changed and value-
added shopping experience of the customers in the physical stores of House of Fraser,
for example- Test beds for the introduction of new product ranges by the use of
advertising resources.
A-Achievable: The new repositioning strategies will restate the shopping experience
of the customers with a focus on the core quality products rather than the availability
of non-profitable and non-engaging items. The company will experience a significant
rate of customer recognition as well as the likability regarding the USP and
premiumness of the product line (McDONALD2016).
R- Realistic: Incorporation of new and improved strategy of redefining scope of
quality/premium customer experience as well as the scope of improved shopping
ranges and shopping benefits (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2019).
T- Time-bound: The goal is expected to be achieved in a period of 12 months.
3. S- Specific: The goal of regaining a significant presence in the retail business with a
strong brand identity by the help of communication medium (Chaffey and Ellis-
Chadwick 2019).
M- Measurable: Reduction in the clothing and fashion ranges by introducing the
brands which will add value to the overall experience. Narrowing the product offering
portfolio will help in achieving the goal.

11MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN
A-Achievable: The introduction of luxury ranges in regards with beauty, fashion,
home products and clothing line and creating awareness with the help of selective
media strategy.
R- Realistic: The attainment of the goals by implementing the Integrated Marketing
Communication strategies through the selective media plan. The adoption of selective
platform will allow the company to facilitate the repositioning exercise.
T- Time-bound: The implementation of communication strategy is expected to reflect
results under the period of 12 months.
Digital campaign:
The functions of digital marketing campaigns are expected to be complex, sustainable
and dynamic in comparison with the traditional marketing methods. The facilitation of the
digital campaign requires implementation of digital campaign strategies involving
incorporation of an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan (Filland Turnbull2016). The
plan includes phases like, situational analysis, setting marketing communication objectives,
forming strategies based on the communication strategies, construction and selection of
marketing communication mix. The next planning phase will be deciding on the area of
budgeting and scheduling for implementing the communication plan (Andrewsand
Shimp2017).
For facilitating the strategies of Integrated Marketing Communication and for creating
a response to the changing needs and preferences of the customers, the formation of a
significant USP, repositioning and developing key messages for developing premiumness is
needed.
The digital campaign will focus on increasing brand recognition and customer loyalty of
the product portfolio that will reposition the brand as the new Harrods of High Streets. The