Analysis of Mark and Spencer's International Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Mark and Spencer's international marketing strategies. It begins with an introduction to standardization and adaptation in international marketing, followed by a PEST analysis to identify key trends affecting the company. The report then delves into Mark and Spencer's product offerings, including food, clothing, home goods, financial services, and energy. Section 2 focuses on the company's pricing strategies, distribution networks, and communication strategies, including audience segmentation, marketing campaigns, and feedback mechanisms. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and references relevant academic sources.

STANDARDIZATION AND ADAPTATION OF
COMPANIES INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
INCLUDING THEIR PRODUCT PRICING
DISTRIBUTION AND COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SECTION 1.....................................................................................................................................3
SECTION 2.....................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
This report has described the standardization and adaptation technique of Mark and Spencer.
Standardization means a process of implementing and developing technical standards which will
be based upon different parties, interest group and government. Adaptation on the other hand
means a process involving modifying a product so as to meet the customer requirement.
SECTION 1
Key Trend
The analysis of key trend affecting Mark and Spencer is being done through PEST analysis.
POLITICAL FACTORS
These factors will impact Mark and Spencer long term profitability in certain country and
market. So, to make long term profits Mark and Spencer should keep in mind the political factors
of different country which include laws related to retail sectors, pricing regulations, tax rates and
incentives given by government, product labeling and other political changes. Mark and Spencer
must also keep in mind the political stability as if the government is changing frequently in any
country then they will also have to change their way of working and this will adversely affect
their working. These will help Mark and Spencer to know the level of risk that they will face in
new region. They can then make their decision about whether to enter into the market or not.
Mark and Spencer has already exposed itself to various political risk by entering into different
market as they are operating in many countries.
ECONOMIC FACTORS
These factors include both micro and macro economic factors which will affect Mark and
Spencer. The micro economic factors mainly include competitive norms which impacts the
competitive advantage over other firms. The macro economic factors include inflation rates,
saving rates, interest rates, foreign exchange rates, economic growth rate etc., any changes in any
of these rates will affect the working of the company(Quinn and et.al., 2016). Mark and Spencer
must evaluate and up to some point predict these economic changes which will help them to grab
any opportunity to get the first mover advantage and safeguard against any threats which they
might face because of any adverse changes. Economic factors also include the government
intervention in the free market and customer services, this will also affect Mark and Spencer as

excessive government intervention into the activity of the company will affect their daily
working.
SOCIAL FACTOR
These factors basically include the culture and belief of the society and the way of working
which impacts the organization environment. Through understanding these social factors Mark
and Spencer the customer of a given market and how they design their customer needs. The
social factors affecting the customer of Mark and Spencer are class of their customer, education
level, attitude toward the environment, leisure interest etc., generally Mark and Spencer have
high class customer so the company should focus on their quality. Also, the customer are
educated and are well aware of the environment conditions so Mark and Spencer must take care
that their activities do not contribute to the degradation of the environment.
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
This is a fast disrupting factors which affects the whole industry in which a company is working.
These factors are being changing at a fast rate over the last 5 years which has forced Mark and
Spencer to change its way of working. Mark and Spencer should not only be keep updated with
these technological changes but they should also adapt the changes as soon as possible.
Technological changes affects the product being offered and the cost being charged by Mark and
Spencer(Mazurek and Tkaczyk, 2016). The greatest challenge is online sale of products, so Mark
and Spencer have started selling their product online. Technological changes must be adapted as
resisting the change will rule the company out of the market(Opreana and Vinerean, 2015).
Mark and Spencer is a leading British retailer, the company provides the following products and
services
FOOD
Mark and Spencer is known for its quality and freshness of their food products. The company is
currently working hard to rebuilt trust for the food being provided. For this the company has
invested in beef mince and is seeing a positive customer response by increasing the sale by 29%
as a result.
CLOTHING AND HOME

The company main growth in clothing industry is rising, their aspiration is famous for
contemporary, wearable style at great value. The company is mainly in supply of women wear.
The company has seen an increase of 30% in women clothing. Denim has been one of the
strongest key category for Mark and Spencer.
MARK AND SPENCER BANK
The company also provide a range of financial services including saving accounts, current
accounts, insurance mortgages etc., they are not performing well in this sector(Mazurek and
Tkaczyk, 2016).
MARK AND SPENCER ENERGY
The company has been partner with Octopus energy to provide renewable energy. The company
have trained employees to deal with different type of energy. The company claims that a
customer saves an average of 120 pounds compared to customer of other energy provider.
SECTION 2
PRICING STRATEGIES
The current pricing strategy of Mark and Spencer is competitive based pricing strategy, this is
because the data of competitor are easily available. The company sells their product at a price
higher than its competitor price. This is because the company offer better quality and added
features. The company also uses an optional product pricing strategy for certain products which
means price being charge for the base product and separate price for the accessories that come
along. The company charges higher for the product it sells online, as it adds the delivery charge
with the price of the products. Marks Spencer should introduce discounts and allowances, where
it lowers prices for a short period of time in order to attract customers and gain market
share(Stephen, 2016).
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES
Mark and Spencer has got more than 1000 retail stores which are operating all over the world in
more than 50 countries. The majority of the stores are located in United Kingdom with over 850
stores located there. It has got around 50+ stores in India where it began trading in 2001. Other
countries where the company have stores are Turkey, Spain, France, Ireland, Hungary, Finland
etc., Also the company has got its own website for selling their product online and it also provide
international delivery for some of its products.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
Mark and Spencer should use communication strategies to bridge the situation analysis and the
implementation of a social and behavior change communication. The communication strategies
used by Mark and Spencer includes audience segmentation, communication channel to
disseminate messages and budgets of the organisation, feedback from customers. These are some
of the common communication strategies used by Mark and Spencer. The company can use
marketing campaign so that the customers know about the new product. Feedback is being used
as another communication tool so that the company knows what improvement the customers
want or what customization must be made to the current product ti satisfy the customers needs. A
communication strategy sets the tone and direction so that all communication activities, products
and materials work in harmony to achieve the desired change. These strategies are also used to
communicate to different stakeholders of Mark And Spencer.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, we have come to a concluded about Mark and Spencer key trend by a
through analysis if PEST. Also, all the products offered by the company is discussed in the
report. At last the pricing distribution and communication strategies are discussed in the section
2

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Einstein, M., 2016. Black ops advertising: Native ads, content marketing, and the covert world of
the digital sell. OR Books.
Mazurek, G. and Tkaczyk, J. eds., 2016. The impact of the digital world on management and
marketing. Poltext.
Opreana, A. and Vinerean, S., 2015. A new development in online marketing: Introducing digital
inbound marketing. Expert Journal of Marketing. 3(1).
Quinn, L and et.al., 2016. Troubled waters: the transformation of marketing in a digital world.
European Journal of Marketing. 50(12). pp.2103-2133.
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital
generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior.
Current Opinion in Psychology. 10, pp.17-21.
(Ryan, 2016)