International Marketing Plan: John Lewis's Qatar Retail Expansion

This report presents a strategic marketing plan for John Lewis's retail expansion into the Qatar market. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, followed by a situation analysis, including a PESTLE and Five Forces analysis, and a SWOT analysis to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Marketing objectives are defined, targeting sales of $300 million and the opening of 30 stores within three years, focusing on the high and middle-income consumer segments. The report details the marketing mix, including product, pricing (premium), place (online and offline channels), and promotion strategies (traditional and digital). An action plan, ethical considerations, and control measurements are also included. The Uppsala model is applied for international market entry. The appendices provide additional details on the introduction and situation analysis. The report highlights Qatar's attractive retail market, leveraging its high income levels and growth potential to capitalize on the expansion of existing retailers, and the increasing use of online and offline sales channels.

International Marketing and
Sales

Executive Summary
This report contain strategic marketing plan for John Lewis company which is expanding
its retail business in Qatar market. It contain steps for marketing plan and process of
implementation. Qatar has high market and economy of people is very high which has increased
from past few years. John Lewis has targeted high and middle group of people for supply of
goods and services. Also marketing objectives has been designed to support corporate objectives
for achieving sales of $300m and new opening of 30 stores in next three years.
As it has adopted premium pricing strategy for customer which consists of 145000
residents units and 83% retail stock. It charge high prices with customers and provide high
quality goods. It is great opportunity for John Lewis to expand business in such rich country.
According to New Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) Qatar ranks 4th in number which is
major retail hub of Dubai. Qatar is regarded as most attractive market in Middle East for retail.
GRDI has placed total six middle east countries in top 30 which attracts retail market for
development. Despite of decrease in oil prices, retail growth is continued which is still strong.
From data, it has said that Qatar is expanding business from existing retailers.
John Lewis has online as well as offline portal for selling goods and services. Offline
includes physical store which helps in building relationship with customers. It uses traditional as
well as digital promotion strategy for their audience. This helps in creating brand awareness
among user which increase sales and profit. This enterprise focus on corporate social
responsibility and follow all ethical values and principles. CSR activities assist in
communicating business to society, customers and government.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
.........................................................................................................................................................2
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................5
1.1 Overview of retailing in Qatar..............................................................................................5
2.0 Situation Analysis......................................................................................................................5
3.0 SWOT Analysis ........................................................................................................................5
4.0 Marketing Objectives.................................................................................................................6
5.0 Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning..................................................................................6
5.1 Segmentation.........................................................................................................................6
5.2 Targeting...............................................................................................................................7
5.3 Positioning.............................................................................................................................7
6.0 Marketing Mix...........................................................................................................................7
6.1 Product Strategy....................................................................................................................7
6.2 Pricing Strategy.....................................................................................................................8
6.3 Place......................................................................................................................................8
6.4 Promotion Strategy................................................................................................................8
6.4.1 Traditional promotional strategy........................................................................................9
6.4.2 Digital promotional strategy..............................................................................................9
6.5 People, Physical evidence and process.................................................................................9
7.0 Action Plan...............................................................................................................................10
8.0 Ethics and Sustainability..........................................................................................................10
9.0 Controls and Measurements.....................................................................................................11
10.0 Uppsala model.......................................................................................................................12
10.1 Overview and advantage of Model...................................................................................12
10.2 Limitation..........................................................................................................................12
10.3 Application and relevance of Model to John Lewis..........................................................12
11.0 References..............................................................................................................................13
12.0 Appendix................................................................................................................................13
Appendix A Introduction..........................................................................................................13
Appendix B Situation Analysis.................................................................................................13

2.1 PESTLE analysis.................................................................................................................13
2.2 Five force analysis...............................................................................................................15

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Overview of retailing in Qatar
Retail business is process for selling goods and services to consumers through helps of
multiple channels of distribution in order to earn profit. John Lewis & partner is planning to start
its business at Qatar (Berthon and et. al., 2012). As income level of people is high and currently
going through rapid expansion which help company to survive in competitive era and earn
profits as well as sustainability. Qatar retail market of John Lewis has major players which are
described below:
Year Company Sales Market
2017 Marks and Spencer £ 10.622 Billion 5.5%
2017 ASDA Group Limited £ 21.666 Million 12.8%
2017 Tesco PLC £ 55.9 Billion 25.4%
2.0 Situation Analysis
Attached in Appendix B
3.0 SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 John Lewis is upmarket retail stores in
UK which offers various range of
fashions brands.
 It also provide option to customers for
shop online with international delivery.
 It has more than 35,000 employees and
strong brand image in minds of
consumers which create effective
relationship with their users
 Prices are high as compared to
supermarkets and grocery stores limit
target group.
 Price earning ratio is also low as
compared to Marks and Spencer and
prices has cut down to match up
increasing competition.
 It can provide product selection option,
expand market and reach people by
opening flagship stores for growing.
Opportunities Threats

 John Lewis can develop markets to
Asia-presents which is largest
opportunities.
 In order to attract young and potential
consumers it can design trendy clothes.
 As John Lewis contributes to 23% in
credit and insurance industry which is
growing at speed is biggest
opportunities.
 It can provide product selection option,
expand market and reach people by
opening flagship stores for growing.
 John Lewis is facing cash flow
problems, emergence of new
competitors with competitive advantage
and effects of new legislations.
 Poor corporate governance leads to fall
in interest margin and revenue
reductions which create situation where
customers lose their confidence about
company.
 Main competitors are Tesco PLC,
Marks and Spencer Group plc and
ASDA Group Limited.
4.0 Marketing Objectives
Following market objectives for John Lewis at Qatar market are as follows:
John lewis should open at least 10 stores in first year to enter in market-
John Lewis need to open 10 stores in first year to increase sales and profit. As it has also
established many stores in UK (Buil, De Chernatony and Martinez, 2013).
John Lewis should achieve sales of $100m in first year-
It has target of achieving $600m and opening of 30 stores in next three years. Thus, it
should focus on earning maximum of $100m in first year so that objectives can be achieved.
5.0 Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
STP is process in which customers are segmented and then on basis of different
segmentation it is targeted according to income level, age group. After that positioning develop
detailed product position for selected segments and developing marketing mix for each area.
5.1 Segmentation
Segmentation is activity which divides consumer or market on sub group based on some
shared characteristics. While doing segmentation, company looks for needs, common interest,

lifestyle and demographics (Cadogan, 2012). John Lewis is planning to start up its business at
Qatar and segmented market on basis of different groups: Socio-demographic variable- Age group between 0-50. Behaviouristic variables- Online and offline. Benefits sought- High
 Geographic variables- city, town, areas.
5.2 Targeting
Target marketing means breaking market into segments & concentrating efforts for want
& desires matching with products and service offering to consumers which is subset of total
market (Chung, Lu Wang and Huang, 2012). It is targeted on basis of age, income, location and
lifestyle. Here, John Lewis targeted market on basis of income level that is high and middle class
group of people at Qatar. Step of targeting is as follows: Evaluating market segment- It is important to identify market segment such as
profitability, reachable. Develop segment profile- Each and every segment need to be understand such as
purchasing style, lifestyle.
 Choosing a target strategy- John Lewis need to provide various options in retail business
for their customers.
5.3 Positioning
Positioning refers place of brand in minds of customers and distinguish products from
competitors. For positioning brand or products, company need to distinguish features from others
and create suitable image. Now, John Lewis has its positioning in Qatar county for goods and
services (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2013).
6.0 Marketing Mix
6.1 Product Strategy
Product can be tangible or intangible service which fulfils need or want of consumers.
Here, products of John Lewis is clothes manufacturing. Company need to apply unique features
in their products.
 Total product concept- John Lewis has planned to start up business of clothes in Qatar so
its main product is clothing.

Core products Augmented products Actual products
High price with high quality Deals in all types of clothes Free return, refund, click and
collect. Product approach- John Lewis need to offer same product with same quality to other
countries. It should maintain brand value and image at market place. Branding- John Lewis should use same brand name at Qatar market because of following
dimensions: fitting target market, legal requirement, customers culture and products
benefits.
 Packaging- John Lewis own more than 95% branded goods so packaging and labelling
should be done very effectively (Evers, Andersson and Hannibal, 2012).
6.2 Pricing Strategy Pricing objectives- John lewis has set high price for their products as it offer high quality
product. People of Qatar has high living standard and company has good brand value in
market so customer are ready to pay for goods.
 Pricing strategy- John Lewis believes that fair pricing is heart of business so it has
adopted premium or competitive pricing strategy for products and keeping quality and
value in mind. It also regularly benchmarks products against others at market.
6.3 Place
Place means decisions regarding company selling product and delivering in market. John
lewis deals in various part of world but currently it is planning to start up business at Qatar.
Following factors are considered for distribution such as: Channel of distribution- John Lewis is serving people both offline and online. It has
many retail store in market which assist people for buying of products. Distribution strategy- John Lewis should adopt intensive distribution strategy in order to
sell products.
 Distribution Tactics- John Lewis target customer are high and medium income lever of
people. It can provide discounts to customer and use online application for their
convenient (Ford and Leonidou, 2013).

6.4 Promotion Strategy
Promotion is way or activities which marketers undertake for informing consumers about
products, motivating and encouraging them to purchase. It uses new age of promotional tools
such as joint promotion with other product and special advertisement at end of seasons.
Following are promotional strategy of John Lewis such as: Target audience- Target audience is its main focus group of people. Through help of
promotional activities it can gain attention of customers. Promotional objective- Through helps of promotional activities, John Lewis can increase
brand awareness of 20% in first year and market share by 7%.
 Promotional strategy- John Lewis use various promotional strategy such as traditional
and digital media for creating awareness (Hallbäck and Gabrielsson, 2013).
6.4.1 Traditional promotional strategy
Traditional promotional strategy is form of advertising and marketing which is most easy
and recognisable types of tools used by company. It includes following traditional strategy such
as:  Advertisement- John Lewis uses newspaper, magazine for advertisement. It helps in
creating awareness to target audience which encourages to buy products.
 Sponsorship- John Lewis has sponsorship with Olympic games for increasing awareness
of brand. Also it has sponsorship with Commonwealth games.
6.4.2 Digital promotional strategy
Digital promotional strategy is marketing of goods and services using digital technologies
mainly internet and also includes display advertising, phones, digital media, social media. John
Lewis also use social media such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram for promotion strategy.
6.5 People, Physical evidence and process
John Lewis focuses on workforce and its customers. The main aim is to create good
experience for their consumers at every store of John Lewis. As more than 35,000 are part of this
organisation. Here, staffs are well trained and manager look after request put up by individual are
looked into or not. Store has unique, distinct look and ambience, which allow customer to feel
friendly environment and comfortable for shopping. Shopping bags, loyalty cards and in-house
brands are added to physical evidence of brand. It has various business processes which assist in

smoothing operations of retail brand (Hilmersson and Jansson, 2012). Process includes
dispatching of goods and products from manufacturing unit to warehouse of entity. After
receiving goods at warehouse, products sent to retail store for customers to purchase. Through
John Lewis website, consumer can allow to browse and shop online (Javalgi, Hall and Cavusgil,
2014).
7.0 Action Plan
Following is chart which is designed in order to implement action plan which is described
below:
Tasks/
Subtask
Descriptio
n
Primary
Responsibilit
y
Secondary
Responsibilit
y
Types of
Resource
Required
Start Date End
Date
Market
research
Review
market &
audience
Research
Director
Communicati
on Director
HR and
financial
resources
Dec 2018 March
2019
Open store Opening
store in
Qatar
Board of
Directors
Marketing
directors
Financial
resource
Feb 2019 N/A
Advertiseme
nt
Newspaper
, social
media.
IT manager,
marketing
manager
Marketing &
branch
manager
Financial
and HR
Oct 2018 Jan 2019
8.0 Ethics and Sustainability
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is very important to be followed in an
organisation. John Lewis also apply ethics in their business to get success and differentiate right
and wrong. As it is expanding business in Qatar so need to follow values and ethics of that place
and work ethically for business and society (Onishi and Manchanda, 2012). Primary goals of
sustainability are end of hunger and poverty, achieve gender equality, better education &
healthcare standard, economic growth. This lead to development of nations as well as rise in
economic. CSR assist in communicating goods and services to consumer by following way:

Major areas of CSR Recommendation for John Lewis
Corruption John Lewis should follow anti corruption practices in business. As
corruption decrease reputation in global market.
Community Support John Lewis support community in terms of educations, charity at
Qatar.
Environmental Concern Product should be eco friendly in nature. There should be minimum
waste and greenhouse impact on production and operation.
9.0 Controls and Measurements
Key performance indicator of John Lewis are as follows:
Key Performance Indicators Deliverables Measurement Criteria
Revenue improvement Revenue should be increased
by 20% every three months in
order to achieve target set.
Calculation should be done on
every three months in order to
improve.
Brand Awareness John Lewis need to focus on
creating brand awareness to
achieve set target.
Brand awareness should be
checked in 3 months by survey
to know about awareness in
market.
Increased customer
satisfaction
John Lewis should focus on
increasing customer
satisfaction by providing high
quality goods.
By taking feedback from
customers it can be measured
and improved.
Key success factor:
Objectives CSF
To open at least 10 stores in first year to
enter in market
Increase sales
Building relationship with their communities
and customers.

To achieve sales of $100m in first year Creating awareness
adopting CSR activities
creating public relations
10.0 Uppsala model
10.1 Overview and advantage of Model
The Uppsala Internationalization Model was given by Swedish in 1975 to explained
international involvement. It is theory which explains about firms that intensify activities at
foreign market (Paliwoda and Thomas, 2013). This model proposes foreign sales which start
with occasional export that are allowed by regular exports. It has two key features which are:
 firstly gaining experience from domestic market before moving to other foreign markets.
 Resources required in every country increases because of experience.
This model has four steps for entering into international market which cannot be seen
alone of market, company situation and market knowledge. Here, organisation chose countries
having low resource commitment and move for high commitment after gaining knowledge and
experience.
10.2 Limitation
This model is too deterministic which does not consider interdependencies between
different country. As this model does not applied in service industries and highly
internationalised industries and firms. Due to increase in technology and development firm need
to respond fast than stages of Uppsala model.
10.3 Application and relevance of Model to John Lewis
John Lewis opened its store in 1864 at UK, then in 1905 it acquired second store in
London. It can be said that John Lewis has not followed international process because its has
own store for providing goods. However, John Lewis is expanding business at Qatar so it should
follow all four stages for better understanding of market and gain knowledge which is described
below:
 Sporadic export
 Export mode
 Establishment of foreign sales subsidiary