Retail Theory and Practice Assignment: Marks & Spencer Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Marks & Spencer, a leading UK fashion retailer. It begins with an introduction to Marks & Spencer and its market position, followed by a PESTLE analysis to assess the macro-environmental factors influencing the company, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental aspects. The report then delves into the micro-environmental factors, such as customers, suppliers, and competitors, and their impact on Marks & Spencer's operations. Furthermore, the report discusses and suggests strategies for dealing with both micro and macro environmental changes, focusing on customer retention, competitive advantage, and supply chain management. The report concludes with recommendations for Marks & Spencer and a summary of its key findings.

Retail Theory and
Practice

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Introduction to Marks & Spencer................................................................................................1
PESTLE Analysis........................................................................................................................2
Relevant Changes In Micro Environmental Factors....................................................................4
Suggestion and Discussion of Strategies Used to Deal with Micro and macro Environmental
Changes........................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Retail is defined as the process of buying and selling of goods and services with the help of
making personal contact with the buyers. Additionally, the coordination and cooperation in
between the buyers and sellers are also taken into consideration of the business activities that are
carried over from the concept or design stage of a product or offering. The Fashion Retail, the
concept on which the complete assignment is based upon, the main focus of this is making the
marketers responsible for identifying and defining a fashion producer’s target customers and
responding to the preferences of those customers. There are many types of retail businesses in
UK but out of all the most preferred and developed is Fashion Retailer which provided the
retailing business a new direction and also fostered the growth and development of organisation
working in this business.
MAIN BODY
Introduction to Marks & Spencer
The company chosen for the completion of this assignment is Marks & Spencer which is the
largest fashion retailer in UK covering approximately 8.1% share of the total market. The
following organisation is the major multinational retailer organisation which is headquartered in
Westminster, London. The following organisation provides their customers with different types
of products and services and is specialised in high quality clothing materials, home products and
food products for the satisfaction of their customers. It was founded in the year 1884 and is
operating with their operations all over the world with the location of approximately 1463 stores
worldwide. In addition to this, the organisation is also having their online presence and provides
their customers with online delivery of their products and services so as to provide their
customers with satisfaction. The position of Marks & Spencer is also good in the market as the
organisation hold good market share and good customer satisfaction level in the market as earlier
provided in this assignment which proves about the degree of awareness of products and services
of the organisation in the market.
Overall, it can be said that with the help of their online presence which makes the
purchasing behaviour of customers easy to much extent, good quality of products and services
that helps in retaining their current customer level and also helps in making new customers for
the organisation, is performing good in the market and also making continuous improvement in
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their products and services. This helps in attracting the customers towards the products and
services of the organisation and making long term sustainable relationship with the customers
(Cuzovic, Mladenovic and Cuzovic, 2017). It is also performing well in the Corporate Social
Responsibility as the company is not only looking at maximising their profits but is also centred
to the benefit of society and their customers with the help of which it is become possible for the
organisation to create positive brand image in the minds of customers.
PESTLE Analysis
Pestle Analysis can be defined as the analysis which is used for the analysis of macro
environmental factors on the working of an organisation. The following analysis will makes its
focus on Marks & Spencer as the application of this analysis and the impact has been drawn as
under:
Political Factors: These are the factors that impacts upon the working of an organisation due to
change in the factors such as governmental policies, rules and regulations, political stability,
employment laws, labour laws, consumers laws and many more.
Political Stability of UK is counted among one of the greatest weapon in the political
factors impacting positively on the working of organisations. As with the help of this political
stability in UK, it will be possible for the organisation to make long term stable policies for the
organisation which will help in the achievement of their long term goals and objectives made by
the organisation.
Economical Factors: These are those factors that impacts upon the working of an organisation
due to changes in the economic factors such as interest rates, GPD of country, disposable income
of customers, currency rates, inflation deflation and many more which impacts upon the working
of an organisation (Baker and Saren, 2016).
The changes in the interest rates of banks also impacts upon the working of an
organisation. For example, in case the interest rates of bank increases than this will impact
negatively on the working of an organisation because the increased interest rates will make rise
in the prices of products and services and this increased price will be covered from the customers
so this factor also impacts upon the working of Marks & Spencer.
Social Factors: These are those factors that impacts upon the working of an organisation due to
changes in factors such as taste and preferences of people regarding any product or service,
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belief, faiths of people and many more which also impacts upon the working of an organisation
in some or the other way.
The taste and preferences of people also changes from time to time and for maintaining
the interest of people in the products and services of an organisation it is important to make
regular changes in the products and services so that they will become a regular means of
attraction for the customers and the products of Marks & Spencer will be able to capture the
market share for a long period of time. Hence, the social factors also impacts upon the working
of an organisation.
Technological Factors: These are the factors which impacts upon the working of an
organisation due to changes in the technology such as changes in the production of goods and
services, changes in the working or changes in the machinery used in the production process and
many more (Koistinen and Järvinen, 2016).
As such the changes in the technology of producing goods and services will lead to
severe improvements for the organisation that is having these changes in their working for
example, in case the rival company will have these improvements in their working than this will
impact negatively on the working of Marks & Spencer and in case Marks & Spencer is having
these changes than it will impact positively on the working of this organisation and will provide
positive results to the organisation.
Legal Factors: These are those factors that impact upon the working of an organisation due to
changes in the legal factors as such some special rules and regulations that have been made in
order to impact upon the business in the positive or negative way.
There are some policies related to the Advertisement of products and services that have
been made by the government and the non fulfilment of these laws will result in severe bad
results for the organisations as these kinds of advertisements which makes the customers
mislead. This creates bad image in the minds of customers as they are cheated by the
organisation and also impacts negatively on the brand image of an organisation. So in order to
prevent from these bad consequences, the organisations such as Marks & Spencer should makes
use of proper advertisement means and also provide right information to their customers for
making continued their faith in the organisation.
Environmental Factors: These are those factors that impacts upon the working of an
organisation due to the bad impact that has been created by the working of the organisation on
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the environment such as pollution, emission of harmful gases, CO2 Emission, Global Warming
Effects and many more which creates government intervention in the working of the organisation
(Mitchell and et. al., 2015).
However, the working of this organisation is not impacting much on the environment but
the contribution made by the organisation has impacted much positively on the organisation
which has reduced the intervention of government in the working of the organisation and that is
the positive impacts which Marks & Spencer is having with its environmental contribution.
So overall, from the above discussion it has been founded that macro environmental
factors impacts a lot on the working of an organisation.
Relevant Changes In Micro Environmental Factors
There are many micro environmental factors that impacts upon the working of an
organisation. Micro Environmental Factors are the factors which impacts upon the working of an
organisation at low level and impacts lesser. The examples are the customers, suppliers,
competitors and many more which impacts upon the working of an organisation in both the
positive as well as negative ways. Competitors of organisation impacts much as the strategies
implemented by the organisation for making improvement in their profits and productivity will
help the organisation to increase their customer base and also the business expansion. But in
case, the company is not able to compete good with the competitors than this will impact badly
such as decrease in the market share, low customer satisfaction and many more negative impacts
on the working of an organisation such as the Marks & Spencer. So it becomes important for the
organisations to make proper arrangement and strategies so the impact of these strategies could
be reduced to the possible low extent and better customer satisfaction along with all the other
factors included in the micron environmental factors could be made strong.
Customers are the king of the market in the today’s world and the main focus of the
organisations should be on retaining and making new customers in order to ensure long term
survival and growth of the company in the market. It becomes important for the companies to
provide those products to their customers that could help the organisation in increasing the
satisfaction level of their customers. This will make their customers to make the repeated
purchase of the products and services of the organisation and the customers may also suggest to
other people also about the good quality of products and services of the organisation and may
also help in creating new customers for the organisation. This will provide the company with the
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chances to make improvement and know better about the needs and demands of their customers.
The customer base will increase and better knowledge of customers needs will provide the
company with the chances to make new possible and modify the products and services according
to the needs and demands of their products and services.
Likewise, it also becomes important for the company to maintain good and proper relation
with the suppliers of their company with the help of which it is possible for the organisations to
make production of their goods and services and get easily on time the needed materials for the
production, this will help in making the smooth running of the functions of an organisation in a
proper way and to retain them for a long period of time with the company.
Suggestion and Discussion of Strategies Used to Deal with Micro and macro Environmental
Changes
In order to deal with the customers in the micro environmental factors it is important for the
organisations such marks & Spencer to make proper analysis of the market so that the
organisations could know about the need and demands of customers and the impact of these
could be reduced too much extent (Plevoets and Van Cleempoel, 2016). As the negative image
of an organisation will also impact negatively on the working of an organisation because of
negative image which will stop the customers to make their purchase decision in the favour of
the company. So in order to maintain the interest of customers in the products and services of an
organisation it is important to have proper knowledge about what the customers are asking for so
that such products could be made that can fulfil their needs and demands.
Likewise also in the case of competitors, the organisation such as Marks & Spencer could
improve their performance by making proper evaluation of the competitors strategies that could
help the organisation to make proper preparation for the growth and development of the
organisation. It is only possible when the organisation is having proper information about the
competitor’s strategies and is making foremost updating in the products and services to cover
larger share in the market (Škorvagová, 2017). The organisations should make their focus on
those services and features which the competitors are not providing to their customers. This will
help the organisations in making a separate place in the minds of the customers and will helps in
eradicating the challenges faced by Marks & Spencer.
In order to deal with the macro environmental factors it will becomes important for the
organisation to focus and research more as these factors do not impact less but the impact of
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these factors will result in greater discrepancies for the organisations. As these factors could
prove to be in the favour of some organisation and may be against for another. So Marks &
Spencer should focus on taking the help of advisors and hire some products which could predict
the upcoming situations and also make suitable policies for the growth and development of the
organisation. For example, the technological change in the hands of rival company could make
the business shut down in case; the organisation is not coming with any new products and
services (Childerhouse and et. al., 2017). So it becomes important for the companies to makes
their focus on not only on the small as wells as large organisations for ensuring growth and
survival of the organisation’s future.
Recommendations
From the above data, it has been recommended to the company to make their focus on the
continuous improvement in their products and services and the ways with the help of which the
company such as Marks & Spencer could be able to make improve their market share. As with
the help of good market share it will be possible to keep their customers connected with the
company for a long period of time. In addition to this, the analysis of market conditions should
also be done to know about the possible changes that had been made in the products and services
which is related to the taste and preferences of people. Lastly, the recommendation has been
provided that good relation should be maintained with the suppliers so that the efficient working
of Mark 7 Spencer could be ensured.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment, it has been concluded that retail practice is an important part
that helps in creating a link in between the company and their customers. So this chain should be
strong so that the feedback of customers could make some sense and prove to be useful for the
company in enhancing their profit and satisfaction of the customers. The conclusion has also
been drawn about the impact of external analysis to consider so that they could also be made in
accordance with providing profit to the organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baker, M. J. and Saren, M. eds., 2016. Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.
Cuzovic, S., Mladenovic, S. S. and Cuzovic, D., 2017. The impact of retail formats on the
development of food retailing. Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review. 5(1).
p.11.
Koistinen, K. and Järvinen, R., 2016. Comparing perceived insecurity among customers and
retail staff during service encounters. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 31.
pp.80-92.
Mitchell, R. and et. al., 2015. A framework for SME retail branding. Journal of Marketing
Management. 31(17-18). pp.1818-1850.
Plevoets, B. and Van Cleempoel, K., 2016. Heritage, adaptive reuse and regeneration in retail
design. In Retail Design (pp. 122-142). Routledge.
Childerhouse, P. and et. al., 2017. Supply chain theory and cultural diversity. Manipal Journal of
Science and Technology. 2(1). pp.15-26.
Škorvagová, S., 2017. Petr KRÁL–Hana MACHKOVÁ–Markéta LHOTÁKOVÁ–Gina COOK:
International Marketing–Theory, Practices and New Trends. Ekonomický
časopis. 65(08). pp.780-783.
Anselmsson, J. and Bondesson, N., 2015. Brand value chain in practise; the relationship between
mindset and market performance metrics: A study of the Swedish market for
FMCG. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 25. pp.58-70.
Grönlund, R., 2018. Improving Sustainability Marketing in Retail Business-Partioaitta Oy.
Da Silva, T. and Friberg, A., 2017. A Literature Review of the Field of Social Media in Retail.
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