Mark & Spencer Marketing Audit: Segmentation, Strategy, and Analysis

This report presents a comprehensive marketing audit of Mark and Spencer, evaluating the company's current performance, market strategies, and position within the competitive landscape. It utilizes SWOT and PESTLE analyses to assess both internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. The report delves into M&S's segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) strategies, highlighting how the company segments its market based on demographics, geography, and psychographics. Furthermore, the report proposes two potential market segmentation strategies: focusing on women's professional wear and introducing bio-degradable clothing lines, outlining SMART objectives, target markets, and marketing mix considerations for each. The analysis provides a detailed overview of M&S's marketing approach and offers recommendations for optimizing their strategies to enhance market share and profitability. Desklib provides students with access to past papers and solved assignments.

INTRODUCTION TO
MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Marketing audit of Mark and Spencer current performance ......................................................1
Current market strategy and position in the market space..........................................................3
Proposal of Two sets of market segmentation that successfully targeted by Mark and Spencer4
Recommendation in order to justify chosen marketing strategy among two set proposals........9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a set of activities of any company which has been utilised in order to
promote the selling and purchasing of goods and services. It is one of the preliminary and
significant element of administration management and trade. Each and every organization have
their own and different way of doing marketing through which they direct their products and
services either through other business firms or directly to the consumers. The basic purpose of
marketing is to educate others about the product, capture attention of consumers and covert leads
into purchase (Balducci and Marinova, 2018). It is the most crucial action for any company in
order to ensure their long term and ever present relationship with their audience.
This report is about the marketing audit of Mark and Spencer in which the study will
highlight the current business performances along with recent marketing strategies as well as the
position of the firm within the market space. Apart from this, the work will also demonstrate the
understanding of buyer behaviour along with market strategy justification.
MAIN BODY
Marketing audit of Mark and Spencer current performance
Marketing audit is a systematic analysis of commercial enterprise market in both
internal and external environment of any establishment. Mark and Spencer is one of the leading
retailer firm headquartered in London (Philip, 2017). The company offers wide range of
products including clothing, home appliances, luxurious food substances, etc. In order to
complete market audit in both internal and external environment SWOT ans PESTLE analysis
has been done to complete market audit.
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Strengths
 Powerful offerings with current
manufacturing trends.
 Strong electronic commerce
infrastructure.
 Completely focused on increasing
consumers purchasing experiences.
 Most effective corporate social
responsibility.
Weaknesses
 Not that much good financial
performance of the firm.
 Company is highly reliable only on UK
market make it defenceless to other
market conditions.
 Frequent changes in items leads
towards loss of customers confidence.
Opportunities
 Plans to invest in other markets as well.
 Company's online presence will
enhance the market position of the
firm.
 Reshaping their clothing segment.
 Needs to be simplified version of
operating model.
Threats
 Depreciation within the market after
introduction of Brexit.
 Stiff competition in UK food market
sector.
 Continuous change in clothing trends.
PESTLE Analysis
Political
 Decreasing sourcing costs due to fair
trade policy.
 Brexit highly effects the business
activities.
 Change in taxation and government
policies.
Economic
 Struggle with other competitive firms
in context of product prices due to
Brexit.
Social
 Continuation of product modifications
creates negative social trends.
 Received false interpretation as non-
Technological
 Utilisation of advanced technology in
order to strengthen the security,
compliance and risk management of
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trendy store. the firm.
Legal
 Financial dispute
 Convicted charges related to health and
safety due to which company have to
give fine of 500,000 pounds (Hole, Y.,
Pawar and Bhaskar, 2018).
Environmental
 Issues related to current climate
conditions.
 More of sustainable and environmental
friendly products.
Current market strategy and position in the market space
Mark and Spencer is currently doing a good business across all over the world. The firm
is continuously growing each year. In addition to that, it has been evaluated that during every
year the selling of products and services offered by the M&S are increasing day by day with
enhanced product quality. According to the current competitive scenario, Mark and Spencer is
implementing some of the important strategies into their business actions which helps the firm in
order to maintain their business in more sustainable manner through out the whole year. The
plan related to the expansion of business activities are not the sole in charge to enlarge the
administration but the whole organizations needs to work towards the achievement of such
enhancement (Hindarsah, 2021). Now, the firm has occupied excellent position within the
market place. Along with this, the trust that has been created by the firm among their consumers
also worked as a support to increase their value and brand image.
As Mark and Spencer deals with two major and different types of goods, thus in return
they are gaining more profits every year. In previous many years, company earns large amount
of considerable profit than ever. The HR management plays an important role within the
organization in order to manage employees as well as all stakeholders of the firm. Thus, whole
team helps to enhance the overall profitability of the organization. In order to get detailed
instructions about the organizational behaviour pattern STP analysis has been done which plays
a vital role in the functioning of the firm. It helps the managers to understand the requirements
of the consumers and develop products according to the needs of the customers. With the help of
targeting and positioning, M&S are able to understand the current business scenario in complete
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manner. Each elements of STP assist the firm to illustrate the profit measures taken by the
establishment. Apart from this, the firm is also enable to find new market space along with
customers.
In context of Segmentation, mark and Spencer divide the whole market in few
segments. This factor helps the firm in order to maintain and become sustain in their business
actions. M&S divide their potential consumers along with their audiences according to some
parameters. In terms of demographics, the establishment will divide their customers into certain
segments that consists of gender, age, education, etc. In terms of geographical nature, the market
has been divided according to the state, region and country. In context of physiographically, it
has been divided into values, morale, attitude and risk antipathy (Kardes, Flynn and Dugan,
2020).
In terms of Targeting, the M&S mark their business according to the size and
potentiality of the firm in order to maintain sustainability within the organization. With the
calculation of company threats and various opportunities Mark and Spencer evaluate their yearly
target and according to which they prepare their budget along with some quick actions that
needs to be taken at the time of strategy implementation. Preparation of alternative targets also
had been done.
While in terms of Positioning, marketing mix of the firm will help them to position their
goods and services within the market place in well structured manner. Mark and Spencers needs
to be focused on all the elements that are included in marketing mix. Company needs to become
highly specific in terms of their offered products along with their pricing strategies.
Proposal of Two sets of market segmentation that successfully targeted by Mark and Spencer
Mark and Spencer is one of the major store that produce high quality of clothing
products from women's and men's wear to kinds wear. In order to maintain and sustain their
brand value within the market space, Mark and Spencer follows certain value system in order to
maintain the good quality of products. The company doing business within the environment in
most ethical way. After the involvement of the technology, the firm is enable to run their
administration most effectively.
Proposed set of marketing segment 1: Women's professional wear
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Marks and Spencer is one of the leading clothing stores within the market place of
London. However, due to some of the humours it has been spread among the consumers that the
firm is unable to fulfil the current trends requirements of consumers in context of women
apparel (Youssef and Zacharewicz, 2019). Thus, proposed market segment should include the
women's professional apparel to attract more female customers towards the firm which helps
them to fulfil their requirement along with maximisation of company's profitability.
SMART Objectives
 To enhance revenue from selling more of professional women's apparels for growth and
expansion of business by the end of current year.
 To enhance 20% net profit with the usage of multi channel to attract more consumers
towards the establishment.
 To ensure that the set objectives are achievable within limited time frame or not.
 To measure the final outcome after introduction of professional women's wear on sales
volume and profitability of the firm.
 To strengthen consumer satisfaction level by delivering good quality product along with
latest trends in order to build strong brand image of the establishment at the end of the
current financial year i.e. 31st March.
Segmentation, Targeting and Monitoring
In context of segmentation, Marks and Spencer divide the market segment according to
the women's age along with their profession as the main consumers of the professional apparel
are those women's who are working in London. Company focuses on the age of 25 to 45 years of
women age group. Company offers brand loyalty in most interesting and durable manner.
Company segment the consumers of mid range income people. As per psychographic
segmentation the firm are interested in fashion trends. As per demographic segmentation they
segment stores at high population and traffic areas.
The target market for the Marks and Spencer are the working women's along with the
crowd of female members who are highly interested in professional. The target audience are
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those who are more fashion conscious, educated and relatively middle class women's (Tonglin
and et.al., 2017). They highly give influence towards the working women's and more
fashionable in nature.
Marks and Spencer follows modified fashion trends. Company should offer more
professional wear in comparison to their competitors. They should follow low cost strategy
along with high fashion trend.
Marketing mix
 Product: The Marks and Spencer is offering various range of products but among all
other products they are focusing more on professional women's wear.
 Price: The prices of the offered range are quite lower than their other competitors as they
target middle class people.
 Place: Company utilises the online platform in order to expand their business activities
and offer more women's apparel along with comfort of get them purchase through the
source of internet (Goworek and et.al., 2020).
 Promotion: The company utilises all tools of marketing but majorly focus on the middle
class working women's.
Budget
Particulars Cost in £
Public Relations 300
Web marketing 150
Advertising 250
Collateral 200
Miscellaneous 100
Total £ 1000
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Tactics
In order to enlarge the women's members towards their professional apparel range, the
company needs to enhance their business valuation more than before. It has been done possibly
by identification of their consumers along with market area at which they are highly successful
to take their leads. Along with targeting their potential female buyers, they continuously keep an
eye on their revenue stream to make their financial year profitable (Castelo, and de Oliveira
Cabral, 2018). The task has been divided among the members according to the talents and
abilities they have in order to maintain good environment and make sure the completion of the
assignment in most fruitful manner.
Proposed set of marketing segment 2: Bio degradable clothing
Another proposed market segment for the marks and Spencer is to provide bio
degradable clothes among the market place in order to attract more potential consumers of every
gender towards their organization. Such clothes are prepared by more of plants based fabrics and
are free from any kind of harmful chemicals.
SMART Objectives
 To increase profit margin from online sales of bio degradable clothes of men, women
and kids for development and enlargement of business.
 To enhance net profit by 25% with the usage of various advertising strategies along with
social media platforms through which the firm can able to attract more potential buyers.
 To ensure that set objectives have been achieved within the time frame of one year.
 To measure the final results with the defined or set goals in order to promote bio
degradable clothing range.
 To fortify consumers satisfaction level at the end of this financial year by delivering
good quality services along with providing services to health conscious people in terms
of giving them chemical free clothing range.
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Segmentation, Positioning and Targeting
Marks and Spencer segment their market according to the demographic segment in
which they focus on international market in which they offer products for men, women,
teenagers, youngsters, children's as well as babies. They focus highly on fashion and quality at
best affordable prices for the people who are more conscious about their health and safety.
Company target middle class as well as high class customers in order to promote their
bio degradable clothing range products. They want to promote environmental awareness among
the people living in society along with the benefits of utilising products that are completely free
from any kind of harmful chemicals (Srinivasababu, 2021). M&S offers products that are
completely safe to use harmless to the environment. They highly target young minded, fashion
conscious and environmental friendly people group.
Company position itself in order to get competitive advantages through various
promotional activities. They follow comparatively high price strategy as the organic products are
slightly costlier than other regular products.
Marketing Mix
 Product: Their offering products are more organic in nature which is free from any kind
of harmful chemicals and include materials such as cotton, silk, bamboo, linen,
cashmere, etc.
 Price: Products are comparatively costlier than their competitive firms as the processing
of such goods require huge amount of costs incurred.
 Place: According to current scenario, company utilises online platform in order to
approach more of consumers and spread information regarding benefits of utilising bio
degradable clothing range.
 Promotion: Major focus on middle class and upper class people in order to offer them
organic products of clothing range.
Budget
Particulars Cost in £
Web marketing 300
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Advertising 250
Collateral 150
Public Relations 250
Miscellaneous 150
Total £ 1100
Tactics
To make the bio degradable clothing range more successful in Mark and Spencers needs
to ensure that the objectives that have been prepared within the planning has been accomplished
in fruitful and detailed manner. Company needs to take particular and proper actions which
ensures fulfilment of tactics. M&S needs to identify their potential target audience in order to
promote their products in front of right direction. As the company offers products of organic
range to men, women and kids along with toddlers which attracts the most of the consumers as
the people are more attracted towards the harmless products for their babies ans well as kids.
M&S needs to check their revenue and budget in time to time manner to ensure profitability of
the firm (Baltrėnas and Baltrėnaitė, 2018). In order to accomplish the planning, firm needs to
recruit high professional which are effectively able to convince as well as educate potential
consumers to purchase environmental friendly products.
Recommendation in order to justify chosen marketing strategy among two set proposals
As it has been described that the Marks and Spencer is a company who always deals in
ethical manner. Still in order to make certain improvements, company require two proposed
strategies in order to enhance their market share through above explained marketing plan. As per
whole evaluation it has been analysed that out of two proposed plans, the second plan i.e. the
introduction of clothing range of bio degradable products for men, women, kids and toddlers in
order to make them harmless and chemical free clothing services. As the organic clothes are free
from harmful chemicals, they are highly beneficial for the kids and toddlers. Thus, people are
getting more attracted towards such kind of products. It is clear all around and everyone is well
aware of the concept that Mark and Spencer is running their business activities in most
successful manner (Hindarsah, 2021). But apart from this, company needs to continuously focus
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on innovation among the products in order to sustain and maintain their reputation within the
external environment in front of their competitors. Although the clothes are comparatively
costlier than other range of clothes but are extremely beneficial for the society as well as
environment. Thus, from the complete analysis, it has been recommended to adopt second
proposed set of market segment which offers bio degradable clothing range within the market
place.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that Mark and Spencer is highly
concentrated towards adoption of their strategies and choose effectual strategy among the
various alternatives in order to attract their consumers in most effective manner. The study
includes two different proposals for marketing segment in which all the details had been
exaggerated in order to provide complete and detailed information to the firm. Out of which the
study also highlighted the recommendations for M&S in order to adopt one strategy to become
successful in nature.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Balducci, B. and Marinova, D., 2018. Unstructured data in marketing. Journal of the Academy
of Marketing Science, 46(4). pp.557-590.
Philip, K., 2017. Principles of marketing. Pearson higher education.
Hole, Y., Pawar, S. and Bhaskar, M.P., 2018. Service marketing and quality
strategies. Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences (PEN), 6(1). pp.182-196.
Hindarsah, I., 2021. The Influence of Service Quality, Emotional Marketing and Spiritual
Marketing On Customer Satisfaction. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics
Education (TURCOMAT), 12(3). pp.3685-3689.
Kardes, I., Flynn, L.R. and Dugan, M., 2020. Online retailing: determinants of competition
between multinationals and local firms in emerging markets. International Journal of
Retail & Distribution Management.
Youssef, J. and Zacharewicz, G., 2019, December. Enterprise operating system (EOS) in action:
distributed simulation of enterprise activities and operations. In 2019 Winter Simulation
Conference (WSC) (pp. 90-104). IEEE.
Tonglin, J.I.N., and et.al., 2017. The Relationship between Person-Organization Fit and
Employee Creativity: A Mediated Moderation Model. Studies of Psychology and
Behavior, 15(6). p.846.
Goworek, H., and et.al., 2020. Managing sustainability in the fashion business: Challenges in
product development for clothing longevity in the UK. Journal of Business
Research, 117. pp.629-641.
Castelo, J.S.F. and de Oliveira Cabral, J.E., 2018. Consumers in a social network: the perception
of clothing quality per gender. Revista Brasileira de Gestão de Negócios, 20(1), pp.22-
36.
Srinivasababu, N., 2021. Effect of Biodegradable Adhesive on Bleached Agave Americana
Fibre Reinforced Epoxy Composites. In Eco-Friendly Adhesives for Wood and Natural
Fiber Composites (pp. 255-280). Springer, Singapore.
Baltrėnas, P. and Baltrėnaitė, E., 2018. Small Bioreactors for Management of Biodegradable
Waste. Springer International Publishing.
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