Comprehensive Marketing Management Analysis of Debenhams Company

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis of Debenhams, a British multinational retailer. The analysis begins with an introduction to the company and the retail industry, followed by an in-depth external analysis using PESTLE, SWOT, and Porter's Five Forces models. The PESTLE analysis examines political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors impacting Debenhams. The SWOT analysis identifies the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Porter's Five Forces model assesses the competitive landscape. The report then reviews Debenhams' marketing mix, covering product offerings, pricing strategies, and promotional activities. Finally, the analysis uses STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) to identify the gap between the company's present marketing strategy and the external environment, providing insights for future marketing actions.

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1. Introduction of the company and industry...............................................................................3
2. The external analysis of Debenhams company.......................................................................4
3. Marketing mix of Debenhams Plc...........................................................................................9
4. Use of STP in order to analyse the gap between company’s present marketing strategy and
external environment :...............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing management is a basic organisation discipline which is focused on implication of
different methods and techniques of market orientation. Marketing is a process of creating
awareness and meeting needs of customers to serve satisfactory experience. Present study will
outline marketing audit of Debenhams which is British multinational retailer has its stores across
Ireland and UK but has global presence with franchise outlets worldwide. The report will
outline overall market attractiveness of company on the basis of market audit which will be done
with the help of Swot, Pestle and competitor analysis with the help of Porter five Forces. Further,
assessment will cover review marketing mix of organisation which will help in developing
understanding over products, pricing and promotion strategies of firm. Also, it will derive
different brands of Debenhams for different target markets which will help in outlining different
commodities offered by firm to different segments. In last study will specify new marketing mix
actions to overcome gap between present external environment and market strategy company.
1. Introduction of the company and industry
Company background
Debenhams is a multinational retail company in United Kingdom. The company was founded
in 18 century in London now it has 178 stores across the UK, Ireland and Denmark. The founder
of the Debenhams was William Debenhams. It offers the various product like household items,
cosmetics, electronic, clothing and furniture. Headquarter of Debenhams is in London Borough
of Camden. The subsidiaries company of Debenhams is Debenhams Ireland and Magasin du
Nord. The business was started in 1778 by William Clark.
Debenhams introduce various product and services in the market to capture the consumer
attention, increase their profit and production. The various brands in the store are oasis, phase
eight, coast and warehouse. Government provide concessions to the brands of the Debenhams. It
do variety of experiments to spread their brand. In 2014, it started a trial in Southsea and Harrow
stores about the sports direct concessions that if they get success than it will be expanded in other

stores. This trial increases their purchases. In 2016 they shifted their focus from clothing items to
beauty product, gifts and food items (Thompson, and McLarney, 2017). They hire some new
employees to work on their new projects.
The stores in Denmark traded by the brand name Magasin du Nord. Ireland store are operated
under the Debenhams Ireland. They used the franchisee method to explore their business and
increase their productivity and the profitability of the organization. The franchisee also promote
their brand name and increase their popularity in the market.
The competitive company of Debenhams are Walmart, Sainsbury, Morrison and Tesco. They
use various promotional and competitive strategy to promote their product and increase their
sales in the market. The large share of market of UK are captured by this retail companies.
The revenue generated by the company at the end of 2018 was 2277 million pound. The
operating income and net income of Debenhams was 43.4 million pound and 461 million pound
a respectively at the end of 2018. It is a private limited company who subscribe its share through
the public. It also enjoy various privileges by the government like concessions on the various
brand.
Industry background
The business of Debenhams comes under the retail industry. The aim of retail industry is
to sale their product and services to the consumer for the consumption and use rather than to
resale the product and services. They sale their product through the various ways like door to
door selling, market stalls, supermarket, stores, shops, departmental stores, and through internet
retailers. Retail industry provide varied working environment to the various organization which
are comes under retail. Retail industry is one of the largest private sector in UK. Retail
companies are different from the industrial companies. Retail companies never produce the
tangible products. They purchase their product from the different merchandise and then resale
the products to the consumer or end users.
2. The external analysis of Debenhams company
Marketing audit : marketing audit refers to review of marketing plan, methods, strategies and the
various activities performed in the organization. The goal of the marketing audit is to analyze the
working of the organization and how they work to run their business and identify those areas

which needed the improvement. Debenhams use the external and internal analysis techniques for
the marketing audit.
PESTLE analysis of Debenhams
Political factors : political factors play an important role in the growth of the organization. The
various factor like tax rate, interest rate, trade regulations, and corruption affects the business.
Debenhams operate their business in more than 12 countries which all have different trade
regulation (Rastogi, and Trivedi, 2016). Government help the Debenhams in their trade by
providing concessions and subsidies. The increasing corporate tax rate reduces the profit of the
company and decreasing tax rate increase their productivity. Debenhams is able to diversify the
political risk to run their business effectively and efficiently through their different strategies.
Economical factor : the macro and micro economic factor both make impact on the business
growth. The macro factors are inflation, interest rate, saving rate etc. determine the aggregate
demand and supply of the product and services. The micro economic factors like competition in
market, conflict etc. make impact on the competitive advantages of the organization. The
increasing saving rate reduces the consumption level of the consumer which ultimately reduces
the profit of Debenhams. In spring and summer the value of sterling decrease, to minimize the
economic risk Debenhams hedge in the market for 12 to 18 months.
Social factor : Social factors includes the demographic structure of the nation, culture,
education, health and environment issues. Social factor like culture help the organization to
achieve the objective and goal of Debenhams. The culture, gender decides the growth of the
organization. The purchasing power of the consumer influence them to purchase more which
ultimately increase the profitability and productivity of Debenhams (Walsh,
Bhagavatheeswaran, and Roma, 2019). They understand the need of the consumer and offer
variety of product to fulfill their need. Debenhams create the market by targeting the group of
consumer.
Technological factor : The advancement and growth of technology create vast changes in the
organization and their performance. In retail industry the transportation technology help the
organization to deliver their product to the customer and receive the order on time. Technology
also help the Debenhams in operation work. Now they can easily operate their order, delivery
and maintain the details of the customer like their credit card detail, customer address, their name
etc. Technology also reduces their overall cost by reducing the manpower in the Debenhams.

Legal factors : There are various legal factor which affects the performance of the organization
like discrimination law, copyright, patent, intellectual property right, employment law, health
and safety law etc. Debenhams has to follow the legal factor in the organization for the efficient
working and to care the employees. The employment law set a contract between the employees
and employer by setting their job roles and responsibility. Health and safety role in the
organization protect the employees and provide them a proper working environment like proper
lightning, air, water and space for their work. Legal factors also take care the all safety norms in
Debenhams Company to protect their employees from any disaster.
Environmental factor : the different environment factor affects the performance of the
Debenhams. The various environment factor are weather, climate, waste management, air and
water pollution regulations etc. Debenhams follow the environment norms in the organization.
They do various corporate social responsibility activities to provide their services, aware the
customer and increase their knowledge in different areas. Debenhams use paper bags in their
store to decrease the environment pollution and they also organize the various activities to
recycle their product and reduce the plastics in company.
SWOT analysis of Debenhams
The SWOT analysis of organization highlight the strength, weakness, opportunities and threat of
the organization and help to find the various ways to improve their situation and performance.
Strength : The strength of Debenhams are:
 Debenhams develop the new product to satisfy the customer need and get success in their
development.
 The strong distribution network help them to reach the large market and customer.
 The dedicated customer relationship help the organization to achieve their trust and
maintain their loyalty in the organization (Bull, and et.al., 2016).
 The research and development department innovate the new product by analyze the
demand of the customer by research the market trend, consumer preferences etc.
 Through the merger and acquisition Debenhams increases its revenue. The reliability of
suppliers also help them to provide the raw material to overcome any bottlenecks.
Weakness : The weaknesses of the organization help the organization to improve their
performance in the market and increase the profit. The weaknesses of Debenhams company are :

 The improper an inefficient financial planning lead the organization to decrease the
productivity and improper management.
 The growth of competitors like Tesco, Sainsbury, and Morrison decrease their market
share and consumer loyalty.
 The wrong segmentation and targeting of market decrease increases their production cost
and decrease their efficiency and effectiveness in the organization.
 The higher inventory in the warehouse and in store defined that Debenhams are not able
to forecast the demand in the market which ultimately increase their maintenance cost.
Opportunities : opportunities are the areas in which an organization can expand their business
and find the new area of development. The opportunities of Debenhams are :
 The changing environment, climate, consumer taste and preferences open up the ample
opportunities for the organization to develop the new product and meet the customer
demand by creating a new market.
 The stable free cash flow gives the opportunity to the organization to invest in more
promotional and management activities to attract the users and manage the conflicts in
Debenhams.
 The advance technology in the organization help them in their operation and marketing
work. They can improve their performance by adopting the advance technology in the
organization.
 The market development and globalization create the ample opportunities to expand the
business and diversify the business in different areas.
Threats : The threats of the organization are :
 The increasing inflation rate becomes the threat of the Debenhams Company because it
decreases the purchasing power of the consumer which ultimately affects the profitability
and productivity of the organization (Phadermrod, Crowder, and Wills, 2019).
 The changing environment rules and regulation become the threat of the company.
 The changing behavior of customer like shifting from offline to online purchasing also
reduces their sales.
 Increase the completion in market and the growth of the competitor also reduces their
profit.

 The changing rules and regulation like increasing the tariff rate, tax rate also become
threat for the Debenhams because it reduces their profit margin.
Porters five force model
 Threat of new entrants : The new entrants in the market brings the new changes,
innovation and doing the task in different ways force the Debenhams to reduces their
price, cost and offer new features in their product and services.
To overcome the issues of new entrants Debenhams innovate and redesign the product time to
time so they can maintain their customer towards their product and services (Mathooko, and
Ogutu, 2015). They use various quality standard to improve their quality of product and gain the
trust of the customer.
 Bargaining power of suppliers : there are few no. of suppliers of raw material in the
market. The dominant position of suppliers reduces the profit margin of the Debenhams.
The powerful suppliers in the market bargain for the higher price from the retailers.
To overcome the issues of bargaining power of suppliers, retailers can make a contract with the
multiple suppliers so they can manage their supply change and minimize the bargaining power of
the suppliers.
 Bargaining power of consumer : Their large number of retailers in the market which
can easily influence the consumer and shift their mind toward their organization
(Debenhams Plc Porter Five Forces Analysis, 2019). Buyers always want the minimum
price with high quality of product and services. It force the retailers to reduce their prices
to retain their customer.
To overcome the issue of bargaining power of buyers Debenhams innovate their product and
provide discount and special offers to their loyal customer which attract the more customer
toward Debenhams.
 Threat of substitute : The profitability of the organization affects when the competitors
came with the same features of product and services in the market to meet the customers
demand.

To reduce the threat of substitution Debenhams always comes with innovative promotional idea
in the market to differentiate their product and services from the competitors. They understand
the need of the customer and offer product and services according to the need of the customer.
 Rivalry among the existing competitors : If the rivalry among the existing competitors
increase then it will decreases their price and also profit of the organization.
3. Marketing mix of Debenhams Plc.
Product : There are 5 categories of services which the company serves. And each category
serves a different products with the same brand name i.e., Debenhams Plc. The company
provides the variety of products to the customers (Chernev, 2015). They provide a differentiated
products to the customer which the other companies do not offer thus providing a unique
products to its customers. The company provides the high quality products to its customers. And
for which the customers are willing to pay the higher prices. The various products provided by
the company are men’s clothing, women's clothing, home products for kitchen and cookware,
furniture’s for garden and home, gifts and toys, kids clothing etc.
Price : The pricing strategy which the Debenhams Plc. follows is competitive pricing strategies
the reason behind this strategy is that due to large number of competition in the market the data
is easily available which help them to make the strategies accordingly and due to volatility in the
market conditions the reason behind the volatility is increase in online shopping . The company
is also using a product bundle strategy in this strategy the several products and services are
grouped together as a one combined product package. The strategy helps the company to
increase the profit by providing discounts to the customers.
Place : The company use two types of marketing channels. First one by online website and
second one is through wholesalers to retailers across the country which in turn sell the products
to the customers. Presently the there are about 500 retailers in the country which are working for
the Debenhams Plc. The company has done partnership with various delivery service provides so
that the deliveries can be done on time. The company is spread in the 27 countries with 240
departmental stores. The company has acquired the small retail outlets and has increased the
number of stores by applying this strategy. International channel of UK is operating in 22
countries with about 67 stores (Lovelock. and Patterson, 2015). The main strategy of the
company is to work with regional franchise partners.

Promotion : Debenhams use 360 degree marketing for the promotion purpose. The company
uses various social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, Google plus and Facebook. In
order to advertise its product the company use TV commercials, digital marketing etc.
Debenhams focuses of its customers instead of its competitors(Olson. and et.al., 2018). The
company use TV sponsorship in order to recall the company’s product in the minds of the
customer. The company is also involved in various CSR activities in order to improve
community relationship. Debenhams also do personal selling in order to increase its presence in
the market.
Physical evidence : Debenhams has won the awards such as Lorraine Kelly's High Street
Fashion Award for several times for different categories. The company is spread in the three
continents covering 27 countries. The company use unique colour packaging which is different
from its competitors in the market so that it can be easily identifiable and catchy to the
customers. The product by the Debenhams is placed in the special shelves which are provided to
the retail stores by the company which help the customer to identify the Debenhams products in
the busy retail stores. The Debenhams company is the leading chain in the retail market of UK.
People : The company has the staff of about 27000 employees worldwide. The HR team of the
company ensure proper management of employees in order to analyse the area the company need
to improve in. The company provides the card to the every employee in which the mission of the
company has been written.
Process : The company ensures that their products are available to the stores. The company has
the online delivery stores which ensures that the products are easily available to the customers.
The company regularly do the marketing research in order to analyse the needs of the customers.
The company take the feedback from the customers through online platform as well as offline
mode by providing them feedback form at the retail stores. The company also has the helpline
and social media pages which help the company to take the feedback from the customers.
Debenhams have different brands for different product category such as Clinique, Clarins,
Murad, NARS, MAC, Estee are some of the brands of Debenhams for the beauty products,
Principles, Jasper Conran, Wallis, Phase eight are some of the brands for womes clothing thus
targeting the women. Debut, Principles, Mantary are some of the brands of shoes, Fiorelli,
Principles, Faith, Mantary are some of the brands of shoulder bags. Hence the company have
different brands which has the different target market(Debenhams products. 2019). The different

brands under Debenhams are principles, J by Jasper Conran, Faith, Kipling, Star by John Rocha,
the collection are some of the brands. The company has also conducted the campaign targeting
the women of age between 35 to 54 for the designer clothing by the Principles, Nine and Star
brands of the Debenhams.
4. Use of STP in order to analyse the gap between company’s present marketing strategy and
external environment :
STP can be used in order to analyse the gap between marketing strategy’s of the company and
the external environment. STP stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning. With the help
of STP the right customers for the company can be analysed, it will also help in reducing the risk
to the company by analysing when, where and to whom the product should be
introduced(Villeneuve and Pasquier, 2017). It also help in increasing the marketing efficiency by
directing the company towards the particular segment of customers which best matches the
company products and services. It also helps the company to reduce its cost on marketing by
analysing the potential customers and market and help them to market their products only to the
particular customer rather than marketing in the whole market.
Segmentation : Currently Debenhams Plc. is targeting customers of age group 45 to 54. The
company is offering various products and services for almost every type of customer such as
shoulder bags, clothing for both men and women , shoes for both men and women, products for
kids etc. In order to capture more market and in order to reach to the large number of customer
and increase its sales the Debenhams should first identify the current and potential customers in
the market. Then the customer should be divided based on their preferences, choice,
characteristics and traits(Camilleri, 2018). The segmentation should be such that which will
extract the needs and expectations of the customers of the different segment and should analyse
the reason behind the difference between the choices and preferences of the different customer
group. The company should analyse that how their product and service fulfils the needs of the
different groups and which group should be targeted to earn more profit.
In order to identify its customer profiles the company should
The company should do the behavioural analysis in order to identify the psychographic profiles
of the customers. In order to identify the factors which affect their purchasing behaviour the
company should do the behavioural analysis it will make easier for the company to identify the
potential customers in the market. It can be done through the surveys in which the feedback and

questions related to the particular information should be asked to the target audience which will
help the company to create small group of customers.
The company can also collect the information regarding the needs of the customer, their
demographic information such as age, gender, family etc., or to identify who are the potential
influencers such as celebrities or publications. With the help of segmentation technique company
can divide the large target customers into small group of customers. And by doing psychographic
segmentation the company can know about the customer’s lifestyle, values and attitude which
will help the company to divide them according to their traits. The psychographic segmentation
can be done through conducting surveys, interviews or by collecting information about the
customers.
Targeting : Once the information is collected and properly analysed and grouped then the
company should choose the target audience by identifying the group whose needs and wants the
company can fulfil by its resources. Company can choose one or more segment for targeting
depending upon the resources available to the company and according to the capability of the
company and its growth objectives. The company should focus on various factors such as
competitive intensity, market size, potential of market and growth of the market.
Positioning : The company should now set the clear statement the statement should be such that
which create a positive image of the company in front of the customers. Debenhams Plc can do
this by :
 Creating a positioning statement which is clear and attract the customers toward the
company
In order to create a clear statement the Debenhams Plc. should ask these question which
will help them to make the positioning statements : Difference between the company’s
offering and the offering provided by its competitors, how the company products can
fulfil the needs and wants of the customer, etc., answering such question will help the
company to create the positioning statement.
 The company should also examine the competitors strategy’s and their target audience.
By analysing the competitors strategy the company can fill the gap between them and can
gain large share in the market.

By analysing the importance of competitors the Debenhams can develop its marketing strategy.
The analysis of the competitors will help the company know about the competitors share in the
market.
Debenhams Plc. should analyse the market in order to know the opportunities as well as threat in
the market.
CONCLUSION
The study helps in knowing about Debenhams Plc. company and about the market in which
company is operating. The study helps in understanding the use of market audit the reason for
performing it. The study helps in understanding the importance of market analysis for the
company. Market analysis helps the company in knowing about its competitors, opportunities
and threat in the market, strength and weakness of the company, the risk associated with the
market the company is in. The study also explains the marketing mix which helps in
understanding that how the company can develop its strategy’s for the product, price, promotion,
place, people, and can enhance its physical evidence and make improvement in its process. The
7P’s of marketing mix helps the company to guide the customer in order to influence them to use
the products and services of the company. It helps the company to search the right channel for
distribution and promotion and to influence the customers of the company i.e., targeted
customers. The STP is also been used in the study which helps in understanding that why the
company should divide the customers into target, how they should target their segmented
customers and the company can position its image in the minds of the customer. STP helps the
company to identify its potential customer.

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Online
Debenhams products. 2019. [Online] Available through
<https://uk.westfield.com/products/retailer/debenhams>
Debenhams Plc Porter Five Forces Analysis. 2019. [Online]. Available through
<http://fernfortuniversity.com/term-papers/porter5/lse/352-debenhams-plc.php>