Marketing Essentials Report: H&M and Zara Comparison

This report examines the marketing essentials of Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), including its roles and responsibilities within the organization, such as marketing research, product development, sales support, event organization, and communication. The report explores how these marketing functions relate to the broader organizational context, emphasizing customer need identification, brand reputation, market share growth, and pricing strategies. Furthermore, the report compares H&M's marketing mix strategies (7Ps) with those of Zara, focusing on product offerings, pricing strategies, and distribution channels. A detailed analysis of the marketing plan is also provided, offering insights into how H&M positions itself in the competitive retail market. The report concludes with a comparison of H&M and Zara's approach to product development and market segmentation. The report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing strategies and their practical application in the retail industry.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
LO 1......................................................................................................................................................3
P1 key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function............................................................3
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context.
.........................................................................................................................................................4
LO 2......................................................................................................................................................6
P2 H&M v/s ZARA- Marketing mix strategies:..............................................................................6
LO 3......................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Marketing plan for Hennes & Mauritz.......................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing essentials refers to understand the concept of marketing and learn something
from them and identify the market, it is all includes in the marketing essentials.
Hennes & Mauritz is a clothing retail company which founded in 1947 in Sweden and its founder
name is Earling Persson. H&M operates in 62 countries with high retail market of cloths. It is the
second largest clothing retailer company in global map(Pike, 2015).
This report will include role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of an
organization and Compare ways in which organizations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to
achieve overall business objectives. Also develop a basis marketing plan.
LO 1
P1 key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing is the process of promoting goods and services in which product have to be sell.
It includes advertising, promotion and selling of goods with developing a marketing strategy. It is
the process of planning organising and summarising or directing. Every company need a marketing
plan to efficient running of the organisation(Pike, 2015). There are many roles and responsibilities
of marketing function and they are following-
Marketing research- Marketing research is very important for any organisation and H&M also
need for marketing research to know about the needs and wants of the customers and also to know
about the satisfaction level of the consumers. Marketing research is the key responsibility of
marketing department of H&M. It helps company to better know about the opportunities and
customer needs. Through marketing research H&M also know about the strength and weakness of
the other competitors. Research is also do through the primary and secondary data and with online
study of the product.
Management- Marketing is the process of management which involve planning organising
controlling and other things. It deals with the goals and objectives of the organisation so it is a
management process with including employee and customer relations. Manage and find the groups
which have more needed the products of H&M. In marketing function they also have to manage the
products which are already in deal with clients(Pike, 2015).
Product development- Marketing department works with the strategy of develop the product it

may be developing of existing product or a new product. Marketing department analyse the product
gape and also gape between the price of the products between other companies. Marketing
employees provide all the news regarding the satisfaction level of that particular product and what
is the market demand related to this product.
Sales support- Marketing team also support sales activities because cooperation of sales team and
marketing team is too good for companies because they both are different but mainly their target is
same and that is increasing customers of Hennes & Mauritz. Marketing team helps them to tell
about advertisement and new strategies of marketing which use by them and it is profitable for sales
team because through this strategy they can aloes apply their efforts toward the product (Ottman,
2017). Marketing team also helps the sales team by applying presentation and distribute prospects
regarding the cloths and their price and it will help the sales team in selling the product and
penetrate the market toward Hennes & Mauritz.
Organising events- Hennes & Mauritz company organise many of the event regarding to new
arrivals and they also arrange seminars on some places because their employees are everywhere and
through event they easily approach to them and tell them about the new objectives. They make also
presentation for this and learn the other employees about the product with comparison chart and
situation analysis of the market trend.
Communication - It matters in everything because it is necessary to have better communication
within and outside the organisation. Marketing team are preferable for communications skill and
they provide the best things to the department in form of advertising, audio campaign and video
campaign. In these all process communication matters and they discuss everything with the team
members and upper level employees(Ottman, 2017).
A good marketing department use AIDA model in which four contents come which are awareness,
interest, desire, action. This model refers to that once customer have to aware about the product and
know about the existence of the product then after it they make interest upon the product maybe
they like the product and after this their desire comes regarding to the product and if their desire
meet with the product then next step is action means they purchase the product.
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context.
Marketing roles in H&M organisation:
Identifying customers need and preference H&M, a clothing brand belongs to fashion industry
which is changing at an ever increasing rate so the marketer has to continuously evaluate the
customer preferences and has to conduct periodical surveys to know about the consumers choices,
what they think about the rivalry firm's product and their degree of shifting to other brands.

Marketing plays an important role in building H&M reputation ,growth and its existence
in the fashion industry. Marketer is responsible for preparing the marketing strategies after
conducting many feasible studies, lot of market research. Due diligence is required by the marketer
as his actions will ultimately affect the H&M in whole. It is through marketing only H&M will
come in contact with its customers and the way marketing H&M would do will create the positive
or negative impact on people's minds(Ottman, 2017).
An efficient marketing strategies helps H&M to increase its market share, which eventually
results in increase in its sales and increase in profit.
A marketer of H&M will try to expand its market areas through aggressive advertising and
promotion. Marketers conduct many PR programmes to build H&M' s image.
H&M marketer plays the role of price maker of the product it serves to its customers
because it is the marketing function of the organisation which conduct market research like the
consumer taste, price of the rivalry products, consumer's purchasing power, what segment of the
segment of the society it has to serve. All the factors are taken into consideration by the H&M
marketer for fixing the suitable price of the company's product which is the success parameter of
the H&M as ultimately it is the sale of the product which will generate revenue for the H&M for its
sustainability and growth.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING IN H&M
The innovation of H&M products and how innovatively it is communicated to the customers relies
upon the H&M marketer. He is responsible for innovation in the organisation through conducting
many skill related programmes for the workers, technology awareness programmes, different
techniques(Caragher, 2016).
Marketing function of H&M is responsible for managing its budgets like at what cost
H&M's marketing activities will be beneficial for the company, will the advertisement expenses
which are very high, can they be recovered in future through stable sales, is there any need of
aggressive advertising and promotion for the H&M at present and if there is then what amount is
needed for that expenses and what estimated profits will the company get.
H&M 's marketing department is responsible for creating good relations with the customers
and maintaining the same. Its is duty of the company's marketer to coordinate with all the other
departments since marketing is the department that comes in direct contact with their customers.
Marketing is responsible for the distribution channels through which the H&M products are
made available to its consumers. Selection of proper distribution channels will largely affect the
cost of the H&M products and this will decide the level of output sold by the H&M among other
cost related factors.

It is the marketing department which is responsible for making the H&M a top brand in
the fashion industry. Marketing has made H&M a stiff competitor through innovative marketing
strategies which has created a loyal fan base for the company(Caragher, 2016). This all lead to a
healthy competitive environment which is best platform for all the stakeholders of the H&M
company.
sometimes it is because of the marketing department of the H&M that company could
not live up to the expected results which were planned which means company was not able to
retain its customer base and the marketing strategies were not successful.
LO 2
P2 H&M v/s ZARA- Marketing mix strategies:
H&M and Zara
Marketing Mix
(7Ps)
H&M ZARA
Products and
Services
 H&M offers clothing for
women, men and children.
The range offer for women
include: bags, sportswear,
home décor items, shoes,
accessories, casual clothing,
beauty. The strategy offers
wide range of products in
one retail store which
influence consumer to
purchase those several
products as well, which they
didn't plan to buy.
 H&M work as five
individual brand: H&M,
COS, Monki, Weekday, and
cheap monkey. Each brand
has its own price range and
concept. This ensure that the
brand have variety of styles
and covers all age segments.
 They offer homogeneous
products. Offering
homogeneous products give
reason for purchasing
because of its pricing and
features. H&M provide high
quality products.
 Zara is also a well known
fashion brand, which offers
wide range of clothing for
men, women and children.
The strategy of Zara is to
collaborate with local talent
to offer best fashion trend.
 The brand Zara wins from
H&M in fast fashion
strategy. But they work on
single pattern worldwide,
which is not beneficial to
keep the brand loyalty in
every demographic sector.
 In compare to H&M the
strategy of Zara in product
development is limited in
one pattern, and they supply
same pattern in every
market, without doing
research of the market need.
Price  H&M use skimming pricing
strategy.
 Zara using competitive
pricing strategy.

 H&M not only focuses on
the affordability but also
categorised its brand to cover
from middle class to upper
class consumers.
 H&M maintain the cost by
doing production, where
cheap labours are available.
 Comparatively Cheap
Monday from H&M selling
their products much cheaper
than Zara, the strategy of
cheaper price is to gain
momentum, an consumers
will buy at H&M rather than
from its competitors.
 Zara only focuses on
affordability, as it is limited
in middle class consumers
or average consumers.
 It sets on market based
pricing strategy, which
bound in to fix target price
consumer.
Place  It follows omni channel
strategy.
 Offline Stores- H&M sells
the products through its
stores in various major cities
with 4351 stores.
 Online Store- Cheap
Monday by H&M provide
the online service where
consumer can buy and pay
online and get delivered at
their address. The strategy is
to covering all the consumers
world wide. The online
service is present in 35
countries.
 H&M provide its product
trough franchising partners.

 Zara also provide its
products online, but it is
very limited in compare to
H&M.
 Zara have its own owned
stores and does not
franchise.
Promotion  H&M uses multi- channel
marketing strategy.
 TV ads- it helps to aware
consumers with new
innovative designs, and
increase their interest.
 Social Media- H&M have its
own channel on YouTube. It
also invest a great amount in
SEM and SMM.
 PR- They invite celebrities
to their store opening which
also a part of promotion.
 H&M promotion strategy
boosts sale by partnership or
collaboration with well
known brands like Versace
 Zara have very low
marketing expenses in
compare to H&M, it barely
advertise its products, that is
why we consumer cannot
see Zara ads on television.
 Zara concerned with the
happiness and satisfaction
of their consumer rather
than digital promotion, this
strategy cut the cost of
advertisement and also this
will return as, happy
customers recommend the
company to their friends
and relatives, and also
return if they are satisfied,

and Alexander Wang. means free promotion.
Physical Evidence  The brand logo of H&M
attracts consumers on the
shopping bags, billboards or
on internet.
 Zara does not have brand
logo. But their service and
design of store attract
consumer towards it.
People  H&M strategically hire
greeters at in front of the
store, to greet and guide
people, it also lead to
increase in marketing and
attract consumers.
 They hire employees and
promote them for selling
and marketing as well.
LO 3
P4 Marketing plan for Hennes & Mauritz
Hennes & Mauritz want to launch a new pattern of cloths for men and women. A new
marketing with followings the few steps-
1. Marketing objectives- For develop anew plan the first step is to know about the objectives of the
company behind it. The main aim of every company is being profitable. Objective behind
launching new arrivals is product differentiation. They want to give the best quality product in
minimum price to the customers. Many of the customers are price oriented so the company follow
the structure from which their customer will satisfy. They want to make their arrivals attractive and
affordable to the people.
2. SWOT analysis of Hennes & Mauritz- For create a marketing plan at once have to do the swot
analysis of the company that what is the situation of Hennes & Mauritz.
Strength-
 Strong presence in the market and a wide market range.
 Hennes & Mauritz. includes 6 brands in it.
 Big online market and move towards many new places with online market.
 Provide brand name with low cost arrivals.
Weakness-

 Failing in mall strategies
 Slow response of consumer toward brand
 Unsold inventory increase day by day
Weak strategy implementation
Opportunities-
 High global representation
 Purchasing power of consumer increasing
 Adopt brand by the customers very rapidly
 Online stores likes by the people
Threats-
 Competitors like ZARA
 Innovative marketing’s
 Consumer preferences

3. 4P's of marketing strategy -
Product- Hennes & Mauritz. will launch new arrivals for men and women as well. The
things which will make the product more friendly with the customers added in it(Caragher, 2016). It
makes many products like -sportswear, underwear and cosmetics, accessories and shoes.
Price - Hennes & Mauritz is competitor of ZARA but they following different pricing
strategy from them. Hennes & Mauritz will choose the best price for the arrivals and low price in
comparision to Zara. They also have to focused on middle class family which can also afford the
product.
Place - Hennes & Mauritz have to move towards online selling strategy because customers
like the online selling option too much and old records tell that thing. So they will move to the
online market strategy in other areas.
Promotion- Promoting the product through advertisement and tie ups with the other
companies to promote their brand with them they can also use endorsement.

4. Making a budget- Here making a estimate budget plan for marketing strategy. It worth 10 billion
(approximately)
expenses name cost (in billions)
production expenses 6
advertisement expenses 1
salary and accommodation 1
social media marketing 1
miscellaneous 1
total 10 billion
5. Monitoring and controlling - After making a budget it is time to monitoring and controlling the
product. Monitor with the test marketing from which company have an estimate idea about the
product. Launch the product in the entire market for sample testing and after that they will see the
review of the product and make an idea according to it.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarised that marketing essentials made main role in
the organisation and told about the marketing stare-ties and their implementation. Roles and
responsibilities of marketing function and their affect. This report have also taken material that what
is the range of marketing plan and their strategies and in which area they had worked and their
benefits to the organisation. Talked about the responsibilities in marketing plan and prepared a n
estimate budget plan for marketing. Talked about the skills of sales manager and their
responsibilities and requirement of training regarding the job.

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