Analysis of the Marketing and Communication Strategies of M&S

This report offers a comprehensive marketing analysis of Marks and Spencer (M&S), a major British multinational retailer. It begins with an overview of M&S, tracing its history and core values, followed by an explanation of the differences between consumer needs, wants, and demands. The report then delves into situational analysis, emphasizing the importance of a well-defined marketing strategy. It identifies key competitors like Tesco and ASDA, assessing their potential threats to M&S, and examines internal environmental factors that impact the business. The core of the report focuses on the marketing mix (4Ps) of M&S: product, price, place, and promotion, providing a detailed examination of each element. The analysis highlights how M&S caters to its target audience, its pricing strategies, distribution channels, and promotional techniques. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications of the marketing strategies employed by M&S.

MARKETING AND
COMMUNICATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
An overview of Marks and Spencer............................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
A). Explaining how needs differ from wants..............................................................................1
B). Discussion of the need, wants and demands of customers of M&S.....................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
A). Describing situational analysis and importance of marketing strategy for the company.....3
B). Two key competitors and their potential threat to the business (250)..................................4
C). Identification of two internal environmental factors that can consider as strength or
weakness of the business operation of M&S..............................................................................4
TASK 3...........................................................................................................................................5
A). Marketing mix of Marks and Spencer..................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing communication refers to all the communication or media tools that an
organisation employs to correspond with consumers and prospective customer. In other words
marketing communications are means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade and remind
consumers directly or indirectly about the products and brands they sell. The present study aim to
evaluate various strategy organisation use to market and communicate their products and
services. The study will start with an overview of M&S and will explain needs and wants of the
consumers. Furthermore, marketing environment will be analysing of the industry. By using 4Ps
of marketing, the study will analyse and describe current marketing mix by M&S.
An overview of Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer is a major British multinational retailer and the founder of the
industry is Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884 (Altstiel, Grow and Jennings, 2018). It
is one of the largest departmental store in UK. The company mainly deals in apparels, luxury
food products, Household items, drinks, etc. Marks and Spencer believes in their values to offer
quality products to consumers in affordable price range. M&S business become public limited
company in 1926. The company currently has 979 stores across UK in which 615 stores are
selling food products and employ more than 60,000 people worldwide. In 1931, a food
department was introduced by the company that produce, sells and canned goods and in 1948
M&S launched their own food technology department to work closely with producers, supplier
and farmers. In March 1996 they have turnover of £7233.7 Million and in March 2018 the
turnover of the industry was £10,698.2 Million (Blakeman, 2018). Marks and Spencer states that
the principles on which its industry was founded are; value, trust, services, quality and
innovation. In the beginning company sell their products under the slogan of “do not ask the
price, it is penny”.
TASK 1
A). Explaining how needs differ from wants
Wants, needs and demand are a basic part of the marketing principles. Need want and
demand of consumer are interrelated and arise on the basic ability, willingness and requirements.
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Needs- Need are the basic requirement of human being such as; clothes, food, water,
shelter and safety and are necessary for human survival. Generally, the products that fall under
the need category do not require push (Browne and et. al., 2018).
Wants- Wants are not basic requirements and these are not essential for human survival.
If need of a person arises then it stimulates taste and preference of individuals and then finally
want also arises. Wants of human beings are not permanent and can change depending on the
time (Chan, 2018). For example; if a person feel thirsty then the basic requirement is water that
is a need of individual but the want force a person to drink juice or similar products.
Demand- Willingness to purchase and ability to pay creates demand for specific
products. Willingness is created by human want and buying power or ability covert the want into
individual's demand.
Basic for comparison Needs Wants
Meaning Needs can be defined as an
individual's basic requirement
that must be fulfilled, in order
to survive.
Wants refers to the goods and
services which an individual
like to have as per their
capability.
Nature Needs are limited Wants are unlimited
Survival Essential Inessential
Change May remain constant over time May changes over time.
What is it? Something you must have. It is something you wish to
have.
B). Discussion of the need, wants and demands of customers of M&S
The basic need of consumers from Marks and Spencer are clothes, food, etc. and making
choices in the basic required products can be consider as the want of consumers. Some consumer
segment have demand of customise products, luxurious products that depends on the income
level of customer (Kitchen and Schultz, 2019). Need, wants and demand of consumer is depends
on several factors such as; branding, price, accessibility, trend, etc.
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The starting price rate of the company's product are reasonable that can fulfil consumer's
basic need. For example; Per Una brand of Marks and Spencer is especially created as per the
demand of consumers. The products under the brand are in limited collection (Kupec, 2018).
TASK 2
A). Describing situational analysis and importance of marketing strategy for the company
Situation Analysis
Situation analysis refers to collection of method that managers uses to analyse internal
and external environment of an organisation to understand business environment, capability and
potential consumer of an industry (Terence, Shimp and Andrews, 2016). There are various
factors to consider in situation analysis; product situation, distribution situation, competitive
situation, environmental factors and opportunity and issue analysis.
Marketing environment
Marketing environment refers to the variable or influences of external and internal
environment of an organisation. Marketing environment of an organisation is made up of two
major forces; Internal and External (Lane Keller, 2018).
Internal Environment- The internal environment include 5Ms; Men, money, machinery,
materials and minutes.
External environment- External environment of the company also categorise in two major
parts; Micro and Macro environment
 Micro environment- This environment consist various factors such as consumers,
suppliers and stakeholders.
 Macro environment- This environment consist various factors that influence business
such as; Political, legal, environmental, social, technological and economic.
The marketing environment can be analysed by various tools;
 PESTEL Analysis- This tool help company to scan external macro environment
(Blakeman, 2017).
 SWOT Analysis- This tool help in examine both external and internal factors that affect
performance of the company.
Importance of situation analysis in marketing strategy
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Conducting situation analysis is essential as it helps M&S to define the extent and nature
of the issues and problems in company. Other than that it enables Marks and Spencer to identify
the strength and weakness of the organisation. Conducting situation analysis helps the company
to assess perception of public and brand image of the industry. It helps in understanding the base
of internal operation effectively. For effective marketing strategy, it is essential for M&S to have
an in-depth understanding of the company's capability and threats as well as exact situation of
the company.
B). Two key competitors and their potential threat to the business (250)
The key competitor of marks and Spencer are; Aldi, Asda, Centra, Tesco, Primark,
M&Co, Waitrose, and Farmfoods. The two major and selected competitor of the company are;
Tesco- Tesco is an intense competition of M&S. The company created their brand image
with low price products and services (Kitchen and Schultz, 2019). In comparing to M&S that
have higher price than Tesco. Tesco build the image of brand by using strength, uniqueness and
favour-ability. Value of the company is also higher than M&S. Tesco have 8.6 billion pounds
and M&S have 3.9 billion pound in 2017.
ASDA- This has similar operation like Marks and Spencer. Beside the supermarket,
company also offers other services like; financial services and mobile phone provider. The
ASDA is cheaper than Marks and Spencer. ASDA has overtaken M&S to become second biggest
clothing retailer by volume.
They are competitors because, the services are in similar field in similar market with All
the company aims to deliver high quality products at lowest price but in the competition, Tesco
wins clearly (Altstiel, Grow and Jennings, 2018).
Potential Threat of the competitors
 The biggest threat from Tesco is the pressure of lowering the price as the company grab
almost all segment of consumers by delivering lower price products than M&S (Terence,
Shimp and Andrews, 2016). The company uses discounting prices that have major impact
on the consumers mind.
 ASDA company appears threat of substitute for M&S as they provide similar products in
lower price range and make the switching cost low for them that is the biggest threat for
the organisation.
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C). Identification of two internal environmental factors that can consider as strength or weakness
of the business operation of M&S
Internal environmental factors are available within the company and can affect how an
industry meet its objectives. Under this strength have favourable impact on the business and
weakness have harmful effect on M&S (Browne and et. al., 2018). There are a range of internal
environmental factors such as; Resources, management values, stakeholders, capability,
corporate culture, strategy success, etc.
Organisational resources- This is the weakness of the firm. They are financially strong
to being a barrier in front of new entrants. But in the competitive world they are not able to go to
that level of utilising the resources. They are also being threat for Marks and Spencer. The
biggest reason to consider them as weakness for the company is because lack of potential the
resources have and as they are relies on few supplier
Core competencies- This is the biggest strength of the company the renowned brand
name, employees of the industry are step ahead with the value of company to provide good
products in low rates.
TASK 3
A). Marketing mix of Marks and Spencer
Marketing mix is an essential tool that refers to the set of tactics or action that an industry
uses to promote its brand or product in the market (The 4Ps of Marketing, 2019). The main aim
of any organisation is to earn and maximise the profit. For doing so, company concentrates on 4
major factors; Price, Product, Place and Promotion are known as marketing mix.
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Product- This P of marketing mix can be tangible goods or an intangible services that
fulfils wants, need and demand of consumer (Altstiel, Grow and Jennings, 2018). Products
provided by the company are; For Women they provide- Apparel, accessories, footwear, lingerie,
For Men- Footwear, Nightwear, formal wear, apparel, accessories, For Kids- Girls, Boys, School
uniform, Beauty- Skincare, Make-up, Hair care, Toiletries, Home- Bed and Bath, Cooking and
dining linen, Travel bags, Furniture- Sofa, bookcase, dining table, etc., Food- cakes, fruits,
desserts, fish, cold meat and cheese
Price- Price is the actual amount the end user is expected to pay foe any goods and
services. The major role of the company in this mix is the strategy developed for pricing of
products that directly affect the consumer and company. M&S caters middle to upper class
people by their income. They have adopted a dynamic pricing policy.
Place- It concerns with how the product will be provided to the consumers and
distribution channels plays a major role in it. M&S has spread their presence in global and
international market. Generally company sell their products via outlets with tasteful decoration
and soothing ambience but they are also provides consumers to buy the products through online
(Blakeman, 2018). The online shopping store of M&S has launched in 1999.
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Illustration 1: Marketing Mix
(Source: The 4Ps of Marketing, 2019)

Promotion- The marketing communication techniques and strategies fall under the
Promotion heading. M&S believes in full-on marketing policy and has aligned with all the
possible tool. The strategy adopted by the company is below-the-line and above-the-line
(Kitchen and Schultz, 2019). They are very active with various campaigns such as; magazines,
radio, digital campaign, video campaign, print, billboards and hoardings, etc.
CONCLUSION
From the present study it has been evaluated that Marks and Spencer is one of the leading
retailer chain in UK. It also been concluded that there is a thin line difference between need,
want and demand of consumer that is required by the marketer of M&S. Situation analysis
should be conducted by the industry to effectively develop strategic plan for future development.
There are various tools are available to analyse environmental factors such as PEST and SWOT
analysis.
The statement they give is not worthy. The company stated that “We provide high quality
products at lower price”. But as the comparison has been done in the study clearly stated that
Marks and Spencer is positioned at 5th number in terms of low price after ASDA, Tesco and two
more companies. It also has been analysed that they cover all consumer from various segment
from low to higher price consumers and from clothing to food to other groceries. The two major
competitor of M&S are; TESCO and ASDA.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Altstiel, T., Grow, J. and Jennings, M., 2018. Advertising creative: strategy, copy, and design.
Sage Publications.
Blakeman, R., 2017. Advertising campaign design: Just the essentials. Routledge.
Blakeman, R., 2018. Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to
implementation. Rowman & Littlefield.
Blakemen, R., 2015. Strategic Uses of Alternative Media: Just the Essentials: Just the
Essentials. Routledge.
Browne, S. and et. al., 2018. Shaking up business models with creative strategies: when tried
and true stops working. Journal of Business Strategy. 39(4). pp.19-27.
Chan, A., 2018. Marketing Strategy of a Creative Industry Company in Bandung City. Review of
Integrative Business and Economics Research. 7. pp.232-240.
Kitchen, P. J. and Schultz, D. E., 2019. A multi-country comparison of the drive for
IMC. Journal of Advertising Research. 39(1). pp.21-21.
Kupec, V., 2018. Risk Audit of Marketing Communication. European Research Studies
Journal. 21(1). pp.125-132.
Lane Keller, K., 2018. Mastering the marketing communications mix: Micro and macro
perspectives on integrated marketing communication programs.
Terence, A. S., Shimp, J. and Andrews, C., 2016. Advertising Promotion and Other Aspects of
Integrated Marketing Communications.
Online
The 4Ps of Marketing. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:<https://marketingmix.co.uk/4ps-
marketing/>.
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