Marketing Management: Developing a Marketing Plan for Boden in the UK

This report presents a comprehensive marketing plan for Boden, a UK-based clothing retailer, focusing on market development strategies. It begins with an executive summary outlining the plan's objectives: analyzing the market environment and developing suitable approaches to attract shoppers. The report emphasizes the need for market expansion beyond Boden's existing markets, suggesting Birmingham and South East England as potential growth areas. The environmental analysis utilizes PEST and SWOT tools, revealing challenges like Brexit and economic volatility, while also highlighting the increasing use of smartphones as an opportunity. The target market is analyzed using demographic, geographic, and behavioral variables, leading to the development of tailored marketing mix strategies for each selected market. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of long-term planning in the dynamic clothing industry. The introduction provides context, the PESTLE analysis details the political, economic, social, and technological factors impacting Boden. SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and the report provides the marketing mix strategy for each of the two target markets.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The current report includes a marketing plan consisting of market development strategies for
Boden- clothing retailer located in UK. The purpose of the plan is to analyze the market
environment and develop suitable approaches to approach the shoppers. As the existing
markets of the brand is not effective enough to stand against the competitors, Boden is
suggested to expand its markets to Birmingham and South East of England, where shoppers’
response rate is comparatively higher than other regions in UK. The environmental analysis
has been done conducted by applying the strategic tools such as PEST and SWOT. The
outcome of the analysis indicates that political and economical environment faced significant
challenges like Brexit, volatility of Chinese stock market and demonetization in India. These
barriers have intense impact on the clothing industry in UK. However, due to the
advancement of technology, the rate of Smartphone users are rapidly increasing in United
Kingdom which creates the path of running the business with an alternative mode or
practices. To learn about potential business opportunities, the target market has been analyzed
with three different variables such as demographic, geographic and behavioural. Eventually,
based on the characteristics and elements found from the variables separate marketing mix
approaches have been suggested to Boden. The proposed strategies would help Boden to
strengthen its position in the markets but to sustain in future, Boden has to consider long-term
planning because clothing industry is always dynamic in terms of customers needs, trends
and preference.

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Table of Content
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Task 1:........................................................................................................................................5
Summary of an environmental appraisal analysis for Boden in UK market..............................5
Task 2: -....................................................................................................................................10
Two new Male target markets appropriate to Boden in UK market........................................10
Customer profiling...................................................................................................................10
Justifying why the target markets are appropriate for Boden, UK..........................................14
Positioning strategy..................................................................................................................15
Task 3:......................................................................................................................................17
Marketing mix strategy for the market Birmingham...............................................................17
Marketing mix strategies for South East of England:..............................................................20
Reference and Bibliography.....................................................................................................26

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Introduction
The following report provides a marketing plan of three years for Boden in UK.
Boden in UK is a clothing retailer and it has been running its operation for almost twenty
years. With the help of internet technology, the firm has been able to provide its services to
some foreign nations. Boden provides variety of clothes for men, women and children.
However, as the market environment has become dynamic, Boden has to make plans for its
future to remain sustainable. Therefore, the marketing plan developed in the report discusses
the current economical and environmental needs and based on which suitable strategies have
been developed. The major purpose of the plan is to understand the current and future market
needs and prepare strategies to meet those needs. The plan also considers the future
sustainability of the business.
Boden will gain benefits from this marketing plan, as in the industry recent industry
report, it is found that clothing market in UK is estimated to grow by 16.6% over the next
five years to £51.2bn (Strijbos 2018). Hence, the growth rate is 3.3% stronger than the
figure recorded during 2012 to 2017. Nonetheless, Boden pays a significant attention to
women clothing; which is a problem to Boden growth because in today’s dynamic market
environment, one particular strong section is not enough to remain sustainable. The “focus”
must be extended to other areas and thereby, this plan pays attention to two significant Male
markets in UK. Here, male market is targeted because, it is estimated that menswear is going
to be the fastest growing clothing subsector with the growth rate of 21.2% by 2022
(Ons.gov.uk 2018). This figure outperforms the growth of womenswear by 5.8%.
Nevertheless, choosing two particular target markets is just the first step of the future
strategy; now Boden needs to think how the target markets would be approached. Thus, the
marketing plan categorizes significant marketing mix elements for each selected market and

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why and how those elements will be implemented has been discussed further in the plan
below.
Task 1:
Summary of an environmental appraisal analysis for Boden in UK market
The recent article on market analysis published by BBC news indicates that UK
clothing sector will expand with a growth rate over 16% within next five years and according
to this article the growth ascendency rate is near 4% which is certainly higher than the
previous years. However, Kozlowski, Bardecki and Searcy (2012) argued that the market
could be driven by inflation with the increasing rate of 2% until 2020, which could further
drive up import as well as manufacturing cost. Kozlowski, Bardecki and Searcy (2012) also
mentioned that the margin remains weak, as customers cut because of the squeezed disposal
earning and paying more attention to essentials food and grocery. Nonetheless, the
environmental state of UK’s clothing sector has been reported with the following strategic
tools.
PESTLE
Political- As put forward by Gardetti and Torres (2017) the year 2016 and the first
quarter of 2017 have been a difficult period for the clothing sector in UK. This is because the
terrorist attack on France is stopping the suppliers to import, Brexit creating an uncertain
stability in the relation of European suppliers with UK and recent volatility in Chinese stock
market affecting the world economy (Huang et al. 2013). However, Boden will not have to
experience this barrier in its growth, as things are expected to change because the growth will
be driven by the increasing influence of fashion. Shoppers expect themselves to be treated
with fashion and trends, which eventually drive the growth. Moreover, the large clothing

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retailer M&S, for example, tends to focus on recent trend in business and consequently,
M&S became the market leader (Goworek et al. 2012). Likewise, Boden develop its
strategies considering the recent trend and when it comes to trend in clothing sector, young
clothing shoppers should be prioritized because young clothing shoppers have the higher
frequency of 58.1% of buying clothes (Felgate and Fearne 2015). Therefore, it can be
ascertained that Boden could overcome above three political barriers by utilizing the current
market trends.
Figure 1: PEST analysis
(Source: Yang, Yang and Zhou 2012)
Economical- As mentioned by Yang, Yang and Zhou (2012), volatility in the
Chinese market in last year had an intense impact on clothing sector, which has damaged the
confidence of UK’s retailers. However, Dimpfl and Jank (2016) argued here and insisted on
other fundamental economies such as Russia as well as demonetization in India, where the
situation is yet to come under control. The import in these two nations did not provide any
PoliticalEconomicalSocio-culturalTechnological

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positive return to UK retailers in 2017 and consequently, situation slows down the growth of
sales. On the contrary, Esteve-Turrillas and de la Guardia (2017) mentioned that even though
the downturn in Chinese economy was a barrier in growth, the clothing retail sector in UK is
hopeful about 2018, because large retail giant Sainsbury observed a growth of 1.9% in
market share, which indicates that the situation is changing (Pantano et al. 2017). Thus, adapt
to the newly changing economy, Boden needs to understand the “value for money”, which is
a significant purchase motivator, especially among the mature shoppers. Thereafter, Boden
needs to consider the quality and price. Hence, Bruwer et al. (2014) also mentioned that value
for money and quality are the two top drivers.
Social- The socio-cultural factor indicates that millennial generation is the major
target of all clothing retailers. Eastman, Iyer and Thomas (2013) particularly insisted on the
fact that taste and preferences of millennial are very different from the previous generation.
Millennial do not just look for convenience, they also want quality products on low price.
Therefore, Boden needs to cater to different needs where it could push sales as well as attract
and engage customers. Boden also needs to understand the rise of fast fashion, which is the
proof of push in the sales. The strategy of producing trendy clothes at high price is no more a
suitable one; Boden should not commit the same mistake like Zara, who only paid attention
to high quality fashion (Crofton and Dopico 2012). High quality fashion does not remain as
the privilege of higher end consumers, as it has been affordable due to advancement of
technology.
Technological- Retail sector does not face technological barriers because the
globalization IT and internet increased the consumption rate of mobile devices. Thereby,
Hasanbeigi and Price (2012) mentioned that increasing availability of mobile devices and
internet technology is the driver of sales growth. This is because online shopping opportunity
developed by retail brands has direct impact on sales. Boden has the opportunity with respect

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to overseas expansion, as online selling is popular both in domestic and global market. The
technology has made it possible to go beyond the boarder and contact a wide customer
segment. On the other side, a market research conducted by Gardetti and Torres (2017),
indicates that online clothing market is estimated to increase by 53.2% within 2022, which
accounts for 34.2% from 13.5% in 2013. Nevertheless, to go with the trend of online
marketing, Boden needs to develop its online segments such as delivery, returns and irregular
innovation because the online retail brands like ASOS, Amazon and Very.co. uk have
become driving force; they developed their own standards with respect to services (Jary and
Wileman 2016).
SWOT analysis
Strength
 Strong control over its supply chain
network
 Increasing variety in the clothing
items
 Large loyal customer base
 stabilized economy
Weaknesses
 Low market awareness
 Lack of street presence
 Low engagement in social media
 Lack of promotional activities for
online selling segments
Opportunities
 Speedy economic recovery
 Growing responses of clothes
shoppers
 Opportunity for new market
development
 Decrease in the market share of
competitors creating room for new
Threats
 Tough competition due to online
selling in the clothe industry
 Entry of Amazon could be the reason
for poor sales growth, as the market
share of others is being squeezed.

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brands
Table 1: SWOT analysis
(Source: Burns 2016)
Strength: Even though Boden lags behind in terms of sales, the strong control over
its supply chain enable the firm to beat others in the market. It develops a “self-containment”
throughout the phases of its supply chain, raw material and distribution. Variety in production
is another significant strength of Boden, as it offers more design than its competitors.
Moreover, the uniqueness in the product category remains as the force to interrupt the
competitors. Rovai (2016) mentioned that compared to other retailers in the clothing sector,
Boden is a step ahead in terms of customer loyalty. Since, its inception the rate of customers’
shift did not increase much. Similarly, in external environment, growing fashion trend,
speedy-recovery of economy enables Boden to go to its next level.
Weaknesses: Although the quality of products and better adoption of trends to
business enable Boden to sustain in the market, lack of street presence, market awareness
remain as the core weakness of Boden. The competitors like Sainsbury, Sportsdirect and
M&S have high market awareness. In addition to this, Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson (2014)
argued that even though the technology is rapidly developing in UK market as well as in
global market, Boden does not have any adequate presence in digital environment. Boden
developed its online selling segment but awareness in the segment is not effective.
Opportunities- It is found above in the PEST analysis, that the economy is
recovering steadily and there is regular response of millennial to current fashion trends. This
situation certainly provides innovation opportunity to Boden. This means that Boden could
bring innovation to its existing online selling businesses such as targeting few more customer
segments with high quality service and products. Moreover, compared to its competitors,

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Boden lags behind in terms of market share, which means that the firm has the opportunity to
penetrate in new markets. Another significant opportunity to Boden is that, M&S has become
the biggest loser in 2017 due to dropping market share of 8.2% and this situation is followed
by Next, which is forecast to observe decline in share in 2018 with poor trading as well as
lack of customer focus (Van den Bergh and Behrer 2016). Thus, Boden could obtain their
positions by developing market-oriented standards in terms of trading and customers’ needs.
Threats: The speedy adoption of online selling has created a competitive state in
UK’s clothing sector. Gardetti and Torres (2017) insisted on the fact that entry of e-
commerce giant Amazon has squeezed the markets of others. Therefore, Boden has to deal
with a tough competition even in its online segment.
Task 2: -
Two new Male target markets appropriate to Boden in UK market
According to the recent statistic of United Kingdom, the total population of Male in
UK is 32, 377, 700 and the percentage of growth of males is 3.9% higher compared to female
(Ons.gov.uk 2018). Thus, the major focus of Boden in terms of expansion of market should
be male. Particularly, Birmingham and the South East of England have the highest male
population. Thus, Boden needs to focus on these regions as its target market for the
expansion strategy. However, the selection of these two target markets have been further
supported with following approaches.
Customer profiling
Demographic variables: It is certain that UK’s clothing industry is one of fastest
growing industries in the world. Particularly, in the south east of England and Birmingham

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have the highest employment rate (81% and 77.6% respectively) of males compared to
women employment rate 48.9% in Birmingham (Ons.gov.uk 2018). As the rate of education
is higher among males and employment rate is also increasing rapidly. Thus, males in these
regions have the tendency to try latest and innovative items in each category of goods. In
addition, almost 68% of total male population in these two regions fall under the age
category between 20-45 years, which indicates that people in this category has high tendency
of adopting new trends, as both young and mature shoppers falling under this category
(Ons.gov.uk 2018). The average salary of male employees with the experience between 5-9
years in Birmingham is £ 30,756. This figure also indicates that average wages of female
with same experience £ 21,098, which is certainly lesser than a male employee withdraws.
Moreover, the statistic report indicates that almost 59% of total male workers in South East
London work in IT and technology firms in UK (Ons.gov.uk 2018). Therefore, this figure
certainly implies that target customers are much aware of the technologies in retail
businesses.
Geographic Variables: As put forward by Vardoulakis et al. (2015), compared to
other regions, Birmingham remains cold for almost 7 to 8 months of the year and such
variation in weather enables people in those regions to wear warm clothes. Thus, male
shoppers tend to look for warm and trendy winter clothes. However, the temperature remains
little warmer in South East London compared to Birmingham. Thereby, the preference of
clothes differs from each other among the male shoppers in these two regions of UK. On the
other side, as the technological advancements reach the entire United Kingdom, shoppers
have the options for online shopping; consequently, the number of visits to outlet is
decreasing (Liu, Burns and Hou (2013). Particularly, clothing shops with traditional selling
practices in the remote areas of the Birmingham are not able to gain adequate amount of
customer attention. However, female shoppers have the tendency to visit the outlet and try

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items before buying but due to high engagement in employment, male shoppers hardly pay
visit to outlet.
Behavioural variables: As put forward by Parment (2013.) people in Birmingham
and South East of England tend to follow the current trends and rather they can be called
“Fashion Trend Pursuer”. Thus, to meet the needs of those shoppers, Boden should adopt
the recent and future trends of fashion and apply them to product development. In addition,
the male shoppers in Birmingham are more conscious about the brand, which means they
usually choose high-profile brands with the belief of receiving high quality. Ordun (2015)
mentioned that shoppers, especially the millennial mostly prefer an urban appearance in
clothes but at the most reasonable price. Thus, trends and quality are the top criteria of
acquiring shoppers’ attention in Birmingham.
Besides the trends and quality, people throughout UK are more accustomed to
technology and now they can compare the quality and price of the product with other brands.
This technological facilitation has now turned into a characteristic as National Statistic UK
2015 reveals the buying behaviour of clothes shoppers, where it is learnt that when buying
clothes, 30% of the consumers have mentioned that they tend to research products online
before buying in store (Ons.gov.uk2018). On the other side, only 11% of the shoppers
mentioned that they shop with friends. From this particular figure, it can be mentioned that
technology has high impact on male shoppers in UK.

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Figure 2: Shoppers’ behavioural characteristics in UK
(Source: Ons.gov.uk. 2018)
Additionally, national statistics of United Kingdom also reveals the data that almost
81% of the shoppers in South East part of England mentioned that they sometimes tend to
look at the products in outlets and then subsequently go online to search the best price. A
market research conducted by (Liu, Burns and Hou 2013), mentioned that most popular day
for searching online and doing shopping is Sunday and the least popular day is Friday.

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Figure 3: Customer behaviour and online buying practice
(Source: Ons.gov.uk. 2018)
Apart from this statistical figure, one more significant characteristic found in the male
shoppers of the target markets is that as most of the people are employed, they have the
tendency to go on party and personal meeting. Hence, they often wear party wears and some
similar dresses. Thus, Boden needs to think of this characteristic while approaching the
shoppers of the target market.
Justifying why the target markets are appropriate for Boden, UK
The above-mentioned target markets for Boden are appropriate because compared to
any other cities or states in UK, Birmingham and South East part of England has the highest
male population. On the other side, population of female in UK is higher than the male;
thereby, a large population of female crowd at the clothes outlet; thereby, targeting those

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markets will not be effective as competitors like Sainsbury and M&S have already acquired
those regions. Moreover, as quality and price are the top criteria of acquiring UK shoppers,
thereby, disposable income of target customers is a significant factor that Boden needs to
consider. So, statistic shows almost 81% of the males in Birmingham are employed with the
average salary of £ 30,756 (Ons.gov.uk. 2018). Certainly, Boden could gain a significant
return from its high quality products from the target market as due to high disposable income;
the customers’ financial profile could fit the pricing strategy of Boden.
Another significant reason for choosing Birmingham and South East of England is
increasing use of technology. Discussion indicates that Boden developed online selling
practice for its shoppers but it is not implemented properly. So, for the target market, this
section can effectively be implemented as almost 71.9% of adults of the total population in
Birmingham are internet users and this is followed by 79.4% in South East part of England
(Ons.gov.uk 2018). This statistical figure indicates that Boden could make a high use of
technology in the selected markets for its clothes items to grab customers’ attention.
Furthermore, Birmingham and South East part of England are appropriate for Boden market
development strategy because most of the products of Boden are winter clothes; and the
average temperature of the selected markets remain around 8 to 9 degree C and thereby, the
atmosphere is suitable for the products developed by Boden.
Positioning strategy
As put forward by Kapferer (2017), when positioning a particular product, the key
factor is to decide what sustainable competitive advantage is there against the competitors.
Thus, it is necessary that product have some unique offering that competitors do not have.
For example, the retail giant Tesco in UK offers loyalty card to its customers and the loyalty
cardholders receive an additional discount on some products, which is unique from

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competitor ASDA and Morrison. Thus, Boden needs to develop a unique strategy to gain
competitive advantages. For example, as the impact of online selling is high in the target
markets, the brand could develop referral strategy to increase loyal customer base.
This means if a customer refers the brand or a newly arrived item of the brand to at
least three friends and if those friends purchase the item, in the next purchase the individual
who refers, can buy an item free. This strategy works as promotion of production and scope
for increasing loyal customer base and if Boden is able to keep its quality, the shoppers could
grow the habit of purchasing from Boden only. Even though, the above presented graph
shows that only 4% of the shoppers use social media tools to recommend what they have
bought, Boden needs to consider the fact that the use of social media tools is increasing
rapidly among the people in UK due to the high availability of mobile phone devices.
Thereby, focus on referral strategy could be effective.
Type- As opined by Kim and Hall (2015) products positioning typically falls into
some particular categories, for example, functional positioning resolve the issues and provide
customer with significant amount of benefits. Therefore, if Boden’s winter garments are
made of weather friendly, it certainly appeals to a symbolic position, which is the consumer
value. Another category is, if the brand offers garment-oriented cleaner liquid with the
product, the consumers do not have to think of selecting a cleaner liquid and so, this offers
consumers a sensory stimulation. In addition to this, Boden could offer these two categories
together to generate sustainable advantages.
Solution- As mentioned by Anesbury, Winchester and Kennedy (2017), a small tool
can be used to establish a positioning strategy for the product or service, which can be
considered as the USP (unique selling positioning). Hence, this USP helps to identify and
communicate Boden’s most compelling deals and provides benefits in a way that answers’

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customers’ questions. Nonetheless, Kim and Hall (2015) argued that it is certain that Boden
has been in the business for almost twenty years; thereby, the dependency of the brand is not
sufficiently unique to stand up against the rivals. However, if Boden offers an on-time
delivery service in its online selling segment, it could be evidently effective than competitors.
Time Frame: As argued by Steenkamp (2017), positioning strategy should not be
considered static, as market demands change. For example, the competitor M&S changes its
offering, the business environment changes or the product positioning of Boden may prove to
be marginal, it must have to rethink about its strategy. However, for coming two years,
Boden could go ahead with customer referral strategy.
Task 3:
Marketing mix strategy for the market Birmingham
It is certain that Boden cannot just develop a new clothe item and offers the target
customer, which could increase the risk for customer acceptance. Thus, Boden needs to
approach the customers with the products that are relevant and similar to their recent trends
and culture. It could modify the existing regional products and approach the target customers.
Product:
Product Objective:
 To meet the growing needs of shoppers
 To maintain a standard in quality at the affordable price
Boden offers a wide range of high quality winter clothes for male shoppers of Birmingham.
The products are designed in house by the team of specialists. The product items are directly
sourced from supplier. While developing the products, Boden pay attention to quality and

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modern design demanded by consumers. As the above-mentioned geographic variables
indicate that Birmingham is naturally cold and temperature remains around 8 to 9 degree
Celsius, the major focus should be on the winter garments. On the other side, the behavioural
characteristics of shoppers indicate that males who are employed individuals in Birmingham
have the tendency to go on a party on weekend. Thus, Boden could develop trendy party wear
for gents. In addition to this, another factor, which should be considered while manufacturing
new product items, is high employment rate, which means people are involved in regular
work at office. Considering this factor, Boden should design high quality formal clothes so
that people could wear on Monday to Friday.
Price-
Price Objective: To gain the highest return against the cost of operation within a short period
As Boden offers a wide variety of clothes items and pricing should be based on the
quality and availability of items. Therefore, the firm needs to select two categories of pricing
such as penetrative pricing and skimming pricing. As the firm is entering a new market, it
needs to increase its customer base. So, by implementing penetrative pricing, it could set low
price without compromising with quality. In this context, Keiser, Garner and Vandermar
(2017) commented that when the high quality products are available at the low price,
customers do not think of the brand; they rather pay attention to what they are getting.
Likewise, the customers will increase trust on the brand.
On the other side, to implement skimming pricing, Boden has to set high price for
few particular items. Such mixed pricing strategy would help to receive response from a
diverse group of customers (Bocken et al. 2016). Skimming pricing would not be any
challenge for the customers, as a large proportion of male population has high disposable
income. So, if the quality of the product matches shoppers’ needs, price remains as the

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secondary concern, which does not have much impact on shoppers. This mixed pricing
strategy is justified for Boden because such pricing would help the brand to distinguish itself
from its competitors by differing price based on the quality and availability of items.
Promotion-
Promotional objective-
 To maximize the use of digital media channels to reach customers in short time
The behavioural characteristic of shoppers of Birmingham discussed above indicates that
technology has high impact on the region. Thus, to promote its products, Boden should use
digital media channels. The statistical data presented above indicates that almost 71.9% of
adults of total population use internet on a regular basis, which means a large percentage of
the shoppers, are active on social media channel. Boden could use popular social media tools
such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Netflix for advertising its products for the target
market Birmingham, UK. Especially, it could use Facebook to point customers the store
location. This would help to remind customers about the store whenever they go close to the
outlet or the nearby location of the outlet. On the other side, on some digital marketing
channels, the brand could advertise its products by setting deals and offers. For example,
special weekend offers for the shoppers would be given. The deals and offers should be given
on Saturday and Sunday because the browsing rate is high in these two days, as people have
week-off.
Place-
Positional objective:
 To generate high market exposure and deep market penetration

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Birmingham is a large city with highest population of males and high percentage of
internet users is also found in the city. Therefore, Boden needs to consider both online and
offline strategies for placing its brands and products. The brand has its own online selling
channels, which should include the target market. Behavioural characteristic indicates that
almost 92.3% of males use cell phone devices, which certainly create the scope for online
selling. Besides brand’s own online selling channels, it should develop partnership with some
large e-commerce vendors to sell its products.
For example, the Nike sells its products through by contacting some e-commerce
vendors but it also its own online selling channel. Therefore, to increase the revenue, Boden
should try all possible channels, at it eventually helps to generate market exposure. On the
contrary, an outlet at the downturn of the city is also necessary because Bilgihan (2016)
mentioned that when a new brand enters the city and create high exposure, the customers
often look for the real presence. Moreover, if customers have doubt or they face any issue
during online purchase, they can contact the department at the outlet for their grievance or
any other issue.
Marketing mix strategies for South East of England:
Product:
Product objective:
 To increase market share by acquiring a large customer base in the target market
Product: For reaching the shoppers at South East of England, Boden needs to develop a large
range of products. Geographical variables discussed above indicate that South East of
England is colder than Birmingham where people mainly use winter clothes. Thus, Boden
should develop latest and trendy warm clothes such as Jacket, Blazer and others. Due to

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increasing employment rate, economical situation is presently stable at the South East of
England, which eventually increase customers’ tendency to buy high quality products.
Therefore, Boden should maintain quality in its product portfolio. Moreover, due to high
employment rate in the market, people maintain a high profile in their life style, which
increases the demand for top quality products. Moreover, South East of England has people
of different social and financial classes. Thereby, the product development strategy of the
brand should be based on classes of people. This is because, for example, men whose average
salary is lesser than £15,000 would not go for luxury items; so for the people of those classes,
separate items should be developed (Bilgihan 2016).
Price:
Pricing objectives:
 To set high price to increase product value and meet customer needs
Due to high employment and education rate, South East of England is economically stable.
Thus, at the time of making purchase decision, the shoppers only focus on the quality of
products and low price in this market stands for the symbol of poor quality. Thus, to gain
customers’ trust in such stabilized market, Boden needs to set premium pricing for its
clothes items. This would help to make buyers convince about the value of the products.
High price would not be any challenge for the customers because people in South East of
England adopted the culture of “buy now, pay later”, which means the money is borrowed by
credit cards. Moreover, Steenkamp (2017) mentioned that when the brand has a high price
strategy for products, it also needs to have convenient methods of payment.
Additionally, people in England have a busy-life culture; thereby, they do not prefer
to pay cash while buying items. So, besides online selling, online payment method is a

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practice that Boden needs to consider. By applying a premium pricing strategy, Boden could
gain competitive advantages by fending off its competitors in the marketplace. This could be
done by money as well as energy into the advertising premium-brands goods. This strategy
helps Boden to make the path difficult for new businesses to enter the same market with
equal amount of investing. Here, Boden has to think of the new competitors because due to
technological advancement, the business with any size and structure can enter the market
through e-commerce. Nonetheless, the pricing could be a factor, which could stop them from
gaining popularity.
Promotion-
Promotion Objective
 To focus on high profile customers and increase customer base
South East of England is a wide market and the economy is recovering rapidly, so the number
of high profile customers is high in the market. Thus, Boden needs to approach those
customers by implementing long-term digital activities. The target buyers are highly
accustomed to technology; thereby, the attempt to approach the buyers through technology
would be an easiest way to implement. Firstly, the existing online selling channel is not
sufficient to promote the products; Boden needs to develop a Smartphone app called
“Bordapp” for selling its products. The statistic report shows that Smartphone penetration
rate in South East of England is 61.9% (Ons.gov.uk. 2018); so, people have the tendency to
shop from their cell. Boden. The firm needs to send notification about the products, deals,
new arrivals to the target customers.
Particularly, to increase customer engagement to the app, buyers should be informed
about the new arrivals and special deals on every weekend. When the buyers create the

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account on “Bordapp”, they can avail the free delivery deal for two months on all orders.
Free delivery strategy for first two months help the brand to influence customers’ buying
behaviour. However, Turban et al. (2017) mentioned that many e-commerce giants have the
same free delivery option to retain customers. However, the uniqueness of Boden’s two
month of free delivery strategy lies in the quality of product. The competitor probably has the
same strategy but Boden could beat Amazon in terms of quality.
Positioning-
Positioning objective:
 To provide customers with an unique experience of shopping
In order to position the product in the South East of England, Borden needs to use an
Omni-Channel marketing strategy where it can use both offline and online medium of
selling and placing the product. South East of England is a large market with increasing
number of big shopping malls. Thus, Boden could contact the crowded malls where the
number of customers’ visit is comparatively higher than others. The outlet needs to be
established near the front gate of the mall to attract customers. In addition to this, to create
place the product online, Boden should develop a separate online selling channel with the
head-quarter at the target market only. When the customers will know their e-commerce
vendor has a physical presence near where they stay. This would help customers to reach the
department to share their problems if any. Likewise, the customers will develop a sense of
trust on the brand.
The perception of the store is also important, which should be affected through five
different senses such as seeing, hearing, smelling, testing and touching. According to Kim,
and Hall (2015), these five elements make personal choices; so, physical presence of the store

23MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Sensory
elements of
space, which
covers the
purchase,
object
Customer’s
perception of
the sensory
qualities of
space
Influence of
perceived sensory
qualities on
developing
buyers’
information
Effect of
customers’
modified
information and
state of their
purchase
probability
is important. It is certain that in a trendy market like South East of England, when it comes
to choosing clothe, people likely to have their favourites. If Boden develops a unique design
of store, the customers will look at first at the store and pay a visit inside. Here, emotional
aspect of buyers remains as the big part of shopping experience. The storefront should be
designed based on four different elements mentioned below.
Figure 4: Atmosphere selection for positing the brand
(Source: Kim and Hall 2015)
The above-presented elements help to design buying environment and generate a particular
feeling for shoppers that maximize the consumption intention.
Conclusion
The above presented discussed helps to ascertain that Boden lacks appropriate
strategies to establish itself in the market due to some external factors. The demand of its
fashion and clothing is high in all markets but due to increasing presence of competitors and
dynamic market environments, Boden finds it difficult to establish itself. However, marketing
plan provided in the report could help to overcome the external market challenges and create
high market exposure. United Kingdom is technologically developed and the entire nation
follows the trend; thereby, it is little easy for marketers to overcome the marketing

24MARKETING MANAGEMENT
challenges. The environmental analysis implies that target markets have highest male
population with the increasing rate of employment, which further indicates that people have a
high-profile image. As the consumption of technology is comparatively higher than any other
state of cities, Boden has been suggested to leverage the technology. UK has an increasing
consumption rate of technology, thereby; Boden might not face any significant barriers for
promoting its products and services.
In addition, penetrative pricing strategy for Birmingham would help the brand to
create high market awareness in the shortest time. However, market analysts believe that low
pricing strategy in an economically developed market increases the chance of being
mistreated by consumers. The consumers might doubt on the quality as the rivals charge high
price. Nevertheless, once the buyers purchase the brand, they might change their perception,
as quality has also been suggested as the strategy. SWOT analysis conducted in the report
helps to observe that a rival such as M&S in the target market is losing their market share,
which provides a significant opportunity to come in front. Thus, both the markets provides
similar type of market expansion and penetration strategies for Boden but, the clothing
industry in UK has been dynamic in terms of test and preference. Therefore, Boden cannot
rely on one single strategy; it has to change its plan and approaches on the basis of market
responses.

25MARKETING MANAGEMENT
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