Comprehensive Marketing Analysis: ASOS Plc Roles, Mix, and Plan

This report provides a detailed marketing analysis of ASOS Plc, a British online fashion retailer. It begins by outlining the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including product offering, demand management, market expansion, customer care, and legal obligations. The report then explores the interrelationship between the marketing department and other organizational functions such as production, finance, human resources, and customer service. Furthermore, it compares ASOS's marketing mix (product, place, price, promotion) with its competitors, Arcadia, highlighting differences in product offerings, distribution channels, pricing strategies, and promotional activities. The report also evaluates the development of ASOS's marketing plan, including SWOT, PEST, Porter's Five Forces, differentiation, and STP analyses, to understand the company's internal and external factors. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and providing insights into ASOS's marketing strategies.

MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function.............................................................1
P 2 Relationship of marketing function with other organizational functions.........................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
P 3 Comparison of ways in which different organizations apply marketing mix..................4
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P 4 Evaluation and development of marketing plan...............................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers a procedure and activity that is being undertaken by an organization in
order to promote buying or selling of its products and service (Kotler and et.al., 2015). Marketing
plays a vital role because it mainly responsible for attracting customers and retaining them. This
present study is based on ASOS Plc. It is a British fashion online retailer that sell clothes,
accessories, beauty products and shoes. As seen on screen company was founded in the year of
2000 by Nick Robertson and Quentin Griffiths. This report is about to show main roles and
responsibilities of marketing department along with its interrelationship with other functional
departments. By gathering information of customers, marketing department share it with other
departments to develop new products. It will also show the importance of marketing mix which
perform as a tool for the company. Lastly, this report will analyse all activities and strategies
involved in marketing plan such as SWOT analysis, PEST, Porter's 5 forces, differentiation and
STP. Analysis of internal and external factors helps an organization in making changes in
strategies and attract customers.
LO 1
P 1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
ASOS stands for “AsSeenOnScreen” very firstly when this brand is introduced their logo is
written as an uppercase acronym. But after some time, the new logo was designed by “Ben Lewin”
in year 2008. In 2013 the company became big with the employees of 3000 (Ashley and Tuten,
2015).
On 3rd June 2000 “ASOS” is introduced to the public by Nick Robertson, Quentin Griffiths
and Andrew Regan. In 2004 “ASOS” introduced their own women label.
In year 2017, a launched campaign to take advantage of “Instagram Stories” for encourage
subscribers to upload videos or pictures of purchased clothes from “ASOS” and they also say to
use #AsSeenOnScreen to tag “ASOS” brand in their stories. After the successful of hashtag and
upload process, they launched a mobile application in year 2018 which downloaded by 10 million,
And then “ASOS” claims that 58 percent of public of UK purchase clothes from mobile
application (Finne and Grönroos, 2017).
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Roles
 Preferable Product Offering: Many companies in India & across India sell more than one
product. In this marketing manager plays an important role in product offering in ASOS.
 Demand Management: Manager analyse data gathered from market to determine demand.
Demand can be of any type like positive demand negative demand, no demand, latent
demand, irregular demand, fulfil demand and overfull demand and many more
Responsibility of marketing
 Expand Market: Marketing manager develops strategies to expand market share. It is
done through mass public like advertising, PR, Events, brand promotion to boost their
product as far and wide in ASOS.
 Originate utility: Every time utility only boosts or increase because of marketing. We can
only increase utility by giving samples or provide for free. The manager identifies
loopholes and improve it. Example Jio Net by Mr. Ambani and now he has maximization
of public, now-a-days everyone is using jio sim
 Growth of Economy and Social Responsibility: As it is said before market helps increase
demand or utility, also there is increase in demand of product means increase of profit to
company or organization. So, this means increase of employment and decrease of
unemployment so in simple words if economy increase so it helps to decrease the level of
unemployment so that company also helping in social cause by giving employment to the
peoples.
 Customer care: It is important responsibilities of organization to provide the better
customer services so as they can easily clear their all doubt related product and services in
global market.
 Legal obligation: in terms of legal aspects, it is important to maintain obligation or duty
which enforced by proper laws. ASOS always carried out the legal responsibility to
maintain services.
 Data protection: many customers are taking services through online where ASOS has
required to protect the personal information of customer. In this way, it can maintain data
protection which are important of organization reputation.
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 Sales services: it refers to different processes which make ensure that customer satisfied
with the product and services of ASOS. Sales manager interact with the potential customer
to give information about particular products.
With the help of these roles and responsibilities of marketing functions the “ASOS” is increasing
their sales, demand and utility in market (Armstrong and et.al., 2018).
P 2 Relationship of marketing function with other organizational functions
A marketing is basically promoting the business and drive the sales of product and services.
It provides the information about the particular product and services to customer. It is to be
considered as function that are selling the products and it is spread to the entire organization.
Marketing is separated from manufacturing of product to selling of product. Data gathered from
market helps in manufacturing of product to target market. All the department of the company
works together efficiently in the selling the products in the markets. The efficient working of the
all the department is increasing the sales of the company.
Functions:
 Market research: it is gathering information about the new trends and target potential
customer. It is better functions to identify all requirement and need of customer.
 Promotional channel: It is another function to advertise product and services in global
market through new distributed channel that uses for exchanging information to customers.
 Customer care: It is important functions of ASOS to provide the better customer services
so as they can easily clear their all doubt related product and services in global market.
 Financing: Finance department is performed the functions to identify the investment
require for business development. it should provide details to other department to produce
new products and services in marketplace.
Interrelation of the marketing department to other department of the organization
Marketing with production department - ASOS company marketing department is
dealing in fashion accessories which is changing from time to time but production department is
unaware of that, so marketing department is analyzing the trends which are being followed by the
customers and the also analyze the needs and wants of the customers. Marketing department is
providing this information to the production department than the products are made according to
the need of the customers. Manufacturing of products is done according to the marketing team
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from manufacturing to processing of the products. Fashion accessories is needs to be improvised
according to recent trends followed by the people.
Marketing with the finance department - Company need to set the promotion and
distribution budget which is set by the finance department. Finance department allocate funds to
marketing so that promotion and advertising is done. Also, capital is allocated on basis of products
and target audience. Marketing department is concentrating on the sales of the product and ASOS
company marketing department is focused on the building the market share of the company.
Marketing with human resource department - Marketing department is working
efficiently and closely with the human resource department because the human resource
department provide human resource required for marketing. However, for doing promotion and
other campaign, labour is required. So, marketing department identify HR requirement and
communicate with HR. Human resource department is also creating the sales team which would
help the company to reach the sales target (Krush, Sohi, and Saini, 2015).
Marketing with customer service department - Marketing and customer service
department are working together in social media and customer expectation setting. They solve
customer related problems and provide solution to them. Moreover, reviews of customer are taken
and on basis of it marketing department make changes in products. ASOS is dealing in fashion
accessories, hence customer service department is analysis the feedback and reviews which are
provided to the customer service department by the marketing team (Pearce 2015).
Marketing department has to work with the other department which would provide help to
the other department working in the company. By providing the information of the customers to
the production department which is improvising the product according to the customer needs and
wants. Finance department is fixing the budget according to the financial condition if the company
and budget are decided by the finance department with the help of marketing department which is
providing the details of promotion and production of products in the company. Human resource
department is working according to the data provided by the marketing department.
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LO 2
P 3 Comparison of ways in which different organizations apply marketing mix
Marketing mix is defined the set of actions and tactics that can use by organization to
promote their brand image through products and services in market.
Marketing department plays significant role in an organization. The main aim and
responsibility of marketing department is to attract wider range of customers towards buying their
products and accomplish organizational goals (Bai, 2018). Marketing mix is a combination of
several factors and activities that are being controlled by an organization for influencing their
potential customers to purchase their products. Marketing mix is made up of 7p's or all those
factors that influence customers to make decision of selecting company. In the context of fashion
and cosmetic sector it can be said that customers’ needs changes rapidly so it is important for
ASOS to compare its marketing mix with its competitors which is as below: -
Basis or
marketing mix
ASOS Arcadia
Products In the context of products, it is stated that
ASOS offers over approximate 80,000 brands
and 35000 different items of beauty and
apparel products. It provides qualitative
clothes, shoe, accessories and beauty products
to people of 196 countries (Dahl, 2018).
For example – it provides different products
such as clothes, shoe, accessories and beauty
products.
Arcadia also offers qualitative
and fashionable clothes, shoe
and accessories. It includes
some brands and high street
fashion names such as Burton,
Topman, Topshop, Evans, Miss
Selfridge etc.
Place ASOS fashion retailer sells and provides its
products and services through online
platforms. For shipping and online service in
different countries it has partner up with
several distribution points. Its distributors are
situated in different location who can give easy
It uses several distributions
channels for providing products
to its all type of customers. It
has own physical stores, online
store, partnership of Topman
with Topshop etc. It is also
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access to its customers with the main aim of
increasing their shopping experience. For
example- ASOS has opened store in UK, china
etc.
stated that Arcadia is now
offering its products to several
parts of world like America,
Europe, Australia through its
Website.
Price For its target and regular customers, its own
brand is more affordable. It has divided its
products into 3 sections which are exclusive,
expensive goods available in stores and mass
products goods. The main aim of dividing
products into different categories on the basis
of price is to attract all types and status of
people for purchasing products. Pricing policy
followed is skimming. For example- ASOS
uses premium pricing strategy.
It has different brand and
fashion name and Topman &
Topshop are one of the best
fashion names that uses
affordable pricing strategies
with the main aim of attracting
people who have low
disposable budgets. It does not
only have low prices products
but also have some higher price
items that are being sold online.
Promotion As it is stated that its own brands are mainly
available online so, the main source of
promotion is mobile app and its Website. It
also makes an effective use of E-mail to the
registered E-mail ID. For more promoting its
brand and products it has created a group on
some social media sites for making customers
aware about products features and discounts.
For example- it is mainly used promotional
channel such as website, application.
As a promotion it offers
discount to its customers and its
mainly promote its brand and
products via social media
platforms. It does not use
traditional approach like
advertising on television. Word
of mouth is also a type of
promotion of this group.
People It is a Web based and online company so it has
much less people and employees as compared
to other companies. For example- ASOS have
approximately 300 employees which are
It is already stated that this has
several fashion names and
operates online and offline. It
has approximately 23,000
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mainly hired for management, customer
support, technical as well as warehousing
purpose (Minazzi, 2015).
employees.
Process In the context of process, it can be said that
shopping process of this company is quite
different from a physical store. Customers can
only see varieties of products and cannot try
them by wearing. After selecting products,
they add it to their cart and make payment
options like debit card/credit card, cash on
delivery. After making payment and ordering,
products are shipped to their given address
(Marketing mix of ASOS, 2011). For example-
ASOS use both online and offline method of
payment.
Its products and service are
available on online and
physical stores. Customers
have to accept all terms and
conditions of sales like sending
electronic confirmations, all
relevant details etc. After
confirming order customers get
an e-mail and have option to
pay like PayPal, credit card and
cash on delivery.
Physical
appearance
It is a web or internet-based company so
people have to connect with this company on
their own convenience. All facilities and offers
are seen on Websites and customers get
product receipt at the time of delivery. All
offers are displayed to them, so that they can
make themselves beneficial and company
make aware to them about it as well.
For example- ASOS perform charity in India,
UK and Kenya
Customers get a receipt at the
time of delivery, and they have
to check if products are not wet
and damage and are fully
packed. All products are
displayed on its online as well
as offline stores. If there is no
one at the time of delivery then
the courier leaves a delivery
notification with the
instructions, and they contact to
customers via phone or E-mail.
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From the above, it can be said that marketing mix plays a vital role for the company and
customers as it shows all information about products. It also allows ASOS company to make
effective and profitable decisions at every level. These effective decisions help them out in
accomplishing their business objectives and develop their strengths. Marketing mix and all factors
of this mixture can also help to ASOS company to develop their new products, increase products
portfolio and being a dynamic. In addition, it can also be said that by comparing its marketing mix
with its competitors it can develop differentiation strategy for making itself differ from others.
Differentiation strategies support the company in attracting target customers and accomplish all
pre-determined goals.
LO 3
P 4 Evaluation and development of marketing plan
Executive summary
A marketing plan refers an important business document that consist of several elements
like marketing strategy of an organisation, situational analysis and marketing budget that help it in
accomplishing its goals. This is based on ASOS company who is a global fashion destination with
having different fashion related content. This company sells approximate 80,000 brands. In the
context of customers approximate 9.9 Million active customers have visited its Website and ship to
over 140 countries as well. It was founded in 2000 in UK and launched its Website in 2012 in
Australia. The company is going to provide services and promote it via e-marketing.
Vision and mission
Mission- To become world’s no.1 fashion loving 20.
Marketing objectives
 Specific – To increase traffic via e marketing.
 Measurable- to measure customer loyalty
 Achievable – to gain 10% rise in loyal customer
 Realistic – To raise awareness on social media
 Time bound- to attain goals within 6 months.
Marketing strategies
Segmentation, targeting and positioning
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Segmentation - It is stated that ASOS is mainly focusing and targeting Australian and for that it
has already launched its Website for Australian customers. The target market includes regular
internet users, Web savvy and all fashionable people.
Targeting- The main group of age are from 16-34 years because they demand unique and have
fashion sense (Mahoney, 2018).
Positioning- In the context of market segment it can be said that it operates in a niche market in
which smaller section of whole market segment is targeted. It also deals in a marketplace where
several niche retailers sell directly to its customers. The main aim of targeting niche marketing
strategy is to expand and stretch products offerings to target demographic.
Marketing mix (4 P's)
Products: It sells fashionable clothes for men and women, shirts, coats, footwear, accessories etc.
Price: Its pricing strategy depends on sort of products as some of its products are expensive and
some are being sold at reasonable pricing.
Place: As seen on screen is a web and internet-based company and sold its own brands online.
Promotion: Discount codes are being used as a promotional tool. It heavily relies on social media
platform for promoting products (Lovelock and Patterson, 2015).
Situational analysis
SWOT
Strengths
 Celebrities are using its company and
products which allow its customers to
relate to them and buy the same
clothing.
 It offers free shipping as well as free
return to its global customers.
Weaknesses
 There is a lack of advertisement in
magazines and television.
 There is a lack of physical store which is
the main weakness of this company.
Opportunities
 Opportunities to expand its business in
other countries like MENA and BRIC.
 Increased use of mobile and
advertisement that allows customers to
Threats
 Competition among existing players like
Marks and Spencer, Tesco etc.
 Some countries lack internet usage that
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make purchase (SWOT analysis of
ASOS, 2019).
is the big threat for this.
PEST
Political
1. Changes in the price of clothes is all
depend on the political party in power.
For making this prices stable and
reasonable price it requires to take this
condition into consideration.
2. The impact of Brexit may result in
affecting sales of fashionable products.
Economic
1. In the context of economy, it is stated
that ASOS employed approximate 1,541
people in January 2014. Due to changes
in law and minimum wages it required to
consider if it pays to all employees or
not.
2. Here, Brexit can highly impact on
economic condition of UK.
(Schlegelmilch, 2016).
Social
1. It is reported that people from the age
group of 55-64 years are now preferring
online purchasing. As compared to
2008, approximate 69% older
generation is becoming aware about
online shopping. The main target of
ASOS is the people from the age group
of 16-34. These changing trends can
decrease its sales and revenue.
2. Consumer are spending more time on
social media platform.
Technological
1. Digital marketing and online shopping is
becoming popular day by day. ASOS is
internet-based company so, this
advanced technology has proven
beneficial for it. It is now more focusing
on developing and using advanced
technology for making its online
shopping smoother to take competitive
advantages.
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So, it can be said that with situational analysis it can identify all factors that can have
negative impacts on it and make changes in strategies accordingly for operating effectively. By
knowing current strengths, weaknesses, political, social factors this company focus on using those
strategies which are beneficial for it and can help it in accomplishing its goals.
Competitive analysis
Porter's 5 forces
5 forces Intensity Explanation
Bargaining power of consumers Strong In the context of ASOS, it is stated that bargaining
power of customers are extraordinarily strong.
They are in a position where they can demand for
lower prices because there is a strong force of
substitute products. So, it can affect customer
loyalty.
Threats of substitutes Strong or
high
In the context of fashion retailer, it can be said that
this threat has high and strong power. There are
many other companies that can attract customers
as well.
Bargaining power of suppliers lower ASOS purchase raw materials and products from
different brands, designers or suppliers. The power
of suppliers can only increase in correlation with
the popularity of products. The suppliers can also
help in generating traffic through E marketing.
Threat of new entrants Moderate ASOS is also facing the problem of new entrants
in the same industry. When new entrants come in
the industry then they put their extra efforts to take
full control on the industry. Many other firms can
also promote it through e marketing.
Competition among existing
players
High There are several competitors of ASOS such as
Arcadia who have Topshop. Com,
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riverisland.com,. These companies also sell the
same features of products and try to satisfy current
trends of the market. There is intense competition
of retail companies in e marketing (Competitors'
analysis of ASOS, 2015).
From the above analysis it can be said that competitor’s analysis play an important role. It
includes all those 5 factors that can help an organisation for being in a competition after analysing
their impacts on its business. Company needs to develop differentiation strategy or modify in all
strategies if some factors have High intensity. In the case of Low and moderate intensity of factors,
company does not need to modify strategies as it needs to more develop it accordingly. So, by
analysing all these factors ASOS can become the market leader and attract wider range of
customers
Differentiation
It uses different types of strategies related to price, products and promotion.
In its product strategy, it uses several stages from which its products go through over.
Introduction means this company market its products on its website by giving all details. In next
stage it makes sure about having adequate stock. In maturity stage it makes people aware about its
products features. In saturation stage it sells discounted products and in the last decline stage it
sells all outdated stock and look forwards to develop new products.
In the pricing strategy, it is currently using Zone pricing strategy. According to this
strategy prices are being made on the basis of distance. Distance between warehouses and the
point of purchase. Other pricing is based on sort of products. Some are sold at competitive prices
and some are on exclusive prices.
In the promotional strategy, it uses several online channels or modern advertisement. It
has never given an advertisement in magazines but now has designed its own special magazine for
its potential customers with the main aim of aware customers about its new products. It also makes
an effective use of Direct mail for engaging and retaining customers. Next strategy which ASOS
company use is through the line via social media platforms. It advertises on Instagram and
Facebook by uploading products pictures. Main promotional tools are Website, E-mail and social
media.
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Action plan or budget
Marketing budget
Marketing Expenses 2018
Development of E-mail List £1000
Designing and mailing list £4000
Social media advertisement
Facebook: $800
Twitter: $250
Snap chat: $300
£1400
Website up gradation and advertisement £1600
Search engine optimization campaign £1200
Blogs £500
Others £8000
Total marketing budget £17,700
Monitoring and control
Traditional and novel are techniques to control marketing strategies. Traditional includes
Market research and novel techniques include a thorough analysis of log files. Wen analytical also
provides this company an insight. Web logs help this company in tracking down about its
customers as what they are searching and demanding. Page views, search engine traffic, bounce
rate and Google analytical are some monitoring tool used by this company. In addition, it also
makes an effective use of unique visitors that includes all those people who have visited business
Website.
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Evaluation
It is evaluating the overall investment that require for increasing the productivity and
profitability. it also implementing the strategic approach for identifying the demand of business
and how to improve their performance. In this way, it can be determined overall budget of ASOS
where it occurs investment for producing products and services in global marketplace.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that marketing function played a vital role in
fashion industry. It helped an organization in accomplishing their goals and vision. It has strong
interrelationship with all organizational departments as it acquired all relevant needs from
customers which are important for all departments to know for satisfying them. It has also shown
that marketing mix worked as an important tool for an organization. By comparing all activities of
marketing mix like place, products, promotional strategies with its competitors it made changes in
its strategies and took several competitive advantages. Lastly, this report of marketing has
discussed the increasing importance of a broad topic marketing plan. It included situational
analysis of the company, analysis of external factors, competitors' analysis and marketing budget.
All these activities in marketing plan helped the company in analysing all environmental factors
that may affect its business growth. An organization also took an effective decision related to
business growth which lead its expansion and productivity.
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REFERENCES
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Online
Competitors' analysis of ASOS. 2015. [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://prezi.com/s3fucarqhn1s/porter-five-forces-analysis/>.
SWOT analysis of ASOS. 2019. [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-asos/>.
<https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-asos/>.
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