Marketing Plan for M&S: Environment Analysis, Strategies and Budget

This report presents a marketing plan for Marks & Spencer (M&S), analyzing its internal and external environments. It begins with an executive summary outlining the report's objectives, which include increasing sales, regaining market leadership in the UK, and capitalizing on global economic growth. The report includes a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and a PEST analysis (political, economic, social, and technological factors) to assess the market landscape. It identifies sales channels, tracks marketing activities, and allocates a marketing budget across various campaigns. The report recommends segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies, as well as a detailed marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, process, physical evidence, and people). The conclusion emphasizes the importance of implementing these strategies to overcome challenges and enhance M&S's business functions. The report references various academic sources to support its findings and recommendations.

Running head: MARKETING PLAN
Marketing plan
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1MARKETING PLAN
Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the internal and external marketing environment of
M&S. Determination of the internal and external environment helped to initiate an ideal and
effective marketing plan. Budget is also being stated in this report for the allocation of the fund
in the different activities of marketing plan. This report also concluded with the recommended
marketing mix strategies for M&S.

2MARKETING PLAN
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Objectives....................................................................................................................................3
Market analysis................................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis............................................................................................................................3
PEST analysis..............................................................................................................................5
Political environment...................................................................................................................5
Economic environment................................................................................................................5
Social environment......................................................................................................................5
Technological environment.........................................................................................................6
Identification of the sales channels..................................................................................................6
Tracking the marketing activities....................................................................................................7
Marketing budget.............................................................................................................................7
Recommended marketing strategies..............................................................................................10
Recommended marketing mix.......................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Reference.......................................................................................................................................13

3MARKETING PLAN
Introduction (P4)
The current business scenario for M&S is much more challenging due to the reason that
Next plc has overtaken them in the British market. Thus, they are in the need of an effective
marketing plan that will help them to operate in the market properly (Todor 2014). This report
will prepare an ideal market plan for M&S covering all the relevant aspects of their business
operation.
Objectives
 To increase the sales volume in their global operation. This will help M&S to increase
their market share and revenue.
 To regain the status of market leadership in the market of United Kingdom.
 To tap the growing economy in terms of the global scenario and state of affairs.
Market analysis
SWOT analysis
Strengths  Higher brand recognition and brand value. This helps them to further
penetrate in the new markets and push new products.
 Diverse product portfolio also helps them to cater to wider range of
customers (McNally, Durmusoglu and Calantone 2013).
 They are having more number of stores compared to some of their major
competitors.
 Updated product offerings in terms of new age fashion.
Weaknesses  Not having the status of market leader.

4MARKETING PLAN
 Having the perception that M&S do not offers trendy products.
 Number of ethical issues dented the brand image of M&S (Slade and
Prinsloo 2013).
 Cost of operation is increasing without having the chance of increasing
the prices due to the higher level of competition.
Opportunitie
s
 Entering in the raw and processed food market will help M&S to increase
their market share.
 There are number of countries where M&S is not having presence. Thus,
entering in these sectors will help M&S to increase their market share.
 Online retail market is showing good growth in the recent years.
 After United Kingdom, M&S is having the most market presence in India
and China. Both these countries are witnessing favorable market and
economy growth. Thus, the market opportunity for M&S is getting
increased.
Threats  Increase in the cost of operation will further reduce the profitability for
M&S.
 Emergence of new competitors in the marker will further reduce the
profitability.
 Economic crisis will cause negative impact on the business potentiality of
M&S. This is due to the reason that economic recession will reduce the
purchasing power of the customers and their retail expenditure will get
reduced.

5MARKETING PLAN
PEST analysis

6MARKETING PLAN
Political environment  M&S has to face different and diverse set of regulations in
the global business scenario.
 Trade policies and agreements between the countries will
determine the effectiveness of their global business.
 Brexit is having negative implications on the business of
M&S in the United Kingdom (Jensen and Snaith 2016).
 Number of countries especially India and China are having
different regulations in terms of foreign investments in the
retail sector. Thus, it will be difficult for M&S to operate
effectively in the foreign markets.
Economic environment  Per capita income in the basis of global economy is
increasing. Thus, the market potentiality for M&S will also
get increased.
 However, competition is also increasing in the global market
and thus the profitability will get affected.
 Fluctuation in the taxation rate in the global scenario is also
having adverse implication on the business of M&S.
Social environment  Increase in the concept of the globalization is helping in
having global trend and preference pattern for the customers
around the world. This is helping M&S to offer their global
products in different regions.
 However, rapid change in the social trend and pattern will
have negative implication on M&S. This is due to the reason

7MARKETING PLAN
that it will be difficult for M&S to change their product
portfolio frequently.
 Ethical issues such as poor working condition in the
outsourced countries are having negative impacts on the
business of M&S.
Technological
environment
 Huge development and investment are required for M&S in
order to compete in the market.
 Online marketplace and customer relationship management
are the major areas for investments.
 It will cause M&S to incur most cost in their business
operation.
Identification of the sales channels
M&S mainly follows two types of sales channels in their business operation. One of their
sales channels is the retail. They are having good numbers of brick and mortar stores around the
world through which they sell their products to the customers (Gallino and Moreno 2014). On
the other hand, they are also having ecommerce mode of sales channel. M&S is having their
official online marketplace through which customers can buy their products online.

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Tracking the marketing activities
Marketing
activities
First 3 months Next 1 months Next 5 months Last 3 months
Market research
Budget
allocation
Marketing and
promotional
activities
Feedback and
evaluation
Marketing budget
CAMPAIGN TYPE QTY PROJECTED
COST PER UNIT
PROJECTED SUBTOTAL
National Marketing SUBTOTA
L
$
1,400.00
Banner Ads 4 $ 350.00 $ 1,400.00
$ -
$ -
Local Marketing SUBTOTA $

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L 20,600.00
Newspaper 6 $ 3,000.00 $ 18,000.00
In-Store Marketing 4 $ 400.00 $ 1,600.00
POP 2 $ 500.00 $ 1,000.00
$ -
Content Marketing SUBTOTA
L
$
12,000.00
Sponsored Content $ -
Landing Page 12 $ 1,000.00 $ 12,000.00
White Papers / ebooks $ -
$ -
Social Media SUBTOTA
L
$
10,500.00
Twitter 20 $ 150.00 $ 3,000.00
Facebook 20 $ 150.00 $ 3,000.00
Pinterest 10 $ 150.00 $ 1,500.00
Instagram 10 $ 150.00 $ 1,500.00
Google+ 5 $ 150.00 $ 750.00
LinkedIn 5 $ 150.00 $ 750.00
Advertising SUBTOTA
L
$
11,700.00
Online 4 $ 2,500.00 $ 10,000.00
Print 2 $ 850.00 $ 1,700.00

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Outdoor $ -
Radio $ -
Television $ -
$ -
$ -
Web SUBTOTA
L
$
6,400.00
Development 1 $ 6,400.00 $ 6,400.00
Pay-Per-Click Marketing $ -
SEO $ -
$ -
$ -
Market Research SUBTOTA
L
$
6,000.00
Surveys 6 $ 1,000.00 $ 6,000.00
1400
2%
20600
27%
12000
15%
10500
14%
11700
15%
6400
8%
6000
8%
5900
8%
3165
4%
National Marketing
Local Marketing
0
Content Marketing
Social Media
0
Advertising
Web
Market Research
Sales Campaigns
Other

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Recommended marketing strategies
Segmentation
strategies
 It is recommended that geographical segmentation for M&S
should e more diverse in nature in order to enhance their global
presence (Cross, Belich and Rudelius 2015).
 It is also recommended that demographic segmentation of M&S
should be shortened. This is due to the reason that they should
target younger section.
 Younger section is more influenced by trendy fashion products.
Thus, the potentiality in this segment will be more.
Targeting strategies  It is suggested that M&S should offer innovative designs in the
fashion sector. This will help them to offer trendy products over
their competitors.
 Customer loyalty programs will also be beneficial. This is due to
the reason that initiation of the customer loyalty program will
ensure higher percentage of customer retention (Kim et al. 2013).
 Localization approach should be taken in order to target the
customers from different regions effectively.
Positioning
strategies
 It is recommended that M&S should be positioned as more mass
market offerings in order to have more set of target customers.
 They can also have a sub brand to target the mass market.
 The products should be positioned as properly priced premium
products.

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Recommended marketing mix
Marketing mix elements M&S
Product  M&S should come up with private label products in the
food and home product category. This will enhance their
sales revenue (Dawes and Nenycz-Thiel 2013).
 More localized products based on the market trend and
patterns of different markets should be introduced.
 Sports products are one of the most potential sectors that
M&S can offer in the market.
Price  Both market penetration and premium pricing strategy
should be initiated in order to target the both segments.
 The pricing should be done in the way that it will carry
the premium tag compared to the competition as well as
will be affordable (Davcik and Sharma 2015).
 Price skimming strategy can also be initiated in order to
gain the major share from the new products and increase
the life cycle of the existing products.
Place  M&S should be available in third party retailers also in
order to increase the visibility.
 Third party online marketplace should also be involved.
Promotion  Social media marketing should be given more