Introduction to Marketing Report: Strategies and Performance

This report provides a comprehensive overview of key marketing concepts and strategies, focusing on their application within an organizational context. It begins by defining marketing and elaborating on the extended marketing mix (7Ps), using Marks & Spencer as an example. The report then delves into SWOT analysis, explaining its components and relevance for strategic goal development. Ansoff's growth matrix is defined, and its utility in analyzing growth strategies is discussed, recommending market development for M&S. The report concludes by exploring the role of digital marketing in enhancing organizational performance and global reach, highlighting cost minimization and revenue generation. The document emphasizes the importance of these models and frameworks in devising effective marketing strategies for improved positioning and competitive advantage.

Introduction to
marketing
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Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 .............................................................................................................................................3
i. Defining marketing..............................................................................................................3
ii. Extended marketing mix....................................................................................................3
Task 2 .............................................................................................................................................4
i. Swot analysis.......................................................................................................................4
Task 3 .............................................................................................................................................4
i. Defining Ansoff's growth matrix.........................................................................................4
ii. Explaining how Ansoff’s matrix can be used to by an organisation to analyse their growth 4
Strategies................................................................................................................................4
Task 4 .............................................................................................................................................5
i. Discussing how an organisation can use digital marketing to improve performance and
growth.....................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References.......................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
The term marketing refers to the process and activities performed by an organisation to
promote its goods and services for the purpose of sales and profit maximisation. The process of
marketing is associated with formulation of effective strategies and tactics adopted by an
organisation to induce their customer base. In this report, various models and terms related to
marketing are broadly discussed in context to an organisation. The chosen organisation for this
report is Marks & Spencer, which is a leading British multinational retail brand headquartered in
London, united kingdom. It specialises mainly in clothing as well as food products and home
appliances. The company is operating worldwide indicating its high market presence and
renowned brand image. In this report marketing mix, SWOT analysis, Ansoff's growth matrix
and significance of digital marketing is being discussed.
Task 1
i. Defining marketing
It is a process to sell and promote goods and services to its target market in order to earn
profit. Other than selling and promoting goods and services it also involves other aspects like
product distribution, designing, promotion and creating. The purpose of marketing is to research
and analyse consumer buying habits, sent out surveys, taking feedback, communicate with
buyers about their needs and wants (Donthu and et.al., 2021). Its principle is to identify ideal
customers, draw their attention towards products and services available.
ii. Extended marketing mix
Marketing mix refers to the seven core elements which are crucial to determine for
evaluating growth and position of a business in the marketing. The seven p's of marketing mix in
context to Marks & Spencer are discussed below:
Product: It refers to the commodities that a business sell in order to cater to the requirements of
customers (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). In context of M&S, main product of the brand
includes a wide range of clothing materials along with style accessories consisting of handbags,
footwear, jewellery, sunglasses etc. the company also deals in providing home appliances as well
as food and wines along with flowers and gift items.
Price: The pricing strategies of the company follows an approach of categorising its products on
a medium to higher price range. The brand's primary customers are individuals of medium to
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high income levels. Moreover, it follows dynamic pricing strategy through providing discounting
offers to induce customers and to clear old inventory.
Place: The brand operates its functions and selling activities in their offline stores which
accounts for approximately 1000 operating in around 50 countries. The main business operations
of the brand take place in UK where it owns more than 800 stores. The company also maintains
online presence to enhance its magnitude of operations.
Promotion: The company follows a range of different promotional techniques and schemes to
grab customer's attention and to induce sales (Lim, 2021). The brand make effective use of
advertisements, commercials and a range of social media platforms to promote its goods and
services.
People: In context to M&S, the people associated with the company includes its employees,
suppliers and other stakeholders as well as customers.
Process: In context to Marks and Spencer, consumers are inspired to reuse their clothes in order
to preserve the environment. The company's delivery process has been maintainable.
Physical Evidence: In relation to Marks and Spencer, it inspires workers and employees to wear
dress produced using environmental method.
Task 2
i. Swot analysis
It is a method to analyse and identify their business areas of growth which helps the
administrator to develop strategic goals. It stands for strength, weakness, opportunities and
threats in which strength and weakness are internal factors whereas opportunities and threats are
external factors. In context to Marks and Spencer, the SWOT analysis are discussed below:
Strengths:
It helps to contribute success and brand image in the market and analyse processes,
behaviour and internal activities of an organisation (Savas-Hall, Koku and Mangleburg, 2020).
In relation to Marks and Spencer, the various strengths are as follows:
 It is the second most popular supermarket brand as it provide good quality products to its
customer at reasonable prices.
 It provide innovative products with creativity and communication to its customers and
provide wide range of products.
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Weaknesses:
It examines that company is not performing at optimum level and prevent it from
achieving its objectives. In context to Marks and Spencer, the weaknesses are discussed below:
 It is declining the sales due to non availability of products and poor supply chain system
at the right time.
 It heavily depends on manual operations rather than adopt new technology which is a
costly and time consuming process. (Szabo and Webster, 2021)
Opportunities:
It finds opportunities and situations arises from outside a company to increase sales and
profit margin. In relation to Marks and Spencer, various opportunities are discussed below:
 It increases profit consequently by market segmentation as it helps in proper management
and maintenance of goods and services.
 It need to expand its market globally which help company to increase its market share
and profitability.
Threats:
It is uncontrollable which affect the survival and company's profitability as it can damage
to venture, product or company from outside. In context to Marks and Spencer, threats are as
follows:
 Due to rising cost of raw material and production it affect the profitability of business in
the market.
 High competition affect the company's profitability and market share for which company
need to change its strategy to remain in the market.
Task 3
i. Defining Ansoff's growth matrix
It is a tool to analyse and plan strategies for growth which helps marketer to identify
opportunities to increase revenue and sales (Williams, Davey and Johnstone, 2021). There are
four strategies which help to increase market share, productivity and launch of new product in
the market.
Market Penetration: To increase sales and market share it uses existing product in the
existing market.
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Market Development: It helps to explore new market with existing product in order to
increase geographical region and profit.
Product Development: It develops new product in the existing market to fulfil the
demand with innovative products.
Diversification: It offers new product in the new market with the aim of maximum return
to increase revenue.
ii. Explaining how Ansoff’s matrix can be used to by an organisation to analyse their growth
Strategies
Ansoff's growth matrix is a very effective business model which helps an organisation in
evaluating and examining viability of a business through adopting growth strategies explained in
the framework. In context to Marks & Spencer, the firm's marketing consultants and managers
use this model in order to analyse the suitability of a growth strategy through examining risks
associated with them (Ansoff and et.al., 2019). For the constructive application of this model,
firstly the company must plot their options into the most convenient and suitable quadrant. Then,
factors of risks are to be evaluated and a contingency plan must be developed in order to address
risks of the adopted option. The risks associated with four options are stated below:
Market penetration: Least risky
Product development: This option is moderate in risk factors as new products are to be
introduced which requires investment.
Market development: The extent of risk is same as in product development as new markets are to
be developed.
Diversification: The most risky option
After analysing risks associated with each option, it is recommended for M&S to adopt
the growth strategy of market development (Anand and Kumar, 2021). This would require the
company to expand its geographical territories into completely new areas. For effective
implementation of this strategy, the company must conduct pestle analysis of the new market as
well as using market segmentation to target new groups. This would help the company in
expanding its market presence and commercial operations. The brand maintains a strong image
which would benefit the company in attracting large customer base in new markets.
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Task 4
i. Discussing how an organisation can use digital marketing to improve performance and growth
Enhancing reach and brand image: With the effective use of digital techniques, the company
can enhance its reach to millions of people with a single platform. These techniques are less time
consuming and helps in consolidating brand image through reaching to millions of customers out
there.
Minimisation in costs: The techniques of digitalisation are economical and easy to adopt which
benefits the company from minimising their costs. Performing advertising on digital media is
relatively less costly and offers various benefits at a time (Visser, 2021). This cost effective
technique allows companies to conduct effective promotion while investing less which increase
its scope of investing in other important areas.
More revenues: The revenues of company are greatly increased with the use of constructive
digital marketing techniques as they are more economical and attracts a large base of consumers.
The huge engagement of people on digital media ensures effective promotion and helps a great
deal in maximising sales and thus revenues and profitability margins.
Increasing globalisation: The use of digital media by the organisation helps in enhancing its
global presence as it allows the company to enhance its reach to different countries. The scope of
digital marketing is not limited to a certain area, it allows better interaction and collaboration
which helps in consolidating global presence (Gupta and Chokshi, 2020).
Conclusion
From the above report, it has been concluded that a business considers numerous models
and frameworks to devise potential strategies. The constructive use of marketing mix helps the
organisation in attaining idea of better positioning. SWOT and Ansoff's growth matrix helps in
determining effective strategies to gain a better understanding on its position. In addition to this,
the effective use of digital marketing helps in gaining worldwide attention and promotes
operations of an organisation.
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References
Books and Journals
Anand, A. and Kumar, R., 2021. Innovation and Human Resource Management Fit: Case of an
ITES Firm. In Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (pp. 163-175). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Ansoff, H.I. and et.al., 2019. Dispersed Positioning in Competitive Analysis. In Implanting
Strategic Management (pp. 183-195). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Deepak, R.K.A. and Jeyakumar, S., 2019. Marketing management. Educreation Publishing.
Donthu, N. and et.al., 2021. A bibliometric retrospection of marketing from the lens of
psychology: Insights from Psychology & Marketing. Psychology & Marketing, 38(5).
pp.834-865.
Gupta, S. and Chokshi, S., 2020, April. Digital marketing effectiveness using incrementality.
In International Conference on Advances in Computing and Data Sciences (pp. 66-75).
Springer, Singapore.
Lim, W.M., 2021. A marketing mix typology for integrated care: the 10 Ps. Journal of Strategic
Marketing, 29(5), pp.453-469.
Savas-Hall, S., Koku, P. S. and Mangleburg, T., 2020. Consumers’ perception of service
newness and its marketing implications. Services Marketing Quarterly, 41(1). pp.35-48.
Szabo, S. and Webster, J., 2021. Perceived greenwashing: the effects of green marketing on
environmental and product perceptions. Journal of Business Ethics, 171(4). pp.719-739.
Visser, M., 2021. Digital Marketing. In Digital Marketing Fundamentals (pp. 12-28). Routledge.
Williams, J., Davey, J. and Johnstone, M. L., 2021. Marketing system failure: revisioning
layton’s marketing system model. Journal of Macromarketing, 41(2). pp.411-426.
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