Marketing Strategy Development Report: Marks and Spencer Analysis

This report analyzes the marketing strategy of Marks and Spencer (M&S), a British multinational retailer. It begins with an introduction to the organization and its industry, followed by a detailed analysis of the 5Cs (Company, Customers, Collaborators, Competitors, and Context) using SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report explores information collection regarding market research and market intelligence for the 5Cs, focusing on customer desires, competitor threats, and changes in the business context. It then delves into marketing strategy development, exploring segmentation, targeting, and positioning, as well as the evolution of M&S's strategies. The report also discusses developing marketing tactics, including promotional strategies and distribution challenges. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of M&S's marketing approach, highlighting key elements and strategies for success in the retail industry. The report concludes with references to support the analysis and findings. This document is available on Desklib, a platform for AI-powered study tools and access to past papers and solved assignments.

Marketing strategy development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Issue 1. Description of the organization and industry............................................................1
Issue 2. Analysis of 5C's of the organization.........................................................................1
Issue 3. Information collection regarding market research, market intelligence about the....3
5Cs..........................................................................................................................................3
Issue 4. Marketing strategy development:..............................................................................4
Issue 5. Developing marketing tactics....................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing strategy is the field of marketing which includes all short term and, long term
thingsactivities which involves the analysis of the position of the company and its formulation.
Marks and Spencer does the business of clothing, home products, and food items (Armstrong and
et.al., 2014). In this report, the first issue is about the brief introduction of the organization,
second it involves the analysis of 5C's of the organization. Further, it includes collection of
information and development of market tactics.
Issue 1. Description of the organization and industry
Marks and Spencer is a British Multinational retailer and is established in the year 1884.
It is headquartered in the City of Westminster, London. It wasis founded by Sir Michael Marks
Thomas Spencer. The organization is specialiseds in selling clothsing, home products, and food
items. The mission of the Marks and Spencer organization is to make inspirational quality of the
products which are easily accessible to their customers. The value statement of this organization
is to provide the best Quality, trust, Service and innovation to their clients. The marketing
orientation of the company is to find out the customer hidden requirements and the willingness
of the conduction of effective market research and survey activities (Brady, 2014). It helps the
company in planning the structure of the delivery process for the customers. The Marks and
Spencer organization is chosen in order to study the marketing strategies used by the big
organization and for publicising their brands, products and services. The company provides the
high range of the products which are to be supplied to the end clients and customers's. The
company is providing the discounts and other promotional offers to provide the effective value
communication. It is also focusing on the various marketing elements like product quality, its
promotion and, area that is appropriate for product marketing.
Issue 2. Analysis of 5C's of the organization
a) Company(SWOT analysis):
Strength Weakness Opportunities Threats
Provides best quality Lack of clothing
segmentation
Internet technology
has increases the
demands of online
product
Strong competitors
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Focuses on customer
services
Poor stock control
management
Luxury food items
offers healthy eating
Social environment
changes
Shopping environment
is comfortable and
convenient
Wastage of store
spaces
Extension of
marketing
Environmental
pollution
Provides regular
manager training
b) Customers:
The company serves customers of all age group. It specially serves the youngsters who
have different demands regarding latest and new fashion. The company is serving its best
services to their customers by fulfilling their needs and demands (Dyer and Song, 2015). The
company is also getting the trust from their partners and it is the best choice for their customers.
The customers are frequently buying their products from this company which helps the company
to increase its reputation. It is the first choice for the customers to buy the best quality of
products.
c) Collaborators:
The company is working with suppliers, civil society, science community, government,
customers and other businesses. There are various issues like environmental risks, social
inequality, supply of healthy food, and unpredictable world which needs to be controlled. The
solution is not the single for these issues or cannot be handled by any single organization.
Therefore, the organization need the collaborative effort of the scientists, businesses, NCO,
investors, government and consumers to handle the dangerous issues ofprevailing in the world.
Partnership is important for the business as it helps in achieving the shared objective, economicy
considerations and social and environmental results (Gmelin and Seuring, 2014).
d) Competitors:
The main competitors of Marks and Spencer organization in clothing sector are the
businessesman whicho are providesing the clothesrange of clothing items at cheaper and
affordable prices along with at lower expenses with higher discounts. and can be retailers who
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are trying to win back the customer's trust. The competitors of the food sector are the retailers
who are serving the nutritional food with better taste and lower expenses. Therefore, the
company has started the trial scheme of raising the size of its food halls. It has also expected the
great development in fashion sale.
e) Context:
The other factors which affect the organization are legal, technical and political issues.
The technical mistake like failure of the website access or server crash will affect the customer's
trust as it leads to inconvenience and discomfort to the customerscomfortableness (Haase and
et.al., 2016). AlsoAdditionally, the political issues like wrong comment of the leaders may also
leads to the bad impression ofof the company on the customers's and clients. The economic
factor involves the retail sales which aeffects the organization as the people do not have cash to
spend on the luxurious things. Economic condition of different countries includes
unemployment, recession, government behaviour, inflation and etc.
Legal factors of the company are always changesing as the authority is organizing the re-
training session, and keeps new laws and regulation updated, and they also keep the health and
safety issues to ensure the organization legal protection. The environmental factor are the
regular climate change; hence the Marks and Spencer have launched the Green policy which
involves zero waste to landfill, carbon neutral, ethical trading, health promoting business and etc.
This factor influences the Marks and Spencer business directly or indirectly. So these factors
needs to be managed properly.
Issue 3. Information collection regarding market research, market intelligence about the
5Cs
a) Customer desire: Every customer of the Marks and Spencer wants the high quality services
with lower price. The customer always prefer to havewants the best customer service and
luxurious things at lower price so that they can afford it easily (Hakansson, 2015). The customer
wantsalways desire the easy access of the product and services without any inconvenience and
difficulty. When the usercustomer purchase anything, he receives the tailored post purchase
email which gives him the chance to experience the item or product before providing any
feedback. The customer feedback is then b processed in correct manner by the relevant brand's
buying team.
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b) Threats posed by the Competitors: The main threats of the organization from the customer are
the customer conflicts. Sometimes, the customer disputes takes place due to mistake offound in
the product for example-. dDuring the delivery of the item, the product may be broken down or
may found to be defective which leads to the disputes (Dibb and Simkin, 2013). The company
sometimes do not listen to the customer's problems and their feedbacks which creates more
problems to the organization. The services given by the company are not delivered to the
customer on time which creates poor reputation of the organization. Thein this respect, M&S
company has to take care of every threat of the customer in order toto ensure smooth running of
business.
c) Changes in business context: The bBusiness environment changes very fast in order to make
every strategy perfectfeasible. The Llearning, adjustment, iteration, innovation are always
needed by the strategic plans. For the peoplecustomer convenience, enthusiasm and desire of
the adjustment, the organization always help them to understand the current focus which
connects with them. The business plan changes every-time for the growth and development of
the organization. So every-time the update with the market is very necessary (Reynoso, 2013).
Also the organization design structure is responsible for its successful creation or break up.
Aasbecause when the organization grows and changes, the market condition also changes. Good
design structure helps the organization to achieve its goals and objectives according to the
market.
d) Role of collaborators: The organization cannot run lonely, iIt requires the help of every
collaborators. The collaborator of the company are the customers, suppliers, partners, civil
society, government, scientist etc. The Collaborator may be the entities within the grant seekers
organization, units of community group. The collaborator writes the letter for grant proposals
which gives the surety of their involvement. Competition with international and local product
brands also matters a lot. The collaborator helps in increasing the market value of the product.
The government also helps the organization to grow its business by allowing the people to make
use of the product of the company (Dyer and Song, 2015). The customer's buys the company's
best quality product and increase the revenue and profit of the company. Increasing costs of the
production which includes the cost of raw materials, maintenance, plant and machinery. The
Collaborator may be the entities within the grant seekers organization, units of community
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group. The collaborator writes the letter for grant proposals which gives the surety of their
involvement.
Issue 4. Marketing strategy development:
The concept of the marketing is changing from time tow time asas the changing timewith
time, new innovations, new knowledge are coming in the market. Marketing is the process of
transformation values of the buyers and sellers and making the good relationship in the market.
The organization has focused on the marketing research and provided the new items in the
market. This organization has always tried to satisfy the customer needs rather than its own
needs and comfort. The main aim of these company retailers is that the customer will get every
basic need under one roof (Gmelin and Seuring, 2014). The company's has included the
exploration of the segmentation, targeting customers and position. In 2004, the company was
suffered from loss in clothing product. Due to its superb marketing strategy Marks and Spencer
has 895 over stores in more than 40 territories around the world and over 600 domestic and 295
international. This strategy helped thein getting the 43rd position of 43rd llargestargest retailer in
the world. They sold both the clothing and food items and has expanded its business into other
ranges like furnitures, technology and home wares. This company has become was the first
British retailer to make profit of £1 billion in the year 1998 (Haase and et.al., 2016). Theis loss
in 2004 was due to random change in the micro and macro environment and lots of competition
from the competitors. The macro environment includes the demographic and the economic
factors. Second is the micro environment where whole system was revived to update it.
Segmentation is the process of segmentation of the market into distinct section of the
people which have same dislikes, likes, tastes and preferences. The organization has also
explored the market in Central Asia market on the basis of three segmentation criteria for the
clothing line, which are demographics, geographic and the psycho-graphic.
The Marks and Spencer has extended its marketing mix for the recovery of the loss in the
2004. They have launched the promotional strategies to gain the lost market. In order to inculcate
the confidence of the customer, the company has increased its communication. The competitive
edge for M&S was brought by the innovation and the high quality in the products. For increasing
sale it is very necessary for the company to provide effective, efficient and frequent availability
of the products on the shelf. The distribution of the goods is the main drawback which company
forgets to recover during its increasing sales growth. The cited organization has also introduced
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the computer based centralized system that helps the company to know the areas where there is
shortage of the product. Style and price matters in the elite clothing. If the product is offered at
high price than it needs to be toof that level ((Menz and Scheef, 2014). Business to business
marketing is the marketing to the organization rather than marketing to the consumers. It is
important because every business is connected to other business. The domestic marketing is
different from international marketing. The international marketing means marketing in abroad.
International marketing is important because global marketing is taking place. In domestic
marketing the products are made for the specific area of the region and the marketing as well as
the promotion strategies recognizes the taste of the customers very nicely.
It can be recommended to the company that while bringing any new product in the
market then it has to make proper planning that it will benefit everywhich age group the most.
And from thesewhich customers it will get more benefit (Olson and et.al, 2016). Also, the
company has some strategies for launching the new product regarding their service and product
distribution. The company has to take care of the demands and needs of the customers. So that
the product will get success and can be sold in good quantity.
Issue 5. Developing marketing tactics
The main goal of marketing strategy is to increase sales and achieve sustainable
competitive advantage. Marketing strategy of Marks and Spencer is the policy whose main aim
is to enhance the market competitive position of the organization and taking new challenges
opportunities provided by the competitive environment. Managerial marketing is used to
implement the specific target. The effective strategic decision making can be analysed by the 7Ps
and helps the organization very much. The strategies based on the market dominance are leader,
challenger, follower and niche. The strategic planning initiates with the evaluation of the
business environment from internal to external with the understanding of the strategic
constraints. For the identification of bBusiness opportunities and threats, it is necessary to
understand the external environment and which involves the political, economic, social and
technical factors. Marks and Spencer has stated about the subject of promotion of shared attitude
which binds with the customer, irrespective of their age and demographic factor. The 4P's of the
marketing of the Marks and Spencer are as follows:
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 Product: The Marks and Spencer garment products are best known for their quality,
variety, style and reliability. The company has never compromised its service on the
important factor which has given reward to it from the customers all over the world.
 Price: Marks and Spencer have charged from medium to high expensesprices for its
quality products and most of itsthe products have premium charges as they are targeted
for the upper class customers (Piercy, 2014).
 Place: The cited organization has international presence and over 600 retail stores in the
United Kingdom. Therefore, its products are easily available in the cities and other
developed countries. Hence, its products and items are easily available in the cities.In
addition, this organization sells its products through online shopping portals and its own
website.
 Promotion(communication): The promotion and publicity of the products is done through
both traditional marketing and social media marketing. It also promotes its product
through advertisements, websites, internet and social media, Marks and Spencer's
broacher's, major newspapers, fashion magazines, etc.
 People: People are the major element of the marketing mixed-methods. They have
leading role in every organization. As the employees in Marks and Spencer helps in soft
running of their business. While in bank, the bank employees helps in maintaining the
system.
 Process: Service process helps in delivering the services to the end customers.
Therefore, the process of the service Marks and Spencer company in delivering its
goods is very essential to improve(Bhasin, 2017).
 Physical evidence: The physical evidence helps in differentiating the service marketing.
Also with the help of physical evidence the organization can be protected from any illegal
trade blame.
CONCLUSION
From this report it can be concluded that Marks and Spencer is leading in the market and
providing its best services to the customer in all over the world. Its marketing tactics and
strategies are well managed which helped it lot in increasing its customer's satisfaction and
economic benefitsy. Another thing is that the customers are meeting its needs and demands
through the best services . They are getting the products of the latest fashion and market taste on
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regular basis. The customers are very much satisfied with the services and quality and services of
the Marks and Spencer branded products. These helps the organization to withstand in the
competitive market with good reputation.
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