Introduction to Marketing: Marks and Spencer Market Strategy Report

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis of Marks and Spencer, a global retail chain. It begins with an introduction outlining the importance of marketing in a competitive market. The report then delves into a market audit, utilizing PESTLE analysis to examine political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors impacting the business, followed by a SWOT analysis to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Porter’s Five Forces model is used to analyze competitive forces within the industry. The report then explores market strategy, including an Ansoff Matrix analysis to evaluate growth strategies, and discusses the marketing mix and STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) strategies employed by Marks and Spencer. The report concludes by summarizing the findings and offering recommendations for the company's marketing approach. References are provided for further study.

INTRODUCTION TO
MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MARKET AUDIT...........................................................................................................................1
PESTLE Analysis........................................................................................................................1
Swot Analysis..............................................................................................................................3
Porter’s Five Forces Model.........................................................................................................4
MARKET STRATEGY...................................................................................................................6
Ansoff Matrix Analysis...............................................................................................................6
Marketing mix strategy................................................................................................................7
STP..............................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the strategic process of communicating with customers to analyse their
needs and wants and develop effective products and services to increase their satisfaction
effectively. Increase in the demand of product and rapid change in customer preferences there is
increase in completion in global market. With the help of marketing activities business can
improve its efficiency to achieve its objectives and earn more profits to compete in the market
effectively. this report provides brief study about different marketing activities of Marks and
Spencer which also provide effective information to develop strategies and compete in the
market effectively. Marks and Spencer is retail store chain in the world and operates many
fashion stores to increase the sales of the company effectively. Report discusses marketing audit
to determine all the factors which are presents in the market to develop effective strategy,
marketing mix and STP analysis provides better information about all factors to increase profit
margins. In addition, report highlights the use of Ansoff matrix to understand resources of Marks
and Spencer and also helps to implement effective market strategy to grow business effectively.
MARKET AUDIT
PESTLE Analysis
This is a framework which helps the business to evaluate all the external market factors
which can impact the activities of business to grow and expand in the market. With the help of
this analysis marks and Spencer develop effective understanding about all the factors which
impact the business activities and formulate effective marketing strategy accordingly to increase
the market share. Due to increase in the completion in the retail industry it is very essential for
the company to develop effective strategic management activities to increase the potential in the
market effectively.
Political Factors
Political factors help to determine the interference of government in the business
activities which also impact business growth strategies. Brexit has impacted the Marks and
Spencer adversely as the country is not art of EU union which also restricted the trade in whole
Europe and increased the cost of business. This also impacted the quality of services to
customers due to increase customer issues forum Marks and Spencer which declined the brand
image in market (Scott and Walker, 2017). Changes in the policies of government and trade
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policies impacted the expansion strategy of the company. This impacted the efficiency of
business to compete in the market and procure required resources at low cost.
Economic Factors
Economic factors are those which are directly related to the economy of nations and
influence the business decisions and activities. This factor includes, unemployment rates, tax
rates, interest rates, inflation rate, GDP, disposable income of customers. Brexit has impact ted
every industry very negatively which increased unemployment rates in the market and reduced
opportunity to increase their sales and the income level of customers has declined drastically.
Recession has also increased the inflation rates of the market to compensate with the losses
incurred. GDP of UK has also impacted the growth of Marks and Spencer to survive in the
market.
Social Factors
Social factors is the variables which are influenced by customer attitude, behaviour, taste,
preference, culture, beliefs in making buying decisions which impact business growth. Due to
pandemic disease Covid19 the behaviour of customers has drastically changed. Due to lockdown
in many countries the main preference of customers is to focus on survival and not on fashion
which is impacting the sales of Marks and Spencer. Pandemic disease is speeding in all the
markets which are reducing the revenue generation of the company and also increasing its
production cost.
Technological Factors
Technological factors are changing rapidly due to high completion and increased
innovation which also impacts activities of Marks and Spencer to expand and grow. Technology
is very essential factors for any business to increase its potential to compete and also reduce its
cost. Increase in the artificial intelligence technology has impacted the market share of Marks
and Spencer as more customers are attracted towards innovative services to increase their
satisfaction (Bernon, 2018).
Environmental Factors
Increase in the environmental concerns globally has also impacted the businesses profit
margins due to creation of environmental development tax. This has also reduces the profit
margins of the company. Mars and Spencer have also developed sustainable products to increase
the market share and also increase trust in customers to recover profit margins effectively.

Legal Factors
Legal factors are part of political factor however these factors are more industry specific
to provide safety and security customers and employees of the company effectively.
Implementation of employees benefit act, health and safety, employee compensation acts,
equality act has increased the cost of Marks and Spencer to maintain all the regulations and
develop effective policies to increase the organisation culture and provide effective benefits to its
employees (Islam, 2016).
Swot Analysis
It is strategic planning technique that supports a person or organization to determine it’s
strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as well (Gürel and Tat, 2017). M&S applies this
analytical toll to analyse it’s internal environment of the business and determines it’s strength
and opportunities as well.
Strengths
 Brand recognition: Marks & Spencer has good international presence for the quality of
it’s products. It is also famous as premium supermarket and becomes 2nd best store
supermarket in the UK. Organization uses online platform that causes it is available in a
number of countries across Europe, Middle East and Asia.
 Wide variety of products: Organization has wide products in every storethat supports
customers to select the best one as per their requirements.
 Market experience: It is one of the leading retailers in the UK because it has very long
journey in the UK market. it works with number of potential partners in the UK and
foreign countries.
Weaknesses
 Organization has weak financial performance that causes it is unable to expand it’s
business in other developed countries. Due to this company does not invest high cost on
the emerging techniques.
 Limited market share: Organization has low market share of products in the UK country
due to potential competitors. It causes organization unable to emerge new brands in
product portfolio (Jain and Choudhary, 2017).

 Marks & Spencer has good brand image in the global market so it have to protect it’s
brand from misuse of imitate products.
Opportunities
 Organization has opportunity to expand it’s business in the Indian markets. Company can
get advantage of the opportunity because it can promote it’s product line in the Indian
market as result can generate high profit margin on these products.
 Online opportunities is another good opportunity for the organization that can use to
create good online presence. Currently online platform becomes best platform for the
retail industries because most of the customer prefers online shopping as compared
traditional shopping. So, organization can use this opprtunty to influence demand of the
products in people.
Threats
 Strong competition: Marks & Spencer faces tough competition in the UK market because
there are lots of potential competitors i.e. Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys etc. are the biggest
competitor of the organization.
 Government policy: It is another threat for the organization Brexit changes in policies
that impact MNC’s productivity, performance and operations negatively.
Porter’s Five Forces Model
Porter’s fiver force model is a systematic framework which helps to analyse all the
available resources of the organisation to achieve competitive advantage in the market (Kaul,
2017). There are five components in this model which helps to analyse all the threats in the
industry to increase the efficiency of Marks and Spencer to attain core competency in the market.
Bargaining Power of Buyer (High)
Customers are the king of the market and every business runs in order to increase the
satisfaction of customers to make them loyal and increase their customer base effectively. the
bargaining power of customers is high in retail industry as there are many options available in
the market. This impacts product’s price of Marks and Spencer to satisfy customer, also survive
in the market effectively (Liu and et.al., 2019). UK’s customers are not willing to pay higher
prices for clothes which impacted the profit margins of Marks and Spencer.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Low)
Suppliers are the main factors which helps business organisation to maintain its cost and
increase profit margins with high quality products. Bargaining power of suppliers is low due to
high competition the availability to suppliers are in large numbers. This also helps Marks and
Spencer to increase profit margins of their products and increase brand value by providing high
quality apparels to its customers.
Threat of New Entrants (Low)
It is very difficult to enter in market which has potential businesses with effective
strategies (Balaji and Roy, 2017). The threat of new entrants for Marks and Spencer is low as
clothing industry needs experience to survive in market. Marks and Spencer also has large range
of products with economies of scale to reduce the cost of products. This discourages new
businesses to enter in the market.
Threat of Substitute Products (High)
Substitute products are those which have the same features and help to increase the utility
of consumers and increase their satisfaction effectively. Clothing industry is very large and the
demand of fashion is rising which also increases high threat of substitute products for Marks and
Spencer. Company has developed effective strategies which help to develop better quality
products and with the help of innovation Marks and Spencer can reduce this threat and increase
its market share in the market effectively.
Threat of Existing Competition (High)
Due to high threat of substitute products threat of competition also increases for Marks
and Spencer (Kasemsap, 2018). Threat of exiting competition is high for the company due to
increase in the potential for competitors by developing similar clothing fabrics and designs with
lower price range. This also impacted the market share of Marks and Spencer and also reduces
their profit margins to attract more customers with effective strategies.

MARKET STRATEGY
Ansoff Matrix Analysis
Ansoff is business growth and expansion tool which help to analyse all the market
attractiveness and factors which are best suitable for business to develop expansion and growth
strategies and increase its potential in the market effectively. this framework has four
components which helps Marks and Spencer to determine risk related to each strategy and
implement accordingly.
Market Penetration
This strategy focuses on same product in the existing market to grow market with
different marketing strategies and techniques (Lan, 2018). This strategy also helps the business
to attract maximum customers with lower cost and risk effectively. This increases the sales and
profit margins of the business to compete in the market and attain core competency effectively.

Product Development
Products development strategy emphasizes on development of new products in the
existing market to increase market size. This strategy helps businesses to target new customer
segments and increase their customer base. Product develop strategy also increases the product
range to increase customer retention and satisfy them effectively. this strategy increases the risk
as investment cost of new product is high and there is a high uncertainty for success.
Market Development
Market Development strategy focuses on existing product in new market to expand
business and increase the market share effectively. This strategy increases the opportunity for
business to attain core competency and gain higher profit margins. However, the risk associated
with this strategy is moderately high due to change in dimensions of new market which can
reduce the efficiency of business.
Diversification
Diversification is the most riskiest strategy and it focuses on development of new product
line in new market (Guoan and Xue, 2019). This helps to reduce the competition and also
distribute the risk of other competitive products of the business.
Recommendation
Marks and Spencer need to adopt product develop strategy which helps the company
which helps to increase the customer satisfaction and also lower threats of competition. This
strategy also reduces the risk of high investments as company can develop new clothing product
which is more innovative and price efficient to attract more customers effectively.
Marketing mix strategy
Marketing mix is referred to the set of actions or tactic that uses by organization to
promote it’s brand or product in the business market. Marketing mix strategy is a marketing tool
that supports to target a specific market and leads high productivity in the workplace as well.
Marks &Spencer is multinational company which offers wide variety products to the customers
across the world (Bohari, Hin and Fuad, 2017). Organization uses marketing mix strategy to
make profitable marketing decision. The strategy is described as follows:
Price

Price is the major factor that impacts customers’ buying behaviour and assist company to
become market leader as well. Marks & Spencer has wide product line in which contain
premium products and local products so it can target each customer effectively. Currently
organization adapts competitive pricing strategy. The reason behind is that there are lots of
competitors in the retail industries so it is easy for the organization to gather data on competitors.
These data help company to understand pricing of the products. organization offers products or
services in higher cost as compared competitors that causes it provides more features in the
specific products which cope up with high price. Currently organization charges medium to high
prices for its current products i.e. garments. Whereas organization offers these products in
different cost i.e. reasonable to very expensive price as per customer requirement. But most of
the products of organization have premium prices which targets upper class of users only.
Product
Product is the second marketing tool that is essential for the users as well because each
customer requires that products which give values their money and fulfil their objectives. Marks
& Spencer has wide line of products but garment products are one of the most important product
of the company. The reason behind is that these products are known for it’s fist class quality,
reliability, patterns and variety, in addition, it is major source of generating high profit margin in
the company. Organization never compromise to offer rewards to the customer in the form of
loyal customers all over the world.
Place
Organization has 600 stores in the whole UK and has good international presence in the
global market. Therefore M&S products are easily available in all the cities and towns of UK
country and in other developed countries as well. Company retails its product through online
platform i.e. Amazon.Com and its own website.
Promotion
Promotional tool is other marketing tool that supports to promote brand awareness in the
people. Organization uses promotional tool to attracts new customer and builds good relationship
with people. By this tool organization easily to put pressure on the competitors as well. M&S
uses all the marketing medium i.e. advertisement on TV, internet & social media, newspaper and
fashion magazine for promoting it’s promoting it’s products across the world. in addition,

organization uses M&S broachers that supports to increase awareness in the people about the
brand as well as products (Chen and et.al., 2019).
STP
STP is another marketing tool that stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning.
The model supports organization to target it’s customer and develops a digital strategy for
content marketing.
Segmentation
Market segmentation strategy is effective approach which use by organization tosegment
it’s product into different section on the basis of people buying behaviour. Organization
segments it’s market into small segments i.e. demographical, geographical, psychographic and
behavioural segments. This segmentation supports company to maintain sustainability in the
retail business. Demographic segments help to divided the consumers on the basis of age,
gender, education etc. organization segments its customer on the basis of geographical i.e.
region, state and country. On the other psychological segment is subdivided based on the
consumer’s attitude, values, risk and others. Customer’s retention power on the products is
understood by behavioural segments. Thus, segmentation strategy helps organization to meet
each type of customer objective by understanding their behaviour, psychology and their
expectation for the products and services (Dadzi and et.al., 2017).
Target market
Organization has classified its target market in the major group such as in gender, two
main categories male and females. They are main targeted customer of the organization so it
produces product to meet their objectives. The reason behind is that males and female are those
customers who can spend more amount to get high quality and trendy products. So, organization
targets its customers through the model.
Positioning
It is the last stage of STP marketing process that helps to determine strengths and
weaknesses of the business, in addition, it assists to understand needs and expectations of the
customers and market and positioning of competitors as well. Marks and Spencer use positioning
strategy to capture high market share of the product (Ervural and et.al., 2018). Garment product
is highly famous product of the organization which is designed to meet targeted customer

objectives. It adapts flexible price strategy which supports company to influence purchasing
behaviour of the customer at the workplace.
STP model supports company to determine its weaknesses as well for example company
initially unable to understand psychology and behaviour of the customer that causes unable to
meet their objectives. By the model easy to segment it’s customer on the basis of demographic,
psychology and behaviours, in addition organization targets its main customers and products as
well so that can generate high revenue in the product. thus, this model resolve issues that are
faced by organization previously.
CONCLUSION
In this report it was analysed that it is very essential for business to understand available
resources to determine internal and external factors and develop effective strategies. Report also
helped to develop effective understanding about all the information which provided information
to gain core competency effectively. Report discussed different market analysis which provided
opportunity to the company to increase its sales and profit margins effectively. ansoff matrix
helped the Marks and Spencer to formulate diversification strategies and segmentation strategies
helps the company to target and position its products in the market effectively. It was also very
essential for company to develop effective understanding about all the factors to innovate and
attain core competency in the market effectively.