Comprehensive Marketing Analysis and Strategic Recommendations for M&S

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis of Marks & Spencer (M&S), a major UK retailer, examining its current market position, challenges, and opportunities within the competitive retail landscape. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction to marketing concepts and philosophies, practically applied to M&S. It then delves into an environmental analysis using Porter's Five Forces model to assess the competitive dynamics within the UK clothing retail industry. The challenges faced by M&S, including competition from online retailers and declining sales, are highlighted, along with potential opportunities for growth. Recommendations and strategic approaches, such as a holistic marketing approach integrating relationship and integrated marketing concepts, are proposed to regain market share and improve profitability. Finally, a marketing plan is outlined, incorporating key changes for the company to implement, and the report concludes with a summary of the findings and recommendations.

RUNNING HEAD: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
0
Marketing Management
Report
Student Name
3/31/2019

Marketing Management
1
Executive Summary
Marketing is a broader concept and not only limited to selling and producing the product in the
market but it includes businesses to be market-oriented and focus on key requirements and needs
of the customers and then fulfilling it by offering them different products. In this report, to
understand the marketing concepts and philosophies its implication is practically done on Marks
& Spencer. The company is facing many challenges in the current scenario. This report
highlights the main challenges faced by the company in the current UK retail industry. For that
understanding, different concepts and applications of marketing approaches are used such as a
holistic concept that include relationship marketing and integrated marketing concept. Further,
the report gives insight about the environment analysis using Porter's five force model in M&S
clothing portfolio.
With environment analysis, the challenges faced by the company are highlighted and
opportunities that are available for M&S in the market are identified. To overcome these
challenges report provides the recommendations and strategies that can be used by the company
to again gain the market and to improve its profitability and sales. Moreover, in the end, a
marketing plan is given keeping in mind the changes that the company has to apply and followed
with a brief conclusion.

Marketing Management
2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Marketing Concepts and Philosophies.............................................................................................4
Environment Analysis.....................................................................................................................6
Porter’s Five Forces Model for M&S..........................................................................................6
Challenges and Opportunities......................................................................................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

Marketing Management
3
Introduction
Marketing Management is an art of selecting the customers, delivering them value and makes
them satisfied by providing the valuable products and services. Role of marketing manager is
expanding in today’s scenario; marketing managers have to manage the activities related to
planning, research and implementation of marketing plan. Marketing is a broader concept which
includes not only selling of goods but also identifying needs and wants of customers and
satisfying them. Concept and philosophies of marketing will be best understood by practically
applying it in Marks & Spencer.
Mark & Spencer is a retailer which deals in clothing, home accessories, food products and
furniture. M&S is London based company founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in
1884. Currently the company has approximately 980 stores in UK out of that 600 outlets are of
its food product line (M&S, 2019). The company has presence in the international market and
sells its product via outlets that are well structured. M&S targeted upper and middle class section
of the society by offering products at value for money with more choices and wider product
portfolio with higher quality products.
M&S is facing a drop in its sales and profits due to various marketing issues and competition.
M&S managers planned to shut there 100 stores by 2022 because of falling sales and customer
footfall in stores (Wood, 2018). The leading retailer Marks & Spencer is in trouble situation due
to stiff competition from online retailers and because of its poor marketing strategy. Nowadays
companies shifted their focus on digital marketing or social media platform and spend a major
portion in advertising and product development which only leads to survival of the firms.
Considering all this reason and outcomes market analysis and environment analysis of M&S is
carried and accordingly some futures strategies and suggestions will be drawn.

Marketing Management
4
Marketing Concepts and Philosophies
Marketing Management is a process that includes development of different marketing strategies
and planning of product, advertising, promotion campaign and analyzing market to reach the
target customers Marketing is targeting a particular market, knowing the needs of customers and
working on delivering offerings that satisfied the customers and benefits the management.
Concept of marketing is not limited to selling it is expanded to identifying needs of customers
that is customer orientation and then performing marketing activities in coordination with goal of
organization to gain long term profitability (Baines, et al., 2017). Marks & Spencer do same
thing by identifying their target customer behavior and needs than work accordingly to reach
them. The growth of M&S was due to its three aspects a good marketing mix, market orientation
and marketing segmentation. Other philosophies in marketing include product orientation and
sales orientation.
Market Orientation: Market orientation is an approach which primarily focuses to know the
needs and wants of the customer and fulfilling them through product development. There are
three components of Market orientation which include customer orientation, competitor
orientation and inter-functional coordination (Bozkurt, 2019)
Marks & spencer is also a market oriented company as it has grown and developed by focusing
on changing needs of customers and developed their product portfolio as per their demand and
surviving in the market from a longer span of time against its competitor. The company is also
performing very well by coordinating its marketing activities with marketing trends and
delivering their best clothing and food products across world. The main focus of company is on
market orientation but product orientation and sales orientation are other areas that were
considered by M&S in beginning.
Product orientation& Sales orientation: It is a philosophy where company focus on product by
putting maximum of efforts in improving its quality at offering them to customers at right price.
This philosophy was used earlier by the firms to sustain in market by focusing on product
development. Sales orientation is other aspect that is included in the marketing philosophy and
the concept include influencing the customer to buy the product as offered by the companies, this

Marketing Management
5
does not focus on what customer needs which makes this philosophy older (Wang & Miao,
2015). Marks & Spencer is a market oriented company now, initially M&S focused on product
philosophy by creating valuable product for the customers and improving the product quality
continuously.
Marks & Spencer is competing in market because of its effective marketing strategy and service
differentiation make the company different from its competitor. M&S main strengths are its
experience curve, innovation in products and its brand image in global market and in UK. They
are customer oriented that is the factor in success of the company. The leading retailer Marks &
Spencer is in trouble situation due to stiff competition from online retailers in same industry due
to that customers are shifting towards online shopping instead of shop around in stores. There are
so many outlets managed by the brand which directly increasing the operating cost for the
company and directly impacted on declining profits. Now company has to follow Holistic
marketing which focuses on dimension of relationship marketing and integrated marketing.
Holistic Marketing Approach: This approach takes the business as whole and considered that
business should focus on each division and segment in order to be successful in implementing
marketing strategies. Holistic marketing concept contains interrelated marketing activities to
make sure that the customer will purchase their product instead of competitor product. This
marketing strategy is helpful in current competitive environment (Dasgupta & Biswal, 2018).
Relationship marketing is based on building strong relationship with the stakeholders of the
company who will affected by the decision of the company that include customers, employees
and financial providers. Good relation with them gives good networking that contributes to the
growth of business in longer run.
Within the integrated marketing concept of holistic marketing strategy, an approach that
emphasize on improving the customer experience with the brand by communicating the brand
image to consumers with using different channels or mode. Integrated marketing is considered as
holistic approach to communicate in marketing, it become important component in marketing in
digital era because communication through online sites is in trend to target the customers. Under
holistic approach it is necessary to understand the market, choose an appropriate channel to

Marketing Management
6
communicate with customers and make them understand the message of the company and at the
end all this result in good return on investment.
Marks & Spencer current marketing strategy is also based on the holistic approach that cover
each segment and the managers work considering the whole organization as one and with
coordinating all marketing activities to each department. M&S developed their product taking
the customer preference and change their strategy as per market situation. At present M&S
market is declining because of the fact that they lost touch with developing market and would not
able to transform themselves according to customer requirements. To again establish itself in the
market M&S implement strategy that matches with their strengths. The key strengths of M&S
are good brand image, well-structured outlets at prime locations, wider product line and their
manufacturing process. M&S decided to take advantage of these strengths and made an
aggressive marketing strategy to shut their outlets and to go online for expanding their footprint
in online platform that is the demand or requirement of current customers of M&S and a best
strategy which cover the holistic approach that benefits in regaining the market share again.
Environment Analysis
Environmental Analysis is considered as a process which assesses all the elements of external
and internal environment that has impact on the performance of an organization. The external
element includes opportunities and threats avail in the market for an organization within the
industry and divided in macro and micro environment. Macro environment consist of political,
economic, social, technological, legal and ecological analysis or PESTLE analysis. Micro
environment consist of stakeholders of an organization, competitors, suppliers, intermediaries
and consumers.
Environment assessment is done using different tools that are Porter’s five force model, PESTLE
analysis and VRIO analysis. To understand how this tool is used to assess the environment its
practical implication on Marks & Spencer clothing retail industry is carried on.
Porter’s Five Forces Model for M&S
Porter five force analyses help to determine the attractiveness of industry and competition from
external source (Roy, 2009). The forces that need to be analyzed for M&S in UK clothing retail
industry are discussed below.

Marketing Management
7
Industry Rivalry
In clothing retail industry, the competition is tough and due to that businesses are struggling.
Looking out to the industry rivals in UK some of them are H&M, Next and GAP are the biggest
competitors of M&S. Stiff competition become problem for the companies to survive in this
market and to be successful for long run. Most of the firms have some unique value proposition
that make them different from others and serve as the competitive advantage for them. Due to
retail industry crisis in UK the firms are surviving and their profitability is affected. So the threat
of competition in this industry is high as more number of sellers is present in the market.
Threat of New Entrants
New entry in the industry is quite difficult because M&S has outlets and presence in whole UK
market, most of the sales are from this market contribute to the growth of M&S. It is not easy for
others to invest that huge amount to make an entry in the market even nowadays this industry has
slow growth that leads to low profitability in the segment.
Threat of Substitute
Threat of substitute is somehow high because in clothing industry firms have no choices for
make a differentiate products and there is no chances of any innovation except change in designs.
M&S has close substitute in the market that offer high quality products to customers in far better
prices than M&S and that increases the threat of substitute in the industry. Competitors like
H&M and Zara has more customer base and good positioning of product in the market because
they are close substitute of the M&S.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
Suppliers in this industry have low bargaining power that is an opportunity for the firms to
increase their profitability by reducing the cost of production. In retail clothing segment firm
have power to control the suppliers because there are various options to switch to another
supplier that benefits the firms and reduce the bargaining power of the suppliers. M&S make a
licensed contract with their suppliers before working on any project and state their requirement

Marketing Management
8
in that contract which leave no chances for variation in designs which lessen the hold of
suppliers in the market.
Bargaining Power of Customers
Customers are king of the market and they have power to choose amongst the best in market.
M&S invest huge amount of its budget on advertising and mainly rely on advertising strategy.
The unique selling proposition of any company attract the customers towards the product and
M&S has quality but not able to deliver trendy or latest fashionable clothes. Nowadays, clothing
segment has large influence of customers because of their changing preferences; taste and shift to
online shopping mode affected the market to greater extent that directly means the industry has
more influence of customers and has high bargaining powers with customers. The consumer
behavior in this industry is quite unpredictable as customers are free to buy products of many
available brands. M&S offers quality product at high prices to the customers. To protect the
interest of its customer company has to focus on their quality and making their prices reasonable
to remain in the market.
Some of the opportunities in hand of the M&S in this industry is to innovate or develop new
designs and invest most of the amount in research and development as the competition in this
industry is increasing which makes it challenging for the companies to survive in the market.

Marketing Management
9
Figure: 1 Porter’s five forces on Marks & Spencer in UK retail industry Source: (Magretta, 2012)
Challenges and Opportunities
The main challenge for M&S is to reduce its price in relation to its competitor to survive in the
market and to be competitive in front of the competitors like Gap, Zara and H&M. recently the
UK retail industry is facing many challenges that affect the companies in this segment including
Marks & Spencer.
Challenges facing by M&S due to retail industry crisis in UK are:
1. Compressed Profits: M&S was generating more profits in FY2016, £483.3million but in
FY17 profits compressed to £176.4million. The reason behind major decline is
deterioration in clothing sales and excessive cost incurred on closure of stores that
affected the profits of the company. M&S incurred £514.1million on closure and further
£150million would be incurred in near future (M&S, 2017).
2. Shift of Consumers to Online Shopping: M&S is facing stiff competition from the retail
online players. As the usage of internet make it easy for the customers to get wide
choices to compare and shop with convenience. According to Global Data report, it was
Rivalry
amongst
firms
(High)
Threat of
Substitute
(High)
Bargaining
power of
customers
(High)
Threat of
new
entrants
(Moderate)
Bargaining
power of
suppliers
(Moderate)

Marketing Management
10
examined that 25% of UK population started to purchase online especially fashion related
products. The increasing growth of internet leads to crisis in traditional retail segment and
most of the key players are now dominating in online business and that affected the
footfall in M&s stores, due to that decline the company is facing challenge in maintain
the large number of stores (Qamar, 2018).
3. Changing Tastes and Preferences: The M&S is a well-known brand but currently has
been struggling with strategic drift that is the continuous decrease in positioning of
competitiveness due to failing to recognize and respond to the changes required in a
business environment. The main problem is that the customer base of M&S is loyal but
older in comparison to its competitors, and shopping habits of that customer remain same
so they have less interest in buying new outfits on regular basis. Most important part is
that M&S is not able to attract the young customers because of slow response to the
changing trend in the market. M&S positioned itself as the classic style and quality
products brand rather than trendy and fast fashion market brand (Thomas, 2018).
4. Too many outlets: M&S took a revolutionary move to close down 100 stores in the UK as
company is facing challenge and invested most of amount in maintenance of the stores
but due to shift in customers buying haloes bits and platform the company decided to
close 30% outlets. The issue is that M&S outlets have not been renovated for a long time
that makes it less attractive for the customers. The trouble to the company because of too
many stores, this is because of competition from Waitrose and even Aldi and started to
capture the market and erode the competitive advantage of M&S (BBC, 2018).
5. Dependency on the UK: M&S majority of the sales is from UK; approximately 32million
customer base is from the UK. In fiscal year 2017, firm showed an impressive income of
£10,622million and from that 89% of income is generated from British market. It showed
that M&S is largely depending on the UK market. Due to crisis in UK retail industry,
M&S is troubling and facing many challenges (Qamar, 2018).
M&S has failed to respond to the changes that are taking place in the environment due to change
in fashion trends, older customer demographics base, To overcome these challenges M&S had

Marketing Management
11
launched two sub brands to target the younger customers but that lead to the confusion amongst
the customers and affected the image of brand. The shift of customers towards online shopping
trouble the M&S high street outlets as to overcome that problem company announced to shut
down its 100 stores by 2022.
In front of M&S there is option for expansion of its product line to ethnic and traditional wear.
Entering into new segments is an opportunity to gain the market share in this industry. In Asia
there are more demands for traditional wears which currently Marks & Spencer has been unable
to capitalize on. In UK, M&S can improve its productivity in high street areas as they have 852
stores in the UK from that they can focus on High street space to attract the customers and offer
them different schemes for online purchase and through outlets.
Recommendations
A marketing strategy is considered as the complete plan for targeting the customers with a solid
product mix strategy. The marketing strategy of any company includes market research,
customer analysis, competitor analysis, pricing, branding and positioning of the product in the
market. It is important to align the market strategy with the company strategic plan as the end
goal of planning is to achieving the organization goals, and for that it is necessary to set the
marketing strategy according to the organization strategy. Looking into the corporate strategy of
M&S in clothing sector, they continued to focus on full price sales and restricted the promotion
sales, and focusing on becoming the UK’s essential clothing retailer. M&S wants to sharpen the
ranges by providing more choices to the customers at the right price that is the strategy of the
company to be successful in the market and to regain the share (Hooker & Espiner, 2018).
The marketing plan that should be followed by M&S to overcome the challenges discussed
above includes change in target market, positioning of brand in mind of customers and making
its price reasonable. In the light of problems stated above, this section recommends the strategies