Marketing Strategies of Marks & Spencer: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Introduction to marketing
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Marketing Environment.................................................................................................................4
Buyer behaviour.............................................................................................................................9
Customer segmentation strategies...............................................................................................11
Marketing mix strategy................................................................................................................13
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................15
Reference list................................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
Marketing is a process, which helps to identify the requirements of a business and serves the
customers efficiently and profitability. Marketing includes the researches by which the
company can address their customer needs and accomplish their business goals by following
specific strategies. Marketing aims to satisfy the customers generate profits and survive in
the competitive market. Marketing is considered as a function of business, which plays a
key role in making a business successful. The Marks & Spencer’s is chosen here for the
analysis.
Marks & Spencer’s is a British multinational organisation. The company was established in
1884 by the two owners Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in London. Headquarter of this
company is located at Westminster, London. The company is known as the fashion and retail
seller. Their product range includes clothing, food, home and luxury products. M & S has
979 stores in the UK among which 615 stores only sell the food products
(Marksandspencer.com. 2019).
This study analyses the importance of marketing in increasing the company’s sales rate. The
study includes research on internal and external factors of the company and discusses its
impact on the company. The essential strategies are also discussed here, which will help the
company to foresee the higher amount of profit and customer loyalty.
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Marketing Environment
Marketing environment includes the external and internal factors that can leave an impact
on the business growth of Marks & Spencer’s, favourably or unfavourably. The Pestel and
SWOT analysis of the company is provided in this section of the study.
PESTEL analysis on Marks & Spencer’s
Elements Description
Political The political factors of UK can affect the
business growth of the company. British has
decided to cancel their EU membership,
which will have significant implications in
many businesses. This condition is known as
Brexit (Clarke et al., 2017). The political
condition will become unstable due to this
condition, so may not be a suitable time for
Marks & Spencer’s to expand their business
in other countries. This will lower the
chances of international marketing. The
government of UK has lack of clarity on the
schemes of energy efficiency so it may affect
the company initiatives negatively.
Economical The Brexit will leave an impact on the
economic conditions of UK. The taxation
rates have become very high. According to a
report, The GDP rate of UK also grew 0.4%
in the three months of October 2018
(Ons.gov.uk. 2019). As a result, the product
prices may increase, which may be the
reason for rising conflicts between the small
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retailers and the organisation. The
unemployment rate in the UK is 4.0% and
will be increased after Brexit, and the salary
of the UK residents will also be reduced so
that will leave an impact on the buying
powers of the customers. The organisation
may not be able to acquire to higher
profitability like before.
Social The UK is one of the largest economies in
the world. There are many different
communities in the UK. The people of UK
live a high standard life, and the cultures of
every region are different from others. The
socio-cultural diversity will unlock new
opportunities for differentiating their product
line. The organisation makes some luxurious
products, which will be loved by the
customers. This will help the organisation to
gain popularity and differentiate themselves
from the other brands in the market. The
large population of UK will also help the
organisation to increase their production
rate.
Technological Technology in the UK is being advanced day
by day. Most of the people in the UK are
familiar with the technological trends
(Orlikowski et al., 2016). The latest changes
in technology can be the reason behind the
changing demands of the customers. The
organisation will need more employees to
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monitor the changing needs of the market
and the latest trends in technology so that
they can address customer needs. According
to a report, 80% of UK residents have access
to the internet so that will help the company
to grow their online sales and open new
opportunities for recruitment. The
organisation may need to invest in brand
associations as the concept is becoming
popular. However, it can improve the quality
of collaborative works.
Environmental The Government of UK is being concerned
about the environment. Different
organisations in the UK are adopting new
methods of saving nature. The uses of
renewable energy source s and biodegradable
will help the organisation to cut their
expenses and contribute to saving the nature
(Su et al., 2015). The wastage from the
company may be harmful so if the
organisation does not try to reduce the
toxicity of it the brand image may be
strained. The organisation will be able to
maintain a healthy bonding with the UK
government by following the guidelines.
Legal There are some laws, which can affect the
growth of the company. The UK government
has published some laws for customer safety
which includes the consumer rights act, sales
of goods act and others (Keesoony, 2016).
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The laws empower the customers to file a
complaint against the company if they
violate such laws. This may cease the
business growth of the company. The
copyright law will help the company to
protect the authenticity of their products.
The laws can leave a negative impact on the
company if that are not being followed
properly.
Table 1: PESTEL analysis on Marks & Spencer’s
(Source: created by the learner)
A SWOT analysis on Marks & Spencer’s
Strength
 The company is known to have a
clear brand image which has helped
to drive the customers
 The organisation supports the
innovation of ideas that have helped
them to cope up with the
technological changes.
 The organisation has over 900 stores
in the UK among which 300 are
retail stores, and 315 stores are
franchise stores. The multichannel
presence has helped the brand
equity.
 Marks & Spencer’s encourages the
cultural diversity of their employees,
which has helped them to provide a
Weakness
 The product recall of Marks &
Spencer’s is affecting their brand
image, and the company is facing
severe customer switch. This is the
biggest weakness of the Company.
 The poor management of the supply
chain can be a threat to the company
as the products need to reach the
market for sale.
 The company is unable to penetrate
the international market, and other
competitive brands are successfully
exploring the foreign market. This is
another weakness of the company
which may be the threat.
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better service.
Opportunities
 The online shopping trend is
becoming popular day by day. The
teenagers of UK are more likely to
buy anything online rather than
going to stores. The company has
always been innovative, so they
have a chance to expand their
business online and target the
teenager segment.
 The residents of UK are becoming
more fashion conscious so they can
reshape their fashion line.
Manufacturing of trendy clothes will
help them to generate more
revenues.
 The brand launches luxurious food
products, and the people are more
concerned about the quality of a
product than the price so this can
unlock the opportunity of increasing
their profitability by serving quality
products
Threats
 The competition in the market can
be the biggest threat to the
Company. The organisation should
differentiate their brand identity
from others so that they can survive
in the long term (Polavieja, 2016).
 The supply chain management and
conflicts between the suppliers can
be a threat to the company. The
organisation has to convert their
threat to a new opportunity by
monitoring the supply chain.
Table 2: SWOT analysis on Marks & Spencer’s
(Source: created by the learner)
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Buyer Behaviour
Consumers or Customers are the ones, which are the main stakeholder of any organisation.
The behaviour of the customers in relation to an organisation is the satisfaction level they
have after using their products. Therefore, any organisation especially retailing organisation
that produces products should deliberately look towards the satisfaction of the customers as
the customer's feedbacks and the reviews are the ones, which affect the organisation
production or functionaries. Any organisation is totally dependent on the customer’s
feedbacks and reviewed for their development and gaining more customers and market share
(Horner and Swarbrooke, 2016)
Every organisation has their targeted customers; as if the company Marks & Spencer has
targeted the elite customers along with the budget-friendly organisation is that they can cater
to the needs of the customers as a whole. Therefore, the buyer behaviours depend on many
factors to target the desired customers they are as follows:
 The reaction of the customers towards the marketing strategy and tactics the
company has adapted.The consumer behaviour can be assumed by the reaction and
the amount of profit they are making by selling the products.
 Therefore, the marketing mix or a strategy is very necessary for the company to hit
the market best level and gain Sustainable Competitive Advantage.
 The suppliers along with the Marketing Specialist have the outlook or the intuition to
understand the customer demands and they can therefore accordingly design their
products ready to be manufactured (Alexander and Jaakkola, 2016)
In case of the organisation, Marks & Spencer the company has been an old renowned
organisation in selling products as if food materials, apparels, have acquired quite a place
internationally, and have many branches worldwide. The Global integration adapted in their
systems and operations and strategies applied made them scatter their branches at a rapid
pace. As they have followed the strategies of International expansion of their business
processes it has made them, develop in many spheres and gain quite an amount of market
profits. Though the company could not successfully settle their business in the US and
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Canada, their branches are scattered in places like Ireland, Hong Kong, the Middle East and
other parts of Asia.
To analyze the Marks & Spencer the application of the Consumer behaviour Model will be
applied. The Consumer Behaviour Model that will be applied to the company Marks &
Spencer is the Black Box Model
Figure 1: The Black Box Model
(Source: bizfluent.com, 2019)
The model is the one, which instils or influences the customer’s stimuli regarding to the
organisation products. The stimuli are the expression or emotions of like or familiarity and
satisfaction, which the customer will get after getting the services of the organisation. If the
company Marks & Spencer applied these Black Box model to its operations and find out the
needs of the customers. The stimuli are produced by the company tactics and strategies like
advertisements to attract them or any promotional event or campaigns held to promote the
products or giving discounts to their products also attracts the customers. M&S has also
applied the various techniques to attract the various customers and gained 21 million
customers to their side. The further research will make the company also outsource the rival
companies in the US and become one of the best retailing organisations in the US market as
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well. There are two factors which the black box works on they are the Buyer’s choice and
the decision making process of the Buyer.
Customer segmentation strategies
The customer segmentation strategy is outlined here for helping the company to acquire
higher profitability.
Segmentation- Marketing segmentation will help the company to divide the market into
four sections. The marketing segmentation includes a demographic segment, geographic
segment, behavioural and psychographic segments. The demographic segment includes the
age, income, gender, religion and others. The psychographic and geographic segment covers
the hobby and lifestyle of the people and the division of the market based on the urban,
suburban and other regions. The behavioural segment helps to identify customer preferred
mode of shopping. The company should focus on the three segments such as demographic,
behavioural and psychographic segment (Dietrich et al., 2015). The customers of UK live a
luxurious lifestyle, and fashion awareness is high among them. Most of the people are
familiar with the online mode of shopping, so the organisation needs to set the strategies as
per the segmentation requirement. Segmentation will help the company to identify and
address the needs of a specific customer, which can help the company to generate revenues.
Target- The organisation is already famous in the retail market of UK. The targeting will
help them to differentiate their strategies from other brands. They can target the teenagers
of UK. The teenagers are becoming more and more trendy and fashionable. The organisation
should launch new trendy products for them. They may also target the upper and middle-
income group as most of the people in the UK are from these two income group (Shao and
Bao, 2015). Targeting the segments will help them to focus on designing and developing a
new product for them that will help them to drive new customers from these segments. The
company should conduct proper research before setting the target. They should be able to
determine, which target will be easily accessible for them so that there is no chance of
losses.
Positioning- Positioning refers to the choices of products, which can bring success to the
company. As mentioned before, fashion awareness is increasing among the residents of UK.
Women are becoming concerned about any product they purchase. The company should
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launch such products for the women, which are of high quality. The company can launch
some casual and comfortable wear for the men of UK as they are much likely to stick to the
comfortable options. The company should launch some diet food for the customer as the
health consciousness is becoming popular day by day. In this way, they can identify the way
in which they can position their products and accomplish their marketing goals.
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