Marks & Spencer: A Comprehensive Marketing Strategy Assessment

This report provides a comprehensive marketing assessment of Marks & Spencer, a prominent retail company founded in the United Kingdom. It delves into the company's background, highlighting its presence in clothing, home products, and luxury food. The report examines Marks & Spencer's marketing strategy, focusing on the marketing mix elements such as product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. An STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) analysis is conducted to evaluate the business's current performance, covering demographic, behavioral, geographic, and psychographic segmentation. The targeting strategies are analyzed in terms of profitability, size, and reachability, while positioning is explored through symbolic, functional, and experimental approaches. The report also identifies geographic and psychographic segmentation criteria that could be successfully targeted by the business, emphasizing the importance of understanding consumer behavior and justifying the chosen strategies to meet the needs of suggested segments. The analysis concludes with key findings and recommendations for Marks & Spencer's marketing efforts.

Introduction to
marketing assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................3
Background of the chosen company..............................................................................................3
Marketing strategy for the organisation........................................................................................3
STP analysis to evaluate business's current performance.............................................................5
Two sets of the market segmentation criteria that could be successfully targeted by the business
.......................................................................................................................................................7
Understanding of buyer behaviour and justify the chosen strategy..............................................8
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a form of the communication between business housed and their customers
with the purpose of selling goods and services to them. Marketing is a process of management
through which the products or services move from concept to the buyers. Marketing assessment,
audit, analyses the assets and activity of a company to determine that what are they organisational
strength and weakness, and also make recommendation on what they should do to best position
their brand in order to take benefits of their market and audience. By marketing assessment , an
organisation comes to know where they stand and what they need to incorporate into their
strategies for acquiring new leads and also generate more business. It is very crucial element that
help organisation with all required information and making business decisions (Abdi and Aulakh,
2018). The firm chosen in this report is Marks and Spencer that is founded during 1884 in
United Kingdom. It deals in home products, clothings and luxury food products. This report will
be based on organisational current marketing strategy, segmentation and targeting criteria,
positioning of the company, understanding of consumer buying behaviour, justification of chosen
marketing strategy that meet the need of suggested segments.
Background of the chosen company
Marks and Spencer is s well known brand that is loved by millions of the people in world
sell award wining food, stylish home ware and high quality fashion products across around 50
territories globally. It is biggest relating company that deals in clothing, home ware products and
food items. Headquarter of the respective company is situated in London, United Kingdom. This
company was formed by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884. currently, the company has
around 960 stores in UK, including approximately 616 that only sell the food product and through
their television advertising, asserts and exclusive nature and luxury of their food and beverages.
Marketing strategy for the organisation
In marketing strategy, the marketing mix is an effective strategy, it is consists of
combination of element that an organization can control to influence the customers to purchase
their products (Annarelli, Battistella and Nonino, 2019). In context of the Marks and Spencer its
marketing mix strategy is discussed below:

 Product- Product is anything that a company offer to its customers. It include the features,
benefit, brand, packing etc. In relation to the mark and Spencer, this company is very
popular and top chain brand at global level. Its products are clothing like jeans, shirt,
Cashmere, skirt and many more. Its footwear section include the sandals, pumps, boots,
loafer ans etc. it also provide different type of home are product and food product to its
customers.
 Price- Pricing strategy take into the consideration what our customers are prepared to pay.
It should be reflected in the product value. Marks and Spencer has adopted the
competitive pricing strategy for its product a sits customary have more option to select
from because of increased competition. Its pricing policy is between medium to higher
category because of its premium quality (Azuma and et. al., 2019).
 Place- A deep understanding of purchasing pattern of customers clear that where and how
their product should be displayed and sold. Marks and Spencer is international brand and
has got more than around 1000 stores that are operating in approximately 50 nations. Its
major business is in the UK where it has about 850 stores. It also operating its business in
many other countries such as Turkey, France, Spain and others. The company has also it
own website from where the buyers can purchase products.
 Promotion- This method is used to communicate the functions and advantages of a
product to the target customers. Marks and Spencer is very careful to align their
advertising campaign with the digital marketing. It emphasizes to provide common
message through all medium of the communication. Fro its promotional activities the
company uses TV ads, print media and other campaign of social media. It also promote its
product on their own website where the customers can identify fashion tips and blogs.
 People- Marks and Spencer, it workforces strength is approximately 70000 people. This
company mainly focus on its employees and follow competitive payment police in order to
retain their employees. In context of Marks and Spencer Its employees also enjoy a
discount on the product of the the respective company. This company provide many
benefit to its customers in term of health insurance, share buy, life insurance scheme and
many more.

 Process- Stores of the Marks and Spencer can be found at malls and sub urban areas. All
these store are very good and organised in a proper manner as compare to the other stores
such as pantaloons, wills lifestyle and other etc (Birinci, Berezina and Cobanoglu, 2018).
 Physical evidence- The company ha sits around 1000 stores in multipole nations. Major
business of the respective company is in UK with 850 stores. Its has its own website so
that the customers can buy product form this site and also facilitate the home delivery to
the customers.
STP analysis to evaluate business's current performance
The segmentation, target and positioning is a process which involve three steps is designed
to help in strategic marketing of products and brand. It is widely used in mostly industries, as it
allow the business organisation to ensure that the promotional plan is very effective to target any
particular group of the customers which mostly like to buy a product and services of the company.
STP encourage the organisation for analysing their product and services are very popular among
their target customers group (Chiu and et. al., 2018). In context of Marks and Spencer, its STP
analysis is discussed below:
Segmentation- Concept of the segmentation comes from theory of the economic in which an
organisation divide market into the homogeneous segment by using and or more different
attributes such as income, age, lifestyle, behaviour and many more.
 Demographic – It is most common form that is used by the companies to split their
customer on the basis of occupation, income, education level and many more .
 Behavioural- In this, the market is segmented on the basis of consumer' behaviour,
specially regarding company's product. The audience is divided on the basis of behaviour
they display allow the companies for creating message that caters to those behaviour.
 Geographic- The organisation splitting their market on the basis of location as it is very
useful strategy of segmentation. Companies consider different needs in several regions.
 Psycho graphic segmentation- It is similar to the demographic segmentation method, but
is deals with the characteristics which are more emotional and mental (Famiyeh, Asante-
Darko and Kwarteng, 2018).

Marks and Spencer, used the demographic market segmentation in order to select their target
market foe the company's product. Its include the gender, age, income of the customers.
Targeting – Purpose of the targeting is to analyse that how many profitable customers segment an
organisation can target with that budget which they have allotted to the key marketing activities.
For this, the business need to evaluate correct approach to yield most profit out of their targeted
audience.
 Profitability- The company evaluate that which of the segment are they willing to invest
their money on products and services that give them a big profit.
 Size- In this, the organisation consider size of their target audience for their future growth
potential (Golovanov, Livshits and Tuponosova, 2020).
 Reachability- The company consider that how difficult or easy it will be for them in order
to reach every segment with their marketing efforts.
In relation with Mark and Spencer it specifically target an age population which are under 35 to
55 with high income, an executive occupation for both men and women.
Positioning- It refer to that how to position the product of company in mind of prospected buyers.
The organisation need to understand that how brand of that segment are positioned in buyer's mind
in order to create unique selling points. Companies evaluate their points of difference against their
rivals, that separate their product and service brand from their competitors.
 Symbolic position- It include the belongingness, self image and ego of the organisational
customers (Hou and et. al., 2021).
 Functional positioning- In this, company solve their customer's problems and issue to
provide them with genuine advantages.
 Experimental positioning- In this, the organisation focus on emotional connection of their
customer with the company's product and services.
With the consideration Marks and Spencer has positioned itself as a premium brand in the
supermarket industry. There is premium brand perception in customer's mind and they are ready t
pay a premium price for the M&S brand. That's why M&S keeps their price higher and it also
maintains itself in top 10 business in UK.

Two sets of the market segmentation criteria that could be successfully targeted by the business
To identify segmentation criteria for a business, an organisation should consider effective
market segmentation that allow them to create such marketing campaigns that are very essential
for the growth and development of company. An origination can segment its market into various
criteria, it depend on the type and structure of the organisation. In context of the Mark and
Spencer, for its effective development there are two set of the segment which could help the
business in its growth and development. These set of market segmentation are discussed below:
Geographic segmentation- This segment is an element that competently complements the
marketing strategy for targeting product and services based on where the customers reside. The
division in term of states, regions, cities, colleges, countries or areas is done for understanding the
audience and promote the product accordingly (Islam and et. al., 2021). Mark and Spencer can
segment its market with this criteria as the respective company deals in clothing. Its main
geographic segment is United Kingdom. The respective company offer clothing product on
cultural preferences. It follow the culture of home country and prepare dresses according to the
fashion and trend of its selected regional area. People also like its food product. It offer food items
as per the choice of their regional customers. This segmentation will be very beneficial for the
Mark and Spencer and the company can successfully target it. This segmentation will allow the
respective company to focus on its marketing efforts generally on its defined area of interest that
will help them to avoid inefficient spending. By segment the customer on geographic basis the
company will be able to target varying needs and wants of the customers in different regions.
Psycho graphic segmentation- It is an effective method of segmentation. This criteria include the
foods habits, daily activities, social status and opinion of certain subjects. This segmentation is
also very effective for the Marks and Spencer. The company has to keep its customers in mind as
these product are created with the purpose of customer's consumption. M&S offer food items to its
customer by taken into account their food habits like what type of food their customer will prefer.
The company offer its services as per customer's requirement as the customer's expectations and
demand play vital role in developing and desiring the company's product. Psycho graphic
segmentation is highly important in the marketing and it is used extensively by the marketers.
Firm make their products to fulfil the wants and needs of their customers (Li and et. al., 2018).
(Losada and et. al., 2019). Conducting the Psycho graphic segmentation is very critical task for
any business development and hence, need a special attention as all individual has varied opinion

and demands. The company offer its product by considering people's lifestyle and social status.
This method is is very beneficial for the development of Marks and Spencer as it help firm the
actual pain points of customers by studying their psychology lifestyle, attitude etc. it will give
more insight to the company about customers and its is more better rather than the demographic
segmentation. This method of segmentation help the organisation to understand customer's
behaviour, and personality.
Understanding of buyer behaviour and justify the chosen strategy
An organisation that want to become successful should consider the buyer at the time of
developing marketing mix. The buyer behaviour is an action individual take with regard to the
buying and products. Companies must understand the buyer behaviour such s how lowering and
raising a price of product will impact buyer's perception of product and consequently create
fluctuation in sales and how a particular review on the social media can create new direction for
marketing mix based on comments of target market (Paglialonga and et. al., 2019). The
understanding of buyer behaviour include a process which is mentioned below:
 Need recognition- It is first stage of the buyer behaviour in which the customers recognise
their problems or need is and subsequently, what type of product is able to meet their need.
Its step is very crucial as if the customer do not perceive a need or problem, then they will
not move forward with considering the product purchase.
 Information search- In this phase, the customers search for the external or internal
information. In this buyers who recognize specific need or problem will likely be
persuaded to search for the information. They are ware about the product which can relive
their problem. The customer try to find available option and bets solution for their
problem (Picon, 2018).
 Evaluation of alternatives- During this stage, the customer evaluate all products that
available on scale of the particular attributes which are able to deliver benefits that buyer is
seeking. At this phase, customers can significantly effected by their attitude as well as the
level of involvement that they have with brand, products and overall category.
 Purchase decision- In this, buyer have already explored the multiple options. Now they
have information about the product's price and available payment options, here, customers
decide that whether to purchase that product or not. At this time, customer form intention

to buy most preferred product and brand s they has evaluated all alternatives and analysed
value that it will bring them (Xiao, 2018).
 Post purchase behaviour- At this stage, the buyer assesses whether they are satisfied or
not with their purchase. It is final stage of understanding the buyer behaviour. It is about
how the feel about any purchase is essentially impact whether they will buy the product
and services again or consider some other product within brand repertoire.
It is analysed that the marketing mix is very effective strategies for the Marks and Spencer through
this strategy, the respective company is able to fulfil the customer's requirements of the suggested
segmentation. By marketing mix the company can identify that what type of the product is
customers would like to purchase as by analysing the psycho graphic behaviour in term of
customer's status and personality they can offer products accordingly. In geographic
segmentation, the company fulfil its customers demand by recognising their cultural and
preferences for the products. By marketing mix also beneficial for the company in term of the cost
benefits. Under this the company fix the product's price by considering their segmented group's
capability so that the customer become able to purchase their product. They identify the need of
the customers and provide different alternative so that the buyer can chosen best one (Zwain and
et. al., 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that the marketing assessment is very crucial for the
business ordinations as it help the business to aware them about their position in the market and
where they are lacking in the achievement of their goals. The STP analysis is an effective strategy
for the organisation as it hep the company to segment the market on the basis some factors such as
geographic, demographic and many more. By segment their market it become easy for them to
target their customers which may become very profitable for their business. The company
positioning themselves in the market as it meet all the demands and need f the customers. The
geographic and psycho graphic are very effective method of the market segmentations it help the
company to identify their customers specifically and provide goods and service according to the
customer's requirement. For every business organisation it is essential to understand the buyer
behaviour. Because it impact the organisational strategies. It outline a predictable map of the
buyer's decisions up until conversation. Hence, it is observed that to for an implements effective

marketing strategies efficiently, it is essential for the business to understand the buyers behaviour
as well as marketing assessment.

REFERENCES
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