Market Communication Plan for Marks and Spencer: A Report

This report details a comprehensive market communication plan developed for Marks and Spencer (M&S), a British multinational retail company, focusing on launching a new brand targeting students. The report begins with an executive summary and introduction, followed by an analysis of the 'big idea' – creating gaming software to engage students. It then delves into product-service research and development, target audience research and analysis, including brand audit and SWOT analysis. The report outlines creative strategies, marketing mix proposals, and media and production plans. A budget plan and evaluation proposals are also included, along with a personal reflection on individual roles and team performance. The report concludes with a summary of the findings, emphasizing the importance of market communication in conveying messages to the target audience and driving customer engagement. The plan incorporates various marketing tools and strategies to effectively position the new brand in the market, ensuring alignment with the needs of the target audience.

REPORT

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
THE BIG IDEA..........................................................................................................................3
PRODUCT-SERVICE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT..................................................4
TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS...........................................................4
CREATIVE STRATEGY AND PROPOSALS..........................................................................6
MARKETING MIX PROPOSALS............................................................................................6
MEDIA PLAN............................................................................................................................7
PRODUCTION PLAN...............................................................................................................7
BUDGET PLAN.........................................................................................................................7
EVALUATION PROPOSALS...................................................................................................8
INDIVIDUAL ROLE AND PERSONAL REFLECTION.........................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report involves the market communication plan which is prepared for Marks and
Spencer. The company is planning to launch gaming technology for the students which will
increase the target audience of the business. The organisation is currently focusing on
formulation of plan which helps in introducing a new brand in the market. The company has
used various researches in order to analyse the needs and demands of the customer's. Various
plans like production plan, budget plan and evaluation plan have also been made in order to
formulate a proper plan for the new brand. Both the micro and macro environment of the
business are also analysed for effective planning and proper implementation of plans. The report
has also included a personal reflection which will focus on effectiveness of team plan and
performance and also analyses my performance in the plan.
INTRODUCTION
Market communication can be defined as a system where marketers use to communicate
their messages and ideas to the target customers. It builds a connection between the company and
the audience. It helps the business in providing useful information regarding the products and
services in the market. This report will be on Marks and Spencer, which is a British multinational
company which deals in retail business. The company was founded by Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer in the year 1884. A marketing communication plan will be discussed in the
report (Lazarević-Moravčević, and et. Al, 2021). The report also includes a reflection on
personal objectives for achieving the targets and goals.
MAIN BODY
THE BIG IDEA
Marks and Spencer wants to launch a new brand in the market in order to cater the needs of
students. The idea is to prepare a gaming software which will make the student relate with the
business. The company is preparing various policies to properly implement its idea. Launching
this brand in the market will give company an competitive advantage which will help in
strengthening its position in the industry (Szydlowska, 2020).

PRODUCT-SERVICE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Market research helps the company in maintaining a customer centric approach. Marks and
Spencer used various methods in conducting the research such as market surveys, field trails and
focus groups. The aim of the research was to find out the needs and requirements of the markets
for launching the new product. It was observed that there is a huge demand of technological
innovations in the market. This analysis will help in preparing the essential policies of the
company (Mooi, Sarstedt, And Mooi-Reci, 2018).
TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
BRAND
A particular product manufactured by a particular company. A brand is basically a
business concept which assists people in identifying a company or a product. brand is the image
of company in consumers mind. Some of the function of the brand are :-
 Promoting
 Distinctiveness
 Consumer protection
 Consumer loyalty
 Protection of goods.
A brand comprises of name, logo, design, style, theme colour, tag-line etc. (Keller, and
Brexendorf, 2019).
BRAND AUDIT
Brand audit is basically a check up which analyses the position of the company in the
market. It is a study about brands strengths and weak points and how they can strengthen up it
more . Brand audit should cover up three areas which are external branding, internal branding,
and customer experience. The main purpose of the brand audit is analysing the weak areas in the
company and whether the efforts giving am effective outcome or not (Brandão, Sousa, and
Rodrigues, 2020).
4 P's of Marketing:

 Product – The garments products of Marks and Spencer are known for their best quality,
style, variation, and reliability. Sine the establishment of the company , Marks and
Spencer has never compromised with quality in each and every product which resulted
them in the loyal customers across the world.
 Price – The pricing scheme of the Marks and Spencer's garment products goes from low
to high. They have reasonable products as well as costly products too. But majority of
their products have premium prices who's target audience is only the upper class
consumers.
 Place – There are more then 600 retail stores across the UK of Marks and Spencer and
they also have a good international presence. So the products of M&S are easily available
in the cities of UK as well as in other countries too. Also they have online shopping
websites for the customers (Thabit, And Raewf, 2018).
 Promotion – The process of promoting the products of Marks and Spencer is done
through various mediums like TV advertising, promoting on social media platforms,
newspapers, magazine, broacher, flyers and many more. Sometimes consumers also
become the channel of promotion. The satisfied customers always suggest the brand to
other people which is beneficial for M&S.
SWOT ANALYSIS
 Strengths – Marks and Spencer is in the marketplace from about 136 years. The
company is one of the leading retailers in UK. The company first begun their business
with penny bazaar and kirk-gate market. The company did many big collaborations and
partnerships with big firms across the world for so many years. The experience they got
is their strong point.
 Weakness – In the end of the year 2019, the sales of several stores was falling down
because of their poor supply chain and non availability of the products. This repeated
again during 2017 Christmas season. The company was not successful in meeting the
demand of the food and clothing.
 Opportunities – As M&S is a multinational retailer which have stores in many countries
like India, Russia, Brazil and many more but now the company should expand and
diversify themselves in those countries (Benzaghta, and et. Al, 2021).

 Threats – There is cut throat competition in the retail market of UK, some of the big
competitors are Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons and many more. The company should
change their strategies.
CREATIVE STRATEGY AND PROPOSALS
Marketing communication plan is a policy which is used by the organisation's to inform
the target audience about the goods and services. Every plan involves variety of steps such as
identification of target customers, preparing a effective policy for successful achievement of
goals and the methods to evaluate the performance. The objectives of the campaign is to launch a
new brand in the market and evaluate various aspects like target audience, response rate of the
customers and time period of the plan (Juska, 2021).
The rational approach highlights the benefits and tries to convince the customers to buy the
products and services from the organisation. The emotional marketing focuses on the needs,
desires and expectations of the consumers in order to provide that products which are in great
demand (Rėklaitis, And Pilelienė, 2019).
MARKETING MIX PROPOSALS
The marketing mix is a process which revolves around four factors which are product,
price, place and promotion. These are discussed below:
 Product: It is the good or service which is offered by the businesses to their customer's.
It is considered the most important factor for a organisation (Išoraitė, 2020).
 Price: It is the rate at which the product is offered to the customer's. It is basically the
cost of the product.
 Place: It is the market in which the business sell its products and also involves the
distribution channels.
 Promotion: It can be defined as the advertising practises which are followed by the
business in order to spread awareness regarding the product.
Marks and Spencer has used promotion and product in its marketing communication
plan. The company will focus on increasing the awareness regarding the launch of new brand
and also establish the product in the market (Candelo, 2019).

MEDIA PLAN
Media planning is basically a procedure through which the marketers identify how, when
and where the audience is given the chosen advertising message. Media planners helps in
analysing the advertisements and strategize the appropriate way to communicate it to the
audience. The main purpose of media planning is to figure out the ideal combination of the
media outlets for marketing a product, service and brand. It also helps in building relationships,
raising awareness which result in improving the revenues of the company. Marks and Spencer is
using various channels like newspapers, TV, websites and radio stations. All these media
channels will be helpful in reaching a wide range of customer's in the market (Opresnik, 2018).
PRODUCTION PLAN
It is a plan which is created in order to control the production of the business. This helps
in controlling the working of the operations of the company. The production planner of Marks
and Spencer performs various responsibilities such as evaluating the purchase order, estimating
the amount of raw material required, addressing the issues regarding the production and
coordinating the operations in accordance to the availability of resources (Rewers, and et. Al,
2018).
BUDGET PLAN
A marketing budget helps in analysing whether the business is staying on target in regard
to estimate cost and actual cost of operations. The managers of Marks and Spencer help the
company in estimating the budget and analysing the financial position of the business. The
marketing communication budget takes into account several factors such as measure the
expenditure, method of promotion used and other various activities. The plan will require a huge
amount of investment as it is meeting all the aspects of the communication. Marks and Spencer
should properly analyse the all the relevant factors which are essential in making a budget plan
(Patil, 2019).

EVALUATION PROPOSALS
Evaluation plays a very crucial role in the successful implementation of plan. It helps the
company in assessing the target audience and identifies the areas on which more attention is
required. Marks and Spencer is analysing various key performance indicators like number of new
customer's acquired and cost per customer/acquisition. The company is also using the response
rates and brand awareness measures to measure the effectiveness of the plan.
INDIVIDUAL ROLE AND PERSONAL REFLECTION
In the marketing team, I played the role of a manager and director. I used to manage my
team, assign duties to different members of the team, guide and instruct them to achieve the goal
of launching a new brand to fulfil the needs of students. My marketing plan was to launch
something for the students audience to attract them towards marks and Spencer. Being a manager
I had the authority of taking the major decisions. But somewhere my role also affected the
decisions, as I have to listen to other’s opinions, ideas and suggestions and then only I was able
to choose the best alternative. I have worked on my leadership skills, as I have to manage many
people. It is necessary to have good relations With other team members to make the work done
smoothly and effectively. Me and my team operated so well, everybody was cooperative and
gave their best in the tasks assigned to them. As i had the good relations with my team members
so it was easy to work with them and accomplishing the target. From marketing communication
planning I have learnt that it is necessary to target good audience who are willing to buy the
product (Patton, 2018).

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been concluded that when a marketer communicate
their ideas and messages to the targeted audience that is basically known as market
communication. Marks and Spencer wanted to launch a new brand for fulfilling the needs of the
students and Market research helped the company in maintaining a customer centric approach.
Market communication has been used by the company to make the people aware about their
products and services in the market. This policy has helped in convincing the customers to buy
the product and services. And many other plans have been used by the company like production
plan, media plan, and budget plan.Evaluation is must for the organisation for the successful
implementation of plan.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Lazarević-Moravčević, and et. Al, 2021, July. Characteristics of Market Communication in
Modern Business. In International Scientific Conference Strategic Management and
Decision Support Systems in Strategic Management (pp. 142-149).
Szydlowska, 2020. The future business strategy of Marks and Spencer. GRIN Verlag.
Mooi, Sarstedt, And Mooi-Reci, 2018. Market research. The process, data, and methods using
stata.
Keller, and Brexendorf, 2019. Measuring brand equity. HandbuchMarkenführung, pp.1409-
1439.
Brandão, Sousa, and Rodrigues,2020. A dynamic approach to brand portfolio audit and brand
architecture strategy. European Business Review.
Thabit, And Raewf, 2018. The evaluation of marketing mix elements: A case study. International
Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 4(4).
Benzaghta, and et. Al, 2021. SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature review.
Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), pp.55-73.
Juska,2021. Integrated marketing communication: advertising and promotion in a digital world.
Routledge.
Rėklaitis, And Pilelienė, 2019. Principle differences between B2B and B2C marketing
communication processes. OrganizacijøVadyba: SisteminiaiTyrimai, (81), pp.73-86.
Išoraitė, 2020. Marketing mix features. Ecoforum Journal, 9(1).
Candelo, 2019. Marketing Progress: A Never-Ending Story. In Marketing Innovations in the
Automotive Industry (pp. 67-78). Springer, Cham.
Opresnik, 2018, July. Effective Social Media Marketing Planning–How to Develop a Digital
Marketing Plan. In International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media (pp.
333-341). Springer, Cham.
Rewers, and et. Al, 2018. A study of priority rules for a levelled production plan. In Advances in
Manufacturing (pp. 111-120). Springer, Cham.
Patil, 2019. How to plan and write a budget for research grant proposal?. Journal of Ayurveda
and Integrative Medicine, 10(2), pp.139-142.
Patton, 2018. Evaluation science. American Journal of Evaluation, 39(2), pp.183-200.