Global Strategic Management: A Detailed Analysis of Marks & Spencer

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Marks & Spencer's global strategic management, examining the company's existing business strategies, including differentiation and skimming pricing, and evaluating their pros and cons. It delves into the internal and external environmental factors using SWOT and PESTEL analyses, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report offers recommendations for enhancing the company's global market presence, such as introducing traditional wear and improving return policies. It also addresses contemporary issues and suggests strategic improvements to ensure Marks & Spencer's continued success in the competitive retail landscape. Desklib provides access to this and many more solved assignments for students.

Global Strategic Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
About company............................................................................................................................3
Existing business strategy of Marks & Spencer..........................................................................3
Pros and cons of current strategy of marks and Spenser.............................................................5
Internal environmental analysis...................................................................................................6
External environmental analysis..................................................................................................7
Recommendation: .......................................................................................................................8
Different levels of Strategies ......................................................................................................9
Contemporary Issue of Marks and Spencer...............................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Global Strategic management refers to the approach of the business in order to get the
company recognized globally. Activities included in the global strategic management enable
business to increase the boundaries on competitive opportunities worldwide. Many companies
are recognized worldwide, Marks and Spencer is one of them. The Global Strategic management
of Marks and Spencer helped the business to expand its market globally. This report will analyse
the strategies on the basis of internal and external environment of the company along with the
advantages and disadvantages. This report will also discuss the improvements in their strategies
to make Marks and Spencer more successful in the market. Contemporary issues and
recommendation will also be given to the company in the following report.
MAIN BODY
About company
Marks & Spencer, one of the leading company in UK. The company deals within retailers and
trades in various markets such as clothing, food, homeware etc. The company have values of
quality, innovation, services and brand images. Mission of the company is to approach everyone
with best quality and affordable products. On talking about the external environmental factors,
Mark & Spencer' s business strategy have various effects on the portfolio of company..
Existing business strategy of Marks & Spencer
The company analyse the frame work with various strategy for the sustainability within
the industry such as skimming pricing strategy, differentiate strategy, Skimming pricing strategy.
These fundamental helps the company to sustain its position in competitive market as well as to
achieve its objectives and goals (Tascioglu and et.al., 2019).
Differentiate strategy: For the Mark & Spencer, their products are available in the wide
range as for the all age groups to man, woman and kids. The company offers all products
including clothes, footwear, jewellery, sunglasses etc. In the homeware category, company
provides home accessories, all sort of furnitures. In the food and wine section, company offers
complete menu including main course, starters etc. The different as well as the diverse product
range attract the customers as on the store of the mark & Spencer, everything of customer need
available under the roof of store.
Skimming Pricing strategy: Mark & Spencers uses the skimming pricing strategy for
the product portfolio. Generally the company sells its in house product, and they are priced in

between medium to higher because the products are of premium quality. As the power of
customer is high in UK and customers have many of the options to choose among them,
company faces a huge competition from offline as well as the online retailers (Kurnianto and et.
al., 2019). Mark & Spencer follows the dynamic strategy in pricing so that when prices are
gradually lower over the time, customers tends to attract towards the company Mark and
Spencer.
Digital platform strategy: The company has numerous store in the local as well as in the
international market. Now the company is planning to enhance the market online or digitally as
well. For the promotion purpose, company is focusing upon the advertisement campaign to
explore as well as expand its market digitally. The company utilizes its own website as well as
the social media platform for the promotion purpose, post blogs and fashion tips as well. The
company prefers to the seasonal sales to the customers and runs special programs. They offer
reward points to the customer.
Pros and cons of current strategy of marks and Spenser
Strategies refers to the simple plans or methods to attain a particular goal over a period of
time. They are the skills which are required to carry out actions to achieve an objective (Parola,
and et.al., 2018). Marks and Spenser have adopted various strategies to sustain its position and
market share in the competitive industry as well as to achieve its goals. The company uses
competitive market strategy for its product portfolio, advertisement and digital marketing for
promotional strategies and customer special programs such rewards points etc. Every strategy
have distinct advantages and disadvantages. In the case of Marks and Spencer the pros and cons
of its exiting strategies are as follows:
Pros of existing strategies
The various benefits offered by existing strategies of Marks and Spenser are as follows:
Higher profits: Through the existing strategies, the company offers a range of products to the
customers. It products a unique experience to customers which leads to higher customer
satisfaction (Swinney, 2019). This ultimately generates more profit streams for the company
leading to higher profit margins. Competitive product portfolio: The company offers numerous products under all its
product heads. It provides products at better quality with a range of options. This makes it
product product portfolio more unique and competitive as compared to the competitors.

 Customer retention and loyalty: The company offers unique customer experience and
various customer special programs such as discounts, coupons and seasonal sales. It
keeps the loyal customers of the company remain intact with the company. Competitive advantage: The company has managed to create competitive advantage in
the market due to its marketing and other strategies. This helps the company to gain a
competitive edge over the competitors and grab more market share in the industry. This
also helps the company to be one of the leading company companies in the market (M&S
strategy to sell rival brands marks the end of an era, 2021).
 Enhanced market shares: The strategies of the company attracts more customers and
create products which are highly competitive in the market. It helps the company in
grabbing more share of the market through tapping more customer bases.
Cons of existing strategies
Apart from the benefits, the strategies have some limitations which becomes cons for the
company and can affect adversely to the company. They are as follows:
Market fluctuations: The market experience high fluctuations and instability. The existing
strategies becomes non-useful in coping up with the market dynamics that easily. Political
instability is also a threat to the company as when the political environment changes, the existing
strategies may become unable to handle the changes (M&S supermarket strategy: Retailer shifts
focus from fashion to food, 2019).
Constant changes in demands and trends: The customers are constantly looking for unique and
innovative products which can fulfil their demands. Their taste and preferences change over
time. The existing strategies can be unreliable in forecasting upcoming trends.
Intense competition: There is intense competition in the market. It makes difficult for the
companies to retain its loyal customers within the company. The existing strategies cannot help
the company to remain competitive in the longer run.
Internal environmental analysis
 Strengths : The main strength of the Mark & Spencers are brand image and private
labels of the company as the company is providing modern as well as stylist quality
products to the customers. Brand Moreover, Innovation in products, diversity within the
services and multichannel presence of the company are the main strengths of Mark &
Spencers.

 Weaknesses: Mark & Spencers have few of the weaknesses in the area of business such
as the company is unable to penetrate successfully within the global markets because of
their maximum western design collection within the stores. Issues related to return
policies and in-store experience are the weakness factors that can be listed with the
scalability of the supply chain of the company (GURL, 2017).
 Opportunities at the company: In the opportunity section, more involvement of the
traditional wear within the company collection can be added. In Asia, huge demand of the
ethnic as well as the traditional wear are the biggest promises to the Mark & Spencers for
their global success.
 Threats of the company: Lots of retailers are present in the global market so
competition among these retailers is the biggest threat to Mark & Spencers. The
competition have few basic factors in the term of customer approaches such as low price,
premium quality, brand products, better customer services etc (Vlados, 2019). Threat of
new entrant for the Mark & Spencer is low but with the existing competition there is a
big factor of product substitution exist and that can hamper the business of company
sometime.
External environmental analysis
PESTEL analysis refers to the analysis of external environment factors that affect the
business. It include Political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal factors. Political factors: Political factors refers to the governmental policies and regulations that
have positive or negative effect on the growth of the business. Free trade policies have
been positive factor to the company buy after Brexit company is facing issue regards to
political factors in international trade (Choudhary and Piparo, 2020). Company had
benefit of free trade in the Europe. UK leaving the EU was a major political factor that
affect the marks and Spencer. Trading in stable political country may be the advantage to
the company. Economical Factors: A rise in the inflation rate in a particular economy that affects the
business comes under economic factors. It includes inflation rate, foreign exchange rates,
interest rates etc. This factor of PESTAL has a major role in the growth of the business.
As economy of the country develops, the business rise. Prize always have been the majot

factor in the retail industries. Emerging of new budgetary stores in the United Kingdom
lead to the fall in sale of Marks and Spencer. Social Factors: Social factors includes cultures, trends, demographic and population
analysis. Affect of these factors on the business are known as social factors. The
company has been affected by the social factors in terms of trends. Many trendy
companies are there in the market now days that Marks and Spencer have become slow in
trends. Although, increase in the population has always been a positive factor of the
social environment towards the organisation. Technological Factor: Technological factors refers to the innovations in the
technologies. Marks and Spencer has benefit of increase in the use of digital technologies
among the people. It helps the comp[any to reach the customer easily. The use of
technological factors in the company and providing inline services to the customers is
also proved as a great opportunity to the business of Marks and Spencer. Environmental Factors: changes in the environments such as seasonal changes, tourism
and agriculture that affect the growth of the business are called as Environmental factors.
Marks and Spencer is known as a luxury brand in order to maintain the image of the
company, steps have been taken by Marks and Spencer such as sustainable production
and fair trade (Matovic, 2020). Sustainable production refers to the utilization of natural
and healthy resources in the manufacturing process. Marks and Spencer's decision to sell
fair trade products also has environmental benefits.
 Legal Factors: It refers to the factor such as legal policies and laws of government and
rules and regulation of the company that affect the business. Marks and Spencer has very
effective strategy related to the legal factors. Company always keep the rules that are
beneficial to the organizational development. All the task of the Marks and Spencer are
done under the boundaries of legal laws of the country.
Recommendation:
 New segment of traditional as well as the ethnic wear can be added to the clothing
collection of the company for the better growth in Asian market. Company should come
over the weakness of demanding product availability to increase their approach to the
global market as with the different company, product demand also varies. To fulfil the

complete customer demand or to follow the customer trend, company should implement
the unique solution top their business practices (George, 2020).
 Return policies of the store can be improved. The customer services of the company are
very poor and customer faces lots of issue because of the problems. This results in the
poor brand image of the company so the company should improve the return policies as
well as customer services so that the brand switching can be stopped or reduce (Dal Mas
and et. al., 2021).
 In-store experience can be increased by implement better services as well as the design
infrastructure within the store (Halim and Halim, 2019). Many of the offers can be
provided to the customers so tht the customers can get attracted towards the store visit
and by improvement in the services the in-store experience can be implemented.
 Supply chain scale can be broadened up to enhance the approach of company towards the
customer. To increase the supply chain, company should offer the global access of their
merchandise through the online store of the company over the globe. However, trying out
Artificial intelligence in the online supply chain also can increase the scale of the
approach towards the customers.
 Company should resort the sale in end of season to sell the old stock. The cost-cutting
strategies have benefits towards the sales of the company. To clear the dead stock,
frequent sales can be the best way to sell off these merchandise of the Mark & Spencers.
 Inventory solutions should be added to the online marketing of the company. Proper and
efficient marketing strategies as well as the promotion can be done to improve the sales
of the products. By implementing innovation within the online marketing can boom up
the sales and approach of Mark & Spencers.
 Company should focus more upon styles at the place of fashion as the fashion in the
market is temporary in the nature but the trend last longer among the demand of the
customers.
 Company should more focus upon the equality rather than the price, as the Mark &
Spencer are more tempting to cut the prices and many of time it leads the company in the
quality stand out.
 Mark & Spencers should go to the strategy of 'Get it, online' or the 'click and collect the
right' to attract more youth towards the services. This can also help the company to keep

the existing customers happy. The company needs to offer the delivery free to less
charged.
Different levels of Strategies
Strategies are used at different level to meet the different organizational goals. Following
are the different level of approaches implied by Marks and Spencer. Business level Strategy: Marks and Spencer used horizontal and vertical integration. In
horizontal integration include sell of product either food or luxury clothing to different
manufactures. In vertical integration strategy, the firm deals substantial with product
form single supplier and Marks and Spencer gets the exclusive rights to deal with the
product. Functional level Strategy: High price goods and services is used by the company to
attract the customers that are willing to pay more for the premium products. People who
prefer good quality of product and services are targeted by the company.
 Corporate level Strategy: Plan A launched by the company to meet the social
responsibility of the company. This corporate strategy of Marks and Spencer were action
towards reducing waste, use of sustainable raw materials (Calnan, 2020).
Contemporary Issue of Marks and Spencer
Contemporary Issues can be defined as the current problems that are being faced by the
company, people or government (Kauffman and et.al., 2017). Marks and Spencer is having
contemporary issues in different field and task. Major problems are being faced by the Marks
and Spencer are as follows: Supply Chain: Business level of strategies by the marks and Spencer has many
contemporary issues Issue. Supply chain of the company is affecting the business.
Company faced 5.5 per cent fall in the sale of clothing and home during the first half of
its financial year due to the poor supply chain strategy. (Mooney M., 2019). Marks and
Spencer has been doing very poor lately due to the issue of supply chain in the market.
Poor supply chain lead to the decrease in the sale of the company. Now company had
adopted the beyond auditing approach in order to increase the efficiency in the current
supply chain management.
 Trends: Marks and Spencer functional strategy for market target is poor as the customer
between age of 35-55 are targeted by the company. This lead to the failure in the market

of trends. Recently, company is not meeting the trends. The majority of clothing
customers are teenagers and minimalism. Company does not have enough variety for
these generations in the stores. Other stores in the market are growing very fast by
meeting the needs and desire if the customer. People are more likely to buy from a retail
store which has more variety of products. Customers of the Marks and Spencer are not
fully satisfied. As they are not having variety in the stores. Around 36500 of existing
customers has visited the Marks and Spencer website for the first time (Expert Blog:
Marks & Spencer facing trading challenges before, during and after COVID-19. 2020).
Conclusion
From the above study, this report focuses upon the existing strategies and ideologies of
the company Mark & Spencers. It can be concluded as each organization have their own
practices and strategies within the external as well as in the internal environment, but to
overcome the weaknesses and threats they should adopt few more innovative as well as the
effective solutions. The critical analysis of the present strategies of the company have been done
to understand the sustainability of the company within the industry in the terms of pros and cons.
However, the recommendation are also added in the theory that can help the company to
overcome its weaknesses and for the better performance of the organization.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Choudhary, B. and Piparo, T. L., 2020. Case Study–Strategy 2020 for M&S.
Dal Mas, F. and et. al., 2021., Corporate social responsibility in the retail business: A case
study. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management.
GURL, E., 2017., SWOT analysis: A theoretical review.
Halim, K. K. and Halim, S., 2019., Business Intelligence for Designing Restaurant Marketing
Strategy: A Case Study. Procedia Computer Science. 161. pp.615-622.
Kauffman, J. M., and et.al., 2017. Contemporary issues. In Handbook of special education (pp.
16-28). Routledge.
Kurnianto, A. M. And et. al., 2019., Marketing Strategy on the Project Planning of Retail
Business for Garage Shop. International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious
Understanding. 6(1). pp.217-228.
Matovic, I. M., 2020. PESTEL Analysis of External Environment as a Success Factor of Startup
Business. ConScienS, p.96.
Parola, F. and et.al., 2018. Marketing strategies of Port Authorities: A multi-dimensional
theorisation. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 111 pp.199-212.
Swinney, J.H., 2019. Marks and Spencer Made Me. Postcolonial Text. 14(3 & 4).
Tascioglu, M. and et.al., 2019., The impact of retailers’ sustainability and price on consumers’
responses in different cultural contexts. The International Review of Retail, Distribution
and Consumer Research. 29(4). pp.430-455.
Vlados, C., 2019., On a correlative and evolutionary SWOT analysis. Journal of Strategy and
Management.
Online references
Calnan, M., 2020. M&S to relaunch its 'Plan A' sustainability programme. [Online]. Available
through <https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/marks-and-spencer/mands-to-relaunch-its-plan-a-
sustainability-programme/651342.article>
Expert Blog: Marks & Spencer facing trading challenges before, during and after COVID-19.
2020. [Online]. Available through <https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/news/news-
articles/2020/06/expert-blog-marks-and-spencer-facing-trading-challenges-before-
during-and-after-covid-19>
George A.,2020., [Online]. Available through <https://readessay.com/marks-and-spencer-case-
study/>
M&S strategy to sell rival brands marks the end of an era. 2021. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.marketingweek.com/ms-strategy-rival-brands/>. [Assessed on 14 October
2021]
M&S supermarket strategy: Retailer shifts focus from fashion to food. 2019. [Online]. Available
through <https://www.retail-insight-network.com/news/ms-supermarket-strategy-fashion-
food/>. [Assessed on 14 October 2021]
Marks and Spencer Blames Brexit as it closes stores in France, 2021. [Online]. Available
through <https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/16/business/marks-and-spencer-france/
index.html>
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Mooney, M., 2019. Marks and Spencer cites supply chain issues as sales drops. [Online].
Available through <https://www.logisticsmanager.com/marks-and-spencer-cites-supply-
chain-issues-as-sales-drop/>
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