Marketing Plan for Men's Shoes at Mark & Spencers - Suffolk University

This report provides a comprehensive marketing plan for Mark & Spencers men's shoes, addressing the underperformance of this product category. It begins with a description of M&S and its men's footwear line, followed by a competitive analysis using SWOT and PESTLE frameworks, comparing M&S to competitors like Tesco. The report examines the marketing mix (product, price, promotion, place) and offers recommendations for improvement. It also evaluates the brand's reputation and the impact of positioning strategies. The analysis includes insights into M&S's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors affecting the business. The report concludes with suggestions for enhancing the marketing strategy to improve sales and brand image.

MARKETING PLAN

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1.Giving brief description of the Mark and Spencers men category shoes.................................3
2.Exploring the competitive organizational environment with relevant model..........................4
SWOT analysis..................................................................................................................4
PESTLE analysis...............................................................................................................6
3.Examining the marketing-mix.................................................................................................7
Recommendation for improving strategies........................................................................8
4. Evaluating for enhance the brand reputation and brand image...............................................9
Analysing the impact of positing the brand.......................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing plan refers to the document which are layout marketing efforts that are made
by the company for an upcoming period or usually for the year. This is also outlined the
marketing strategy, advertisement activity and promotional activities for particular period of time
(Opresnik, 2018). The report is based on Mark and Spencers which is very well-known
organization of UK which offers many products in order to expand the product line. It covers the
area of worldwide for selling all kind of products which are related to the different categories
such as clothing, food and beverages, electronics, shoes etc. The report will explain about the
current performance of men shoes are not working properly, so it needs to change the marketing
plan in order to sell the product effectively. Moreover, explaining the Competitive analysis with
Tesco with the relevant framework of SWOT and PESTLE analysis. Further, examining the
marketing mix of the product by providing recommendation for it. Lastly, evaluating the
branding and reputation of the company's product in context to positing the brand.
MAIN BODY
1.Giving brief description of the Mark and Spencers men category shoes
M&S Shoes was founded in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England in 1884. There are 1,020 stores in
2010. All the product of M & S are sold at the stores because there are large number of stores are
there in UK as well as around the world. Also, they were using the slogan which is related to the
It is not compromise with the quality. It means they offers best quality, service and value
product, also the innovation is remained proposition. In context to its presence there are
formidable business which are trade in more than 30 countries with 300 stores in UK. M&S
brings for a wide range of men’s footwear, ranging from casuals to formals so you keep your
best foot forward, whatever the occasion (Sumarwan, 2019). The leather is so soft and the shoes
are very comfortable to wear. Mark and spencer are like, walk all day and they did not hurt and
they were like wearing a pair of slippers.

2.Exploring the competitive organizational environment with relevant model
SWOT analysis of Mark and spencer’s
It is a popular clothing and accessories brand that has headquartered in London. There are
various number of products are presence in a large number of categories which are related to the
casual wear, hosiery, party wear, footwear, eyewear etc. and it targets all the categories of , men,
women and children. Moreover, the organisation is divided into two operation which are
international and other one is UK. There are 300 stores are full line stores in the country and 220
are owned by others in which 320 are food stores that are very popular in UK. This retail chain is
firstly introduced by Michael Marks and Thomas Leeds in the year 1884. It generates more than
10.87-billion-pound revenue in the year 2018.
Strengths in the SWOT ANALYSIS in Mark and Spencer:-
Organisation has benefit for the local market that promotes all the stores all over the
world which are large in number and promotes home grown brand like, big tall, autograph,
Collezionme, Blue harbour in the men’s segment and limited collection, classic, Per Una, etc.
(Kuusela, E., 2019).
 There is example such as, service culture and effective sales that are focus on the
international market’s high-quality stuff, good corporate culture, strong service levels and
low staff turnover.
 The vital value of the organisation is related to affordability and quality of the services
which are under the attacked by competitors. The other retailers are burton and next
which are provides better fashionable and trendy design with the good value products.
This is helping the organisation to increase the product sales.
 The main focused of label business, clothing & home, food, bank etc. in UK as well as
internationally. The main objective is related to the transformation programme that is
restore the brand and the business, it is sustainable and delivers the long-term value with
the profitable growth with the investors and colleagues related to wider communities.
(Willan, M., 2021).
 Other strengths of the organisation are such as follows:
o Variety of products
o Famous Designer’s Brand

o Recognized Brand
o Well Experienced
o Multinational Company
Weakness of Mark and Spencer: -
o This is the biggest weakness of the M&S is suffered from the poor scalability of the
supply chain. It tries for offering the products at the global level to the merchandise and
online store where the supply chain is delivering all the location globally.
o There is such example of organisation such as inflexible staff structure, high staff
turnover, expertise, limited staff skills, mixed quality staff with no consideration of the
internal marketing. Also, service culture and no real sales, poor service and poor
corporate culture.
o These weaknesses are internal for the company that are controlled ands can be changed
according to the situation. It also included intellectual property and patent. Its does not
provide any issues and solution or any alternative. But it offers the ideas which in which
organisation will choose accordingly. (Nandonde, F.A., 2019).
 Some of the other weaknesses of the Marks & Spencer are as follows:-
 Declining Sales
 High Cost due to Manual Processes
 High Competition
 Perception of Public
Opportunities for M&S
o M&S has the opportunity for growing its business in the remote areas where
people are not able to get the product or goods or not available if the availability
of goods are reliable may charges higher prices.
o Like other organization cited firm need to introduce points that will allow
customers self-checkout to consume goods in any particular point of time.
Moreover, it helps in source of increasing sales.
o M&S need to merge with other brands so that it can expands its business on large
scale in future and avail various growth opportunities.
Threats for M&S

 The major threat is related to new Brexit reforms which may charges higher price of
the good due to shift the customer to other competitors in market (Bismark and Eric,
2018).
The other threat which is related to the intense competition related to grocery and
retail sector but in the men’s shoes the biggest threat is related to competition which
offers product at low price. That is why it decreases the revenue in long run.
PESTLE analysis of M&S
Political: This is the factor which is totally related to the instability of the country and it helps
for generating the proper opportunities and growth that are important for organization for better
understanding of the political stability and it helps to provide better option for the growth of
M&S. It also increases the tax rate thar are affecting the performance of an organization and
gives the ideas. It needs to identifying all the offer product related to the low are for increasing
the performance of the shoes department.
Economic: It deals with the factors which are related to inflation and it affect the
organization’s performance. Due to pandemic, there are already company bear heavy loss and
the brand image of the organization is affect in adverse manner. The financial performance of the
company is affected and it is not able to stand remain in the competition. Which are affected the
generated results. Also, most of the people re not spent money on the clothing and shoes while
pandemic because is not most essential product.
Social: There are different perception of people and society that are may affect in negative
manner. Through, men changed their thought, so M&S should also adopt the same and started
promote for meet the demand of the customers. So, it helps to increasing in the overall
performance of the shoes and that are remains in the competition as well. Further, it is the
important factors related to the retail product which is different from another country and it is the
culture issue where people have different choices. There are some factors that are related to level
of education consumers and their lifestyle (Sarker and Al Saeed, 2020).
Technological: The majority of the organization are uses advance digital technology in to
improve the marketing strategy as well as it also help to increases the productivity of the
products. Further, in retail organization there may be rapid change in the shoes so it paid
more money to spent. Similarly, the cited firm need to offer online services that helps to

create a positive impact and it also affected the range of people towards it. So, it helps to
generate effective results for a company as well.
Environment: It has been seen that all the products which are help in manufactured the
finished goods harm theenvironment but cited firm has the certified achievement in order to save
the environment by using proper resources. It also affected the environment so it has necessary to
adopt the technologies which are not harm the resources. Global environment issues such as
deforestation, afforestation and ozone depletion are seen that harm the animals (TADESSE,
2019).
Legal: All this factor deals with laws and regulations and while operating the business at
different location, there is a need to follow with all the laws for its smooth functioning. There are
different laws that are adopted in UK in order to regulate the retail with rules so that no one harm
for it. Thus, if M&S wants to operating in different location, then there is a need to affected with
effective laws and legislation like Equality Act, Unemployment Act etc.
3.Examining the marketing-mix
PRODUCT – Mark and Spencer are very popular and well-known brand of UK for retail
business it has covering wide variety of items considering all age group men, women and kid.
Also, it offers product for women which includes jeans, blazer, linen etc in footwear section they
are offering heels, sandals, loafers etc. For bag and accessories including jewelry, bags,
sunglasses, etc. For men sections, M&S offering large variety of product including footwear,
clothing, accessory. Also, the sale of footwear is not getting good response in UK as well as
online store that is why organization decided to work on footwear section of men (Ofori, 2021).
PRIZE – Mark and Spencer follow competitive pricing strategy for marketing mix for the
product portfolio. It has on brand house or clothing men, woman and kids. Generally, it has
offered medium to higher category product with premium quality also again strategy also
customer have more options for choosing the product with increase competition. Moreover, it
faces competition act online stores and with retailing stores such as Tesco, Xara, Sainsbury etc.
The pricing strategy for men’s footwear are not working well that is why organization decided to
choose other strategy for on the basis of various designs that can be attract consumer.
PROMOTION – The promotion strategy choosing by Mark and Spencer are related to
advertisement campaign and digital marketing for in store strategy also it emphasizes for
providing common message to on medium communication such a T.V, Print Media, Mobile and

Social Media campaign. Organization has it’s on website in order to promoting the brand, clothes
of men, woman and kids. There is favorable customer that are finding blogs and fashion kids on
their website (MELESE, 2018). The digital marketing and social sites are working well in order
to promotive the product the using online adds and attract customer by offering discount of
product.
PLACED- There are many stores in UK and more than 700 outlets are around the world
which including 250 convenience stores. Its sales product at online stores which has given good
response as compare to offline stores. M&S delivers the food items with the help of Ocado
services. Also, organization has the powerful network related to the suppliers with more than 600
in numbers. In addition to this, it has a good structure of placements with well structure of
channels of distribution. The organization operated the stores which are significantly got the
customer insight that enables for identifying the customer changing behaviour and market trends.
Recommendation for improving strategies
Establishing a cross department workflow- It is very important to improving the
marketing operation strategy which are need to establishing the workflow environment for rest of
the organisations.
Aligning all the consumer insight- According to the consumer insight this is very import
to attract them by offer them discount and also providing the reward services so that it can
increases the sales of men’s footwear.
Implementing new methodology for discovering the campaign work- According to existing
strategy the sales of the footwear are working wells so company should discover the new
methodology in order to attract the customer (Mamun, 2020).
Hire a strategic analyst- Organisation should hire strategic analyst in order to focused on
developed return on investments for measuring the marketing. Also, it helps to tracking at the
places where marketing activities are aligned.
4. Evaluating for enhance the brand reputation and brand image
Research for branding is focused on the consumer goods market also it has been seen that
in recent all the attention for business market is given to brand image only. Brand images of

Mark and Spencers are already good in the market and it also influences the consumer in order to
increase the sales. Reputation of the company are depended on the perception of consumer also it
can be different for each person in order to change according to customer loyalty and service
quality. By evaluating such strategies which are needed for the enhancing the brand reputation of
the organizational are as follows-
Strong online presence- This is one of the most important factors that can enhance the
brand image of the organization because SEO (search engine optimization) has a great presence
that can help to improve the ranking of the organization also, website of the company shows
good research with the help of searching keywords. Customer can search on the basis of
keywords such as clothing, premium quality, men shoe etc.
Respond to comment and reviews- There are so many people who are like give their
opinion about the brand after purchasing or getting information about the brand. For chosen
organization there are large number of people who are like share their opinion in order to provide
best experience. It is important to respond the reviews of the customer because when they get
respond they feel engaged with the organization and it creates the positive vibes (Ozanne, 2021).
Act on feedback- Customer feedback are given the information about what they feel
about the product which have been using by them. There are so many people who are likely to
give positive or negative feedback but organization should have taken it in the positive way. It
increases the brand reputation of the company in order to increase the customer.
Increases customer loyalty- Satisfied customer are help to generate the momentum or
excitement in order to defend the brand reputation of the company. Brand loyalty gives the best
customer experience of the employee culture. By using social media and share the post and
stories with Instagram and Facebook are enhancing the brand reputation of the company.
Analysing the impact of positing the brand
The impact of brand positioning on the company is need to differentiate itself from the
other competitors. This helps to increasing the brand value and awareness, justify the pricing
strategy and communicating with the value of organization, these all the factors are impacting
the bottom line of the company. There are some steps which are help to identify the brand's
position as follows:

 By analysing the current brand position of the company by targeting the target audience
which men and increase the sales of men's shoes.
 Identifying the competitors of the organization with the help of customer feedback, social
media and market research, for M&S competitors are Tesco, which can attract more
customer by offering discount and rewards.
 Position of the competitors are help to identify the brand image of the company's product.
 To set the strategies which can be enhanced the position of the company and make the
company unique.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that Marketing plan is a document that identified all the factors
which are help to improve the position of the company. The report is discussed on the basis of
product line of mark & Spencers which needs to improve the product line for men category
shoes. The study covered about the brief discussion of the product and explored about the
internal and external factors of the organization by using relevant model of SWOT and PESTLE
analysis. Also, identified the marketing mix of the chosen product line by applying 4P's
framework. Moreover, suggested the recommendation that can improve the marketing-mix of the
organization. Further, evaluated the strategies that can improve the brand image of the company
as well as also analysed the positioning of the brand that can be influenced the positioning of the
organisation.

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