Market Launch Plan: M&S Big & Tall Leather Lace-up Boat Shoes in India

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Launching An Existing Product To A New Market
The Case of M&S “Big & Tall Leather Lace-up Boat
Shoes” Launch In India

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................2
COMPANY OVERVIEW..............................................................................................2
P1&M1........................................................................................................................ 3
COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN..........................................3
A) AIMS AND OBJECTIVES...................................................................................3
P2&M1........................................................................................................................ 4
COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN..........................................4
B) PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN......................................................................4
P3&M1........................................................................................................................ 7
COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN..........................................7
C) WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE, GANTT CHART, MILESTONE
SCHEDULE AND PROJECT SCHEDULE..............................................................7
P4..............................................................................................................................11
A) LITERATURE REVIEW.....................................................................................11
B) SMALL SCALE RESEARCH.............................................................................16
B.1) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..................................................................16
B.1.1) RESEARCH APPROACH.......................................................................16
B.1.2) DATA COLLECTION TOOLS..................................................................16
B.1.3) QUESTIONNAIRE...................................................................................17
M2............................................................................................................................. 18
THE RELIABILITY AND ACCURACY OF APPLIED RESEARCH METHODS......18
P5..............................................................................................................................19
DATA ANALYSIS.................................................................................................. 19
A) FREQUENCY TABLE....................................................................................19
B) ANALYSIS OF THE QUANTITATIVE DATA.................................................19
C) CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................24
P6&M3...................................................................................................................... 26
RECOMMENDATION AND JUSTIFICATION.......................................................26
P7 & M4.................................................................................................................... 27
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................28
APPENDICES...........................................................................................................30
A: PROJECT LOGBOOK.......................................................................................30
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2

INTRODUCTION
Footwear is a necessity that offers protection and support to the feet from the
different surfaces that are walked upon be it sharp, jagged or coarse (Verdu et al.,
2012). Footwear has been a necessity from the time it was founded and came in use
and it remained true for generations. However, nowadays having a collection of
footwear has become a matter of convenience, prestige and fashion. This may be
due to the availability of a variety of footwear types such as casual, athletic, and
formal that is available in a plethora of designs, sizes, styles and shapes. From a
commercial point of view, the global footwear industry has become a multi-billion
dollar business in spite of being a part of being the apparel and clothing industry.
The footwear market consists of a variety of footwear such as sporting shoes, formal
shoes, athletic footwear’s, sneakers, etc. (Verdu et al., 2012).
The Big & Tall Leather Lace-up Boat Shoe range of M&S has been a success in the
UK market. The project focuses on planning its launch in the Indian market. The
choice of the Indian market is due to the potential presented by the Indian market in
terms of men’s footwear. The Men’s Footwear with a share of 58% of Indian
footwear retail market and a potential growth of 10% CAGR presents an ideal
opportunity for M&S Footwear range (The Economic Times, 2017). The company
already has a presence in the Indian Retail market and has a reputation for
supplying quality goods.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
M&S or the Marks & Spencer Group Plc is a UK based multinational Retailer. Its
product range includes high-quality apparels and clothing, food products, and Home
products. The company has its headquarters in London and it operates from over
1400 stores at 57 countries with over 900 stores in the UK (Marks and Spencer,
2019). M&S operates in India through a joint venture with Reliance Retail which is a
subsidiary of the largest Indian Private Sector company. The M&S and Reliance
retail JV has over 77 stores across India and strong online presence through various
online retailers (Corporate M&S, 2019).
3

P1&M1
COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
A project requires adequate resources and a collection of skill to successfully
achieve the desired objectives within a given time frame (Burke, 2013). The current
project will focus on the successful launch of M&S “Big & Tall Leather Lace-up Boat
Shoes” range in India in a launching ceremony to be held in 8 Weeks times. It will
involve testing the market to devise suitable marketing and promotion strategy as
well as provide inputs regarding the pricing strategy.
A) AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The Project Aim will be as follows
“To launch successfully the Big & Tall Leather Lace-up Boat Shoe range in Mumbai,
India on September 29, 2019”
The following will be the project objectives to achieve the above-stated project aim
1) To determine the brand awareness of the M&S brand in the Indian Market
2) To conduct market research to understand the Indian footwear market and the
customer requirements
3) To support the marketing function in devising suitable marketing campaign by
supply the conclusions and recommendations from the small scale research
4) To coordinate with an event management agency for monitoring the
preparation of the launch event scheduled on September 29, 2019.
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P2&M1
COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
B) PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT
PROJECT SCOPE
The Scope of a project can be defined as the section of a project plan that focuses
on determining, compiling and documenting various project aspects including
projects goals, timeframes, deliverables, functions, etc. (Burke, 2013). It provides
the project manager with the boundaries and limits of the project while defining his
responsibilities (Burke, 2013). The aim of the current project is launching an M&S
Shoe brand range in the Indian Footwear Market successfully. The project can be
segregated into different tasks that will include conducting a small scale market
research focused on exploring brand awareness of M&S, the state of Indian
Footwear market, and the competitive atmosphere in the luxury segment;
coordinating and supporting relevant organisational functions to ensure effective
promotion and preparation of the launch event; and providing inputs to relevant
functions like marketing to ensure the success of the product launch. .
PROJECT COST
This includes the cost associated with implementing and concluding the project. It
provides an estimate of the expenses that may be incurred for completing the project
tasks like the small scale research (Burke, 2013). The cost of the current project will
involve the cost of conducting the research, man-hours spent on implementing and
concluding the project, and resources utilised for the project purposes. The
estimated cost of the current project is £1500 out of which the majority of the
expenses are expected on the small scale research and the human resource
deployment.
PROJECT TIME
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This indicates the time spent on executive various project activities. A project
timeline is developed indicating the approximate time to be spent on different tasks
and updated regularly to indicate the project progress (Burke, 2013). The current
project needs to be completed in eight weeks.
PROJECT QUALITY
The delivery of accurate and quality findings, conclusion and viable
recommendations will be the objective of the project management team (Burke,
2013). To fulfil this objective, the focus will be on using quality secondary data
sources and preventing bias in the quantitative data. The quality standards for the
current project will be ensured by monitoring the project progress at every stage and
any deviations will be corrected as and when they appear. The quality of the data
being collected along with the applicability and accuracy of the findings in deriving
viable and meaningful conclusions and recommendations will the quality criteria of
the project.
PROJECT COMMUNICATION
The communication related to the project will be categorised as monitoring,
evaluation and reporting (Burke, 2013). The monitoring communication will originate
from monitoring the project execution and will initiate with the project inception. This
will take place daily between project coordinators and their teams. Evaluation
communication will be based on the analysis of project progress and determination
and resolution of issues if any. It will be thrice a week communication between the
project manager and different project stakeholders in the form of a meeting. Lastly,
the reporting communication will be from the project manager to the senior
management at M&S informing them of project progress, twice a week.
PROJECT RESOURCES
The resources employed during the project execution will involve human resources,
secondary data sources such as articles, magazines and journal articles, primary
data sources such as quantitative data collection and market research data and
online utilities such as Google Scholar.
PROJECT RISKS
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Risk management in a project can be described as assessing the probability of
unforeseen and unexpected events during the project and inhibiting its effects on the
project execution (Burke, 2013). An example of project risk in the current project can
be potential delay due to changes in the policy and direction leading to additional
workload, legal issues, delay in data collection, poor quality of the collected data, etc.
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P3&M1
COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
C) WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE, GANTT CHART, MILESTONE SCHEDULE
AND PROJECT SCHEDULE
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
The work breakdown structure (WBD) graphically represents the different tasks
constitutes in a project. It is a tool through which a project can be broken down into
manageable and simpler tasks (Meredith et al., 2017).
Figure 1: Project Work Breakdown Structure
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Project
Aims and
Objectives
Finalising Aim
Finalising
Objectives
Project
Management Plan
Defining Project
Components
Milestone
Schedule
Project Schedule
Gannt Chart and
WBD
Small Scale
Research
Qualitative
Research
Quantitative
Reserarch
Conclusions and
Recommendations
Product Launch
Event

Source: (Authors Work)
PROJECT SCHEDULE
The duration of the project will be for eight weeks. The project tasks will be executed
in the following manner
Tasks Week
 Establishing project aims and objectives.
 Starting the creation of the project management
plan
 First
 05/08/19 to 11/08/19
 Completing the project management plan
 Finalising Gantt chart and work breakdown
schedule
 Creating a project schedule and Milestone
schedule
 Second
 12/08/19 to 18/08/19
 Identifying and finalising the secondary data
source
 Completing the Literature Review
 Third
 19/08/19 to 25/08/19
 Creating the Questionnaire
 Distributing and collecting the Questionnaire
 Fourth
 26/08/19 to 01/09/19
 Data processing and compilation
 Data Analysis
 Findings
 Fifth
 02/09/19 to 08/09/19
 Conclusion and recommendations
 Reflection
 Sixth
 09/09/19 to 15/09/19
 Delivery of the recommendations to the CEO and
concerned functions
 Seventh
 16/09/19 to 22/09/19
 Coordinating with other functions and agencies for
the successful implementation of the product
launch event
 Project Conclusion
 Eight
 23/09/19 to 29/09/19
Table 1: Project Schedule
Source: (Authors Work)
GANTT CHART
A Gantt chart is the graphic representation of the project Schedule and used as a
tool for indicating project tasks and their execution time frame. It allows the project
manager to efficiently plan, schedule and monitor the project (Meredith et al., 2017).
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Activities/
Timeframe
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
Establishing
Aims and
Objectives
Creating a
Project
management
Plan
Gantt Chart,
Project
schedule,
WBD,
Milestone
schedule
Identifying
Secondary
Data Sources
Literature
Review
Creating
Questionnaire
Collecting
Primary Data
Data
Processing
and Analysis
Findings and
Conclusions
Recommendat
ions and
Reflection
Delivering the
Recommendat
ions
Product lunch
Event
Project
Completion
Project
Monitoring
Figure 2: Gantt Chart
Source: (Authors Work)
PROJECT MILESTONE SCHEDULE
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The milestones in a project refer to the conclusion of a significant project event that
may indicate the progress of the project (Meredith et al., 2017). The following is the
Project Milestone Schedule for the current project
Milestones Time Frame
Incorporation of Aims and Objectives 07/08/19
Completion of the Project Management Plan 13/08/19
Finalising the project schedule, milestone schedule, Work
breakdown structure, and Gantt chart
18/08/19
Completing the Literature Review 25/08/19
Completing the Questionnaire creation 27/08/19
Completing the primary data collection 01/09/19
Completing Data analysis 06/09/19
Completing the Findings, Conclusions and
Recommendations
11/09/19
Completing the project reflection and providing the
recommendations
21/09/19
Product Launch Event 29/09/19
Table 2: Project Milestone Schedule
Source: (Authors work)
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