Marketing Essentials Report: M&S and Morrison's Strategies and Plan

This report delves into the marketing essentials of Marks and Spencer (M&S), a prominent UK supermarket chain. It begins by outlining the core roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, emphasizing its importance in identifying customer needs, ensuring growth, and creating brand value. The report then explores the purpose and duties of marketing within the organizational context, highlighting its interrelationships with other departments such as finance, production, and customer service. The second task compares the marketing mix strategies (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) of M&S and its competitor, Morrison's, to achieve their respective business objectives. The analysis includes a detailed comparison of their product offerings, pricing strategies, and promotional activities. Finally, the report concludes with a basic marketing plan for M&S, summarizing key findings and recommendations.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Prime roles and responsibilities of Marketing Function........................................................3
P2. Purpose and Duties of Marketing to organisational context.................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P3.Comparing the different techniques of using marketing mix in two specific organizations to
achieve business objectives.........................................................................................................6
P4. Marketing plan.....................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
The essential tool of the modern business in the company is marketing that involves
recognition of marketplace, consumer demands, creating profitable links, consumer driven
strategy of market and provides superb quality in the market. Companies have realised the
necessity of maintaining relationships with customers and literally making efforts to get
innovative approaches related to their marketing strategies in the business. The chosen
organization in this report is Marks and spencer which is the popular supermarket chain of
United Kingdom. This report focuses on the marketing essentials of Marks and spencer that
belong to the modern generation of globalisation. The report depicts the marketing roles with the
duties of marketing functions and their interrelationships with the other departments of the
company. In the second task, it compares the various methods of using marketing mix in M&S
and its competitor Morrison to acquire their business goals and objectives and also develops
basic marketing plan for M&S..
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
P1. Prime roles and responsibilities of Marketing Function
Marketing is the process of management accountable for identifying or recognising, predicting
and fulfilling customer requirement beneficially. Marketing is the key element or major part of
company’s strategy so it need to planned, in this fast changing market Marks & Spencer spends
lot of money in researching and identifying what customer’s needs or wants, habits and attitudes
by carefully analysing data (Contreras and Ramos, 2016). M&S always want to make that first
move by bringing products and designs of clothing which are new in the market; this helps
company to developing customers and brand loyal. Customer satisfaction is utmost essential for
the company as it bring back customer to for the repurchase and if satisfied customers need to do
word-of-mouth for the company’s product and service which provide benefit to company as it
earns good or amount of profit on the success of the product and service. Marketing is the prime
management principle that allows the manufacture or producer to anticipate customer needs and
then match by delivering to their target customers. Therefore, it is the ongoing processes that
focuses on customers mainly and influence every aspects of business. The following discussed
below are the roles and responsibilities of marketing functions are as follows –
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Ensuring M&S’s growth, survival and reputation – Company survive because of its ability to
retain customers and maximise its market share by gaining more customers. This can be done
through the help of following the different marketing functions, which helps M&S in achieving
its business objective. Because of its customer focused approach, which helps in satisfying
customers by offering different products that are beyond their expectations (Martensen and
Mouritsen, 2017).
Market Expansion – The major role and responsibility of marketing functions is to expand
M&S’s business to global market, after doing well in the markets of UK and in some countries,
the role of marketing is to expand the business and considering the factors that can influence
M&S accomplishment in the market.
Listening to Customer needs – Before establishing the marketing strategy, M&S get in touch
with the customers and clients in order to know what their needs and requirements are. It is the
responsibility of marketing department to plan and receive the customers’ feedback about
company’s product and services. Marketing department of the M&S collects the feedback
through the internal and external channel. Departments create surveys and capture the
information from the sales and support teams within the company that helps in enhancing
marketing strategies for the future as these teams are in direct contact of the customers. Through
the various social media platforms and social networks Marks & Spencer’s marketing
department try to understand the needs of customers by interacting.
Tracking New Trends and monitoring the competition – It is very essential to know that what is
the current position of M&S in UK market and what are the current trends prevailing in the retail
industry, what is level of competition in industry, what types of products and strategies rivals are
using to sell and promote their products and services (Gupta and Nair, 2020). By monitoring the
activities of rivals, M&S’s marketing department comes up with such strategies and marketing
techniques which differentiate it from its rivals and also comes up with the products that it rivals
don’t have, all these practices benefit the company and attract customers to Marks & Spencer.
Creating Brand Value –
Company’s brand is representation of the emotions and feelings that the services and products of
the M&S show. The marketing plays the crucial role in creating or developing the quotes,
messages, ideas and disseminating images that communicate the best and generates the brand
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value. Department ensures that these message what they are sharing to create their brand value is
unified, authentic and does not hurt sentiments of any group.
Searching for helpful a marketing tool which helps in Product development– The role of
marketing is to search for such tools which makes the marketing easier and help the company in
the world of new trends and formulating strategies, there are few tools that Marks & Spencer’s
marketing department uses for its product management and product development. Product
management – There are several softwares these days which help in product management
routine. It generally tracks projects, customer’s feedback such as Survey Monkey, and analytics
tools such as Google Analytics which helps in determining the success of M&S’s product
(Haider and et.al., 2017).
Automation Tool – These marketing automation tools helps in managing and controlling all the
process of M&S’s digital marketing strategies which helps the company in promoting their
products on different platforms online.
P2. Purpose and Duties of Marketing to organisational context
Marketing has several roles and responsibilities in case of wider organisational context of Marks
& Spencer Plc. The following are the roles and duties of marketing: Collecting Information –
The foremost purpose and duty of marketing is to gather information of the markets in which
they are doing their business and analysing the information. Marketing helps M&S in identifying
the demand of its customer and target the customers by creating different innovative plans and
strategies which can help company in achieving its objective. Developing and designing the
product – Marketing plays a crucial role in designing the product and making it attractive
through its packaging. M&S products have different and unique packaging which attracts the
customer (Thabit and Raewf, 2018). Company improves its packaging time to time so that is
easier to handle and these days it provide products in eco-friendly and recycled packaging. M&S
through its market its products through attractive advertisements which also help in developing
brand consciousness in people. M&S has very functional units such as production, finance,
research & development, customer service etc. which has critical relationship with marketing.
Finance – With the help of finance department, Marks & Spencer marketing department every
year creates the budget for every activity and can set objectives that is to be achieved each year,
Finance also helps in determining the costs and profit & loss. The finance department also helps
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the marketing department to know what their current position and if they sales of the company
are increased how much more budget can be allotted to them.
Production – Marketing function also creates great impact on the production of M&S, marketing
sets the targets of sales that are to be achieved and on that behalf the target of production is set.
Company with the help of marketing department determines that how much increase should be
there in production capacity.
Human Resource Department – Marketing also require the help of human resources from the
department, as the HR department help in coordinating the functions of every department and
helps marketing department by communicating their needs and requirements to other
departments. M&S’s HR department formulates HR policies which are aligned and helps
marketing department to maximise its sales.
Customer Service – Marketing is associated with customer service also, through the help of
customer service department, marketing department of Marks & Spencer understands the views
of customers regarding products and service offered by the company (Treder, 2020).
Research & Development – This department provides the reports and analysis to the marketing
department of M&S so that marketing department can formulate strategies for product
development and prevailing competition in the market considering the research.
All these units in M&S have a significant value and thus marketing functions are interrelated
with different functional units in the company.
TASK 2
P3.Comparing the different techniques of using marketing mix in two specific organizations to
achieve business objectives
Marks and spencer and Morrison’s marketing mix analyses the brand that covers 7Ps that are
product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence and explains marketing
strategy of Morrison’s and M&S. Several strategies of marketing are innovation of product or
service, investment in market, consumer experiences etc that supports brand to grow. Marketing
strategies supports organization to achieve their business objectives and goals (Išoraitė, 2016). It
is the framework which is widely utilized to define the strategies of both the organizations. This
report elaborates the pricing of products, advertisement strategy and strategy of distribution
utilized by Marks and spencer (Thabit and Raewf, 2018).
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Comparison is done by making table to better understand the appropriate strategies used in both
of the organizations.
Elements of marketing mix Marks and spencer Morrison’s
Product M&S provides offers on wide
range of products and services
that are available in the
market. In addition to
concentrate on management of
quality and innovation, Marks
and spencer also look after the
developments in fresh new
products and enhance its
current product range. The
company owns its own brand
products more than 15,000
that include fresh foods,
bakery items, and drinks. It
also started providing products
related to health and beauty
after analysing the market
requirements. Therefore, M&S
began to provide its services
in the sector of clothing,
entertainment, and electronics.
Its takeover Argos has later
maximized its portfolio. Apart
from all this range, Sainsbury
utilizes biodegradable
packaging that is made from
potatoes and trades organic
Morrison’s is the top value
leading grocer of UK that
focuses on fresh food. It
prepares and provides home
delivery of its fresh food items
as it has its own facilities of
production and manufacturing
that supports Morrison’s to
ensure to provide best
products. The company also
pays attention on the
appearance, features, quality
and packaging of the items.
High quality products and
provision of fresh food are the
keys of success in Morrison’s.
Its business is run on its
brands that are NuMe, M
signature, Just for kids and
Morrison’s cellar.
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fruits of its own label in that
biodegradable trays. Marks
and spencer effectively invest
in the development of its own
brand and it has superb
reputation for offering best
quality goods in the market.
Price Marks and spencer practices
policy of competitive prices
instead of using cutting price
policy because this latter
delivers profits and gains in
the shares of market. It utilizes
perfectly price discrimination
policy according the product
positioning. By obtaining
premium prices M&S
positions itself in the high-end
market (Pogorelova and et.al,
2016). Pricing strategy is
based upon delivering the
products that are value for
money and maintains its
services and quality and
assures retention of customers.
Effective prices support
consumers to choose the stores
of Morrison’s. The company
continuously focus on
improving their offers for
customers by reducing its
costs and providing best
quality of goods and services.
Organization always ensures
that price should never be a
reason for customers to buy
products from other
competitors. Morison’s utilize
product bunch pricing,
promotional and premium
pricing and also offers
compare and more cards
which is a tool to match
prices. The company focuses
on factors such as range,
easiness in shopping, quality
of services that helps buyers to
decide that Morrison’s is the
best product provider with
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affordable prices.
Place Marks and spencer has
convenience stores and
grocery stores out of which
forty five stores works for
24*7 and the others remain
open till the middle night only
on Fridays. In addition, M&S
also accepts orders online via
mobile phone application or
its website. It provides home
delivery services and initially
tackled its distribution
specialist such as NFT and
DHL. Presently it has two
national distribution centres
and thirteen distribution
centres in region for the slow
moving products. It also has
few depots and two store
houses for the category of
frozen food.
Morrison’s operates as the
second biggest manufacturer
in the United Kingdom. It has
660 above physical sores and
more than 150 convenience
stores. Organization controls
and operates higher portion in
supply chain of fresh food and
its most of the fresh food is
sold in retail stores and online.
It has 1 national distribution
centre and 7 regional
distribution centres.
Morrison’s owns more than
1606 trailers and 545 that
supports in delivering items
efficiently.
Promotion M&S makers perfect use of
promotion strategies to draw
attention of customer and
create its brand name such as
BTL- below the line and ATL-
above the line. It utilizes
broadcast media to do
promotions for ATL sector
and database marketing,
Morrison’s operates with its
cooperative suppliers through
its farming program so that
farming of British remains
sustainable and competitive.
Organization offers lower
costs permanently with huge
range and improved quality to
its buyers. It aims to make it
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packaging and sales
promotion strategies for BTL
sector. It utilizes celebrity
endorsement in its advertising
to highlight its sponsorship.
M&S launched reward card to
maximize its sales and build
loyalty of shoppers.
stores a place that is pleasant
to buy and offers rewarding
schemes for consumers. It
believes in fact instead of
opinions. Morrison’s triumph
by providing cheap and best
goods to products and it is
possible because of online and
offline special offerings and
attracting promotions.
People Marks and spencer has best
mix of well-trained
professionals and experts who
can handle sensitivity of
buyers. It trains its employees
to satisfy consumer
requirements and reach
company’s goals. it knows
that skilled staff altogether put
effective impact and thus
delivers training alternatively
for a huge range of skills. It
introduced level 2 skills of
crafts apprenticeship for
fishmongers and bakers. M&S
also launched a college that is
totally dedicated for training
of leadership for its team
leaders and store managers.
Morrison’s always try to build
a job opportunity for its
people of local region for
making them a part of society.
The company has employed
qualified bakers, fishmongers,
butchers and greengrocers that
allow buyers to customize
their quantities as per their
preferences. Morrison’s have a
large number of workers that
serve huge quantity of visitors
and buyers daily.
Process Marks and spencer launched
click& collect services where
Morrison’s provides
experiences of multi channels
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all the groceries roll out
instantly to make online
shopping convenient for its
consumers (Pomering, 2017).
It makes modifications in its
all od issuance of delivery
slots and its pricing that can
affects in rise its number of
orders and instils customer
loyalty. It is also trying for
coming up with brand new
formats in stores to address
the modifications in needs of
consumers and is thoughtfully
choosing the appropriate place
for its latest stores.
on their online and
convenience stores. It makes
shopping easier for the
shopper’s and its consistent
interaction with them leads to
focus in the distinctive
environment of shopping by
displaying its huge range of
fresh food and offers
customers flexibility of
selecting the actual product at
the correct place.
Physical evidence M&S has outstanding strategy
to market its items using
Physical evidence. Its stores
have superb layouts and
designs that address the
requirements of consumers.
Marks and spencers quality of
trolleys and baskets ensures
the customers superb
experience of shopping. Its
shelves layouts are very
impressive which makes
shopping convenient.
Morrison’s has a its presence
across the United kingdom
with its supermarket, online
coverage, distribution centre,
manufacturing units and
Morrison’s local stores. It’s
website displays the whole
range of products offered by
the organization.
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P4. Marketing plan
It is a report that figure outs organization’s marketing strategies for the upcoming year
(Innanmaa, 2020). It is implemented in the companies to reach its target market (Chernev, 2020).
Executive summary
This is a marketing plan of Marks and spencer. It is the multinational company and
largest supermarket chain holds good market shares (Opresnik, 2018). Its headquarters are in
London and England. This company is specialist in selling home products, clothing and good
products and all are these mostly of its own label. (Hollensen, 2019).
S.M.A.R.T objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bounded)
Marks and spencer has five objectives that are as follows:
 To improve consumer service and offer great food in affordable prices.
 To minimize the number of buyers complaints by 5% and to be customer’s first choice
for groceries and in the matter of quality.
 To accelerate the developments in providing a particular range of complementary
services and non- food items in one year.
 Its objective is to grow space for its supermarkets and convenience stores.
 M&S objective is to enhance its capabilities that support in reaching more shoppers by
making developments in online operations and open latest expediency stores.
SWOT analysis
It is a framework used to analyse organization’s internal factors
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
Marks and spencer M&S sales get Organization has Maximized
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has very strong shares
in the market and
registered in the stock
exchange market of
London and FTSE
index. Its business is
extremely diversified.
It has effective
balance sheet and
profitability that is
consistent. Superb
food preposition with
best quality. Marks
and spencer has
sponsored assorted
events.
impacted because of
the increased food
costs worldwide. The
company faces stiff
rivalry among every
market segment in the
retail industry.
opportunities to make
its entry in markets of
companies that are
emerging by joining
partnerships or along
joint ventures to
survey those new
markets. Launching
self-checkout devices
can support Marks
and spencer opening
its 24 hour operational
stores that might help
boost its sales. It has
opportunity to expand
its business in
growing economies
such as Asian and
African countries.
globalization was a
critical challenge and
threat as well for
M&S. It has a threat
of Brexit on its cost.
PESTLE analysis
It is a tool framework for recognising external factors of the organizations that puts
negative impact and emphasizes the various extrinsic scenarios on the business. This pestle
analysis assists organization to improve its business.
Political factors
It particularly operates in the United Kingdom and it will not get any major effect on its
business by the slowdown occurs in another countries. Its political factors are the UK has been
exited from the union of Europe. M&S will face certain consequences because inflation cost got
high after United Kingdom exits and pounds of great Britain hits it that later causes declination
in expenditures of consumers. Hence, minimizing the sales of supermarket in UK will effect
nature of the business in short term.
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Economic factors
The demands of buying products from stores will be minimized because of the rates of
inflation getting higher in the economy. People of the region are selecting to spend wisely in one
time instead of hefty spending. Unite kingdom is witnessing stagnation in economy for some
time so, this can become a blessing for M&S to make investments in best economic freedom
countries to gain deserved avenues.
Social factors
Changing in the preferences of customers include one stop shopping. Some other
groceries come up with several benefits and schemes that satisfy buyers and they can obtain the
chance to save some amount of bucks at this harsh time in the region.
Technological factors
Marks and spencer has been capable to offer the new technology from its vehicles. It has
to come up with an choice of selling its food online and collecting its goods from the stores.
Advancements and innovations in technology can minimize the overall price of products
production.
Legal factors
Sugar tax was introduced in the United Kingdom and the organization was required to
modify its products to deny the several taxes and save capital. Some rules were laid to stop
Marks and spencer from selling and promoting products with salt, sugar and high fat foods and
has to take approval from the authorities.
Environmental factors
The company has to reduce the wastes of operations and recycle it. it has to minimize
carbon emissions and environmental factors its sustainable plan of strategy.
Marketing mix 7ps
Product: Marks and spencer has to concentrate on providing quality certified services.
Price: Its price range has to start from basic price so middle class people can afford.
Place: its place must be according demands and future growth.
Promotion: Company has to make customers attract towards their products.
People: Marks and spencer has to look over the down class people to support them for
employment.
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Process: the organization has to a make it process of buying very simple and accessible.
Physical evidence: It has to satisfy its buyers with its appearance.
STP segmenting, targeting and positioning
M&S in its point of view involve both of the segmentation that is behavioural and geographical.
The company utilizes UK as primary region for geographic and for behavioural segmentation it
pushes itself to middle tier brands (Fotiadis, Mombeuil and Valek, 2018).
The company with a point of view of targeting highlights and portrays itself in the market. It
uses behavioural segmentation to trickle down its targeting strategy.
Positioning in the Marks and spencer is done by its pricing strategy that remains between high
and medium end. The firm uses this strategy to build value for it (Kreutzer, 2019).
Budget
Elements 2018 in £ 2019 in £
Maintenance of E-commerce 7000 8100
Cost to balance HR 42200 42250
Promotional strategy 412463 542153
Cost needed for audit in
market
4220 3324
Sponsorship cost 123423 213677
Total 589306 809526
Control
It is very essential to monitor its plan regularly so any type of challenges can be
recognised at its initial stage. It has to controlled and monitored regularly to bring effectiveness
in the organization.
CONCLUSION
In the following report above provides the understanding of Marketing Essentials in detailed
manner by discussing key topics which provide clarity. Report describes the roles and
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responsibility of marketing function, how these roles and responsibilities relate to wider
organisational context and also explains the significance of the interrelation between marketing
and other functional units in Marks & Spencer Plc. Further, the report compares the ways in
which the distinct companies apply marketing mix to the process of marketing for achieving its
objectives and produce and examine detailed marketing plan for Marks & Spencer.
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