E-Commerce and Contemporary Marketing Practices: M&S Case Study Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Marks & Spencer's (M&S) e-commerce and contemporary marketing practices, particularly focusing on their re-entry into the food sector after a 12-year absence. The report examines the marketing processes embedded and applied by M&S, highlighting their use of various media channels, including television, social media, and sponsorships, to promote their "This is not just food" campaign. It delves into the marketing mix elements (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) and STP (segmentation, targeting, and positioning) strategies employed by M&S. Furthermore, the report discusses how these practices reflect current marketing trends, emphasizing the effectiveness of event launches, TV advertisements, social media campaigns, and partnerships with delivery companies like Ocado. The analysis also explores the application of omni-channel marketing theories and models to M&S's strategies, offering recommendations based on the review. Overall, the report assesses the impact of digital platforms and marketing processes on M&S's success in re-establishing its presence in the food sector, providing valuable insights into modern marketing practices.

E Commerce and
Contemporary Marketing
practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
A. Marketing process embedded and applied by M&S within the trade journal article.............1
B. How this reflects current marketing practices........................................................................3
C. Relation of the omni channel marketing theories and models to trade journal article...........4
D. Recommendations on the basis of review and analysis.........................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
.........................................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
E-commerce is the practice of buying and selling of products through use of electronic
platform over the internet. M&S is taken to research for further analysis of their efforts to regain
the name in food sector after their absence from last 12 years through providence of marketing
campaign named as “This is not just food”. The main aim of this report is about ascertainment of
knowledge in respect to the contribution of digital platform and marketing process towards the
success M&S in their re-entry in food sector (Akter and Wamba, 2016).
The aspects which are covered in respect to perform the activity of critical assess includes
ascertainment of the application of marketing process by M&S to re-enter in food sector along
with the reflection and impact of such marketing practices. Also, covers the application of Omni
channel marketing theories and model to M&S on their process of re-entry in food sector after 12
years and providence of the recommendations on the basis of such analysis.
Main Body
A. Marketing process embedded and applied by M&S within the trade journal article
M&S is international organisation and having their presence at worldwide level. The
different sectors in which M&S deals includes clothing and food. In clothing sector, M&S has
god brand name name in all over the word. Also, the management take all the necessary steps to
maintain their market share. On the other side, M&S in respect to their food offerings are not
much active in nature that creates the perception among consumers regarding their food is high
in cost and only good in respect to some occasions. Lack in marketing practices is the cause
behind the occurrence of this situation of M&S in Food sector. After the 12 years of absence new
marketing campaign is launched by M&S named “This is not just food”. The main aim behind
this campaign is about rest the perceptions of its food brand and create the image in market that
their food is not of premium cost and more focused towards the family oriented audience (Eid,
2011).
Media and Value proposition
The marketing practices which are used in respect to deliver this campaign by M&S are
different in nature due to the use of various mediums. Firstly, the campaign is unveiled in the
event in London at evening of 2nd April. The main person who is behind the creation of this is
named as Grey London. In the process of creation took the moments of old food porn because
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this will help in creation of feeling among the viewers and link the same with their last
advertisement. The voice-over is used in this presentation where food director Charlie Stebbings
and his slow motion style is back along with the pleasant Fleetwood Mac song Albatross as
background music (Elkhani and Bakri, 2012). The number of food items in respect of which they
provide information here includes Festive shelter platter, Mushroom steamed Buns, Pulled ham
and rarebit crumpets, mini meatball and tomato sub rolls etc. and mention all these as for family
oriented audience in affordable price (Zhou, Zhang and Zimmermann, 2013).
The advertisement on TV is shows in different way and provides different feel. This
includes about the day dreaming of the M&S delicious food from trifle to salmon. This
application adjoins the consumer behaviour with the different offering of M&S including with
the theme of the campaign about not just a food where they can enjoy these with family members
on daily basis due to its affordability and healthy in nature (Zhao and et.al., 2015).
On next morning the add launch on social media on ITV. The main aim over the social
media too is focus over their strap-line that their food is not of premium in nature and available
for family audience. Here, in this platform they focus over providence of information in respect
to their offerings on different occasional basis. Near to the Easter the change is seen over the
advertisement where focused is provided over the most awaited from the all products offerings
such as Hot cross buns. Different number of advertisement tools are used by the organisation as
defined above. The impact of these has direct over the sales. Advertisement help the consumers
to know about the offerings and features that persuade their behaviour. The main tools which are
used by the organisation is about social media, TV and radio. This role of media channels in
advertisement provides the title of marketing tool. The importance of these towards the
organisation is more because application of the same works as marketing tool which help to grab
the opportunities present at market place. (Gangeshwer, 2013).
For the purpose of marketing, M&S announced the sponsorship of Britain's got talent.
The application of the same over their plan is understood from the point that it help to re-build
the image of M&S in food sector in the way that they bound the consumers to re-evaluate their
offerings and get in the mind that main offerings are in respect of ice cream and houmous which
can be the part of family meal times rather than just bought as a treat (Zhang and et.al., 2011).
Some other mercantilism activity that is used by the M&S after ascertainment of the
decline in sales is about the tie up with Ocado for online food delivery to deliver their food. This
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tie up justifies the aspect of marketing practice for the purpose of increment in sales of food. The
advantage associated with this is about that help consumers to get the food at their home and
enjoy with the family which is the main aim of M&S of this new Marketing Campaign. This
practice not only help to improve the reach but also allows the consumer to change their
perception that M&S food is for family mealtimes (Ifinedo, 2011).
Marketing Mix: It is considered as a foundation model for businesses. This includes the
different determinants in respect to them strategies and tactics are developed by the management
for the purpose of promotion of brand product in market.
STP: It is a broad framework which help the organisation in formulation of strategies
related to segmentation, targeting and positioning. The application of this tool in effective
manner provides an opportunity to ascertain the segment or individuals to whom organisation
has to target to grab the more market share.
Marketing mix and STP is used as the process by M&S in trade journal article which are
defined below:
Product: Reappearance in food sector after 12 years with the slogan of “This is not just
food”. Focus over common and famous foods like ice creams, trifle, salmon and Hot cross buns.
Significance of different normal offering help to persuade the behaviour towards overall
offerings of organisation.
Price: reasonable price is set to create the presence in the mind of buyers that their food
in not expensive in nature and not for occasions purpose only. Setting of reasonable price help to
fulfilling the requirement of targeted segment.
Place: All retail stores of M&S. The significance of this is ascertained from the fact that
help the consumers to get the product easily without any extra efforts.
Promotion: Lots of tactics are used such as personal launch event, TV advertisement, use
of radio and sponsorships to expand the reach towards common people of society. The
importance of this towards the organisation is that help to spread the reach at market place.
People: Hiring of the talented staff that have capability to handle all practices effectively
along with performance of functions. The importance of this is that help in optimum utilisation
of resources along with reduction in cost. This will results in improvement of profit margin.
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Process: Redefined process is used which includes the use of quality food materials that
hep to provide good in taste products. The contribution of quality materials is that it provides an
opportunity to maintain overall image in market.
Physical evidence: Use of slogan like “ This is just not a food” is effective in nature to
create its presence in market and for long term remembrance. This allows the consumer to
redefine the entrance of organisation in market and stick to their slogan.
STP
Segmentation: M&S focus over target on the basis of demographic factor of income and
age. This will help to cover large market area.
Targeting: In accordance to the segment focus over middle class individuals and
children's. It help in getting involvement of food items in daily routine.
Position: In respect to position they focus over creation of slogans such as “This is just
not a food' and use of multichannel promotional technique. This persuade the behaviour of
consumers towards the brand and product that help to improve consumption.
B. How this reflects current marketing practices
M&S launches the new marketing campaign to improve their presence in food sector.
The different marketing practices which are used by the M&S are analysed above along with
their application in day to day functioning. Marketing practice depicts the techniques and tools
which are used by M&S for the purpose of promotion of their tactics within the market. The
main aim of all these marketing practice is to help the organisation in attainment of success and
accomplishment of set objectives. The different type of marketing practices in respect of which
knowledge is gathered which are used by the M&S in current includes promotion through event,
Television advertisement, social media platforms, radio & print, sponsorships and tie up with
deliver company. All the marketing practices are used to change their image about offers food
products premium in price and preferable to have on some special occasions only
(Kourouthanassis and Giaglis, 2012). The effectiveness of all the marketing practices and their
reflection on the performance and image of M&S can be understood from the description
provided below:
Marketing practice of launching a event in London is good in nature for initial offering of
information about the campaign. This not only reflects the company's efforts towards the
betterment of their service but also help to persuade the behaviour of consumer that something
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new and innovative is presented from their side in market. To held this campaign they took the
help of Grey London who creates moments of old food porn that provide the glimpse of old taste.
The voice-over of the food director Charlie Stebbings also reflects as the great strategy because
consumer have faith over the person who is associated with the some stream or profession from
long time. So, he addresses the audience from the event that this time M&S provides the tasty
and and healthy food products which is great and delicious from the perspective of family
mealtime which is affordable in nature too (Liang and Turban, 2011).
Another marketing practice of disbursement of information with the help of TV, radio
and social media platforms help to spread the information at world wide level in less period of
time. The effectiveness of this approach is ascertained from this factor only that this will to boost
their regional and international sales along with capturing of high market share. One of the trend
which is used in this practice is about focus over the food product which much in demand on
some particular occasion such as at the time of Easter providence over disbursement of
information regards to hot cross buns (Lu, Fan and Zhou, 2016).
One more marketing approach they adopted to attain the aim of marketing campaign is
about tie up with delivery company in respect to delivery of their food products named as
Ocado. This works as effective approach is respect to their new aim which allows the consumer
to get their food products at home and enjoy with family in affordable pricing.
Overall all the marketing practices in respect to the marketing campaign of “This is not
just food” responded and work properly and establishes themselves as effective in nature in
accordance to the situation and target of reaching to all the family meal (Nusair and Hua, 2010).
C. Relation of the omni channel marketing theories and models to trade journal article
Omni channel marketing is understood as the multichannel sales approach that provides
the customer with an integrated experience. This will allows the customer to buy the products
from anywhere i.e. online from desktop, mobile phones, telephones, bricks or mortar store etc.
The advantage of this is directly ascertained over the sales of the organisation as this will
improves the user experience (Varnali and Toker, 2010). To ascertain all the possible outcome
from this marketing strategy is depend upon the power of an organisation as how perfectly they
provide experiences seamless, consistent and effective as possible for customers (Omni
marketing channel. 2019).
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Customer experience theory of omni marketing states that it has the features which are
different in nature which build it different from all other marketing aspects. According to this
theory, the specific feature of omni channel of marketing includes allowance of the engagement
of the consumer with organisations in a variety of ways such as physical store, online through
websites, mobile-apps, physical or virtual catalogues and social media. One more feature allows
the connection of consumers with the help of landlines and mobile-phones through offline base
to made purchases (Wierenga and Van der Lans, 2017).
The marketing practice used by M&S to launch new campaign is based on the concept of
multichannel marketing from where information is ascertained by the consumers only. These
mediums of information not allows them to buy or sell the product.
From the comparison of the features provided by the customer experience theory of omni
channel and multichannel marketing used by M&S ascertained that through use of multichannel,
organisation only have the power to interact through different platforms and does not allows to
shop that provide integrated shopping experience (Yoo, Sanders and Moon, 2013).
D. Recommendations on the basis of review and analysis
The number of recommendations which are needed to adopt by M&S for the purpose of
effective marketing are defined below:
 M&S is requires to adopt omni marketing channel as this will allows the customer to
shop from the various platform. This will ease the work of consumers and allows them
enhance their experience with the organisation offerings.
 M&S is needed to adopt social media approach where Instagram and Pinterest makes the
work easy for the user to click on the post to get the direct link of the product on official
site of the organisation. This is one of the effective omni marketing channel strategy due
to high number of presence of individuals on social media platforms.
 M&S having an option to start the joint venture with other organisation having operations
in food sector to ascertain help and grab large market share.
 Use of Franchise option also help in spreading of the business to different areas in more
fast and effective manner that finally contributes in success of project.
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CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that e- commerce and marketing practices
have huge importance behind the success of the organisation which allows then to attract the
large number of consumers and increment in the number of sales. Multi channel marketing
approach is used by M&S in respect to the new campaign “This is not just the food”. Omni
marketing channel is different and have feature which allows the shop from the different
platforms. Acceptance of the same will allows M&S to attain more success. The different
number of tools identified which are used by the organisation in marketing of their operations
includes 7P's of marketing and STP. Marketing mix help to define the different tactics in respect
to various determinants. Effective application of these help an organisation attainment of success
in market. STP is other aspect that help to ascertain the target market. This will clears out the
goal organisation and help in employees in performance of their functions.
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REFERENCES
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in B2C E-Commerce. Journal of information systems research and innovation. 2(12).
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adoption by SMEs in Canada. International Journal of Information Technology &
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omni-channel-marketing/>.
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