Marks & Spencer Marketing Strategies: A Comprehensive Analysis

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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
MARKS & SPENCER

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................5
COMPANY OVERVIEW..............................................................................................................6
LO1 THE ROLE OF MARKETING AND ITS INTERRELATION WITH OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS
OF THE ORGANISATION............................................................................................................7
A) THE KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MARKETING FUNCTION IN RELATION TO
THE WIDER ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT.............................................................................7
B) THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING IN THE CONTEXT OF THE
MARKETING ENVIRONMENT................................................................................................8
C) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MARKETING AND OTHER
FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF M&S................................................................................................9
LO2 COMPARING WAYS IN WHICH M&S COULD USE ELEMENTS OF THE MARKETING MIX TO
ACHIEVE OVERALL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES..............................................................................11
1) COMPARING WAYS IN WHICH DIFFERENT ORGANISATIONS APPLY THE MARKETING MIX
TO THE MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES.................11
2) DIFFERENT TACTICS APPLIED BY ORGANISATIONS TO DEMONSTRATE HOW MARKETING
OBJECTIVES CAN BE ACHIEVED...........................................................................................14
LO3 DEVELOP AND EVALUATE A BASIC MARKETING PLAN....................................................15
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................15
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 15
COMPANY BACKGROUND.................................................................................................. 15
MARKET SITUATION ANALYSIS...........................................................................................15
BUSINESS GOALS................................................................................................................ 19
COMPANY’S STRATEGY (ANSOFF MATRIX).........................................................................19
MARKET SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING...............................................20
TACTICS AND ACTIONS.......................................................................................................20
BUDGET.............................................................................................................................. 20
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MONITORING AND CONTROL.............................................................................................20
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 21
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 22
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LIST OF TABLE
Table 1: SWOT Analysis of M&S.............................................................................................17
Table 2: Ansoff Matrix For M&S.............................................................................................18
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Elements of Marketing Mix.....................................................................................11
Figure 2: Porter's Five Force Analysis of M&S........................................................................16
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the core and one of the most important functions for any business
organisation. In the absence of marketing, no firm can achieve its set goals and carry out
business activities, as marketing is the only way to make customers aware about the
existence of business and its products and services (Chand, 2018). In this report, the role
and importance of marketing and the essentials for successful marketing will be analysed
and explained in the context of the presented case of “Mark and Spencer” (M & S)
organisation. This will successfully provide a clear understanding of the marketing activities,
its roles and interrelationship with the other functional units of the company. The main
theories and concepts of marketing such as the elements of the marketing mix and
marketing planning process will be clearly discussed and analysed in the report. Further, the
basic marketing plan for M&S Company will be developed to support the organisation to
successfully target the potential customers in the market to help the company to grow its
business and revenue.
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COMPANY OVERVIEW
Marks & Spencer is a multinational retailer based in London. Thomas Spencer and Michael
Marks founded the company in the year 1884. It offers clothing, home products and luxury
food products across the world (Marks & Spencer, 2019). According to the presented case
study, the company is planning to grow its business by identifying a potential growth
opportunity in the student sector through market research. In order to successfully achieve
its aim, it is important to understand the market conditions and demand in the market. A
proper understanding of marketing would support the company in formulating effective
strategies to achieve its goals.
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LO1 THE ROLE OF MARKETING AND ITS INTERRELATION WITH
OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF THE ORGANISATION
Marketing is a very important and core business activity through which the products and
service of the company move from concept to the customers. It could be defined as a set of
processes for developing, communicating, delivering and exchanging products that provide
value to the consumers, partners, clients, and to the wider society (Armstrong, et al., 2015).
In simple terms, marketing is a business activity related to the purchase and sales of the
products and services.
A) THE KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MARKETING FUNCTION IN RELATION TO
THE WIDER ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT
In M&S, the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function are:
 Maintaining and promoting brand image: the marketing department at M&S plays
an important role in promoting and managing the brand image of the company in
the wider retail industry. It is responsible for making people aware of the existing
and new products of the company (Baran, 2014). It also involves defining the
company to the customers and wider market i.e who you are, what are your
products and how the company acts.
 Market analysis: it is the most important and constant activity of marketing function
as it involves the analysis of the new opportunities as well challenges in the current
market so that the company can effectively formulate a market strategy to deal with
challenges and gain advantages of new market opportunities to ensure growth and
success of the company.
 Consumer analysis: a proper understanding of the needs and demand of the
customers supports the company in making relevant products and services that
customers are willing to purchase (Baran, 2014). Through consumer analysis, the
effective product and an effective marketing strategy could be successfully
developed.
 Advertising: advertising is the most common role of marketing function through
which the company aware and attract its customers towards its products and
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services. It is responsible for gaining the attention of potential customers to the
brand. It is the most common and efficient way of communicating with the wider
market.
 Distribution: a proper distribution system supports in providing the products of the
company to the customers wherever and whenever they want. M&S operates across
the world and has a very large distribution system to deliver products at different
locations across the world (Baker, 2014). The marketing function of the company is
responsible for ensuring the proper distribution of its products at right time.
 Competitive analysis: it is another role of marketing, which involves the analysis of
competitors and their product to formulate effective strategies for the company to
gain a competitive advantage in the market. Through this, the company identifies
potential competitors and formulates effective strategies to deal with them.
B) THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING IN THE CONTEXT OF THE
MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
In the present marketing environment, marketing activities go beyond its immediate roles as
a function through which the goods and services are exchanged between concept and
consumers. Now, it is viewed as an integral part of the complete socioeconomic system that
creates a framework under which business activities take place (Lee and Carter, 2011).
Therefore, it is become necessary to understand the complete societal structure to gain an
in-depth understanding of the true characters of the marketing system.
The marketing environment involves a wider perspective containing internal business
environment, external business environment and macro-environment. The marketing
functions are directly affected by and affect the internal and external marketing
environment. while the macro environment involves wider factors that the marketing
department should responsibly consider such as government legislation and policies,
cultural and societal change and technological transformations.
Marketing operations determine the existing and obtained changes in the wider marketing
environment. It influences the existing and potential demand in the market and concerned
with the physical distribution of products and their sale in the market place by considering
the channel of selection, shipping, storage, warehousing, transportation and inventory
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control etc. (Lee and Carter, 2011) Marketing covers a wide range of interrelated business
activities that multiplies the role of the marketing department from just selling to
influencing. Marketing in the wider marketing environment is concerned with how
effectively the resources are being used by society and how fairly the outputs of products
are allocated. In the wider marketing environment, marketing is an effective engine of
economic development and growth as it mobilises the latent economic energy and develops
the standard of products and services.
C) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MARKETING AND OTHER
FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF M&S
The business operations of M&S is largely depended upon the different functional units of
the company. Other than marketing, some major functional units of the company are
financial function, human resource function, research & development function, and
operations management function. All these are the major organisational functions that are
an essential part of every small and large business organisation (Foxall, 2014). All the
functional units of M&S work together in collaboration to achieve the set goal of the
company.
INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MARKETING AND OTHER FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF M&S
Marketing and human resources unit:
The human resource unit is responsible for resourcing the skilled and talented workforce
within the company to perform the different roles and activities of operations. The
marketing unit and human resource unit are related with each other as the human resource
unit provides the talented employees and staff that could successfully carry out the
marketing responsibilities of the company (Foxall, 2014). In the absence of the human
resource unit, the marketing activities cannot be efficiently performed due to a lack of
talented and skilled staff in marketing.
Marketing and finance unit:
The finance unit is responsible for allocating budget for carrying different managerial and
operational activities within the company. The finance and marketing unit is related in the
terms that the finance unit supports the marketing unit in market research and promotional
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activities and the marketing unit supports financial unit through attracting customers and
increasing revenue for the company.
Marketing and operations management unit:
The operations management unit is responsible for managing all the business operations
such as resource requirement, production, distribution, manufacturing and stocking etc. in
the absence of effective operations management the production and distribution system of
the company may get disturb (Foxall, 2014). The marketing department needs to work
closely with the operations management department to ensure that adequate research and
development is effectively planned to satisfy the current and prospective needs and
demand of the consumers.
Hence, it can be easily said that all the major organisational functions at the M&S are
interrelated with the marketing functions and requires great collaboration and participation
to perform all the functional activities effectively.
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LO2 COMPARING WAYS IN WHICH M&S COULD USE ELEMENTS OF THE
MARKETING MIX TO ACHIEVE OVERALL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
The concept of marketing mix is developed by Neil Borden and it could be defined as the set
of marketing tools or tactics that are used by the company for promoting and selling its
brand or product in the market. The activities or tactics of marketing mix ranges from
developing a product, determine the product price and places to sell the product and
deciding the promotional and communicational strategies for gaining customer attention
towards the product or the brand (Khan, 2014). These activities of marketing are simply
categorised in four elements; product price promotion and place of the marketing mix and
implies as 4P's of marketing. However, in the present market environment, three other P’s
of marketing are also added; people, process and physical evidence that combine denoted
as 7P’s of marketing.
M&S and its competitors to formulate effective marketing strategies and perform marketing
roles and responsibilities successfully effectively use the elements of the marketing mix. The
marketing mix of M&S and its competitor Tesco will be compared to understand the ways in
which the elements of the marketing mix can be successfully applied to the marketing
planning process of the company.
1) COMPARING WAYS IN WHICH DIFFERENT ORGANISATIONS APPLY THE MARKETING MIX
TO THE MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
In order to successfully achieve its business objectives, both M&S and Tesco has developed
a unique marketing mix strategies that will differentiate them from the other brands and
competitors of the company in the market. The marketing mix elements of M&S and Tesco
are compared below:
Product:
Products are the item that is produced or procured by the company to offer to the
customers (Jain, 2013). M&S offers eco-friendly and fair trade products and the diversified
product portfolio of the company involves a wide range of clothes, accessories, footwear,
beauty products, home decor products, flowers, foods and beverages (Bhasin, 2018). While
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the product range of Tesco includes the clothing, electronics, food and financial services and
the company also offers grocery delivery and free music downloads.
Price:
Price is the amount of money that the customer pays for the product (Jain, 2013). the price
of the M&S products is decided to cater to the needs of an upper and upper-middle class of
the society and its products are perceived as the value for money because of high quality,
convenience, and diversified range of the product. The company has adopted a dynamic
pricing strategy. While Tesco focuses on offering low price products without compromising
with the quality of the product or bearing loss. Tesco’s low price strategy enables to gain
higher competitiveness in the market (Bhasin, 2018).
Figure 1: Elements of Marketing Mix
[Source: Chand, 2018]
Promotion:
Through promotion, strategies the business let know the customers about their offerings
and create brand recognition among the customers. M&S believes in the full-on promotion
and adopted above-the-line and Below-the-line strategies. The brand promotes its product
through print, digital, newspapers, radio, television, hoardings and billboards and also uses
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