Strategic Management Report: Analysis of Primark's Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Primark's strategic management. It begins with an introduction to strategic management and a description of Primark's business, including its product range, target market, and global presence. The report then delves into Primark's vision, mission, and core values, highlighting their importance in guiding the company's strategic direction. A PESTLE analysis is conducted to assess the external factors impacting Primark, followed by a SWOT analysis to evaluate its internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report outlines Primark's long-term objectives, alternative strategies, and target marketing approach. It also examines product marketing strategies, annual objectives, and key policies that contribute to Primark's success. The report concludes with a balanced scorecard evaluation and a summary of the key findings, providing valuable insights into Primark's strategic management practices.

RUNNING HEAD: Strategic Management
Primark
Strategic Management

Strategic Management 1
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Description of the business.........................................................................................................................2
Business vision, mission and core value......................................................................................................3
Business vision.........................................................................................................................................3
Business mission......................................................................................................................................3
Core value................................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the external factors...................................................................................................................4
Political factors:.......................................................................................................................................4
Economic factors:....................................................................................................................................4
Sociological factors:.................................................................................................................................4
Technological factors:..............................................................................................................................5
Legal factors:...........................................................................................................................................5
Environmental factors:............................................................................................................................5
Analysis of the internal factors....................................................................................................................5
Strength:..................................................................................................................................................5
Weakness:................................................................................................................................................6
Opportunities:..........................................................................................................................................6
Threat:.....................................................................................................................................................6
Setting long term objectives........................................................................................................................6
List of alternative strategies........................................................................................................................7
Target marketing approach.....................................................................................................................7
Product marketing approach...................................................................................................................8
Establish annual objectives..........................................................................................................................8
Establish certain policies.............................................................................................................................8
Allocate necessary sources..........................................................................................................................9
Establish evaluation measures (Balanced score card)...............................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Strategic Management is implementing strategies to achieve goals & objectives of an
organization. Strategic Management involves planning and implementing all of that is necessary
to an organization. It can be setting objectives, executing action plans, analyzing internal and
external sources of the environment, implementing strategies and formulation of major goals
(Gamble & Thompson, 2014). In this report, we have taken Primark to understand strategic
management. Primark is a leading fashion brand of UK. It opened it’s first store in 1969 &
having head quarter in Dublin. The store offers a wide range of products from babies to kids, to
women, men, accessories and beauty products.
Description of the business
Primark offers range such as clothes- jackets, shirts, tee-shirts, shorts, dresses & hosiery items,
footwear, home ware- bed sheets, towels, curtains, pillows & duvet covers, accessories and
beauty products. The company offers its products at very competitive prices and has best simple
designs and uses good fabrics which attracts customers. The company’s main target is group of
below age 35. It has stores in various regions such as-UK, Ireland, Europe & USA. The company
is increasing its stores day by day. It has two hundred seven stores in seven major regions. The
company operates a chain of apparel stores for babies, kids, women & men. The company offers
range such as clothes- jackets, shirts, tee-shirts, shorts, dresses & hosiery items, footwear, home
ware- bed sheets, towels, curtains, pillows & duvet covers, accessories and beauty products. The
company offers its products at very competitive prices and has best simple designs and uses good
fabrics which attracts customers. The company’s main target is group of below age 35. The
company’s aim is to provide good quality products. The prices of company is cheap but the
quality is superior. So, products of the company are quite affordable.

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Business vision, mission and core value
Mission & vision are important to management to achieve their goals. These two are required
before other strategies are formulated and implemented. Both vision & mission define the
organization’s reason for existing.
Business vision
A vision describes what a company wants to be in future. A vision is something that a company
wants to achieve by knowing it’s mission. Vision of Primark is to be the first choice of customers
by gaining social competitive advantage and for this company provides proper training to the
employees. The company provides products at the most cost effective price possible.
Business mission
A mission statement shows the organization’s purpose and why it is in existence. A mission
statement describes what a company wants now. Mission includes general details of business as
well as objectives and goals. It provides a step stone. A company can build its future on the
basis of its mission. As mission leads to vision. Primark’s mission is to provide good quality
clothes at cheap prices that any individual can afford. The fabric and the simplicity of designs is
the specialization of its clothes. Company’s mission defines the role of an organization. The
company provides new innovative products to its customers. The company also makes new
marketing strategies to gain competitive advantage.
Core value
Core values reflect the company values and support the vision. Core values educate clients about
the identification of company. It is the basis upon which decisions & strategies can be made.

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Core value of Primark is to provide good variety of products with best quality and at reasonable
prices. It offers great value for less money.
Analysis of the external factors
An organization is greatly influenced by the external factors. These factors affect the
performance & operations of business. By PESTLE analysis we can know the positive &
negative impact of external factors. These are:
Political factors:
A country’s political factors affects to a large extend by laws, taxes, government policies, rules
& regulations, stability or instability of government, attitude of government (Rothaermel, 2015).
Market of UK is mostly stable. So, Primark is least affected by the political factors.
Economic factors:
The recession has greatly impacted the economy. But in the period of recession also, Primark has
reported more profits as compared to the competitors. It is due to the effective strategic policies
& the affordable price that is offered by the company. There can be some other economic factors
such as- economy growth, inflation, interest rates, monetary policies and market trends.
Sociological factors:
While planning a business, it is necessary to mind changes happening in society such as changes
in lifestyle, fashion, income, taste (Frynas & Mellahi, 2015). Primark is offering a good range of
variety at nominal prices giving tough competition to it’s competitors with the changes taking
place in the society.

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Technological factors:
New inventions, research & development, changes in IT comes in technological factors. All
these factors help in improving company’s performance (Peppard & Ward, 2016). To reduce the
level of stealing, Primark is using CCTV camera and scanners. Bar code scanners are being used
to keep the perfect estimation of sales.
Legal factors:
People find legal factors similar to political factors as both the factors are connected to laws.
Tariffs, trading policies, wages & taxation are legal factors. In UK it is compulsory to contribute
3% of salary for pension by employees. So Primark has also adopted the policy.
Environmental factors:
Environmental analysis can be a part of corporate social responsibility. Policies are created to
protect the environment. Such as use of recycled material & paper bags are being used by the
Primark (Daspit, et. al., 2017).
Analysis of the internal factors
Internal factors can be analyzed by SWOT. SWOT is acronym for strength, weakness,
opportunity & strength. These points are discussed as-
Strength:
Primark has 196 stores in seven countries & offers good employment opportunities. It employs
more than 25000 people. The policy of low prices has given a tremendous success to Primark.
Due to affordability, it has attracted a lot of customers. The company leads in low prices.
Location & the superior of the stores is also strength of the company. The company has also
won many awards for the quality of products and service.

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Weakness:
Primark does not advertise, it is one of the major weakness as competitors has gained advantage
over them. It has also been said that the company uses child labour to produce goods, which is
against the nation’s law. The company is also facing another issue of quality also.
Opportunities:
Primark leads in price, quality and brands. The company is also dominating the market by
opening new stores (Collings, 2014).
Threat:
Other brands are also leading in the market in terms of quality, so Primark has huge competitors
in the market. The company has low IT skills and poor management but has higher profits and
good financial strength (Hill, et. al., 2014).
Setting long term objectives
Long term objectives define a goal and are for long period of time, ranging from two to five
years. These objectives are prepared from mission, other activities also depend on the mission
statements. Results of long term objectives are achieved in future and efforts are made in present
(Eden & Ackermann, 2013). Primark wants to realize public that just because price of products
are cheap does not mean that the quality of product is also inferior, quality of products is far
superior. It is the aim of company to provide products at reasonable prices so that public will
have wide options at minimum prices. The company keeps friendly approach by greeting their
customers and welcoming the Long term objectives of the company are: to lead in the market
and be the number one, to gain customer’s loyalty, train the employees for the betterment of
organization, to be the first choice of customers, to achieve international standards & to keep the
environmental clean by using paper bags.

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List of alternative strategies
Primark has been making effective & competent marketing strategies to attract customers. It has
also making strategies for marketing mix. Primark has well organized strategic plans:
Target marketing approach
Firms are concerned for the target set of customers, as it will reduce product cost & will increase
effectiveness of product. Target marketing breaks the market into segments on the basis of the
income, taste & preference of consumers. By targeting a specific group, it makes promotion,
pricing & distribution easier. Strategies under target marketing approach are:
Segmentation
In the stage of segmentation, market is divided into group of buyers on the basis of how their
response is going to be towards product. Primark is segmented as clothing retailer. Further
segmentation is done on the basis of different departments such as – clothes, footwear & home
ware.
Targeting
Customers are targeted on the basis of their taste, income & preference. Primark has multiple
products & are segmented by differentiated marketing strategy. Segment is done on the basis
of age, sex, income, taste, social status and lifestyle.
Positioning
Consumer preferences can be known by marketing research for a brand. According to the
preference of customers, a brand can improve its performance. Primark has repositioned the
perception of simple & basic designs to trendy & stylish. The company still wants to maintain
low prices at good quality.

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Product marketing approach
Product marketing approach is applied even before the production starts. Primark has increased
the market share by competitive pricing strategies & sales promotion. Internal promotion
strategies are also been used by the company such as loyalty schemes. Market development is
also a growth strategy used by the company in which the existing products are sold into new
markets. Ansoff matrtix is also used by the company to determine product marketing strategies
to set the directions for the business.
Establish annual objectives
Annual objectives are discussed prior in a meeting or in an annual general meeting. Important
decisions are made regarding policies & regulations of the Primark:
Putting benefit of workers ahead company’s profits is the main objective of the company.
Company provides data knowledge & support to it’s customers.
To achieve the objective of quality, products should be checked before putting on sale to public.
Provide wide variety of products at reasonable prices.
The company tries to be eco-friendly by using paper bags to keep the environment safe.
The company maintains friendly relationship, also it help customers so that they feel welcome &
loyal towards company.
At the end, growth in sales & increase in market shares are also annual objectives of the
company.
Establish certain policies
Primark has certain policies, which makes it different from another brands. These policies are the
reason for the success of company too:

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Doing new things & different from others is the main policy of the company.
The company keep prices low & standards high (Morschett, Schramm-Klein & Zentes, 2015).
It has good standards in supply chain management.
The quality of the product is measured through international standards (Bettis, et. al., 2016).
The company hardly spends on the advertisement.
The company does not hire any celebrity to promote the products.
The policy of low prices has win-win situation in the market.
Their refund & exchange policy is also ideal in the market. Full refund or exchange is made to
customers (except jewelry & cosmetics) within twenty eight days of purchase after showing the
original receipt. Returns are made according to the payment of method made at the time of
purchase (Carroll, Primo & Richter, 2016).
Allocate necessary sources
Resource allocation is a way of using available resources. Human resources are used to achieve
goals in the future (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). It is necessary to allocate human resources to
maximize output & organizational efficiency in an effective manner:
Strategy of the organization includes planning, communication, information & interactive skills.
Resourcing like identifying the employees & analyzing their needs, contract of employment,
method of recruitment and the selection method (Wheelen & Hunger, 2017).
Staff retention can be introducing new staff, payment for employees, career development &
training, development program, health & safety issues, ending contract.

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Establish evaluation measures (Balanced score card)
Balanced score card refers to the performance management report used by the management. It is
used to provide feedback to organizations. It focuses on the implementation of strategy or
operational activities. The system connects the link between mission, vision, core values and
strategy focus areas (Punt, et. al., 2016). Primark used BSC so that organization can:
Align the business activities that everyone is doing with strategy.
Communicate what the company is trying to accomplish.
The company has prioritized products & services.
Measure & monitor progress towards strategic targets for learning & growth.
Balanced score card of Primark
Conclusion
Primark has a great role & contribution in the trend of fast fashion. Primark is best known for
good quality at cheap prices. This feature of Primark has made it the most leading brand in
Europe, UK & USA. Company’s mission, vision & core value gives it recognition. List of

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alternative strategies has defined the priority of customers. Certain policies are also established,
which makes it different from another brands. Necessary sources are allocated to understand
employee’s need. The company keeps on improving it’s performance and communication by
using balanced score card (BCS)

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References
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Bettis, R. A., Ethiraj, S., Gambardella, A., Helfat, C., & Mitchell, W. (2016). Creating repeatable
cumulative knowledge in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 37(2),
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Carroll, R. J., Primo, D. M., & Richter, B. K. (2016). Using item response theory to improve
measurement in strategic management research: An application to corporate social
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