River Island Marketing Plan: Strategies, Analysis, and Implementation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of River Island's marketing plan, focusing on strategies for new product launches in the UK. It includes a situational analysis using PESTLE and SWOT frameworks to understand the brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report outlines various marketing strategies, including e-business and adaptation/standardization, and discusses marketing objectives such as stimulating business growth and increasing productivity. Furthermore, it details the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) of River Island, and also explores the 7Ps of marketing and budgeting considerations for new product launches. The report concludes with an examination of evaluation, implementation, and control mechanisms, including the roles and marketing actions of the team involved in executing the plan. Overall, the report provides a detailed overview of River Island's marketing approach to drive sales and profit through innovative product strategies.

MARKETING PLANNING
AND CONTROL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
Marketing plan strategies for an organization in UK..................................................................1
STP of River island while launching new product......................................................................5
7P's in the River Island while launching the new product..........................................................6
Budgeting for the new product launch by River Island..............................................................7
Evaluation, implementation and control which includes the role and marketing action of the
team to implement the plan.........................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
Reference.......................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
River Island is a private brand relates to fashion which was set up in 1948 by Bernard
lewis in London. It is family business started with the small shop in London. They have 350
stores across the UK and especially on the high street River Island is well known affordable
attractive fashion brand for the people. In 1993, the brand had opened their first shop in republic
of Ireland and have launched kids wear in 2010. River island has played immense role in fashion
industries in UK. It is a famous clothing brand for the citizens of UK. This report includes the
analysis of situational and environmental with the help of pestle and swot and also describes the
various strategies and marketing objectives for marketing plan to increase their sales and profit in
innovative product.
TASK 2
Marketing plan strategies for an organization in UK
Marketing plan is the outlining strategy for the coming year and it is an overall business plan of
business. It includes the separate marketing strategies for various teams in the company, but
everyone will work for the same business goal. Marketing plan includes
Overview of business marketing and advertisement goals.
Description of current marketing position.
Timeline of tasks when the strategies is to be completed.
Track the key performance indicators.
Description of business target market and the needs of customers.
Inconsistent of business plan, marketing plan aims to focus on winning and keeping the
customers. It is deliberate which includes the numbers ,facts and objectives. It is developed for
an ideal customer profile. It understands who makes an ideal customer profile and alloews us to
build an entire business, message, product,sales and service around the narrowly defined
consumer base.
Situation and environmental analysis
Pestle analysis is carried to understand the situational and environmental analysis.
Political and Legal factors: Clothes in England carry high taxes since UK has one of the
highest VAT in the world, 25,5% but corporate tax is one of the lowest in the world, only 20%.
Custom tariffs, 15%, increase the price of imported goods compared to world prices.

Transportation cost is approximately 10% (by ship) which is added to the purchase price before
custom tariffs are calculated and added to the price. It has been argued that if taxes were
removed and one third of Britishers shopping would come back to UK, the government's income
would increase substantially however there are no indicators of taxes on clothes to be eliminated
in the near future. The UK has long been a popular destination for foreign direct investment
(FDI). Many large companies and organizations from all over the world have invested in various
industries in the UK. Sports, real estate, technology, food and many other industries have
aroused great interest abroad.
Social factors: The United Kingdom consists of modern society, which is at the forefront
of quality of life. English people are very fashionable, want to look good and dress well and
choose quality products, regardless of price. IT industry has a large consumer market. In the UK,
65.6 million people lived in 2016. Over the years, the company has developed a variety of new
products for the needs of various races and religions. Shops in the UK sell international brands as
well as local design and production.
Economic factors: A very important element of PESTEL analysis in the UK is the country's
economic landscape. United Kingdom is the fifth largest economy in the world in nominal GDP.
The recession in 2008 has brought economic problems. However, the government has taken the
steps needed to improve the economy. British households face several challenges in 2017. Store
prices have risen rapidly because of the weak pound has increased the cost of importing goods to
the UK. However, wages do not increase with price increases. The current minimum wage for
those aged 25 years and over is £7.50 per hour. It should be noted that the Bank of England has
set an inflation target of 2%. That raised the base rate in November 2017. The benchmark level
rose from 0.25% to 0.5%.
Technological factors: Britain is one of the most technologically advanced countries in
the world. London is the largest centre for financial and technological institutions. Companies
often develop new technologies to offer the best solutions to their customers. Enhanced
technology infrastructure offers entrepreneurs unlimited opportunities to do business in the UK.
Worldwide,87% of people shop online and 45% cellphones until 2020 (PESTEL analysis of the
UK, 2017). This is indicated by a study of the UK bedding business 90% of buyers who buy
stores previously see products online has made a purchase decision.

Environmental factors: Impact of economic activities on the environment; However, the
UK has made significant improvements in reducing its negative impact. Governments, local
councils, newspapers, charities and many others have taken a number of initiatives to create
environmental awareness and reduce the negative impact of economic growth on the
environment.
SWOT analysis
SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning technique for understanding the strengths and
weaknesses of an organisation and identifies the opportunities and also identifies the threats.
This model is used here because River Island is the largest fashion brand and is influenced by the
external environmental factors because of market chain in different countries. Therefore, it is
necessary to identify the strengths, and weaknesses through SWOT analysis of River Island
which can help them to grow better in the future.
Strengths
Designed for 6 decades, River Island is dedicated to creating stylish, fun and affordable
fashion products to please young people. The price range of River Island jeans is £ 20-49.99. The
jeans range offers 12 colour choices, including a variety of bright colours, while the competition
only offers 6 to 12 colours and focuses on basic colours like blue, black and grey. This month,
the Plus Size collection starts, adjusting the range from 4-18 to 4-24. This made River Island the
first retailer to offer full size options among its competitors.
Weaknesses
River Island does not offer discounts for students throughout the year, as is the case with
other retailers for e.g. Topshop and new look. Fabrics from river islands are not as modern as
other brands. Collections and products don't spin as fast as competitors like Zara, whose sales are
every two weeks. You must follow changes in retail. River Island does not have male
cooperation because this will attract a new type / wider audience. The supply chain cannot
handle seasonal waves in retail, which means Zara is like a leader. Not all businesses on River
Island have men's and children's clothing. This is a weakness because people do not have easy
access to this collection. Iceland does not have a plus size collection, which is a weakness,
because other retailers have brought their own plus collections New look, Boohoo and many
others. They also don't have maternity clothes like Topshop.
Opportunities

You can put point cards in different stores from other retailers such as Topshop. The card
you scan when you buy and get Monsoon or M points. Price cards require you to get student
discounts so you don't lose sales to students like Topshop. River Island has many international
opportunities to open and expand its business, for example, after opening online sites at lower
prices in Australia.
Threats
Political implications, such as rising minimum wages, can affect River Island, because
that means they will have less money and even have to reduce shops or staff. Environmental
factors are another threat, environmental factors can affect the supply chain. This means that
retailers can have an impact on orders in the event of a storm or natural disaster and can reach
products to the UK. For example, the ash cloud in many companies affects the supply chain
Strategy selection
There are following strategies used by the River Island to make their marketing plan
feasible and realistic are as follows:
E-business Strategy
E-business makes it easy to build real-time connections with different ones. Companies
such as dealers, wholesalers, suppliers, logistics providers, service providers, etc. An effective e-
business strategy will enable organizations to achieve this efficiency in all the main functions of
the organization with diverse activities formation. Thus, e-business can be an effective business
tool for optimizing the flow of Google Analytics physical elements between the supply chain,
end user connections and the performance of traditional business functions in a completely new
way. River Island is a chain of fashion shops; which customers expect well quality products with
timely deliveries because they cannot judge product quality by electronic means. Customer
expectations will be like that increase according to the nature of the business.
Implementation Strategy
Appropriate planning is very important for River Island business integration with
information technology. This must be a good strategy design a website according to its design to
attract the most effective focus customer. Proper planning will ensure this must contact the
website to remain in place. It is important for the retail chain to renew its logistics activities to
achieve this success of implementing e-commerce . The information needed to develop a website
must be compiled in a manner that is consistent with results achieve overall success.

To sell their products online, River Island must have the right marketing strategy is in
action so that customers can be attracted and sales can increase. Marketing strategies include
email marketing, Blogs and forums. This e-marketing strategy can be useful for rivers as this
island effectively sells its products in the target market. What is the company's plan to enter e-
commerce. In addition, the company can also interact with it customers through blogs and
forums. All of these marketing strategies will be useful Islands for a short time, but their
products and services are sold long-term marketing strategies such as article marketing, social
networking and social bookmarking are very effective.
Adaptation and Standardization strategy
River Island use different types of strategies to attract customers worldwide. Therefore,
they always think of innovative ideas to grow their market and they created the new clothing
material which is waterproof, breathable and fashionable and used it in to make Trench coats
which became quite successful and liked by their customers.
Marketing objectives
Aim: Stimulate business growth by connecting all channels seamlessly through integrated
IT systems to enhance the overall customer experience. To increase the productivity of the new
product launched that is waterproof trench coat by the year 2020. River Island can increase the
sales with the help of different strategies like e-business strategy, social strategies etc.
Mission and vision: Offer new and original fashion and design for British men and women at
competitive prices. Integrated marketing and sales approaches that lead to mutual benefits.
Other main objectives to expand the productivity of innovation product are:
1. Integrated marketing communication
2. Excited when opening a flagship store
3. Building a long-term competitive position
4. Create a strong, positive and unique image in the mind of the audience
5. Encourage the target group to shop more often and more often
6. Inspire the arrival of new products
7. Relevant Structure Actions
STP of River island while launching new product.
Segmentation

Segmentation is target audience to whom the company has Reaggregate and divide them
in the different categories as per the similar characteristics. The consumers were divided
according to geographic and demographic segmentation. Geographic segmentation is done by
river island through the location where they can attract the maximum customers. Demographic
segmentation is being done when consumers are being divided according to the age, sex, race
etc. also they are divided according to the income, occupation and family structure. River Island
has to done segmentation according to these two main ways before launching the Trench Coat.
Targeting
Targeting means to target the particular class of people, age of people or any particular
section of people. As river island deals in fashion industry targets the men and women aged 18-
35 who looks for the stylish and fashionable accessories at affordable prices. They target the
people who are always looking for the innovation in the market.
Positioning
River island is the only fashion retailer in UK which gives the complete look from head
to toe. Positioning of product is very important as the product they launch is competing with the
similar product in the market. Positioning the product in the right way to the particular segment
of the consumers you are targeting will buy it. Product positioning is very necessary for the
success of any product specially while launching the innovative product in the market.
Positioning strategies are of different types such as quality positioning strategies, flexibility
positioning strategies, speed positioning strategies. River island has chosen the quality
positioning strategies is emphasis on quality by chasing after defects and problems. They choose
to focus on this strategy to differentiate themselves with other competitors by using exceptional
parts and materials and having minimal defects.
7P's in the River Island while launching the new product
It is the core for the River island that marketing activity is the way which attract the
customers. Company plans the marketing strategy based according to the needs, wants and
desires of its customers. While formulating the marketing plan the company has to consider the
7p's of marketing.
Price

Pricing of the product is very necessary and also the price of buying the component make
the entire product. As the price of Trench coat is to be given very necessary as it deciders the
which class of people will attract more towards the product. Company has to decide the
wholesale price, cost price, discounted price and the price recommended to retailers that all are
associated in the pricing strategy. Company has taken differential pricing strategies.
Product
In this the company has to tell about the product, River Island will do the marketing about
the detailing of product and the unique selling point that why people will buy this Trench coat is
having the unique identity having waterproof, breathable and at the same time they are
fashionable in looks which makes the product unique among all the similar products.
Place
Deciding the place is one important task that where the product will sell like internet,
retail area, wholesale plan etc. Place should be that where the consumers can easily approach and
purchase.
Promotion
River island has to decide what were the promotional tool were used and also analyse the
tools used by competitors and consider the best method to target the people.
Packaging
It is the physical state how the product physical evidence looks for the product we are
launching includes the packaging, internet pages, brochures etc. it is the visual appearance that
the look is compatible with the brand.
People
It targets the customer's attitude, skills, needs and behaviour. They have to consider the
taste and dislikes and also gives the training to the staff.
Process
It is the last step in which the process of giving the goods and services to ensure that the
consumers go through this will be easy and simple.

Budgeting for the new product launch by River Island
When the company will launch the Trench coat they need the money for funding the
efforts, if they plan ahead they need the money. As it incurs cost in number of ways such as
production, promotional labour expenses etc.
Production expenses
Production cost is to be estimated for advertisement and sales based on the suppliers.
Production cost includes film equipment, travel cost, sales brochure, compensation to actor if
they promote the product.
Promotional expenses
Promotional expenses reduce the revenue for the particular product create the opportunity
cost. Promotional expenses is being bear by the company before the product is launched so the
people will know about the product.
Designer cost
As the River island has launching their new product name trench coat for this they have
paid the fees to designer for unique product they have designed as it takes lot of time before the
product is being launched.
Budget padding
Determine the particular amount as an additional fund for the allocation of project above
the specific expenses based on particular percentage. For example, if the total budget is of 570$
than additional 10% is to take to reduce the tension.
Categories cost
Rent 100$
Designer cost 150$
Promotional expenses 120$
Product expenses 200$
Total 570$

Evaluation, implementation and control which includes the role and marketing action of the team
to implement the plan.
Monitoring and controlling is last but not the least in this process the performance is being
measure and review and take the corrective action to ensure that the plans made are being on the
track to meet the goals. It is the method which regulate the organisation strategies and activity. In
this they look how the business is progressing as the implementation of strategies is implemented
properly or not.
Conclusion
From the above report it is being summarised marketing planning process through the
situational and environmental analysis with the help of SWOT and PESTLE analysis. This report
used the different strategies for the improvement of marketing plan in River island. This report
contains the strategies of segmentation, targeting positioning of the new product which is being
launched by the River Island and also applied the 7p's of marketing and how it implements in the
organisation it also explains how it will implement and control all the plans and actions made by
the company.

REFERENCE
Books and Journals
Lovelock, C., & Patterson, P. (2015). Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Grishchenko, O. V., Kireev, V. S., Dubrova, L. I., Yanenko, M. B., & Vakulenko, R. Y. (2016).
Organization, planning and control of marketing logistics. International Journal of
Economics and Financial Issues. 6(8S).
Stone, R. N., & Grønhaug, K. (1993). Perceived risk: further considerations for the marketing
discipline. European Journal of marketing, 27(3), 39-50.
Ross, D. F. (2015). Distribution Planning and control: managing in the era of supply chain
management. Springer.
Wood, M. B. (2011). The marketing plan handbook. Pearson.
Cross, J. C., Belich, T. J., & Rudelius, W. (2015). How marketing managers use market
segmentation: An exploratory study. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing
Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 531-536). Springer, Cham.
Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs, and
conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management. 35(1). 33-
44.
Al Fahad, A., Al Mahmud, A. R., Miah, R., & Islam, U. H. (2015). Marketing audit: a systematic
and comprehensive marketing examination. International journal of scientific &
Technology research. 215-221.
Holbrook, M. (2015). The marketing manager as a jazz musician. Marketing Intelligence &
Planning, 33(7), 958-965.
French, J., & Russell-Bennett, R. (2015). A hierarchical model of social marketing. Journal of
Social Marketing. 5(2). 139-159.
Berman, B. (2016). Planning and implementing effective mobile marketing programs. Business
Horizons, 59(4), 431-439.
Source
PESTEL analysis of the UK. 2017. [online]. Available through
<https://www.howandwhat.net/pestel-analysis-uk/>