Strategic Marketing Plan for ASOS plc: Analysis, Strategies, and KPIs

This report presents a strategic marketing plan for ASOS plc, an online clothing retailer. It begins with an executive summary and an introduction to ASOS, followed by a PESTLE analysis to assess the external environment, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors impacting the e-commerce industry. Porter's Five Forces are then applied to analyze the competitive landscape. The report identifies ASOS's internal competencies and formulates SMART marketing objectives. It details marketing strategies, including segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and outlines the 4Ps of the marketing mix. Tactics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are also provided to measure the effectiveness of the strategies. The report concludes with recommendations for ASOS to enhance its market position and achieve its strategic goals.

Running head: STRATEGIC MARKETING
STRATEGIC MARKETING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The business environment is highly competitive in nature and with respect to this, it can be
rightfully understood that, in case a firm wants to ensure success in the long run and maintain a
competitive positioning in the market, the firm would be required to ensure that it is able to serve
the right target market in the right manner. In this way it will be able to ensure that, the
marketing activities of the firm are directed towards the right customer and that the different
marketing activities of the firm do not go wasted. Hence, in relation to this, it can be rightfully
mentioned that, the given report is aimed at presenting a strategic marketing plan for the chosen
firm, ASOS plc which is an online clothing website providing the latest products to the
customers at affordable prices. The report will follow a structured format with respect to which,
the Introduction about the organization and the overall Strategic Plan on the whole has been
provided which is then followed by the PESTLE analysis of the firm. The Internal competencies
of the firm were recognized and followed by the overall SMART objectives formed for the firm
to achieve a better positioning in the market. The objectives have been followed by the
Marketing strategies of the firm and the tactical plan. Certain Key performance indicators have
also been provided for the overall success of the firm in the long run.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
PESTLE Analysis............................................................................................................................4
Porter’sfive forces........................................................................................................................8
Internal competencies analysis......................................................................................................10
SMART Marketing objectives.......................................................................................................11
Strategic marketing plans and tactics............................................................................................14
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Analysis...................................................................16
Marketing Strategies..................................................................................................................17
4Ps..............................................................................................................................................18
Tactics........................................................................................................................................20
Monitoring ways and KPIs............................................................................................................23
Conclusion and Recommendations................................................................................................24
References......................................................................................................................................26

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Introduction
The business environment has become highly competitive in nature and with respect to
this, it has become crucially important for all the firms involved in the competitive business
environment to take considerable measures in order to improve their competitive positioning in
the market and to improve their overall offering to the different customers (Aaker and
McLoughlin 2010). All the firms as present in the competitive environment aim to ensure that
they are successfully able to engage in the Effective positioning (Ryan and Jones ,2009). The
effective positioning is at the core of the successful marketing practice and it allows the different
firms to manage their operations in the dynamic business environment. This is because it allows
to connect well with the different consumers and distinguish the brands, products, services or the
causes in the minds of the consumers(Barnat2014). However, just engaging in the effective
positioning is not enough and it entirely depends on the firm to ensure that they are able to
undertake efforts suitable for the operational design.
In order to understand the overall effective positioning in more detail, the organization
which has been chosen is the Asos.com. The Asos.com is a firm which is involved in the British
online fashion as well as cosmetic retailing business. Found in the year 2000, the business is
aimed at serving the young adults. The business was found in London. The firm has an offering
of over 850 brands along with its own range products which comprises of accessories as well as
the clothing. The firm ships to more than 200 countries and for this, it has opened fulfillment
centers in the United Kingdom, the United States and the Europe (Asos.com 2019). There are
approximately 4386 employees of the firm as per 2018 and has adequate departments for the
operations. The founders of the firm are Nick Robertson and Quentin Griffiths. The firm has
various profiles in social media sites like YouTube, Pintrest, Instagram and Facebook.

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Hence, in line of this, the main aim of the report is to outline the strategic marketing plan
for the chosen company, Asos.com and to outline the different initiatives which can be taken up
by the organization in order to ensure that the firm is successfully able to achieve strategic
success. The report will follow a systematized format whereby a brief introduction to the
organization will be followed by a description of the company. The report will then analyze all
the PESTLE factors which will help in understanding the external factors where the firms
exists.In addition to this, the Porters Five forces will also be conducted which will assist in
understand the overall industrial environment. The third part of the report will be based on the
analysis of the internal competencies of the firm, which will help in designing the SMART
objectives for the marketing plan. No plan is complete without a strategic promotional or tactic
and with respect to this, it can be understood that, the latter half of the report will lay down the
strategic tactics which the firm can adopt. This will be followed by the Key performance
indicators which can be used to measure the overall efficiency of the firm and lastly, the
conclusions and recommendations will be made.
PESTLE Analysis
The ecommerce industry has witnessed considerable growth in the past few years and has
performed well irrespective of the various downturns which have taken place in the global
economy (Beesley2013). The United States and the China can be stated to be one of the
growing economies which existed and with respect to this, various e-commerce companies like
Amazon, EBay, Alibaba and others have come up which have received immense growth and
consideration. Additionally, in line of the growing trend, the companies like Coles, Walmart,
Tesco and Aldi have also gone online. The main reason behind the growth of the firm can be

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stated to be the technology growth prospects which have led to the overall prosperity of the
industry on the whole.
Political factors:
The political factors can be redefined as the factors which relate to the governmental laws
and the different policies which can impact the overall performance of the business. Although
the threat of conducting the business presently, can be understood to be considerably low,
however, it needs to be understood, that there still exists various hurdles which can have an
impact on the overall performance of the business (Dockalikova and Klozikova 2014). The
political and regulatory challenges as faced by the firm have been increasing and the growth of
the ecommerce segment in the European Union has been challenged by the different political
factors. The European Union generally targets the giants from the United States. The Brexit has
also had a considerable impact on the overall operations of the business and additionally this has
resulted in a low growth rate of the firm. Political chaos has resulted to the disruption of the
operations both online as well as physically. Additionally, it needs to be mentioned that on a
positive note, the Brexit has resulted in new regulations for the different ecommerce businesses
as present in the UK.
Economic factors:
The economic factors can be rightfully defined as the factors which are very significant in
terms of the calculation of the physical as well as economic factors the business factors relate
directly to the business and have an impact on the overall revenues as well as profits of the
business (Brassington and Pettitt2003). During the period of recession, the spending by the firm
tends to be affected considerably. People tend to adopt the different cost cutting measures in

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order to save their money and this has led to a downward slope for the spending trends in the
country. However, with the growth of the ecommerce trends, the spending of the people has
increased as they are largely attracted towards the spending money on buying goods online
(Dockalikova and Klozikova 2014). The higher economic activity means faster growth and
higher revenues for the e-commerce industry. The cheap prices as offered by the companies on
the online store will have an impact on the overall success of the e-commerce retail industry.
Social factors:
The social factors tend to have a considerably strong impact on the overall performance
of the e-commerce industry. The e-retail brands have been able to make use of the domain of e-
commerce and this has gone a long way in assisting them to grow and hence, various small
companies in the United Kingdom have flourished well. The changing consumer trends tend to
have an impact on the overall business (Makos). The growth in the mobile technology has further
affected the growth of the ecommerce industry and on a practical note, the increase in the use of
the mobile phones and the internet has brought about a boost in the ecommerce industry as well.
This is because, the mobiles are used very often by the different users and hence, the different
customers tend to make use of this gadget in order to ensure that the operations are carried out
easily.
Technological:
The technological factors are the most crucial factors in the domain of the e-commerce
industry because, the overall business of an e-commerce is largely dependent on the technology
which helps the software to set itself and along with this, also assists the business to reach out to
the different customers. In order to ensure that a business is successfully able to increase its

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overall popularity, the different e-commerce businesses are generally able to race ahead of the
different competitors as present. Different businesses like Amazon, EBay and Walmart invest
heavily in technology in order to ensure faster growth (Dockalikova and Klozikova 2014).
Moreover, the introduction of the Artificial intelligence has made the different activities better
for the different customers as it has made the procedure of shopping comparatively easier. The
technology has assisted in improving the overall scenario of the business and this has made the
business steadier. In conclusion, it can be stated that, the technological factors have influenced
the e-commerce business and brought it to great extents.
Environmental:
The environmental factors also possess an important space in the context of the e-
commerce industry and in line of this, it can be rightfully mentioned that, the direct
environmental impact of the particular e-commerce industry can be understood to be
considerably low. The industry highly relies on sustainability and the industry also stands as a
perfect example of the manner in which the business can make use of sustainable packaging in
order to reduce the burden on the environment and utilize the medium of renewable energy so
that there does not lie any stress on the overall ecology. The contribution of the e-commerce
giant like Amazon on the ecology has been considerably high and the firm has invested in the
renewable energy to gain freedom from the use of the nonrenewable resources.
Legal:
Legal compliance also forms a considerable part of the business. In lieu of this, it can be
mentioned that any issue with the legal compliance may result in the loss of the firm as it may
prove to be a costly affair for the different operations of the firm.Noncompliance may also result

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in the financial losses of the overall operations of the firm and may be unethical in nature as
well. There are various laws present, which the business would be required to abide by, these are
the sustainability laws, the labor laws and others. Moreover, as the firm exports to the different
countries, then it would be required to ensure that the laws of all the countries are abided by so
that the company does not face any issue in the long run of the firm. The e-commerce brands are
also required to abide by the different cyber laws which are related to the electronic business.
Porter’sfive forces
The porters five forces can be defines as a useful tool which can be made use of in order
to determine the overall success of any business in the long run and to determine the power of
the different forces which exist in the business environment. In line of this, the following forces
could be identified which can be then used to ensure that, if any forces act in accordance,
considerable strategies can be formed to overcome the same. The different forces as operating in
the industry of the Asos ecommerce business can be stated to be as follows.
Industry competitors
In order to ensure that the business is able to attain success with respect to the overall
operations of the firm, the firm first needs to identify the different competitors of the business.
The different competitors of the business as present in the UK can be stated to be the large
supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, Walmart, Argos and others. In addition to this, there exists
other companies who are retailers like the Amazon and other giants who have taken up a
considerable share of the business and provides tough competition to the Asos (Business Balls
2016). Hence, it can be largely understood that in order to ensure success in the long run, the
business needs to maintain its competitive advantage so that it is able to gain the market share
over the competitors of the firm.

STRATEGIC MARKETING
Threat of substitutes
The first force which operates in the industry of e-commerce trade relates to that of the
substitutes and competitive rivalry. Businesses like Walmart, amazon and Tesco often provide
the substitute products of Asos which can increase the loss of sales and thereby increase the
threat of substitute possessed by the business. In addition to this, as the investment of the
business is quite less, it is able to stock the products which are substitute of the competitors,
thereby making the business quite competitive in nature.
Buyer power
The second factor existing is the power of the buyer. The buyer possess a crucial position
in the market and with respect to this, it becomes crucial for the buyers to ensure that they are
successfully able to possess a high bargaining power which would assist them to have a greater
positioning in the market . If the number of customers in the market will be low, then they will
be able to engage in success in the long run. However, when the number of customers are quite
high, which is the case of the ecommerce industry, then the bargaining power of the buyers can
be stated to be competitively quite low.
Supplier power
The power of the suppliers can be stated to be the power as possessed by the different
suppliers who tend to provide the goods to the sellers. The suppliers generally demand a higher
price from the different retailers and in case the businesses are unable to provide them with a
higher price when they tend to provide the goods accordingly. The size of the e-commerce
business tends to have an advantage on the power of suppliers. The large suppliers like the
Amazon, Morrison, Aldi and others enjoy larger power because of their large operational size of

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the business. Moreover, in a similar manner, the Asos.com will be having a greater advantage
over the suppliers because, they have a large operational size and in addition to this, they will
also be able to provide better goods to the different customers.
Barriers to entry
Although there does not exists any such legal barriers with respect to the entrance in the
e-commerce industry, it needs to be mentioned that, the presence of the different large
competitors in the industry, makes the barrier quite difficult. Asos has been established since the
year 2000 and since then, it has been able to develop a considerable market share for itself, using
which, the new entrants often face certain difficulties to expand their operations in the same
industry.
Competitive rivalry
The bargaining power of the competitors can be considered to be a critical aspect, which
any business would be required to careful of. The retail business is very competitive in nature
and with respect to this, it can be considered to be very crucial to ensure that the cut throat
competition is not present because it often tends to lead to price wars which may then lead to a
loss on the side of the firm.
Internal competencies analysis
The internal competencies analysis will be done using the SWOT analysis which shall
assist in understanding the overall strengths as possessed by the firm and will be then followed
by the Opportunities as well as the Threats which the firm might face in the long run.
Strengths Weaknesses
Good performance in the market
Highly skilled workforce
The marketing of the firm can be
improved in the long run

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Strong Brand Portfolio
Good returns in the past few years
Automation of the activities (IMA
1996).
The financial planning of the firm
needs to be carried out effectively
The firm lacks in technology
The firm has a higher employee
attrition rate
Opportunities Threats
The firm can expand into newer
markets which will help it to
perform considerably well
The firm can take advantage of the
trends in consumer behavior.
Increased competition from different
brands
Changing needs of the customers
Shortage of good employees
Environmental and technological
pressures (Business Balls 2016).
SMART Marketing objectives
The marketing objectives which the firm aims to follow can be stated to be as follows:
 To ensure that the firm is able to increase its revenue by 50% in the coming one
year
 To ensure that the firm is able to increase its net sales by 30% in the coming year.
 To ensure that the market share of the firm increases by 20% in the coming 2
years
 To ensure that the brand will be able to increase the customer satisfaction index
by 5% in the coming years.
 To improve the overall brand positioning of the firm.