Comprehensive SWOT Analysis of Marks and Spencer (M&S) Business

This report offers a comprehensive SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of Marks and Spencer (M&S), a prominent UK-based retail brand. The introduction provides a brief overview of M&S, its history, specialization in high-quality clothing, home products, and food, and its global presence. The main body of the report details the internal strengths, such as a wide product range, customer satisfaction focus, and multiple store locations. It also highlights the weaknesses, including a lack of trendy products, ineffective marketing strategies, and underutilization of technology. The report further identifies opportunities for growth, such as business expansion and the adoption of new technologies. Finally, it addresses potential threats, including varying international regulations, competition from new entrants, and market inflation. The report concludes with a list of references used for the analysis, including books and journals.

Swot
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
Marks and Spencer (M&S) is a major retail brand based in U.K. It is established by Michael
Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884 . The company's headquarter is located in Westminster,
London .M&S has a specific specialization dealing in high quality clothing , home products and
food products . M&S currently owns 959 stores across the U.K. that include 615 stores dealing
in food products only (Ng and Bloemraad, 2015) . M&S is listed in London Stock Exchange
and it also a part of FTSE 250 Index. M & S is located in 1463 locations across the globe
MAIN BODY
SWOT Analysis of Marks & Spencer
Strength of Marks and Spencer
1.) M&S has a wide range of products so the customer can choose according to best of their
needs.
2.) Customer satisfaction is the upmost responsibility for M&S so they take the complete care
of their customer.
3.) M&S has a large number of stores that are easy accessible for their customers. Because of
these large numbers their customer base is also apparently high .
4.) M&S provide multiple brands in each and every product they offer so the customer has
couple of options to choose from.
5.)Availability of multiple products always attract to the customer . A customer can save a lot
of his time whole shopping at one place only.
6.) M&S always value the customer over business that helps businesses to grow very rapidly
because they always keep their customer support and faith while expanding in new areas.
Weakness of Marks and Spencer
1.) Marks and Spencer is also known as non trendy store despite of high range of products
M&S could not cope up with the latest fashion and trends.
2.) Marks and Spencer has been unable to attract the customers from its non convenient
marketing strategy.
3.) Non availability of the trendy products always leads to loosing the young customer base so
as M&S could not attract the young generation to shop.
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4.) Marks and Spencer has not effectively invested in adopting new technology which couldn't
upgrade this organization at technological level (Ajmera , 2017). Non availability of latest
technology always leads to time consuming processes.
5.)Financial planning is also an aspect where M&S needs to work on. The books of accounts
shows that the company is not utilizing its financial resources properly . Under utilization of
financial resources can be a root cause behind declining company's market position.
6.)The company not so far able to deal with new entrants properly because of that it could loose
some market share as well. The company should formulate an effective market strategy for
dealing with new entities who are looking to grow their business in the market.
Opportunities for Marks and Spencer
1.) M&S is expanding its business in other part of the world . M&S started their business in
U.K. and now they are a part of global market (Pastrana, Centeno and De Lima, 2015)
Globalization of business always attracts to wide range of opportunities not just in the new
market but in the already established market as well.
2.) Green drive of government also seems welcoming for Mark and Spencer . Contractors of
state as well federal government are favorable in procuring M&S products.
3.) Adoption of new technology always create an extra market for the organization. Company
can look to expand its sale by selling its products on internet. Internet has his own customer base
and M&S can utilize that customer base by giving some effective offers on its products. Internet
and immensely attract high selling figures for the organization.
4.) Government free trade policy has provide more opportunities to Marks and Spencer to grow
in new emerging market (Zhang and et.al.,, 2018) M&S can introduce more products and
enhance its present customer base by entering into the new demanding market.
Threat for Marks and Spencer
1.) Every country has different laws, rules and regulations and Marks and Spencer might expose
in dealing with all such laws, rules and regulations.
2.) Emergence of new organization is always a threat for all the brands in the market. Market has
a wide range and a new entrant can also find its customer base by giving some attractive offers
which might not affordable for other big brands.
3.)Growth of distributor is also a threat for M&S as other competitors pay some extra margin to
the distributors so they can easily attract local distributors.
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4.)Market inflation always affect the purchasing power of the customer . Higher inflation can
cause to reducing trend in the market.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ng, E.S. and Bloemraad, I., 2015. A SWOT analysis of multiculturalism in Canada, Europe,
Mauritius and South Korea.
Ajmera, P., 2017. Ranking the strategies for Indian medical tourism sector through the
integration of SWOT analysis and TOPSIS method.International journal of health care
quality assurance,30(8), pp.668-679.
Pastrana, T., Centeno, C. and De Lima, L., 2015. Palliative care in Latin America from the
professional perspective: a SWOT analysis.Journal of palliative medicine,18(5), pp.429-
437.
Zhang, L., and et.al.,, 2018. SWOT analysis for the promotion of energy efficiency in rural
buildings: A case study of China.Energies,11(4), p.851
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