Marks & Spencer's Sustainable Consumer Behavior Strategies

M&S's Sustainable Consumer Behavior Initiatives

Question:

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has set itself the objective of trying to change the attitudes  and  behaviour  of  its  21  million  customers  (per  week)  from  a passive  and  defeatist  feeling  to  a  more  actively  sustainable  and  more optimistic one. It recognises that for this to happen, it needs to engage with its  mainstream  consumer  base.  M&S’s  approach  is  about  changing consumer behaviour by making it easy for consumers to ‘do the right thing.’

M&S has been engaging its customers on sustainability related issues for some time. Its first major push, Look Behind the Label, raised awareness of the key issues on its customer’s radar and enabled it to gain their approval to go a little further. M&S demonstrated strong business action through Plan A, both in terms of getting their own house in order and ensuring they are doing the heavy lifting on its customer’s behalf. In order to engage mainstream consumers, M&S then simplified its communications around sustainability to ‘Doing the Right  Thing’,  a  hook  that  has  proved  to  resonate  with  its  mainstream customers.  Two  initiatives  to  engage  and  influence  consumer  behaviour have been the removal of free carrier bags and the One Day Wardrobe Clear-Out.

Withdrawing Free Carrier Bags

M&S introduced a five pence charge for plastic food carrier bags as a way of encouraging customers to do their part on sustainability and to change their shopping behaviour. Although it’s not the biggest environmental issue, M&S decided to focus on carrier bags since it was directly relevant and would touch everyone. To date, nine in ten consumers claim to be using fewer carrier bags, with bag usage in their food halls down by 80 percent.

One Day Wardrobe Clear - Out

M&S’s One Day Wardrobe Clear-Out – timed around the autumn season was a  successful  approach  to  generate  active  customer  participation  on sustainability  and  reward  them  for  it.  The  Wardrobe  Clear-Out  was  a strategy to keep customers engaged with the M&S Oxfam Clothes Exchange programme– launched the previous year to encourage customers to donate their old M&S clothes to Oxfam, in return for a £5 M&S voucher. As a result of this initiative, Oxfam received 400,000 garments and M&S achieved an increase in footfall and in-basket sales.

M&S has high ambitions and recognises that it has a long way to go before all customers are actively engaging in sustainability issues. However, its journey so far has hugely influenced customers and competitors alike.

Assume that you are the marketing research manager for Marks 7 Spencer.

1. Discuss the target market and positioning strategies for each of the above CB strategies and suggest other segments that M&S might be able to successfully target.

2. How has M&S been able to help consumers shift their attitudes? Is the company taking a proactive approach to managing its marketing environment? How?

3. Based on your knowledge of buyer behaviour as discussed in the module

– provide a proposal for an effective consumer marketing campaign for M&S, including the use of social media: Facebook, twitter, blogs etc. Critically discuss different ways to attract and retain consumers using different social media in the UK supermarket industry.

4. Critically analyse and evaluate consumer and customer management practices adopted by M&S and explain how consumers might react to individualised consumer-organisation interaction.

Target Market and Positioning Strategies

Sustainable consumer behavior refers to the behavior of the consumers that helps in improving the social and environmental performances and also focuses on meeting the needs and requirements of the customers. From the perspective of environmental and social welfare, consumer behavior needs to be understood since the product affects the phases of the customer’s consumption process (Alshurideh et al. 2014). This also can be clarified from the behavior of the customers in choosing among the products to buy and using them most efficiently that will help in social and environmental welfare. It has to be remembered that the organizations initially need to understand the buying behavior, decision making behavior and styles of buying of the customers for engaging them into sustainable development (Gunn and Mont, 2014).

This assignment will be dealing with the objectives of Marks and Spencer in changing the behavior and attitude of customers into a sustainable and optimistic behavior. It has headquartered in London and has nearly 90,000 employees working in this organization globally. It is a huge British international retailer that specializes in selling clothes, luxury food items and home products (Marksandspencer.com, 2015).

This assignment deals with the target market and positioning for the different segments of M&S along with role of the company in shifting the attitudes of the consumers. In addition to this, the different ways of attracting and retaining the customers are discussed along with the evaluation and analysis of consumer behavior. In addition to this, the buying behavior of the customers are well explained with the help of different theories in this assignment

The target market and positioning strategies for “Withdrawing free carrier bags” and “one day wardrobe clear out” can be explained with Freudian Motivation Theory. According to this theory, the customers can choose any product due to unconscious desires and motivation. Hood (2013) had commented on the fact that it is the marketer or sales person who is responsible for understanding the emotional response of the consumer. Through this effort, the customers will be a part of the sustainable growth of the company. M&S has adopted the strategies in order to change the attitude and buying behavior of the customers in order to make the customers more sustainable and optimistic in their approach. According to Faulds and Mangold, (2014) by charging five pence against the plastic bags will compel the customers in bringing their own shopping bags that will help in reducing the pollution caused by plastic bags and it will be the 1^st step of the customers in the sustainable growth of the company.

Figure 1: Freudian Motivation Theory

According to Giuliani et al. (2011) M&S has adopted the Jungian motivation theory for understanding the customers and their behavior. According to this concept, the inner conflicts that result from the upbringing of the customers and their socialization affect their buying behavior as well as their social responsibility. The customers are also segmented according to the buying behavior so that homogenous groups are formed that help in easy targeting of the customers. The company has actively participated in changing the attitude of the customers so that the customers grow with the growth of the company and also have social responsibility towards the environment. Initially M&S has targeted the loyal customers as well as the new customers of the company and had adopted the strategy of claiming money in exchange of plastic bags. Moosmayer and Fuljahn (2010) had a view that this step will help in encouraging the customers to be a part of their sustainable growth and their step towards the solution to the environmental pollution. It is believed by the company that through this step, it will not only encourage the customers in sustainability growth but will also help in solving one of the issues of the environment.

Shifting Customer Attitudes

Figure 2: Jungian motivation theory

In addition to this, M&S has also adopted Moral Foundations Theory that helps in understanding the morals of the customers. According to Prause (2014) the moral foundation theory can be referred to as social psychological theory that describes the origins and variations of moral reasoning of the human beings based on fairness, loyalty, purity, authority and liberty. Through this model, M&S has tried to increase the moral of the customers by charging for the plastic bags and adding a value of 5 pence to it. According to the view of Nguyen et al. (2014) the company believes that by doing this, the customers will not only accept it as a sustainable growth but also will be compelled to change their attitude while buying goods. It is believed that the moral of the company will help in sustainable growth of the company and will also help in solving the environmental issues.

According to Bagheri and Tarokh (2011) by using the strategy of wardrobe clear out, the company also focuses on the clearance of the wardrobe of the customers. The customers will be donating the clothes that they are planning to throw out. For donating the clothes, the customers in return will be rewarded and will be given £ 5 M&S voucher. This will surely help in improving the moral of the customer and will also help in bringing a positive change in the customer lookout. By adopting this strategy, it is seen that nearly 400000 garments were collected in Oxfam Clothes Exchange program and M&S was successful in achieving a good increase in footfall along with increase in in-basket sales. On this strategy, Gabriels et al. (2013) commented on the fact that this helped in improving the morale of the customers and also helped them to get actively involved in the sustainability program of the company. Initially, the company segments the customers according to their loyalty and amount of buying good from the company. On the basis of that, the customers are segmented and targeted to make them undertake the sustainability measures for the welfare of the company. The consumer behavior is largely affected by the company sustainability measures.

On the success of the above mentioned strategies, M&S focuses on the other segments for the success. The segment that M&S successfully target is discussed below-

Organic products- Organic products are those products that are grown without using artificial fertilizers and insecticides. According to Hou and Reber (2011) these products are healthy and good for health so they are largely in demand with the customers. Through the usage of organic products, the customers take a healthy step towards sustainability along with the company. M&S initially segments the customers according to the demand of the customers and then targets the homogenous group according to the demand and necessity of the organic products. This is because, through the organic products, the company aims in providing healthy lifestyle to the customers. Molavi and L Barrall (2014) also had a view that now days since the customers also have become health conscious to a great extent so the demand of the organic products are also rising in a rapid pace. Through these products, the buying behavior of the customers will be affected due to their inclination towards the organic goods.

Consumer Marketing Campaign Proposal

M&S has played a very important role in shifting the attitudes of the customers into a constructive and positive direction. According to the perspective of Evans et al. (2009) this step has been taken by the organization to have a sustainable growth towards the environment and to involve the customers to actively participate in this growth. It needs to be remembered by the company that already the customers have some values towards some products which has to be changed according to the requirements and for the sustainable growth. M&S has adopted the Balance theory which is a motivational theory that helps in conceptualizing the cognitive consistency that drives towards the psychological balance. From the viewpoint of Pescher et al. (2014) the company has adopted this motivational balance theory in order to change the attitude of the customers so that they can take a positive leap towards the sustainability growth. By using the re-usable shopping bags, the customers at one hand prevent the pollution caused by the plastic bags and on the other hand also implement the habit within them to carry the shopping bags.

The value added plastic bags as well as withdrawal of free plastic shopping bags is adopted by the company in order to encourage the customers for sustainability growth. Ungerman and Myslivcová (2014) commented on the fact that the sustainability of the customers helps the company also in taking successful steps for protection of the environment. It is claimed by the company itself that by charging extra money that is five pence for the plastic bags has changed the attitude of the customers. It has been that nearly 80% of the customers have started using shopping bags instead of plastic bags. Veeck and Hoger (2014) also had a view that this helped not only in reduction of usage of plastic bags but also the company has taken step regarding the corporate social responsibility with the help of the customers. According to the company through this step the customers learns about the taking essential step for supporting the environment and keeping it clean.

In addition to this, Zhang and Vos (2014) had commented that the strategy that the organization has taken reading the donation of clothes in exchange of money has also proved helpful. It also helped in changing the attitude of the customers in disposing the clothes. The company has claimed that in exchange of money the customers are donating their clothes to Oxfam. This not only generates the active sustainability of the customers but also help in becoming the loyal customers of the organization. According to Zouzou (2010) it has been recorded that nearly 400000 garments were donated by the customers to Oxfam and M&S reached a record breaking increase in in-basket sales and footfall. Through these strategies, M&S not only engaged itself into sustainable growth but also influences the customers and the competitors as well to adopt the sustainability issue.

According to Islam and Deegan (2010) the marketing approaches of M&S is proactive in nature and helps in attracting the customers to a huge extent. The approaches such as withdrawal of free plastic carrier bags and wardrobe clearance are very practical in their approach and help in managing the marketing environment to a considerable extent. The proactive approaches of the organization need to be secured, reliable, adaptable as well as efficient. Miller and Washington (2014) had a view that this helps in developing the continuity plans for the organization and operating it in the most efficient way. In addition to this, the proactive approach of M&S also helps in full utilization of the resources, improvement of the process and is also a continuous process.

Social Media Use for Consumer Engagement

It is seen that other than using the above mentioned strategies, M&S is also planning for the future. Ungerman and Myslivcová (2014) commented on the fact that the company aims in changing the attitude of the customers and bring the positivity within them so that they can help the organization in the sustainable growth of the company. The other proactive approaches such as introduction of modern communication and information technologies will certainly help in progression of the organization. Moreover, the employees need to engage themselves actively for the best utilization of the resources of the organization to make a sustainable growth of the company. Zouzou (2010) had a view regarding the proactive approach of the organization is supplying the best products to the customers at a reasonable cost and reduce the waste to a considerable extent.

For effective consumer campaigning of M&S, the company has adopted social media for doing this effectively. The social media such as Facebook, blogs, twitter etc. are now days used by nearly all the customers. Hou and Reber (2011) commented on the fact that the usage of the Smart phones, iPhones and tablets, the applications of these social media are easily installed in the phones. So, campaigning through these mediums becomes easily reachable to the customers. With the evolution of modern technology, the users also have become more techno savvy and they are more interested in those companies that are using social media as their marketing campaign. In addition to this, Bagheri and Tarokh (2011) had a view that through these social media, the customers come across the company and their sustainable development policies. It has been seen that M&S has started charging 5 pence for the plastic bags and has encouraged the customers to be the part of this sustainability in order to change their shopping behavior.

According to Faulds and Mangold (2014) it is known by all the customers as well as the companies that using plastic materials affect the environment to a huge extent and customers should avoid using it. But in general, it has become a habit of the customers not to carry the shopping bags and rather have plastic bags for the products bought from the supermarket. In order to devoid the customers from using plastic bags and make a good use of their own re-usage shopping bags, prices have been added to the plastic bags. This helped the company in making the customers moved by its ethical considerations and environmental friendliness. In addition to this, Moosmayer and Fuljahn (2010) had a view that by adding value to the plastic carrier bags, maximum of the customers will be bound to carry their own shopping bags and that will free the environment from the disposal of plastic carrier bags and will prevent pollution to an extent.

According to Miller and Washington (2014) M&S‘s campaign for the effort to One day Wardrobe Clear-out through the social media has brought colors to the company. This is because, the customers who generally throws away the clothes after using it will be disposing the old clothes to the company which in return they will get vouches of M&S. This encourages the customers in taking part in donating the clothes to Oxfam. Bagheri and Tarokh (2011) commented on the fact that nearly 400,00 garments has been disposed and M&S has achieved an amplification in footfall as well as in-basket sales. This helped the organization in engaging the customers and influencing them in sustainability issues. This strategy when was announced through the social media like Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, it easily reached the customers which resulted in the successful achievement of M&S’s sustainability issue.

Consumer and Customer Management Practices

Islam and Deegan (2010) commented on the fact that in this tech savvy world, the UK supermarket companies in order to reach the customers uses the different media for attracting and retaining customers. This is because; use of technology has made the world small and helped the companies in reaching its customers very easily. Special discounts are given to the customer using the social media in buying products from M&S. This helps in attracting the customers to a huge extent and also helps in retaining the customers. Gunn and Mont (2014) had a view that the customers have an idea about the product and the company from the electronic word of mouth in the different social media. This helps in building and creating a good relationship between the customers and the company. This will help in attracting the customers to a huge extent that will get converted to loyalty of the customers towards the company and it will ultimately result in retaining the loyal customers.

In addition to this, Miller and Washington (2014) commented on the fact that the social media also helps in making the customers feel special and reward them more for their active participation in sustainability as well as shopping exclusively from the company. The company through social media gets in touch with the customers easily. Online surveys for getting the feedback and interaction with the customers regarding the more development of the company can be done through social media. Moreover according to Zouzou (2010) through social media, M&S can easily know about the desires of the customers and the company can act according to their desires. This helps the customers in getting touch with the company easily and it helps in ultimate satisfaction of the customers thereby retaining them successfully.

Pescher et al. (2014) had a view that another efficient way of attracting and retaining the customers is through content marketing through social media. M&S has strong content marketing that is well connected with the social media for attracting the customers and retaining them. The customers come across the valuable information about the company which is both lucrative and authentic. According to Molavi and Barrall (2014) these kind of information both attracts as well as retains the customers to M&S. The strategies that the company has adopted such as value added plastic carrier bags and wardrobe clearance reached the customers through social media. The after affects such as the customer’s usage of their re-usable shopping bags and deposits of nearly 400000 garments in Oxfam helped in bringing sustainable changes among the customers. This also helped in customer satisfaction that led to customer attraction and finally customer retention (Hou and Reber, 2011).

M&S gives a huge priority to the customers by analyzing and evaluation of their needs and desires. The customer’s management practices of M&S is quite attractive and effective for the customers that help in huge database of customers in M&S. The customer management practices of M&S are discussed below-

a) Building relationships- Islam and Deegan (2010) commented on the fact that one of the basic steps that is need to be followed by M&S for managing the customers is through building strong relationship with the customers. The company focuses in building relationship with the customers due to understand the customer decision making styles, their culture, and sub-culture along with customer psychographics. According to Nguyen et al. (2014) the customer psychographic is a profile based on the interest, activities and opinions of the potential customers. In order to build a lifelong relationship with the customers, M&S focuses to know more about the customers and about their culture, lifestyle and characteristics.

b) Integrating the support channels- According to Gabriels et al. (2013) the customers choose the channel that helps in communicating with the company. The new consumer technologies help the company in providing a good support to the consumers. The SMS service, video chat and chat all helps in providing a good support to the customers in knowing about the company and its products. With the advancement of the technology, the customers now days have become more inclined towards the usage of modern technology.

c) Talking to the customers in real time- According to Moosmayer and Fuljahn (2010) this is an important customer management practice that helps in interaction with the customers directly. This strategy adopted by M&S in order to provide the customers with the best services for their ultimate satisfaction from the products and services of the company. The Dirichlet model is used by M&S that shows the repeat purchases of the brands of the customers. Veeck and Hoger (2014) commented on this fact that it helps the company in understanding the desires of the customers and their buying trends. This is done by tracking down the customer’s buying behavior and also by talking to the customers lively.

d) Empowering and engaging employees- Prause (2014) had a view that M&S focuses on the active involvement of the employees for the sustainable growth of the company. This helps in understanding the culture of the customers as well as it also provides information to the customers regarding the culture of the organization. Active involvement of the customers is a strong customer management practice of M&S. According to Zhang and Vos (2014) by actively engaging the employees into sustainable growth of the company, it helps in understanding the consumer’s buying habit and decision making styles. This makes the company in producing the goods according to the customer’s needs and requirements.

e) Focusing metrics on the customers- According to Miller and Washington (2014) M&S focuses on the customers by measuring the contribution of the customers as well as employees for the success of the company. This is done to maintain a healthy relationship with both the customers and employees that will help the company in gaining success. The major priority of the company is to resolve the issues that the customers face while shopping in this supermarket.

f) Mobile Marketing- Hood (2013) commented on the fact that the mobile marketing is another step in efficient customer management service of the company. With the technological advancement of the mobile phones and introduction of Smart phones, I-phones etc. help in direct contact of the customers with the company. Through the apps of M&S, the online survey, feedback etc can be taken from the customers that help in better functioning of the company in customer management. Evans et al. (2009) also had a view that through mobile marketing, the company gets in touch with the customers directly that helps in better understanding of the buying behavior of the customers. Through mobile marketing, the sustainable growth and ethical approaches of the company can easily be relayed to the customers and online feedbacks are also received regarding their satisfaction or better improvement.

g) Handling the customer’s complaints- To manage the customers tactfully and give them ultimate satisfaction, Giuliani et al. (2011) commented that the company needs to handle the complaints of the customers. M&S gives the first priority to the customers regarding their complaints since the company believes that it is one of the efficient ways of management of the customers. By handling the customer’s complaints improves the relationship between the customers and also helps in building loyalty for each other. As a result the customers in return give a full support to the sustainable growth of the company. Gunn and Mont (2014) had a view that by handling the complaints of the customers, the company comes across the nature of the customer’s buying behavior, their buying decisions and about their culture.

Customer’s reaction to individualized interaction between consumer and organization

M&S is particular in interacting with the customers individually. This is because; according to Faulds and Mangold (2014) they believe that interacting with the customers individually helps in knowing the customers well about their buying behavior, culture and decision making styles. This helps in segmentation of the customers according to their buying behavior that also helps in resolving any conflicts regarding any products or services of the customers. Alshurideh et al. (2014) commented on the fact that the customers on interaction individually by the customers feel importance and thereby they become the loyal customers of the company on getting their problems solved by the company. In addition to this, the individualized interaction with the customers helps to know the customers on person that help in understanding their decision taking capability and buying behavior. This also helps in customer satisfaction that also helps in attracting the customers and retaining them.

Conclusion

It is seen in this assignment that M&S has taken a strong and effective step in changing the behavior and attitude of the customers visiting in the store. The company aims in changing the viewpoint of the customers from a passive mode to the sustainable and optimistic mode. The initiatives taken by the company for influencing the behavior of the customer are withdrawing the free carrier bags and adding value to it as well as one day wardrobe clear out session in exchange of £ 5 voucher of M&S. These initiatives taken by the company in order to make a sustainable change in the mentality of the customers that will help in sustainable growth of the company. Moreover, the use of social media in determining the buying behavior of the customers is also discussed. The effective way of using the social marketing campaigns such as Facebook, twitter, blogs etc are used for attracting and retaining customers is also discussed in the assignment. In addition to this, the customer management practices such as mobile marketing, building relationships etc that are adopted by M&S are also discussed vividly.

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