Mark And Spencer Essay For UK Retail Company.

Overview of the Company (Mark and Spencer)

Discuss about the Mark and Spencer Report for UK Retail Company.

Mark and Spencer (abbreviated as M&S), a UK retail company has a history which dates back to 1884 when it was first established by a Russian born Polish. Since then, the company has grown and opened more than 300 stores across the world apart from being the largest clothing retailer in the United Kingdom. The company has always been competitive in the market through implementation of new market techniques to attract and retain their consumers. For example, they introduced the online shopping platform in 1999 which was available in their official website enabling their customers to shop at the comfort of their homes. At the time, the internet has just begun to get into the general population and therefore, Mark and Spencer took the advantage at the right moment (Marks and Spencer, 2018)).

It was in 2000 when the Mark and Spencer came up with healthy ‘count on us’ varied products which were fit to the individuals on diet. They opened ‘simply food’ stores in Twickenham and Surbiton in 2001 whereby, these stores only dealt with healthy food only unlike the rest of their normal stores which supplied clothes and other home furnishing products. Their target market included;

The M&S realized that they needed to be on the lead in terms of looking for high class customers who will not only boost their turnover but also bring more profits to the firm. A ‘Per Una’ brand of clothing was an initiative of the company to target women who were conscious to fashion.

M&S started a “Blue Harbour” brand of clothes which target male individuals who were into the casual wear. This brand of clothes were high end in terms of standards and quality. The brand was officially launched in January 2001.

The company also targeted the sports individuals by introducing the ‘View form’ in 2002. DB07 clothing were for children. The company did the design of this sportswear in collaboration with David Beckham.

The company works in strict compliance with their mission statement which is split into three sub-sections, that is; Vision- To be the standard in which the rest measures against (Marks and Spencer, 2018). Values- Quality value, innovation, trust and service to the customers. Mission- To make an aspirational quality which is available and accessible to everyone. Since the initiation of the company as well as their mission statement, M&S have kept their word to see that they achieve all the factors involved.

Role of Motivation and Learning

Mark and Spencer has persisted not only in the UK market, but also oversees due to its quality of products and their aim to meet individual customer’s demands. M&S has faced a lot of challenges along their way but they have always tried to keep up to the demands of their consumers or customers. The company has always been motivated and due to this, many companies within and outside UK look up to Mark and Spencer to measure themselves against this giant company thereby helping their company to grow in terms of customers and overall company growth (employees, profits and turnover) (Gong, Huang and Farh, 2009, p.770). Motivation helped the company in many ways that include;

In the current century, online and specifically, mobile shopping in overwhelmingly increasing and in that case most of the retailers are focusing on optimizing their digital platforms to suite their customers. In this manner, they cope with competitive environment. The company executives of the M&S realized this challenge earlier enough and generated a fortune opportunity by creating and advancing their web experience with customers (Hartline, Mirrokni and Sundararajan, 2008, p.193). This greatly boost their sales and diversified their marketing strategies.

M&S ran a successful test program that they implemented using the Webtrends Optimize. The purpose of the Webtrends team was to provide a valuable input in guiding the company on the strategic directions, steps and best practices that could gear the company towards their dreams. This became one of the valuable partnership to Mark and Spencer, and on realizing this, they capitalized on it and went further to streamline the partnership with the valuable consultants on their reach.

Mark and Spencer has always been in the forefront of other companies when it comes to valuing their customers’ needs and preferences. The motivation that company has keeps their customers and attracts even more, thereby expanding their market share. They always consider the need to be consistent in adapting to the changes in the need of their consumers through introduction of new products and labels (Mullins, Walker and Boyd, 2012, p. 33). But it is through their motivation that they have kept their brand consistently for several decades.

Currently, Mark and Spencer has over 33 million customers who are the consumers of their high quality range of products that includes clothing, food products and homewares. The company can be said to be successful as it is listed on the FTSE 100. M&S has grown from a humble background to a today’s multi-channel player. It has well developed and smooth running online shopping operation coupled with 480 international outlets and over 850 stores within the United Kingdom.

Consistency

Mark and Spencer found it lucrative in focusing on high quality products that are specifically targeted to the high class customers. They sell high-value and premium products to their customers not only in the UK market but also across the globe. Being adamant on their brand purpose have played the key role in lifting the position of the company’s market share despite the challenging and ever competitive trading environment (Ryan, 2016, p.131). They always make their products in such a manner that their clients trust that the company’s products are worth paying for, that is, irrespective of the prices that are set.

Through every moment that has ever come in the UK streets, either favorable or unfavorable, M&S has always been adamant to changing the prices of their products. Their prices have always been at premium levels and has always not came below certain limit even if their competitors slashed their prices to extreme levels (Armstrong Kotler, Harker and Brennan, 2015, p.78). They have been devoted to their initial mission of bringing quality to the British consumers and therefore, premium prices means high quality to them. To the company, quality products will always be expensive due to the levels input mechanisms which are also premium unlike their counterparts (Armstrong et al, 2015, p. 44).

The company’s prices have always been the key subject on the marketing mix. They chose high costs which creates an illusion in their current and potential customers that their products are worth their money (Ottman, 2017). Most of their competitors take the path of lowering their price costs but contrary to this, Mark and Spencer will maintain their high prices since they believe that customers will always prefer brand that offers quality over price (Wilson and Gilligan, 2012, p. 33). They have to hold strongly on the belief that, lowering the prices would mean compromising the quality of the products in question.

M&S managers at the stores are strongly committed and this as seen the company succeed. They offer their full support to the campaign team that advertises the company’s range of products. Mark and Spencer sail through the challenges and made it to their success since their managers provided the necessary support through the showcards the provided in-store as well as in windows (Evans, Campbell & Stonehead, 2010, p. 49). They provided up to five showcards in stores (depending on the sizes). A single large card could go in store.

Managers’ attitudes

The online shopping that Mark and Spencer initiated has opened a world of opportunities not online in the United Kingdom but also across the world. This also provides customers with range of products to choose from when it comes to shopping. Online sales and marketing creates lot of competition in the market but M&S takes this advantage in showcasing their products and in letting the world know that their company is an up to date company (Zenker, Eggers and Farsky, 2013, p.135). www.markandspencers.com is their website, which is a complete website, and everything that one needs to know about the company will get it in place

Mark and Spencer can just expand on Brown field sites witch limits them to staying in urban territories with lots of market rivalry. When it comes to legal issues, the government is continually rethinking and making amendments to laws that governs trade, which empowers Marks and Spencer's to exchange for longer hours, for instance; longer shopping hours on a Friday. Imprints and Spencer's must take after publicizing laws which are set up to secure the customer, yet additionally to advance reasonable rivalry between organizations (Murray, Gao and Kotabe, 2011, p. 260). When it comes to SWOT Analysis, the SWOT examination takes a gander at an organization's qualities, shortcoming, openings and dangers which are probably going to affect the organization's execution.

One of the keys to the improvement of Marks and Spencer throughout the years has been the capacity of the brand to meet the consistently changing necessities of a wide client base. The center brand estimations of value, esteem, administration, development and trust have reliably remained the foundations of the Marks and Spencer suggestion.

A gap analysis includes recognizing a gap or shortcoming in a particular organization and hoping to connect that gap keeping in mind the end goal to meet an objective target as to where the organization needs to be. The accompanying statement promotes distinguish a gap analysis: "Gap examination, comprises of characterizing the present express, the coveted 'or target state' and subsequently the gap between them. In the later phases of critical thinking the point is to take a gander at approaches to overcome any issues (Chaffeyet al., 2009, p. 76). Competition or rivalry in womenswear has expanded drastically with ladies requesting style, quality, remarkable esteem and genuine designs and products. All together for Marks and Spencer to recover this piece of the overall industry they set out an unmistakable arrangement, this included tuning in to clients better amid store visits, center gatherings, better utilization of market information and watching out for following patterns, following contenders and furthermore assessing there possess execution (Chen and Chai, 2010, p. 27). From a buying perspective they hoped to reinforce their purchasing groups, giving clearer duties regarding configuration, purchasing and marketing.

Technology

Market entrance is a development system where the business centers around offering existing items into existing markets. It looks to accomplish four fundamental destinations: Maintain or increment the piece of the pie of current items - this can be accomplished by a mix of focused valuing techniques, publicizing, deals advancement and maybe more assets devoted to individual offering (Evans, 2012, p. 66). Imprints and Spencer, concerning the thing "Garments", the organization has demonstrated that they are giving top notch products to customers over the UK and Europe. Imprints and Spencer began acting in single markets in its starting, expanding this number to 895 yet. Rebuild a develop showcase by driving out contenders; this would require a significantly more forceful special battle, upheld by an evaluating procedure intended to make the market ugly for contenders (Doyle, 2009, p. 98). The foodservice advertise is a standout amongst the most requesting and modern in which the Marks and Spencer works. Increment utilization by existing clients - for instance by presenting dependability plans.

Market advancement is where the business tries to offer its current items into new markets. This may involve investigation of new portions of a market, new uses for the organization's items and administrations, or new geological regions keeping in mind the end goal to tempt new clients (Dweck, 2013, p. 56). There are numerous conceivable methods for moving toward this methodology, including: New land markets; for instance sending out the item to another nation. In February 2007, Marks and Spencer declared the opening of the world's biggest Marks and Spencer store outside the UK at Dubai Festival City. On 2 October 2008, Marks and Spencer opened its first territory China store in Shanghai, which are some case of market advancement.

References

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