Marks and Spencer Market Failings

Technology is very important in the retail market. In order to grow your business, make their business more secure and complete with the competitors, Marks and Spencer has to move along with the new technology. To do this they must manage their brands carefully. Major brand marketers often spend huge amounts on

Marks and Spencer Group (M&S) is the premier retailer in clothing, foods and home ware within the United Kingdom. The company’s commitment to quality, value, service, innovation and trust is a key contributor to their success as a high street retailer in the UK. Their current core UK operations centre around three divisions, food, general merchandise (including clothing and home ware), and the financial services industry. Therefore Tesco plc is the prime UK retailer to analyse and compare growth, financial performance and the financial status of M&S Plc in line with other competitors within the same industry.

Part A of this report examines the resources and capabilities of Marks & Spencer (M&S) up to the mid 1990's and how they lead to creating a superior competitive advantage (CA) over all competitors.

Through gaining an empathic understanding as to why certain people consume regularly at Primark, I can conclude that the brand relationship is fast and disposal fashion at low price. As it is shown from Martin and Bush, cited by Morgan and Birtwistle (2009), young customers are the group who concerned trends the most. This infers that interviewers deem fashion to be of importance to their lifestyles especially among teenagers. These fashion-hungry customers might be heavily influenced by the fashion press and media as well as want to purchase the items in new trends as they appear. However, with limited pocket money, they are appealed by the “cheap chic”. Primark offers a solution to allow them pursuit the latest fashion without spending much money. According to McAfee et al.,

Primark, which was founded in Ireland in June 1969, is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods. It has nearly 300 stores

Marks and Spencer (M&S) p.l.c. is one of the largest retailers in the United Kingdom with a selling space of 12.5 million square feet, was established in 1884 as ‘Penny bazaar’. M&S sells clothing, food, footwear, gifts and home furnishings in its 760 stores around the world. The company’s wholly own and franchise stores operates in Europe, Hong Kong, Far East, Australia, Middle East, the Bahamas and Bermuda making a total of 34 countries.

PRIMARK: THE MARKET Primark specialise in low prices. Please note that when I say low, what I really mean is INCREDIBLY LOW. A ladies fashion belt for £2, a pair of mens fashion jeans for £8....you 're getting the idea. In order for Primark to make a decent enough profit after paying its work force and all its other expenses at these sorts of prices, it needs to sell sheer volume. Bulk sales, in more confined terms. In their method of bulk selling lie several advantages and several disadvantages but be well aware from the start that Primark is not about high price and top notch quality. It is about slightly low but still reasonable quality for a very very low price.

This document/report throws light on the business environment of Marks and Spencers and the analysis of strategic position, strategic direction, success criteria and backed up by future recommendations for the company based on all the mentioned aspects. The frameworks used to analyse the company are:

Marks and Spencer Company is one of the biggest retailers in UK, which it has known by providing the finest qualities of goods and services including clothing, home product, foods and groceries. In currently, M&S Company operates 852 UK stores, 480 international stores and e-commerce platform includes approximately 83,069 employees, while M&S Company is one of the UK’s leading market positions in Menswear, Women-wear and Lingerie products (Mark and Spencer 2016.

Primark is a clothing retailer company of the ABF (Associated British Foods) Group. Primark offer a wide range of products for example stocking everything from womenswear, menswear, home ware, accessories, footwear, beauty products and new born and kids clothing. The purpose of Primark is to sell fashionable product in a low cost. There 51,250 of employees that are working for Primark in areas such as western Europe and USA. The interesting fact is Primark does not currently use any media advertising outside the store, they rely on word of mouth advertising that saves on costs and has proved very successful.

M&S were too busy concentrating on expanding abroad and as a result the UK sales started to drop. M&S did not spend a lot of time or finance on advertising. It was a policy of there's to run a low key advertising campaign and relied heavily on their strong brand image and prominent location of their stores to promote new ranges. Also M&S moved production abroad in order to keep production costs down but this resulted in roughly 60,000 jobs being lost in the British textile industry, and

Marks and Spencer is one of the largest retailers in the United Kingdom, and is also known as a major retailer selling diverse product ranges under their own exclusive brand in more than thirty countries. Customer confidence in the Marks and Spencer brand remains second to none. According to recent research undertaken by the Company, it shows that, in clothing, Mark and Spencer has a clear lead over all its major competitors in the key areas of fit, quality, trust, breadth of range and customer service.

Marks and Spencer is one of Britain's most well-known, beloved stores. Within its walls, you can get everything from clothes to quintessentially British food. It is a one-stop shop for many Britons who adore it. Because of its popularity and singular British-ness, the company thought to expand into Western Europe. After all, there were many communities of British expatriates all over the continent who would probably appreciate being able to get a little taste of home in their new locations. You can't buy meat pies and English tea just anywhere, after all.

Marks and Spencer (M & S) was started by Michael Marks and later joint by a partner Tom Spencer in 1884. It is one of the largest British retailers that sold clothes, home furnishings, food, gifts etc. and was formerly known as St. Michael. It has markets in Europe, Far East, America and Asia. The company suffered a series of losses and a dip in the market share from a few years before the stepping down of the then CEO, Sir Richard Greenbury, in 1999. In 2001 the company underwent a drastic strategic change and the

A case study on Marks and Spencer which includes: The company at present, Background of the Study, Case Background, Problem, SWOT Analysis, Alternative Courses of Action, Recommendation, Conclusion.