Situation Analysis of International Marketing Environment (Marks and Spencer in Spain)

More recently, the recession impelled many bricks-and-mortar retailers towards a damaging focus on discounting that eroded not only many stores’ price positioning but also any point of differentiation or exclusivity.

In the past, JCP had, on average, one price campaign every day. The stores were full of sale signs and retail rise was getting out of control. JCP partnered with numerous exclusive collaborations which was hoped to bring about an expansion for the firm. However, due to the economic slump, the oversaturation of the market, and an expected lack of quality in the goods from the consumer perspective, JCPenney’s success was degrading in contrast to its competitors. (Sloan, 2010).

This report will demonstrate, apply and evaluate knowledge and understanding of key managerial disciplines of the chosen high street retailer, Marks and Spencer, in different real-world global contexts. According to the report by Deloitte, the retail industry is undergoing immense changes and faces a tough competitive

In the last part of the book, the author talks about small retailers and co-operators and their views regarding the monopolized retailers. This part also talks about the mass retailing business from a broader perspective. It turns out that the government did not want to intervene in the retail business and they were only able to bring in a tax reform for these big businesses. Even today, mass retailers still dominate the consumer landscape.

Consumer today have a different expectation than a decade ago. Consequently, I believed if a Retailer want to be survive and thrive in the hostility of the today’s market, they must focus on all four of competitive priorities such as cost, quality, time, flexibility.

Whilst retailers elsewhere are struggling, several commentators have been going beyond the marketing factors, behind their success, instead paying closer attention to the firm’s unusual model of ownership and control.

High capital requirements, specialised assets and economies of scale of existing retailers reduce the incentive of competitors to enter the market. Similarly, the customer loyalty and brand awareness of David Jones’ differentiated product category reduces the incentive to penetrate the

1 - Introduction In recent years, there have been vast growth in the wider business world regarding the overall influence of retailing and because of which, retailing and the issues that surround it, have become a vital sector in today’s global economy. (Fisher & Raman, 2001) It has been said that retailers no longer compete on retail activity alone, rather on the overall efficiency of the whole supply chain and overcoming ever expanding management issues of which arise throughout business activities. (Fernie & Sparks. 2004)

According to Turban and King (2003), internet technology renders retailers an additional channel for branding, transactions and customer relationship management, the adaptation of which may drive down retailers’ transaction costs, and ensuring faster and higher quality of customer interactions, resulting in enlarging the existing markets and consumer base. M&S realizes this and have tried to sell clothing via high street stores as well as via internet though they have experienced cost cutting, rationalisation and management changes in order to revive their business in recent years. Internet technology might enable sustainable competitive advantage, but problems remain on how to physically organize their online retail operations.

Retail sales was the largest industry in the United States prior to the 2000’s recession. It was the top employing industry from 2003 -2008 in nearly half of the U.S. states. Starting in 2009, every year has shown a decline in number of states where this is the top industry; as of 2013, retail was down to six from its peak of twenty-four. Retail is still a major industry but it will be interesting to discover how individual firms, specifically the largest ones, have handled this decline and what they may be doing to reverse the pattern. Kroger, Walmart, and Costco have the top revenues in the industry and are similarly categorized as well. Kroger is a supermarket, a larger grocery store with small section of general merchandise; Walmart is a hypermarket, contains a large range of products in both grocery and general merchandise; Costco is a warehouse club, also a large range of products but with a focus on selling large quantities at a discount with a small club fee. Since these three companies overlap in much of their products, there is competition between them which also adds to why they are respectable choices to analyze together.

As weak consumer spending restricts sales growth, supermarkets are placing greater emphasis on its own labels, which are more profitable than branded items. “Morrisons plans the first makeover of its own-brand range in four years as it joins rival U.K” (Morrisons, official website). Food retailers are adding private label items to boost profitability. They produce their own products as a brand to enlarge the market share in the supermarket industry. The products produced by them are labeled ‘Tescos’ and ‘Morrisons’ as well as the plastic and shopping bags. Therefore, customers can easily identify the products by packaging. Unlike Tescos and Morrisons, Aldi, a German discounter has been doing surprisingly well in the UK too. It specializes in small stores—the size of a basketball court rather than a football pitch. The research from the Guardian shows that more than 90% of its goods are its own unfancy brands. “To keep its supply chain simple, Aldi stocks barely 1,000 products; some of its rivals stock 100,000”. (Julia

It shows that between 2004 and 2007, total retail growth was only 4.6% while online retail was increased by 130% (The Times 100, NA) (Table 5). With no doubt, it seems more difficult for retail shops to survive, but Lindquist (2002) stated that shoppers prefer to integrate internet shopping with other forms of shopping (Lindquist et al., 2002). The supply chain of Topshop and its changes can help us to understand how retail shops nowadays adjust its position in the

Online shopping is becoming tremendously popular among customers. Major fashion retailers have established their online presence to expand their market. Primark is one of the fashion retailers having lowest prices among the high street brands. The aim of this study is to analyse the consumer shift from high-street shopping to internet shopping and evaluate how an online store can affect the retail business of Primark.

An organisation needs an image, which projects itself as a responsible and trustworthy which is not only interest in making money but also places the interest of its customers as well. In this assignment we will review different aspects of Globally Integrated Marketing Strategy and our focused organisation will be Marks & Spencer. We will focus on its IMC practices and how they act as part of the organisation’s strategic framework. The study will consider M&S operations in UK and UAE for its research purposes and will elaborate how resembles as well as differs in

The supermarket wars has been increasingly frustrating for consumers as sometimes consumers tend not to know where to get the best deals, as they all advertise the same price and brands, in the UK companies such as Tesco and Asda advertise and sell the same products but also claim to low on prices for the customer satisfaction, but in fact they charge more when it comes to their own brands, looking in the telecommunication sector is clear that with the privatization of the telecommunications industry, the mobile phone industry experiences transformations that enhance the dynamics of competition.