MARKETING

Marks and Spencer and Its Marketing Strategy



Table of Content

Introduction3

The Concept and the Process of Marketing at Marks and Spencer3

Marks and Spencer: A Brief Description about the Organization8

Marketing Basics and Marks and Spencer13

People14

Product15

Place15

Promotion16

Conclusion17

Recommendations17

References19

Bibliography20

Marks and Spencer and Its Marketing Strategy

Introduction

Marketing plays a vital role not only in developing, producing, and selling products or services, but also in guiding recruiting labors and raising capital. Although it can be said that successful entrepreneurs undertake marketing in unusual ways. They mainly rely on interactive marketing methods which are often communicated through word-of-mouth rather than a more traditional marketing mix. Entrepreneurs monitor the marketplace through informal networks rather than formalised market research, and generally adopt more entrepreneurial approaches to marketing activities. However, depending on the business model, a complex and formalised initial market research can be crucial for a successful market entry. This paper discusses marketing and its strategy in the context of the organizational practices of Marks and Spencer in a concise and comprehensive way.

The Concept and the Process of Marketing at Marks and Spencer

Bevan (2002) mentions there are many marketing theories that are used in traditional marketing literature such as Schumpeter (1934) who said that entrepreneurs proactively 'created' opportunity, using 'innovative combinations' which often included 'creative destruction' of passive or lethargic economic markets.

According to Schumpeter the role of an entrepreneur is to innovate, and by doing this, you move the economy from one equilibrium to another. This kind of innovation could come about from one or more introduction of a new product; a new method of production; the development of a new market; the use of new sources of raw material, and the reorganisation of a new industry or its processes. He also distinguished between the entrepreneur and the capitalist (Bevan, 2002). Schumpeter agreed with the fact, that in practice an innovator could also actually be a capitalist. Marks and Spencer applies this marketing strategy in its real essence and gets phenomenal success.

Another well-known theorist next to Schumpeter is Kirzner (1973) who said that entrepreneurs should have a sense of 'alertness' to identify the opportunities in the market and exploit them accordingly. He states 'The pure entrepreneur, on the other hand, proceeds by his alertness to discover and exploit situations in which he is able to sell for high prices that which he can buy for low prices. Pure entrepreneur profit is the difference between the two sets of prices. The discovery of a profit opportunity means the discovery of something obtainable for nothing at all. No investment at all is required; the free ten-dollar bill is discovered to be already within one is grasps' (Simon, 1995).

The management of Marks and Spencer considers that fact that fhe marketing concept has changed significantly over time. In today's business world the customer is at the forefront, not all businesses in the past followed this concept, as they placed other factors first rather than their customers this is shown as follows: Production Oriented was the focus of the actual business and not the customer needs, as ...