MARKETING PLAN

Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan

Introduction

This Marketing Plan of H&M examines the clothing retail market, which encompasses women's, men's and children's clothing, as well as clothing accessories. This includes the retail sale of outerwear (including sports wear), underwear and hosiery, but excludes footwear, corporate work wear and uniforms. The Swedish clothing company H&M Hennes & Mauritz was one of the pioneers of fast fashion, appointing young designers to make high-fashion clothes as cheaply and quickly as possible. Fast fashion has also been heavily influenced by the growth of celebrity culture, with clothing retailers hastily mimicking the latest fashion trends worn by well-known names in the media.

The H&M products cover women's, men's and children's clothing, including coats, jackets, suits, trousers, dresses, shirts, skirts, jumpers, lingerie, underwear, hosiery, sports wear and night wear. Between 2004 and 2008, the children's garments subsector experienced the strongest overall growth of 12.5%, whereas growth in the women's and men's sectors stood at only 7.9% and 4.5%, respectively. The rising birth rate over this period is likely to be a contributing factor to the relatively strong growth in the children's garments sector. Furthermore, during times of economic deterioration, consumers are likely to cut back on clothing expenditure for themselves, whereas reducing expenditure on children's garments is problematic due to the fact that children are continuously growing and require essential items of clothing such as school uniforms.

H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Ltd

Company Structure

H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Ltd is the UK subsidiary of the Swedish company, Hennes & Mauritz (http://www.hm.com/). The company supplies women swear, menswear and children's clothing, and operate in different countries.

Mission Statement

“Fashion and quality at the best price”. (http://www.hm.com/)

Current and Future Developments

In May 2009, H&M reported that like-for-like sales rose by 8% in April — the first monthly like-for-like increase that the retailer had reported in few months.

Financial Results

In the year ending 30th November 2007, H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Ltd reported a turnover of £527.5m, compared with £448.6m in the previous year. The company had a pre-tax profit of £58.9m in 2007, compared with £65.9m in 2006. (http://www.hm.com/)

Product

H&M's product range consists of body care, hair care products and make-up accessories for men, women and teenagers. In 1968, Persson acquired the premises and inventory of a Stockholm hunting equipment store named Mauritz Widforss. Included in the inventory was a supply of men's clothing, prompting Persson to expand into menswear. Accordingly, he renamed the store Hennes & Mauritz, later abbreviated to H&M.

H&M is considered as one of the world's favourite and preferred designer of apparels and clothing for man and women. In addition, H&M is also known not only for their fashion cosmetic but because of the quality of the clothes designed durability and the funkiness of its clothes. Through the online stores, H&M provides the US, UK and European Market an exclusive clothing designs. The main goal of this company is to provide innovative designs of apparels and clothes for different types of people in different countries all over the ...