MARKS & SPENCER

The Economics of Corporate Strategy: Marks and Spencer

The Economics of Corporate Strategy: Marks and Spencer

Company Profile: Marks and Spencer

Marks and Spencer is one of the largest and popular retailers of the world. It is known as the major retailer that trades a variety of merchandise range under their brand. They are situated in more than thirty countries. They have a strong consumer following and have created a strong brand image over the years. The consumers have confidence and reliability in the Marks and Spencer's products. As per the market research, Marks and Spencer leads the over a majority of its competitors in terms of customer service, variety, believe, quality, reliability and value chain. This paper provides a brief profile of the company. It also discusses the Global value chains and international competition faced by Marks and Spencer.

The London headquarters of Marks and Spencer staff close to three thousand workers. Their job profiles are customized in nature. For instance, there are employees responsible for purchasing supply, and then there are workers to handle the supply and its placement in the outlets. Of course, there are those who run the regular chore of taking care of finance and promotions. Marks and Spencer outlets hold more than sixty thousand workers with a major part of them being managers who direct and keep the staff happy and inspired to work. This firm had many tie ups with other stores abroad. Therefore, staff in those stores also requires guidance (Marks and Spencer, 2011).

About Marks and Spencer

A very popular retail brand from England, Marks and Spencer boasts of a hundred and twenty years of legacy. Britain itself hosts 450 and more Marks and Spencer outlets that a staff which measures close to 65,000 in number (Marks and Spencer, 2011). This company is not just a big brand in England but is also known as an upcoming brand in other countries outside of Britain including Hong Kong. Off lately, the retail business in Britain has gotten more aggressive with consumers getting spoilt for choice.

The consumers have indeed become much smarter in making a choice of the place and the way, in which they desire to buy a product, so much so that they are pretty sure about their expectations when they venture out to buy. This has clearly resulted in cut throat competition in the retail business. Precisely because of this reason Marks and Spencer chose to figure out a fresh commercially viable policy (Marks and Spencer, 2011).

Discussion

Market leader in department stores

M&S has a strong market position in the clothing segment. With more than 1 in 10 clothing items bought from M&S, the company remains the UK's largest clothing retailer. M&S leads the market in women swear lingerie and menswear and have expanding children swear business. According to Verdict, M&S' main user share was 17.4% in 2010. M&S' 0.5 percentage point rise in 2010 boosted it further against the competitors, placing the company 9.5 and 9.9 percentage points ahead of Next ...