An Analysis of Marks and Spencer
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRM AND ITS INDUSTRY
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.
In November of 2000, Marks and Spencer will launch a trial of three new lingerie-only outlets in Paris, Hamburg and Dusseldorf. According to industry statistics, Marks & Spencer remains the clear leader in the UK lingerie market, with over thirty percent of the market share. These pilot stores, distinctly branded 'msl', are designed to showcase the product range, taking the very best of Marks & Spencer lingerie to the Continent. Moreover, twenty-five percent of the 'msl' range has
been designed exclusively for the continental market (Marks & Spencer PG).
According to David Norgrove, Marks & Spencer Executive Director, the new stores developed by Marks and Spencer "clearly show how we can give customers what they want in the way they want it. Today we have both depth of product and a variety of retail formats, so that we can encompass factory outlet stores and designer clothing under the Marks & Spencer brand. Our new concept stores carry a wide range of products and services tailor-made for its local customers but, at the same time, we are also launching the European pilot of a specialist retail format which builds on our core strength in lingerie. All of these products and formats are being in response to customer research, to meet a proven need" (Marks & Spencer PG).
THE COMPETITIVE STRUCTURE OF THE INDUSTRY
The British retailer Marks & Spence decided to close its one Edmonton store, along with fourteen others across Canada, with the eight remaining stores being closed just one month later. This marked the ending of Marks and Spencer's 26-year run in Canada.
The chain announced its Canadian pullout, which will affect only sixteen staff, was a surprise for Canadian shoppers. Heritage Mall manager Kirby Nishikawa said "the shutdown hurts the shopping cen...
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...rnational expansion plans and probably sell U.S. clothing chain Brooks Brothers.
EXPAND E-COMMERCE
Sell online through partnerships with Microsoft Network, the BBC's beeb.com, and digital-television providers such as Telewest (Capel 35).
A Marks & Spencer spokesman confirmed that its non-executive directors changed their minds over who should lead the company last autumn because of the huge changes within the business. Over the next five years the company is expanding its selling space by nearly a fifth in Britain and by forty percent in overseas markets (Rankine PG). By the year 2005, Marks & Spencer should once again be on the top of their category.
Works Cited:
Author not Available. "Outlook: M&S investors don their hair
shirts." Independent, (1999), 21.
Capell, Kerry. "Britain: lighting a fire under Marks & Spencer."
Business Week International, (2000): 35.
Le Riche, Timothy. "Closure date set of M&S leaves voide at
Heritage Mall." Edmonton Sun, (1999): July, 44.
Marks and Spencer. "Marks & Spencers Launches Two New Formats."
(2000), October: PG.
Rankine, Kate. "M&S asks outsiders to review strategy." The
Daily Telegraph, (1998), PG.
Moreover, by 2002, there were 160 Charlotte Russe stores, 42 Rampage stores, and 10 Charlotte's Room stores in 28 states. Unfortunately in 2003 the company hit a rough patch that lasted into 2004. Not bringing in enough sales, Charlotte’s Room stores closed. However, the company pulled through, hiring two new general merchandising managers-one for each division (Charlotte Russe, and Charlotte’s Closet.
... several actions presently being taken to refurbish Federated. The company has hired a new CEO, Terry Lundgren, and also appointed an organization within the company to focus on the further development of the Macy’s home division. Between the diversity of quality employees and vendors, they hope to overcome the premonition that the department store is a dying breed. They are well on their way opening seven new firms in 2004.
...ector and the marketing director have also handed in their notice, and can they move forward from this.
Jalexson states that in 2003 Edward Lambert rescued Kmart from bankruptcy. Lambert wanted to attract customer’s back, but the closing of 28% of Kmarts over the last two years hurts the chains ability to attract customers and forced the remaining stores to pay a higher portion of advertising costs. Then, in January of 2003 CEO Julian Day said that when a company exits bankruptcy it should emphasize the exclusive brands like; Joe Boxer, Sesame Street and of course Martha Stewart (2003). As mentioned by Karush, starting in October of 2004 Aylwin Lewis was named CEO of Kmart and will be involved in merging Kmart with Sears (2005). With inconsistent management and objectives, Kmart has been struggling to create concrete guidelines necessary to improve store performance.
While there are services similar to ours – such as try.com – when a customer shops online they are not choosing between services that allow them to try clothes on online. Our service is valued in the context of their total shopping experience, not as the end-all, or in other words the appeal of our product to them is not simply that they can try on clothes when shopping online, but that in trying on clothes when shopping online they can be more sure of as to whether or not the clothes will look or feel right, enhancing their total shopping experience. Therefore, in evaluating our impact on customers, our competitors will be viewed as other ecommerce websites (against us as the totality of TJX’s ecommerce and in particular how we enhance the value of
This part of the report will highlight the problems within the external environment that affect Marks and Spencer. Before planning and decision making can take place an organisation must be aware of these issues. The key factors that impact upon all organisations are Political, Economic, Social and Technological. These factors are commonly referred to as PEST factors. Political changes like change of government could affect the minimum wage that M&S workers are paid. Economic factors such as inflation could affect the pricing of garments. The Social factors that would need to be taken into account are lifestyle changes and demographics, M&S would need to consider where their target market stood. Technological advances could also affect M&S sales just recently their website has been updated from a corporate site to a new website offering online buying. Globalisation is a huge environmental factor affecting M&S. Globalisation is the increase in cross-border economic, social and technological exchange. For organisations it increases competition and the search for cost advantages.
The strategy of WFM, co founder Mackey, is to continue offering healthier options for its customers. The movement into Canada and the UK in the last few years, lays the footprint for additional global expansion. Mackey intends to increase WFM to 1000 stores. The question is whether it will happen through acquisitions or new store locations. The answer based on their history is a combination of both. The store in Canada opened in 2002. Since brand recognition is not as strong, the store struggled somewhat in the beginning; however, the expectation is that it will grow to one billion in the next ten years (Patton, 2013). The stores in UK, which are in the greater London area, have received mixed receptions, and some stores are selling well while other locations are not. However, Mackey is not deterred and believes that longevity will produce the desired results.
Business strategy is the means by which firm’s plans to achieve its goals and objectives. It can also be termed as organization long-term planning. The strategy covers periods between 3-5 years and sometimes longer. Businesses use two major types of strategy, general or generic and competitive strategies. The overall strategy involves strategies of growth, globalization and retrenchment. The competitive advantage includes low pricing, product and customer differentiation. We will look at the business strategy used by Marks and Spenser (Cole, 1997). The company is a British multinational located at Westminster London and specializes in clothes and luxurious food products.
Les Wexner rapidly expanded on the national attention Victoria's Secret had been receiving by opening over 400 stores by 1990 and currently operates approximately 950 stores nationwide. While Victoria's Secret is known for its lingerie sales, it has successfully launched a beauty division and also carries brands like Betsy Johnson, Dolce & Gabbana and Intimissimi, an affordable Italian brand. Victoria's Secret Direct, the catalog division of the company, continues to see growth as sales reached $870 million in 2005, but the star is still it's retail stores. Yearly sales for Victoria's Secret stores topped $2.6 billion dollars in 2005 and our store on Powell Street recently surpassed the $10 million dollar mark in sales for 2006, making it the 13th store in the company based on volume. ANALYSIS OF ISSUES +
Marks & Spencer is a perfect example of a company that had a successful strategy but failed to adapt to the changing environment and have therefore suffered from ‘strategic wear-out.’
According to the annual report of Mark& Spencer, they has been set up 776 stores in the Uk and aim to keep selling high quality ,great value food and staying ahead in womenswear, lingerie and menswear. Moreover, M&S has attributed the high level of trust on the high street, and has also concentrated on ensuring their corporate governance is meaningful, relevant and underpin their decision-marking with high quality in all areas of strategy, performance, responsibility and accountability. Their collective and individual performance review is constructed by honest and constructive feedback to make the border play the biggest role in the boardrom. The goverance framework is also published on their website. Therefore, M&S's shareholders and stakeholders can easily find what standards the board of M&S set for themself.
Over the last several years, Sears has continued to watch its stores decline towards the brink of death. Since 2012, Sears has lost more than $9
Petro, G. (2012, November 5). The future of fashion retailing --- the H&M approach (part 3 of 3). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2012/11/05/the-future-of-fashion-retailing-the-hm-approach-part-3-of-3/
In the case, Marks & Spencer and Zara, it discusses two business process designs that each company took. You first had Marks & Spencer, who had a more traditional approach. Their chain started of with the buying team, design, developers, merchandisers, technologist, suppliers, logistics, and lastly the store. Zara, however, comes up with a new innovative design. With this new design in effect the delivery of new collections only has a lead-time of 5 days. They were able to cut down this time due to the fact that products where mainly produced on Galicia.
The sign of moving products promptly from a designer’s table to the retail sales floor has swayed the whole global retail commerce and enticed rivalry. Customers value a “new look” that can be worn for this instant and assess the goods as a monetary fortune; not something that you will keep