Key Strategic Issues Behind Buying Decisions for a Business

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What are the key strategic issues underpinning buying decisions, what is a product mix, the importance of it and the advantages and disadvantages of one for the large retailer Marks and Spencer plc and its competitors

There are four main strategic issues behind buying decisions for a business; the first is “who are our target customers?”, for Marks and Spencer plc, their products and services are based around home, food, as well as women’s, men’s and children’s wear. They appear to mainly attract middle aged customers. Attracting particular age groups can have advantages and disadvantages; this can be a benefit as it creates an opportunity to reduce investment costs by spending more money on products/services aimed at middle aged customers and reducing expenditure on other customer groups. On the other hand, this can be a disadvantage for them as it leads to a gap in their potential market; as they are not targeting a wide enough market they are not meeting all customer demands therefore losing customers. They only sell products under the Marks and Spencer brand; this can be a disadvantage as it decreases customer options. “Marks and Spencer has confirmed it will start selling branded goods at its stores across the UK” (BBC News, 2009, p.1). This may increase their customer base and create a more appealing image of the company to new customers.

“Which of their needs can we satisfy?” Marks and Spencer plc fulfil consumer needs in a variety of ways, “Marks and Spencer have led the way in establishing a more efficient approach to the total logistics problem of getting merchandise to the customer at the lowest cost, through employing specialist logistics concerns to contribute to efficiency” (Baily et al, 2005, p. 324). They ens...

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...o Retailing, London: Juta and Company Ltd

• Reynolds,J. Cuthbertson, C. (2004) Retail Strategy The view from the bridge, London: Butterworth Heinemann

• TendersInfo, (2010) High street sales jump , Available at: http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T13443823831&format=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T13443823837&cisb=22_T13443823836&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=343637&docNo=24 (accessed: 01/12/11)

• http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/history/recentdocview.do?listId=1541782387&lni=7Y74T9V0YBWYS11H&attachmentId=&attachmentType=&sourceId=343637&attachmentNum=&attachmentSMI=&displayType=&savedLocale=en_GB_ukBusiness&projectId=&returnTo=20_T13454674141&publicationDate=&docTitle=United+Kingdom+:+High+street+sal...&start=1&documentType=

• Varley, R. (2001) Retail Product Management, London: Routledge

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