Marks And Spencer Essay
Marks and Spencer PLC
Introduction
Marks and Spencer is one of the leading British retailers and it is based in London, UK. Since it was founded in 1884, the company has grown and diversified into many retail sectors including clothes, food, home products and banking services. The company has 1433 stores worldwide and offers its products in both in-store and online (Marks & Spencer, 2018).
1. Strengths
One of the main strategies of M&S has been to gain competitive advantage over its main rivals by expanding internationally through franchise agreements, joint ventures etc. while competitors traded only in the UK market (Rogers, 2012). M&S has tried to mitigate risks of exposing itself in a single country by using geographical diversification
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According to the CEO report in 2016 M&S has benefited by moving its strategic approach from being product focused to be more customer focused. In addition, M&S implements Plan A, which is a socially friendly, environmentally sustainable and with ethical business strategy.
2. Weaknesses
M&S has introduced new product lines as well as launching a website in 2014, to boost the clothing side of the business to overcome the decade long market share decline (The Telegraph, 2014). “Yet, these changes have so far not produced the desired outcome” (BBC, 2013). According to analysts, a sharp fall in clothing sales is expected in the coming years (Macalister, 2015).
The company has been losing key employees to its main competitors (Davey, 2016) and M&S is a relatively a newcomer to the online shopping market (The Telegraph, 2014). In addition, M&S has experienced privacy breaches and other technical difficulties on its website and it had to be shut down during the introduction of the member club and card scheme in 2015 (Curtis, 2015).
3.
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As a result of the referendum, there was an immediate decrease in the buying power of the pound. The vote also had an impact on product imports in ways that will force the retailer to restructure its supply chains (Reuters, 2016), and will affect the free movement of its employees.
5. Recommendation
There are various strategic options available to M&S. It can choose to use Porter’s generic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation and focus. It can also choose to use institutional strategies and look towards mergers and acquisitions. Preferably, it can adapt the Ansoff Matrix growth strategies and consider market penetration, and market and product developments.
M&S will need to get back into fashion and make its clothing more affordable, fashionable and trendy, to give its customers more choice and to compete with discounters and online businesses.
The retail industry is becoming highly competitive and M&S needs to excel at e-commerce as shopping habits of consumers are changing. To keep up with the current trend M&S should improve how it obtains customer opinion and feedback. M&S can consider employing more local people when designing products, particularly in international markets where different cultures and habits
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