Marks&spencer.docx

Strengths 

Variety of products and clothing

 High Quality High quality is the major strength that makes M&S successful. Customers always find high quality goods such as fresh fruits, vegetables, and other superior goods in M&S’s food hall. With many people turning to eat vegetarian meals, M&S grasps the consumers need. M&S has high quality of products that are the food and other products, such as baby products and clothes both for women and men. 

Affordable prices



Increasing sales by 2%, while its international sales had increased 5.8% after the global financial crisis

 Customer Services M&S has high reputation for focusing on customer service. This is one of the most important methods to make a good relationship between customers and M&S. For example, when women want to buy clothes for themselves, the shop assistants will help them to measure sizes and give them good suggestions.

Weakness 

Didn’t address consumers’ needs; (some of the consumers wanted a specific brand which ms didn t have)  Branding problems The clothing market of M&S has many segments. In fact, the merchandise, is outmoded design and cut. In addition, affluent younger consumers prefer purchasing brand-labels, such as Gap, Next and Topshop.  Inventory issues Customers complain the defect of e-shooping and delivery services. To some extent, M&S suffers from the unbalance between the stock and Information Technology System.

Opportunities 

Internet Technology

Internet technology has developed fast, it offers an opportunity to increase the demand for the online products. In terms of this circumstance, buying products online became a trend. Customers are getting used to accept the model and adapt it to their daily lives, and the demand for this kind of products it’s always increasing. 

Healthy Eating

People pay attention to the life quality, they request companies to offer varied products to satisfy their needs. For example, in the food market, M&S does good segmentation in providing the vegetarian, low fat or organic food. This is the advantage that the competitors are not aware of. 

Marketing Extending

The Company owned stores in Middle East and Hong Kong which were largely successful.

Threats 



Low consumer confidence and inflationary pressures compounded by rising fuel prices during the global financial crisis; (in other words, consumers were less responsive to marketing promotions and less likely to make impulse purchases because of their limited disposable income). International competition intensified (Zara, H&M, Debenhams, Next, Wal-Mart); They provide not only high quality but also value-added products to build customers’ loyalty. In the clothing market, Gap, Next, Topshop and other fashionable brands may compete with M&S

What factors influence international pricing decisions?  Focusing on middle class consumers;  Sourced internationally from Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and other countries;  In Shanghai stores some products had unaffordable prices for most of the Chinese consumers / some products were middle-of-the-road to British consumers, while for the Chinese they were of high quality;  Expensive food prices in comparison with competitors such as Tesco and Carrefour.  Price imbalance.