Individual Department Situation Analysis
An organization working in a dynamic environment need to conduct an analysis to understand the current issues that may impact the level of the business. Marketing is one of the most important activities while conducting business, the marketing plan in this report will focus towards providing the strategies related to market or product development. The organizational case considered for the report is of Primark (primark, 2019).
Primark is the retail fast fashion company founded and initiated in 1969, headquartered in Dubai. As per 2016 statistics, the company revenue reported were 596.9 crores GBP. Since the company is part of fashion industry, the dynamicity pertaining to product range and design is most relevant. Thus considering the role of head of production and market development, the marketing plan for Primark will be provided in the report further. Moreover the structure would include discussing the external and internal environment pertaining to product development will be considered at initial level, from which the key issues will be identified along with the suggested strategies for the company (Du & Bstieler, 2016).
Environment reflects the strategy of the company and need for the change in strategy. Considering the market or product development, The SWOT analysis include
Strengths
- Apparel range – One of the strength of the company is its apparel range as the company is offering large number of product range. This includes women’s wear, lingerie, kids wear, menswear, accessories, footwear, home wear, and hosiery. This it can be said that the company has large of designs to be offered to the customer, which eventually increase the customer choices(Chung & Fiore, 2017).
- Strong brand positioning in Europe – It has been identified that Primark is considered to be one of the popular clothing brand in Europe, which reflect the positive market behaviour of the company in this region. The company have 300 stores in the nation(Heap & Singh, 2016).
- Sustainable goods procurement – It has be analysed that the company has been able to maintain good relations with nation’s helping it to source goods sustainably, which eventually help product development of the company.
Weakness
- Inconsistent quality – The major reason identified for this weakness of the company is that the company is being outsourcing the manufacturing activities, which may affect the consistency of the products quality.
- Limited accessories range – The Company had found to be focus towards clothing range, and has not majorly focused towards accessories or other product range like beauty products(Kaplan, 2015).
Opportunities
- Market development – The company can extent the market in middle east, and Asian nations like India and china so as to increase the scope of target market for the company
- New product development – the company can increase the product segment within accessories or a separate department like electronics. This will provide company opportunity to grow (Mohd & Sasmita, 2015)
Threats
- Change in consumer preference – In fashion industry this is one of the major threat involve that is changing consumer preference pertaining to product design and needs.
- Threat of global competition – other than Europe, there are various global companies with more brand recognition and goodwill, which may act as the major threat for the company and increase the risk of decrease in customer retention(Oh, 2015).
As head of product and market development, some of the major problem includes search the customer needs and strategies pertaining to the development of the product. Thus the key objective through this problem identified is research and development pertaining to the need of customer as the customer preference could be changed very soon in case of fashion industry. This problem statement includes customer need analysis and searching for the opportunities in order to work towards the Primark’s growth (Pappas, 2016).
After analysing the situation and need to take key decision making considering market or product development is
- Changing consumer needs and preferences – One of the issues is that the customers are looking for large number of option when it comes to fashion related products or services. This reflects the need for product innovation at higher level, the reason being the company need to offer latest design to the customers.
- Quality consistency – Another issue that has been identified is to provide standard quality for each product piece of the company. Thus may reflect the brand recognition and goodwill of the company, as the company needs to offer the same quality every time in order to sustain at the same positioning in the market.
- Increased competition – The companies like Zara and H&M have been serving globally along with good brand recognition, which may affect the business of Primark in various regions like Asian market. Thus it is important to work towards the competitive advantage in order to sustain in the market and consider the growth strategy for the company.
- Limited to clothing and beauty products – The product range of the company found to be large in number when it comes to apparel. However, the company has not increased the product segment in accessories, which could be one of the issues in the competitive market(Zhang, 2015).
Marketing objectives
The key objective through this marketing plan for Primark include
- Increase in revenue – One of the objectives is to increase the sales or revenue of the company by 12 percent within next one year. This can be measured through financial report and audits of the company. This will reflect the financial growth of the company.
- Increase in customer database – Through this marketing objective the objective is to increase the number of customer associated with the brand and most importantly this objective is to retain the customers as well. This can be measured through tools like customer lifetime value and analysing the repetitive purchase of the customer(Goffin, 2017).
Marketing strategies
After analysing the issues pertaining to organization and market or product department, the key strategies that are recommended for the company includes
The competitive strategy can be analysed through Ansoff matrix, as presented below. As per this matrix the fur strategies that could be the alternative strategy for Primark corporation is product development, market development, market penetration, and diversification. Major strategy that will be suitable for Primark considered by head of product or market development is product development (Kaynak, 2018).
Considering product development strategy, the sub marketing strategies include:
New product development – The product range is proposed through this marketing plan, as one of the opportunities identified for the company is by introducing new product range of accessories. Thus, Primark can introduce sunglass, belts and watches as part of new product development. This may be done in the existing market, so that the marketing activities will be focus towards understanding the consumer needs pertaining to product in the existing market only, before entering into new market (Mills, 2015).
Customer engagement – Since one of the issue is customer research for the department, which can be best resolve through this strategy that is to engage customer while developing new products so as to get new idea for designing and understand the customer expectations. This will also increase the customer relationship of the company and customer database would be able to manage (Kaplan, 2015).
Technological integration – Since the external opportunities and changing fashion industry have to be considering while developing new product and designing. For instance, watches industry has found to have change due to increased technology. Thus, smart watch is one of the ranges among the new product development (Mohd & Sasmita, 2015).
Premium ranges – As per this strategy the company will be focus towards a particular range that may be merge are engaged with particular celebrity. This will reflect the complete range selected and chosen by one of the popular celebrity, it may be from the Hollywood industry. This range will be able to target only the upper class, with keep quality and design as majorly focused constraint in order to provide exclusive collection by the brand (Du & Bstieler, 2016).
Personalization and customization – The Company is willing to retain the customer, for which the best strategy for the company is to customize the product. The customer is looking for the options where they can get apparel with the best fit. The company additional services can be helpful for the customer in assistance from the expert pertaining to fit, size, and suitable designs. Along with this, the company may customize the products as per the customer need and wants, especially in case of loyal customer. The customization may include choosing the colour specific to particular design or making some alterations on special demand (Oke & Prajogo, 2016).
Price differentiation strategy could be recommended to the company, as the brand would be targeting middle to upper class, along with the large product range which may reflect different price ranges as well. The reason being the company would be able to increase the number of customers segment due to various product ranges to be offered, this will eventually able to move towards the marketing objective of increase customer database. Moreover this will also integrate with the company’s strategy to increase number of customer associate with the brand and sustain in the competitive market (Song, 2017).
Main Issues or Key Points to be Addressed for Business Strategies
Promotional strategies – the promotional strategies pertaining to new product segment would include tools like launch event. Since, this would be the major publicity and new for the public, it is important to introduce the segment with an event. Other tools would be social media marketing in order to reach young consumers, and maximum customer segments. Moreover some of the traditional methods would also be used like advertisement through television and printed media.
Product development in the organization is not the sole activity; it has to be associated with other functional department of the organization. Most importantly, finance as the budget provided for the market or product development may include for various activities like production, research, designing, promotion, and distribution. Thus, it needs to be incorporated according to the budget per activity. Other than this, it is important to incorporate the research and development associates in order to understand the progress and the customer perception before and after the launch of new product segment. Other incorporation to be consider by the department include with the human resource activity, as the new product development lead to staffing needs in the corporate. Thus this will be associated among the cross functional activity to understand the need for the employees and the job description.
Thus it can be said that the all the marketing activities from research to distribution and sale are to be collaborated and incorporated in order to positioning the product segment as per the market objectives (Pappas, 2016).
Conclusion
From the marketing plan of Primark, it can be concluded that the company is one of the top apparel brand in European nature. However, the opportunity for the company through this marketing plan includes market development and new product development. . Since the company is part of fashion industry, the dynamicity pertaining to product range and design is most relevant. Key issues after analysing the situation is changing consumer needs and preferences, quality consistency, increased competition, and limited to clothing and beauty products.
The key objective through this marketing plan for Primark include increase in revenue, and increase in customer database, major strategy that will be suitable for Primark considered by head of product or market development is product development. The sub marketing strategies include new product development, customer engagement, technological integration, premium ranges, and personalization and customization. The company can be using the strength identified in order to gain opportunities. The key strengths identified for the company include apparel range, strong brand positioning in Europe, and sustainable goods procurement.
References
Aksoy, S. (2018). Applying Ansoff’S Growth Strategy Matrix To Innovation Classification. International Journal of Innovation Management, 1850039.
Chung, J., & Fiore, A. (2017). The Effects of Shopping Motivation and an Experiential Marketing Approach on Consumer Responses toward Small Apparel Retailers. Fashion, Industry and Education, 15(2), 11.
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Goffin, K. (2017). Sustainability and new product development. . In Cranfield on Corporate Sustainability, 105-118.
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Kaplan, B. (2015). Marketing Strategies For The Generation “C” Consumer Behavior: An Overview For The GSM Market in Turkey. In Handbook of Research on Developing Sustainable Value in Economics, Finance, and Marketing, 463-475.
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Pappas, N. (2016). Marketing strategies, perceived risks, and consumer trust in online buying behaviour. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, 92.
primark. (2019). aboutus. Retrieved from primark: https://www.primark.com/en/aboutus
Song, X. (2017). Research and development of animation derivatives marketing strategies based on the analysis of consumer demand. Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics, 20(5), 1319.
Zhang, Y. (2015). The impact of brand image on consumer behavior: a literature review. Open journal of business and management, 3(1), 1.
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