MARKS & SPENCER

The company chosen for SWOT analysis and operation Impact analysis is Marks & Spencer. Marks & Spencer is one of the leading British retailers. It was set up by Michael Marks in 1884 and renamed as M&S while doing partnership with Thomas Spencer. Their products include home decors, apparel, great quality food. Also, they are into energy and banking. The company got forayed in 2001 into India. They partnered with major retail of India Reliance to enter into the market and understand the consumer behaviour in India. Reliance is the largest retail under the private sector in India for which M&S targeted to do the partnership. M&S has over 21 million customers visiting their stores on weekly basis. They have more than 2000 suppliers worldwide.

SWOT Analysis of Marks & Spencer

SWOT-analysis helps in analysing a brand’s internal and external environment. The company’s ability to survive in the market. It aims at ensuring the analysis based on 4 quadrants of SWOT that is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis is done below concerning Marks & spencer

Strengths

• Brand recognition: they have a presence in more than 1463 location points in Europe, the Middle East, Europe and about 1035 stores are based in the UK. They offer both products and services through both physical stores and online mode. It helps the company to supply worldwide.
• Focus on consumer: previously marks and spencer used to focus on products then shifted to more customers centric and this has benefited them. Their new focus was to provide the customers with a superb experience and retain the customer loyalty
• Valuation in the market: according to Forbes in 2020 Marks & spencer got market capitalisation worth $ 2.3 billion. In Global 2000 the company got ranked at 1944 position.
• Positive branding: Mark & spencer have a strong positioning and branding in the market. They are 2^nd most powerful vote under brands in the UK.
• Niche market success for food: with their high quality of food supply they have captured the niche retailer under the food segment.

Weaknesses

• The majority of the customer base is getting into ageing: the customer segment of marks & spencer is getting aged so capturing new market segment is getting important for them.
• Increasing cost: the operations that they conduct includes a lot of time, manpower that leads to the inclusion of high costs. SO they have to focus on improving the efficiency to have a smooth operation with the latest technologies.
• Perception: many young generations think this company provides more range of products for the older segment so this is wrong perception and positioning that got created in their minds. This is because they have a limited range of apparel for the younger segment

Opportunities

• Booming online channels: as online shopping is getting popular so eCommerce of M&S  has a great opportunity to grow. It has a strong base of retail that the company can proliferate with the online world.
• Segmentation: Mark & spencer can target new segments as they are a multinational brand. So they have different markets and as per customer requirements, they can lead the market by following the principle for market segmentation.
• Growth areas: they have expansion on different verticals like food, beauty, and home where there is lo of scope for growth. They have also launched stores in Russia, India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Poland, Also in 2022, they have planned to set up more than 100 stores.

Threats

• Intensive competition: there are a lot of competitors like Amazon, TESCO, GAP, ASDA, Walmart, etc. These competitors have made retail a very competitive industry
• Unstable condition: due to unstable economic and social conditions in different franchise international markets in which company operates like Russia, Middle East and Ukraine has posed threat on company’s development.
• Controversies: due to protests for anti-Israel or introducing Hajib a self-payment app in the UK caused a threat due to wrong communication of the message that reduced their customer base.