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One of the most critical aspects in the modern day organisational operations is the marketing and hence it is essential that company utilises the best of strategies and tactics in their marketing plan so as to achieve desired objectives. Proper evaluation of the marketing environment along with identification of the challenges faced by the organisation is very much critical for the firms in order to develop their marketing plan (Kotler, et al. 2015). Since heavy competition is present in the fashion industry at the global levels hence understanding their marketing mix is necessary so as to make better marketing mix strategy. This report will discuss the role of marketing department within the firm along with its relationship with other functional units. It also discusses the roles and responsibilities related to marketing department in the wider organisational context. In the latter section of the report, a comparison between marketing mixes of H&M with their competitors has been provided. In the last section of the report marketing plan will be provided.
Marketing department has a critical role in the development and success of the firm and hence its roles and responsibilities are wide ranging. Roles and responsibilities have to be according to the marketing department however interrelationship between each unit becomes critical. For the success of the organisation, it is essential that marketing department works with all the other departments by hand in hand so that smoothness gets maintained in the overall business operations (Kerin and Hartley, 2015). Some of the roles and responsibilities of marketing department are as follows:
The interrelationship between the different departments in any organisation ensures that there is smoothness in the overall processes and also ensures that lesser numbers of operational flows arises. This is also true in terms of the fact that interrelationship allows firms to streamline their business operations so that they are able to meet the common objectives in an appropriate manner. Since from the process of market research to the sales need to be done as per the demand of the market hence at every stage of the marketing process they need to have effective relationship with all the departments. Marketing department’s relationship with other departments ensures that an organisation will be able to make improvements in the overall marketing campaign at any point of time so as to achieve the desired results.
As the marketing department has a wide ranging roles and responsibilities hence they need to have a healthy relation with all the units within the firm.
Marketing mix in any organisation plays a critical role in its success. The comparison between the marketing mixes of different firms is as follows:
Marketing mix |
H&M |
Zara |
Product |
They are offering wide variety of products i.e. all types of clothes and accessories. They have designer clothing and other accessories as well as they are trendy which attracts people. The offer products for men, women and children. As compared to Zara, this firm offers more products. |
This company also offers different kinds of clothing and accessories. It launches more than 10,000 designs in a year. Zara makes a partnership with local talents to add in the trends they are offering. Zara is known for its high end fashion (Lou, 2015). |
Price |
The average price of the H&M products is around $25. They offer products at lower price when compared with other bigger competitors which helps them to attract more people towards their business (Dach and Allmendinger, 2014). |
They offer products slightly on the higher side where the average price is set to be around $45. This is done for maintaining their premium image. |
Place |
This company sells its products through both exclusive stores and online mediums. This company offers its products through franchising partners. Since online stores are gaining people support hence it has become critical for the H&M to make sure that they do not lose their market share. It is due to this that they are offering their products through their online mediums. |
They are using both online and offline mediums for selling the products. Since this company promotes fast fashion hence their online stores have new collection in every 14 days and their online mediums also offer wide range of products that can be purchased by the company (Andersson, 2010). |
Promotions |
They are using both online and offline mediums to make sure that they are reaching to maximum possible consumers. TV advertisements, youtube channels, digital marketing channels, promo codes and discounts, public relations and sponsorships are some of the major channels using which H&M projects. There are also using CSR strategies to improve their image (Peirson-Smith, 2014). |
They are also promoting their products through online mediums which have made it possible for the company to make sure that they are able to reach to maximum possible consumers. For their promotions they are using social media as their primary source and at the same time they are also using celebrity endorsements for promoting their brand. |
It is critical for the company to make a marketing plan for themselves that is better than their competitors. This is critical for management of resources and designing of marketing mix that helps them in gaining competitive advantage over the rivals and enhancing their reach to maximum possible with customers (Shen, 2014). Marketing plan helps in making an organisation and it successful and it is critical for improving the reach of the company at the global levels by enhancing the sales of the products by attracting their customers.
With the comparison done in the above section, there is a need of improvement in the marketing mix. The new marketing mix for the company includes:
In order to make sure that this firm has a good competitive positioning, and enhance the sales, it is critical that this firm targets a set of customers that can actual enhance the sales of the company.
For segmentation and targeting this company is using different kinds of variables (Perrey and Spillecke, 2011). On the basis of these variables the segmentation and targeting of the company is as follows:
Type of Segmentation |
Segmentation Criteria |
Target Segment |
Geographic |
Region |
Domestic/International |
Density |
Rural and Urban |
|
Demographic |
Age |
5-50 |
Gender |
Male and Female |
|
Life-cycle stage |
Bachelor and Married |
|
Income |
People of all income groups |
|
Occupation |
All the types of occupation |
|
Behavioural |
Degree of Loyalty |
Switchers and hardcore loyals |
Benefit sought |
Time efficient and cost benefit seekers. |
|
Personality |
Careless and easy going |
|
User Status |
Regular and potential shopper |
|
Psychographic |
Social Class |
Middle, working and lower |
Life Style |
Mainstream individuals and strugglers. |
In order to make the marketing campaign effective it is critical that H&M makes strategies that are unique. Some of the strategies that can be used by the company are as follows:
Activities |
2019 (In Dollars) |
2020 (In Dollars) |
Direct marketing |
17000 |
15000 |
Sales marketing |
11000 |
23000 |
Traditional advertisement |
11000 |
19000 |
Social media marketing |
23000 |
34000 |
Digital marketing |
24000 |
32000 |
Total |
86,000 |
123,000 |
H&M needs to design an evaluation strategy that helps in finding out the challenges that might be faced by the company in its marketing. Evaluation needs to be done so as to find the ways in which marketing will be done. It is critical that for evaluating the marketing plan a company needs to have technologies that are capable of monitoring the processes (Kaikobad, et al 2015). In this regards data technologies such as data analytics can be highly beneficial. Company also need to incorporate performance management system so as to measure the performance of each of units on the basis of the metrics.
From the above based report it can be concluded that marketing has a critical role to play in the success of the organisation especially when it is of the scale of H&M. With the increase in competition, this role of marketing has become further significant as they have multiple roles within the firm. They are offering variety of products at different prices through both online and offline mediums. However to enhance the sale company needs to do most of their marketing and sales through digital mediums. They also need to have an evaluation strategy where more focus needs to be put on the digital mediums.
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