In this statement I try to examine Marks & Spencer's current business strategies, and verify their success in business by executing various audits. I am analysing current shoeshine's business problems and their stakeholder's needs. Having considered these aspects, I am going to recommend new strategies which shoeshine could modify through this regeneration program.
Introduction
For over 125 years, Marks & Spencer have been trusted by customers to offer high quality value clothing, food, and home products. Having grown up from a cent bazaar stall to 1 of the UK's leading retailers, with an increase of than 21 million UK customers and also broadening internationally with an employee over 78, 000 and 2, 000 suppliers building the bedrock of the business enterprise, Markings & Spencer will continue to offer Quality, Value, Invention and Trust. (Markings and Spencer plc. , 2009)
Their vision
To be the typical against which all others are assessed.
Their mission
To make aspiration quality accessible to all or any.
Their values
Quality, value, service, innovation and trust.
Marks and Spencer's corporate objectives are included in its mission statement. It values and values are outlined as "Our customers continue steadily to see Grades & Spencer as the destination to shop for special food, produced to exacting standards".
Their target is to uphold their eye-sight, mission, and ideals throughout the international growth of the business. The CEO of Grades & Spencer explains that their target is to 'Ensure we meet our customers' needs with appealing, superior quality products at attractive prices. '(Markings & Spencer, 2009)
Strategies
Marks & Spencer in the united kingdom has an image for stability and quality, underpinned by staff training, product, and quality standards. Control at supplier level and strong corporate and business worth supportive for the product quality image, portrays M&S against their rivals as using differentiation strategy. (Johnson. , Scholes. , 1999)
Marks & Spencer have implemented some strong strategies in place for a few of the key areas of their retail performance. These have proven to be very successful because of this present day and get older of business a few of them being:
100% Own Brand: Advertising only own brand products and brands exclusive to Marks & Spencer so it can assure customers the quality, value and service they attended to anticipate.
Segmentation of Clothing: the target is on keeping the devotion of key customers, who favor classically stylish clothes and plan to section its products across different standards of living.
Expanding to multi stations: M&S Direct (online and catalogue shopping) is bettering customer convenience and service, supporting the company reach a fresh generation of customers.
Supply string management: the management is reinforced by limited systems for inventory control and the introduction of high specifications of specifications. The partnership with suppliers is a model of a genuine long-term partnership, relating a commitment to assist suppliers to boost.
Internal marketing communications: The 'top 100 briefings and director breakfast membership' was launched to bring the managers and employees together more regularly. This increased communication and information flow between departments, from the boardroom to the shop floor.
Staff desire and trends: The Company has made investments in this particular department to make certain all staff are trained to highest needs of M&S customer's expectation and also provide a link to their key guidelines and places out how employees can raise their concerns. An example of this is actually the recent 'Lead to Succeed' development program built around their brand ideals. This is designed to help senior leaders to develop themselves, lead their clubs and the company to drive business success. It is a critical component of M&S future people strategy.
Shareholders: THE BUSINESS maintains regular contacts with the process traders and shareholders. That includes a postage paid topics greeting card with the 'AGM Notice of Get together' so that shareholders can make their views known. The business's e-commerce website is planed carefully so that shareholders can email the Chairman directly with their comments, write to them or call the telephone help lines.
There are a lot more strategies in place like internal audit and exterior audit which in return makes the business more robust as an organisation every day. (Grades & Spencer, 2009)
Marks & Spencer are pleased with their brand of quality, value, service, advancement and trust which differentiate their product and services from other leading UK stores. The business is keen to safeguard its reputation and has ambitious ideas to broaden its multi-channel development and progress internationally. They have confidence in investing in the future by conditioning its team in every level, from shop floor to boardroom as they continue steadily to grow running a business.
ShoeShine Plc
Introduction
Shoe Glimmer Plc, a large shoe creation company which has been disadvantaged in comparison to its competitors, because of its bad business strategies and out-of-date technologies has resulted in getting rid of control over their own market. It has shown in their increasing cost and declining sales. To aggravate the matter the staff's morale at ShoeShine is low as they believe that the management has not done enough in terms of obsolete technology and communication between them and the management. In a recent board getting together with the management are determined this cannot carry on and have opted for a change in the current company's strategy. They have decided to start all over again and wish to accomplish right these times and want to consider all the stakeholders in this technique. They have named this innovation task a slogan 'Change - the way ahead for ShoeShine!'
The management have decided throughout this complete regeneration program that they would like to take factor of ShoeShine's stakeholders as they add towards the strategic development of the organisation. The existing ShoeShine attitude towards stakeholders has shown that failing to account for stakeholders contributes to poor business performance.
Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes define stakeholders as 'Individuals or groups who depend on the organisation to fulfil their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation will depend on. ' (Johnson. , Scholes. , 1999, p 213)
Stakeholders of shoeshine plc
Employees
Managers
Shareholders
Customers
Board of directors
Suppliers
Distributors
Competitors
Creditors
Government
Environmental groups
Union
Primary stakeholders: A firm cannot are present without their continuing contribution i. e. employees, management, stakeholders, suppliers etc.
Needs of major stakeholders of ShoeShine plc
Customers
A wide range of products designed for customers without compromising technology, quality and value for money would be welcomed.
Shareholders
A growth in sales and market talk about along with better profit percentage.
Employees
A better perspective and mission statement replacing the prevailing one, plus a new framework of communication within the organisation is highly necessary for more efficient responsibilities to be achieved. Better personnel appraisals systems to be placed in place.
Management
Detailed goals or focuses on to be laid out from the mother board of management, along with a better and easy way of communication within the company is strongly suggested.
Board of directors
Overall interior communication within all departments of the company to be improved upon by implementing a fresh communication structure, enhancing the sales and profit percentage by breaking down the target for every department so it is easily achievable, chopping the entire cost successfully, keeping the management motivated and keeping most of shoeshine's product current with the technology available in the market.
Suppliers
A uniformed buying system in place so it could deal with the growing demand of ShoeShine in the foreseeable future and providing it in a more cost efficient way.
Competitors
Not to interfere with their targeted customers, products or their market talk about.
New business strategy opted by ShoeShine plc
After careful consideration, the panel of directors have comeback with strong and proven ways of replace a few of the strategies that happen to be clearly no longer working for ShoeShine plc, in order to make the business more efficient and successful in this contemporary times. The plank has ensured that new strategies carried out will involve every department which includes suffered in the past so the same mistakes would not do it again again. The management are also keen to keep updating their strategy if it requires regularly. A few of these new strategies are shown in the areas enlisted below:
Innovation
The board is rolling out a team of developers together to work in the current ground breaking market and develop new products with the use of latest technology available in the market for ShoeShine. This may meet the needs for everyone its customers from different walks of life as well as help ShoeShine to contend in the market to develop its market share gradually.
Internal communications
The board has planned to improve the current system which helps communication internally with a better structured and useful I. T platform. This will because of this reduce the communication hurdle within every division in the organisation and even rendering it easier for employee's view at the lower most level heard.
Customers
The company has plans to start a fresh loyalty program through which it shall pay back the commitment of its customers, along with offering a much wider range of products for any age ranges and sex.
Online channel
The board realises the delay in entering the marketplace through this route so in order to get a decent market show and successful first 12 months business through this channel, they have got appointed a specialist team with a acoustics knowledge in e-commerce and heavily guaranteed it along with some strong marketing set up.
Competitors
The board firmly consider their new devotion program introduced within this regeneration program and their wider selection of ground breaking products at a very reasonable price would give the company the advantage of contending against their challengers.
Employees
The company is committing a sizable capital on its recruiting as part of this regeneration program to inspire their employees and explain them the new objective, vision claims and providing them with the required skills to cope with this entire regeneration program.
Control over suppliers
The board has decided to spread more capabilities to the low management to make the buying system more effective giving them smaller targets on the overheads, which in exchange would help our suppliers to deliver goods better helping costs on both ends.
Marketing
The company and its shareholders are hesitant to make a huge investment in this area to ensure the company complies with its first yr target in business, and in getting market tell a sound advertising campaign promoting its new and innovative products along with its new unique commitment program.
The board believes in this entire regeneration program and thinks that the new strategies set up for their business will help get over their recent decline in business and their loss in market show. The table are also assured that this task can only just see success that they have come up with a new quest and vision affirmation for their company.
Mission: to be the pioneers in creating innovative shoes
Vision: making shoeshine a worldwide brand when it comes to shoes
Strategic problems experienced by ShoeShine plc
Swot analysis
Strength
loyal staff
Weakness
Outdated products
Outdated technology
De-motivated staff
Miscommunication within the organisation
Opportunity
Gaining on the sacrificing market share
Increase in sales
Developing new and impressive products
Threat
Losing control over their costs
Decline in sales
Environmental examination for shoes sparkle plc
Pest analysis
Political
Having a new government which includes just been elected and willing over cutting administration expenditure to lessen the countrywide deficit; it might be even harder for any grants or loans from the government for shoe glimmer soon.
Economical
Currently the monetary prospect is very uncertain and this is more than likely to impact retail sales, as people do not have the spare cash to spend on luxury items such as clothing and food luxuries.
Social
"Consumer acquisitions are affected by cultural, interpersonal, personal and emotional characteristics. For the most part, marketers cannot control such factors, however they must take them into consideration". Armstrong, G and Kotler, P (2007)
Shoeshine has to consider their customers those who result from different strolls of life and gratify them individually to increase their market share.
Technological
Shoeshine's main top priority being innovative and modern products with value for money following this regeneration program.
Making shopping more easier for any shoeshine's customers by bringing out a fresh web system for sales.
Strategic setting of ShoeShine plc
Positioning a corporation entails choosing the best strategy that is practical in the long-term and able to face rivals and maximise long-term revenues. Every merchant including Shoeshine have to choose between two strategies to be able to put its company:
Differentiation: Creating a brand via large advertising to be able to obtain the loyalty of the customer: this plan specializes in advertising and it almost never uses promotions to market its products since offers only attracts non-loyal customers who are trying to find cheap offers. I. e. Markings and Spencer's, apple, Nike and so many more.
Cost leadership: This strategy involves offering products at discount prices to be able to encourage customers buy more and entice clients who want for cheap good deals; this strategy is followed by H&M, Primark and so many more.
There is a trade off between sales and promotional initiatives, the both should be combined in a way that could help the company achieve higher earnings. Fashion retailers could not have higher level of advertising and higher level of sale campaigns. Advertising is known as a pricey investment, which aims to improve the turnover in the long-term by increasing brand consciousness.
Sale promotions are the quickest way to sell the rest of the stock of clothes and getting cash to get new range of clothes, sales campaigns involves sacrificing revenue to be able to get quick cash. No fashion store could afford advertising and generating sales promotions at the same time because his profit will be minimize twice.
Considering the aforementioned two strategies and currently shoeshine dropping its market show, I have advised that shoeshine adapts to the 'cost control' strategy. This is more effective in terms of making its product more recognized. After getting a profitable market show it might be advisable to begin going into a 'differentiation strategy' by increasing funding in its promotional initiatives.
Conclusion
Having reviewed different reports encircling business strategies from various retail companies such as Markings & Spencer's, and having conducted various audits to show them to be successful, I've come to the conclusion that the highlighted strategies and analysis will regenerate ShoeShine Plc. Furthermore, due to the fact similar strategies have been put in place to ShoeShine Plc currently can only make them successful and repair on its market show.
