Analysis and Evaluation of H&Ms Market Success - Case Study Example

ARTICLE REVIEW Article Review Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 6, 11, 2010 Table of content Introduction 1 Literature Review 1 Analysis 2 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Article – Methodology 5 Conclusion and References 6 References 7 Article Review Introduction The research article that is taken for review and analysis for this paper is Analysis and Evaluation of H&M’s Market Success: Does the Company Educate its Consumers or Does it Serve a Unique Market Segment? The article evaluates two theories attempting to explain the deviation in H&M customers’ behavior-patterns where it presents the first theory as one that suggests that the customers’ behavior is bound and determined by their attitudes. The second theory that is discussed in the article postulates that customers of H&M belong to an entirely distinct market segment. This has been opted for as the main themes around which the article revolves since in the retailing market, Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) is a unique phenomenon especially from the observation of the difference in the behaviour of the customers of the company (Christensen and Rynor 2003). This paper critiques the named article in the line of its appropriateness furthering the understanding of strategic marketing and organizational effectiveness. In doing so, the paper will also critique on the effectiveness of the authors writing style, problem statement, use of corroborating secondary references and ease of the articles readability. Literature Review The literature review of this article shows some incredible extensive research that has been done mainly touching on the history, progress and successes of H&M as a company. In addition to this, the section has included information about corporate culture for the company as well as some of its core values. These values that have been addressed include the company’s consumer relations, strategic marketing tendencies that have been found to work for the company and theories about the behavior of consumers when buying and shopping for goods and services. The section has heavily relied on corroborating materials and authorities especially in studying about the theories of consumer behaviours and this presents the article as being scholarly and professionally done. One prerequisite of a properly done literature review according to (Christensen and Rynor 2003) is that it should draw a lot of references from secondary sources which helps shade more light to the topic under discussion. This is particularly important for technical concepts if and when they are used so that to help the reader to properly follow through with the topic of discussion. One particular area of interest that clearly shows the extensive use of citation and corroborating information to support the surmises made in the review can shown by the following excerpt which is found on page three of the article: According to Lux and Smith, “present knowledge of how consumers behave in the market place mainly consists of unrelated still photos depicting consumers at isolated times and places” (1993, p. 607). Talarzyk and Bass postulate that there are strong interactions between brand preference, purchasing behavior and attitudes (1972, p. 93). This form of discussion is very scholarly and professional which effectively makes the literature review sections compressively addressed up to date. Analysis The topic of this article; Analysis and Evaluation of H&M’s Market Success: Does the Company Educate its Consumers or Does it Serve a Unique Market Segment?, is handy in my understanding of ‘strategic marketing and Organizational effectiveness’ since it addresses a host of issues that intrinsic to H&M but with a wide application in the understanding of the stated organizational concerns. First, the article introduces the importance of customers to H&M and the central role that they take in the success of the company. This is a good approach in the view of modern strategic marketing which has appreciably been transformed from profit-and-expansion-point-of-view to a human-resource-point-of-view. According to (Christensen and Rynor 2003), strategic marketing process has to look at a company from the perspective of its customers and this can be attained by asking futuristic questions that have a long term horizon effect as suggested below: What motivates customers to buy from our company? What sort of improvement can we afford our customers in their social, business or personal lives? Which marketing segments for our customers are attracted to the products and services provided by our company? Which customer values or motivations present in our company motivates people to purchase products from our company? This article has addressed the issue of strategic marketing in an innovative way that meshes overall situation with the overall H&M direction which brings in a very novel idea of an effective approach to strategic marketing. The article has given detailed review of the company’s overviews and further details regarding its relationship with its customers. This is particularly important for UAE businesses since it is a rich market that can be described as being overcrowded with business and therefore only businesses that are focused on customer satisfaction are the ones that have a chance at thriving conspicuously. In this regard, it can be gathered from the article three main stages that are typical to strategic marketing plan which has been explained in relation to H&M and they are: Segmentation of the market – geographically, demographically, psychographically and behaviourally Profiling of the market segments – in terms of revenue potential, market share potential, and profitability potential Developing a market segment marketing strategy – what has been captured here is market leader or product line extension, targeted marketing or mass marketing and direct and indirect sales that are most promising for the company. The article has a brief introduction composed of three brief paragraphs that is followed by a detailed literature review after which comes the Problem Statement. Given the brevity of the introductory remarks of the article, the conciseness of the problem Statement and the detailed manner the literature review has been written, it is clear that the article has been done with a level of precision that befits the concision of the topic it addresses. In addition, there is a consistent flow from the abstract to the introduction and from the literature review to the statement of the problem is coherent and flawless making the writing of this article scholarly as it is academic. This article has three cardinal strengths that are clear through-and-through. First, the conciseness and clarity with which that statement Problem is stated gives a precise issue that the paper seeks to address. Secondly, the clarity with which the introduction has been done with a tone of captivation that creates enthusiasm in the reader is a great strength for the article since it encourages the reader to want to explore more and see what the paper has. Such kind of strong introduction is a strength for the paper and is likeable since it creates a yearn in the reader to want to go on reading and see what is presented in the paper. The third strength is the extensive use of secondary references which make the paper authentic and scholarly acceptable as it does not merely present the writer’s uninformed thoughts and surmises but rather shows that the sentiments shared in the article are backed with references from authorities in the respective areas of interest. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Article – Methodology This notwithstanding, the article also has a number of weaknesses which have to do with the way it has used a wide range of technical terminologies to that limits its use only to scholarly circles. The brevity that the discussions have been done also make the paper non-explanatory to someone who does not have prior information about the H&M. In addition to this, the article also has used heavy vocabularies that in some instances may be considered verbiage and thereby making the effectiveness of the information being communicated to dip lower than expected. The methodology that has been explained for this paper is also insufficient especially in the way the data collected is intended to be analyzed. There discussion of the data collected and its analysis is equally brief making the conclusions reached at vague and difficult to be lifted from the discussion and analysis preceding it. Finally, in as much as the article has a large number of sources of reference used for its writing, most of them are extensively used in the paper since there are just a few that have been used and others have simply been appended to the reference list being only used sporadically in the in-text citation of the paper. Conclusion and References This article does not significantly contribute to the wider knowledge of strategic marketing even though it has a strong case about the central concepts of strategic marketing. It does not clearly differentiate strategic marketing from tactical marketing which are close concepts that are significantly different. In some instances, it can almost be seen that these two have been used interchangeably. Strategic marketing should be one that presents novelty in the way marketing issues are addressed so that they create a stir for consumers and in the process create profitability from sales. The findings of this article are generally known and do not present obvious hardships for readers following through. In summary, the article Analysis and Evaluation of H&M’s Market Success: Does the Company Educate its Consumers or Does it Serve a Unique Market Segment?, has been creatively done and does not have such difficulty to warrant its non-application to academic practitioners. It is easy to read and in a scholarly perspective, its heavy use of references throughout its main body makes it authentic and acceptable. These are the tenets of strength that make this article sufficiently relevant for practitioners as well as academicians. References Christensen, C, and Rynor, M 2003, The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth, Harvard Business School Press, New York. Smith, R and Lux, D 1993, “Historical Method in Consumer Research: Developing Causal Explanations of Change”, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 19, pp. 595-610. Read More