New Consumer Marketing: Marks & Spencer - Assignment Example

New Consumer Marketing: Marks & Spencer Introduction Marks & Spencer (M&S) is a UK based retail organisation. In the recent years, the organisation has penetrated several nations in the world. The organisation was established in 1884 and it has nearly 3,000 suppliers across the world. In the current day context, the organisation has above 85,000 employees (Marks & Spencer plc, 2015). It has an annual revenue of over £1.2 billion in the global market for the year ended 2014. The organisation attempts significantly to satisfy its customers in order to gain competitive advantages. It also makes efforts enrich customer insights over the organisation and its several products in the retail outlets. These attempts of ennrching customer insights are highly different across different stores throughout the world (Marks & Spencer plc, 2015). Contextually, the current research demands for a study of customer insights into an organisation, where M&S has been proposed. The reason behind selecting M&S as the organisation for the study is the sector which it belongs to, i.e. retailing. The research of the retail sector would provide superior outcomes to the study, as a wide variety of customers arrive at retail outlets. The retail sector also has a higher number of consumers as compared to any other industry throughout the world. Moreover, it is notable that the consumers spend a significant proportion of time in retail outlets as compared to other outlets. Thus, it is important from the perspective of a researcher to select retail outlets for understanding consumer insights to a large extent (Marks and Spencer plc, 2015). Research Aim and Objectives The prime aim of the proposed research is to understand consumer insights in M&S. In this regard, for attaining the aim of the research, it is essential to draw some of the research objectives for the study. The research objectives are listed underneath. To analyse the marketing environment in M&S To assess consumers’ perceptions and motivation in M&S To execute a statistical quantitative data analysis from the perspective of the consumers visiting M&S Relevant Research Questions to be answered through the Research For the effective completion of the study, it is important to set some of the research questions. In this regard, it is highly important that the research questions are relevant to the objectives and aim of the study. These research questions are listed underneath. How aware are people to the brand i.e. M&S? What is the prime factor that influences consumers to visit the retail outlets of M&S repeatedly? What is the loyalty level among the consumers of M&S towards the brand? How consumer insights among the customers of M&S lead to higher loyalty towards the brand? How the consumers perceive the product quality of M&S? What consumers perceive regarding the brand image of M&S? How interaction among the consumers towards the brand does leads to higher consumer insight? How consumer insights among the consumers of M&S lead to higher customer satisfaction? How consumer insights are related to effective consumer feedback and product development? Appropriate Research Plan The proposed study involves a unique and decisive research plan, which would significantly support the overall development of the study and the effective completion of the same. In this regard, the correlation between the different variables would be executed (Baker, 2004). In this regard, the variables are selected based on the research questions of the study, which are listed above. Moreover, it is notable that the correlation process would be based on the research objectives of the study (Marks and Spencer plc, 2015). In the research process, it is also important to choose potential respondents that would provide adequate, appropriate and authentic questionnaire feedbacks. Moreover, it is important that the quantitative data collected from the respondent for the study are highly reliable and trustable (Baker, 2004). In this regard, the proposed study attempts to collect data from the consumers of the organisation, who are visiting the retail outlets of M&S. However, in order to reduce biasness among the respondents, the respondents are selected through informal contacts on a random basis (Panwar, 2004). The reason behind this is that the respondents, who are to be selected from the retail outlets of the organisation, would likely to provide biased responses in favour of the organisation. In addition, it is notable that these respondents from the organisation would provide valuable responses, as they have higher-level consumer insights (Marks & Spencer plc, 2015). In order to access the respondents for the quantitative study, some of the loyal customers of M&S are randomly selected through the data provided by the organisation. The organisation provided residential address to those loyal customers with their contact (Baker, 2004). Correspondingly, these individuals are initially contacted through their contact number. Further, they are intimated for the data collection through the questionnaire at their convenient locations and time. The reason for selecting the loyal customers as the respondents is that these customers are aware of several marketing strategies of the organisation. Thus, it also implies that these customers have a higher level of consumer insights into M&S as compared to other randomly selected respondents (Panwar, 2004). In addition, it is notable that these loyal consumers of the organisation are likely to provide biased responses in favour of the organisation. This is because these customers are highly satisfied through the products of the organisation (Marks & Spencer plc, 2015). In order to reduce biasness, some of the respondents are randomly selected, who are the consumers of the organisation. These consumers are accessed by intimating the available customers in the retail outlets of the organisation. In this regard, the managers of the retail outlets have accepted the notion of conducting the survey that would not cause any issue (Baker, 2004). The due permission from the managers encouraged to further proceed in the research. These respondents are less likely to response biased options as compared to the loyal customers. In this context, it is notable that as the consumers are available from the retail outlets, there is minimum possibility of influence of the organisational environment upon the responses of such individuals. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that these segments of consumers also have good level of consumer insights, which is advantageous for the study (Marks and Spencer plc, 2015). Moreover, in order to reduce the influence of M&S over the responses of the respondents to the lowest possible level, some of the respondents are selected outside the organisation. These respondents are randomly selected through informal contacts. These respondents are more likely to provide unbiased responses to the questionnaire (Baker, 2004). However, there is also an argument regarding the insight level of such individuals over the organisation. In this regard, among the randomly selected respondents, the respondents are to be asked regarding their awareness to M&S. The respondents, who are aware of the organisation, are selected for answering the remaining questions (Panwar, 2004). Thus, considering the importance of all the segments of respondents involving the loyal customers of M&S, available customers in the retail outlets, and the randomly selected respondents through informal contacts are selected in a random manner (Marks and Spencer plc, 2015). The underneath graphical representation depicts the timeline for the current study. Questionnaire Facilitates Answering Research Questions For the effective completion of the proposed study regarding the customers’ insight in M&S, it is important to conduct a quantitative study through questionnaire. The questionnaire prepared for the study is to be highly relevant to the research aim and objectives along with the research questions (Panwar, 2004). In this regard, one of the questions in the questionnaire aims to determine the number of times the respondents visit the retail outlets of the organisation. It facilitates to determine the answer to the research question suggesting the loyalty of the consumers (Baker, 2004). Another question that attempts to determine the factor, which influences consumers to visit the stores, is relevant to the research questions (Panwar, 2004). Moreover, one of the questions set in the questionnaire suggests of the overall rating of the consumers towards the products of the organisation for understanding the satisfaction level of the customers. This eventually facilitates in determining the impact of consumer insights over customers satisfaction level (Marks and Spencer plc, 2015). Moreover, the questionnaire attempts to determine the perceptions of the customers over the product quality. It also attempts to determine the interactions level of the consumers towards the brand. This subsequently facilitates in determining the impact of customer interaction in enriching customer insight with regard to the brand (Baker, 2004). Moreover, the questionnaire also suggest of the impact of consumer insight on the product development. This is because there are certain questions in the questionnaire that determine the insight level among the consumers of the organisation (Panwar, 2004). There are also certain questions that determine the product development phase of the organisation. The correlation between them would facilitate in determining the role of consumers insights on product development, which is highly relevant to the research questions of the study. Thus, it is justified that the questionnaire prepared for the study is highly supportive of answering the research questions of the study (Marks & Spencer plc, 2015). Research Difficulties Although the research is proposed to be executed in a comprehensive manner that will not cause any issue or difficulty in the successful completion of the study, there are still barriers that can be foreseen. One of such barriers is with regard to the biasness of the respondents. This biasness among the respondents would reduce reliability in the outcome of the study (Marks and Spencer plc, 2015). This would lead to the failure of the study. In this regard, to reduce biasness in the response, respondents are randomly selected from the loyal customers, available customers from the retail outlets, and randomly selected respondents through informal contacts. These different segments of customers would reduce biasness in the overall project outcome. Furthermore, in order to reduce the probable biased outcome of the study, the sample size comprises 100 respondents, which is a considerable number for deriving reliable and valid outcomes. Descriptive Statistics The statistics report suggests that the majority of the respondents are aware of M&S. A high percentage of awareness of M&S has been due to fact that the respondents are randomly selected from loyal customers list and available customers in the retail outlets. It is also notable that majority of the respondents purchase every product available in the store. The overall rating also suggests that the respondents are satisfied with the brand. This is primarily because of the product quality and service offered. From the statistical analysis, it can be ascertained that the customers visiting the stores of the company in a frequent manner, as they are able to meet their requirement effectively. It is also eminent that the consumer interaction is also relatively high among the consumers of the company. References Baker, S., 2004. New Consumer Marketing: Managing a Living Demand System. John Wiley & Sons. Marks and Spencer plc, 2015. Home. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://www.marksandspencer.com/ [Accessed March 10, 2015]. Panwar, J. S., 2004. Beyond Consumer Marketing: Sectoral Marketing and Emerging Trends. SAGE Publications India. Read More