...Arianne Dyball MAIN Geography Miss Green Issue I Will be looking into Exploitation of workers. Wages and Hours? Child Labour? How are employees treated? Safety and exposure to toxins and lack of trade unions and equal rights for disabled e.t.c.? Global issues, how is waste disposed? Are any resources being polluted? Carbon footprints? Primark Evidence found underpaying workers and not paying overtime. Evidence found child labour being used. Evidence found of lack of regard for workers’ rights and lack of safety. Marks and Spencer's Evidence found fair pay for workers. Evidence found of use of child labour early on. Evidence found helping to assist workers to be shown how to how to do job properly. Evidence found changing to more ecofriendly recycled bags. Evidence found helping environment with ‘Plan A’. Evidence of Social Responsibility for Primark. This shows that Primark takes into account all social issues relating to the customers and stake holders. Evidence 1. This is an opinion of a stake holder (Primark’s owner). Primark's code of Conduct Primark’s code of Conduct: • Employment is freely chosen collective bargaining are respected • Working conditions are safe and hygienic • Child labour shall not be used • Living wages are paid • Working hours are not excessive • No discrimination is practised • Regular employment is provided • No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed. • Freedom of association and the right to A limitation is that...
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...Marks and Spencer: Plan A Issues There are many companies who are taking different steps as per as the Corporate social responsibility is concern. In this case various steps that the Stuart Rose proposed to company that could be adopt to recognize their customer with their environment friendly existence. These will help to realizing their customers on which basis M&S products are different from the others and what they are doing for them and environment. * Misunderstanding about the direction from the “Plan A” and which pillar from that can be more suitable and sustainable for the M&S in future. * Inconsistency within the sales of M&S during different time periods as it is described in case the business which is working on such large scales have to face various downfalls in their sales i.e. during the 1998 while the company has the recorded sales of 16.2billion but the market share and the profits of company dropped. * Prices that charged by the M&S are not justifiable to providing value to its customers. * Variation among the supply cycle and high costs then competitors. Analysis M&S has various opportunities to get there “plan A” implemented on different directions which involve all those five pillars that described case one by one. Which could be the stage of the climate change in which the company focuses on the reduction of the usages of the carbon dioxide for which the M&S has to do various efforts that are linked with the customers...
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...Maisy Marsh Assignment Three Corporate communications is how a business keeps their message, with everybody. It isn't just how the company speaks to the marketplace, which is known as branding, or how the company deals with the media, which is called public relations. Corporate communications involves, the market, media, communities and the staff itself, through training sessions and messaging that always reinforces the mission and vision of the company. The worker in the department of corporate communication will often report directly to a company’s chief executive and serve as advisers in managing the company’s reputation. They help leaders prepare for media interviews, develop messages to deliver to investors and employees and suggest new initiatives to keep the company on cutting edge with the communication to their stakeholders. MEDIA RELATIONS This may be the function for which corporate communication managers will be best known for. Media relations work includes many things such as writing and distributing new releases and responding to media inquiries. Corporate communications will be in charge of various news conferences, which may include selecting the site for an event, or preparing packets of information to distribute to the media and prepare executives to speak at these news conferences. Media relations also involves arranging for spokespersons to appear on local television and radio programs. Corporate communicators monitor newspapers, television...
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...to tell them all the information for Marks and Spencer such as Financial Highlights, share price, figures and Facts. Marks and Spencer are a company which have done outstanding and their figures have shown that their plan A has been successful. Procedure I completed research online to find financial statistics of Marks and Spencer, this information was found on the internet in the annual report of Marks and Spencer. I viewed the statistics to analyse the findings such as group revenue, profit before tax and final dividend. Findings This data shows that group revenue, group operating profit, profit before tax, earnings per share and final dividend. Group revenue shows that it has rose by 2.0% in 7 moths which is a great achievement and also it’s 9.9 billion, which is a lot for 7 months. Also this year financial highlights have been amazing the group revenue at the end of 53 weeks the percentage went up by 4.2%. Due to the really good results from group revenue the group profit before tax meant down by 15.7% which means they didn’t get much of profit in those few months. As you can see that the underlying earnings per share is 34.9p, it also has upgraded 0.3% which means that they have improved quite greatly. It makes sense to say that the final divined came up to 17.0p in 52 weeks which is a good achievement bearing in mind that they didn’t make much profit before tax and when down by 1.2%. As you can see above Marks and Spencers operating profit is £746.50 which is...
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...The latest results from Marks & Spencer and Primark paint a very different picture of the high street. While M&S’s like-for-like sales of general merchandise, which is primarily clothing, have fallen 1.5pc over the last six months, Primark has reported a 5pc increase in like-for-like sales and a 22pc uptick in total sales. Marc Bolland, the chief executive of M&S, says the 129-year-old retailer’s clothing business is on a “journey” after the leadership team and style was revamped. “The most important [factor] is to choose the right direction,” he said on Tuesday. The new-look M&S womenswear collection has won strong reviews from the fashion press. It shows the company has listened to criticism from customers by stepping up the quality and introducing sleeves to dresses, which was a particular sore point. Mr Bolland said there has been a “gradual improvement” in the performance of M&S’s clothing business. The company “sold through” 80pc of the clothing advertised in its high-profile 'Leading Ladies’ campaign within six weeks. However, if M&S is to put its clothing arm on a permanently firmer footing, it could still learn lessons from the extraordinary success of its upstart rival Primark. The discount retailer Primark only arrived in the UK in 1973, 89 years after M&S, but if present trends continue then it will have as many clothing customers as M&S within two years. The first lesson from Primark is that price really matters. This sounds obvious, but...
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...SWOT ANALYSIS A SWOT analysis or SWOT matrix is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or in a business venture. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. Some authors credit SWOT to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. However, Humphrey himself does not claim the creation of SWOT, so the origin remains obscure. SWOT Analysis includes:- * Strengths: Characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over others. * Weaknesses: Characteristics that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others * Opportunities: Elements that the project could exploit to its advantage * Threats: Elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective. We are doing SWOT analysis of brand ZARA. ZARA SWOT ANALYSIS | STRENGTHS | * Have about 2000+ stores located in leading cities across 88 countries * Part of one of the biggest Spanish retailers in the world * Needs just two weeks...
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...Marks&Spencers The three different retail outlets I am covering are Marks and Spencers, Tesco’s and Volkswagen. Marks and Spencers is a department store Tesco’s is a supermarket and Volkswagen is a Specialty store. Marks and Spencers display techniques are interesting because in the Hereford store they have the woman's clothing downstairs split into different sections so certain items are easy to find. They then have the food and drink department next door, to get to it you have to go towards the back of the store and there is a big open are you can walk through to enter the food department which is also allied off into sections. The men’s and children’s department is then upstairs along with electrical appliances and the cafe. The stock facing used by Marks and Spencers is very simple the stock that is on sale and is new into the store is usually pushed to the front of the rack in its certain section and the stock that has been out for a long time and isn’t selling well will either be pushed onto the sale rack or pushed to the back of the store. The shelf layout is very similar to all clothes stores and electrical appliances stores, it’s aisled off into sections so it makes it easy for customers to find the products they want, the newer stuff on the shelf is generally pushed forward and the older products are usually pushed towards the back. Marks and Spencers usually have a display in the shop window to entice people to dome in the store; the newer stock is generally...
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...Political According to "BBC News 30th January 2006" Marks & Spencer would be the first retailer to go down the Fair-trade route on both clothing and food. The fair-trade policy, include cut salt and fat in M&S foods, recycled packaging and animal welfare protection. Marks & Spencer Chief Stuart Rose noted, "Customers want good value, but they care more than ever how food and clothing products are made" (BBC, 2006). Economic: Current economic position of the company is very uncertain. The UK retail market showed a low growth of 1.2%, third lowest in the past 40 years (SAS, 2012) M&S have recently closed a number of stores and have cut the jobs on 2% of their 70,000 staff. M&S have tried to change the way market sees themselves to try and stay ahead of the recession. They had 20% discounts in the run-up to Christmas AND 20% of all Wine and Champagne to keep up with their competitors. Social: "Consumer purchases are influenced by cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics. Marketers cannot control such factors, but they must take them into account". (Armstrong and Kotler, 2008) In the Guardian (2006), Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer Stuart Rose wanted to stretch the company brand, for example he considered selling food online to become a multi-channel retailer, to keep up with the competitive market such as Asda. Asda and Marks & Spencer appeal to different markets in terms of social class and other demographics; so it influences...
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...Instructor’s Manual CASE TEACHING NOTES Marks & Spencer Nardine Collier and Gerry Johnson 1. Introduction This case study is about why one of the world’s most famous retails, Marks & Spencer, ran into trouble at the end of the 1990s and how it attempted to manage a programme of change to overcome those problems. It is therefore useful to explore issues concerned with organisational culture, strategic drift, strategic choice and the management of change. The case covers both the history of Marks & Spencer throughout the last century and, in more detail, from 1998 to 2004, the period when it moved from a position of market dominance to one in which it was deemed to be a take-over target. The case charts the attempts by its different chief executives to address the problems during this time and, therefore, the various change initiatives that were mounted. 2. Position of the case The case study relates, in particular, to the problems and means of managing strategic change in Marks & Spencer. So it is particularly related to the coverage of strategic inertia and strategic drift in chapter 1 and programmatic design and change in chapter 10. With this in mind it might be taught at the end of the strategy course. However, it could also be used as a case to require students to analyse the reasons for the problems of Marks & Spencer, not only in terms of organisational culture, but also in terms of the market and competitive position of the firm. In this sense it could be...
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...Marks and Spencer: Plan A Issues There are many companies who are taking different steps as per as the Corporate social responsibility is concern. In this case various steps that the Stuart Rose proposed to company that could be adopt to recognize their customer with their environment friendly existence. These will help to realizing their customers on which basis M&S products are different from the others and what they are doing for them and environment. * Misunderstanding about the direction from the “Plan A” and which pillar from that can be more suitable and sustainable for the M&S in future. * Inconsistency within the sales of M&S during different time periods as it is described in case the business which is working on such large scales have to face various downfalls in their sales i.e. during the 1998 while the company has the recorded sales of 16.2billion but the market share and the profits of company dropped. * Prices that charged by the M&S are not justifiable to providing value to its customers. * Variation among the supply cycle and high costs then competitors. Analysis M&S has various opportunities to get there “plan A” implemented on different directions which involve all those five pillars that described case one by one. Which could be the stage of the climate change in which the company focuses on the reduction of the usages of the carbon dioxide for which the M&S has to do various efforts that are linked with the customers...
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...Marks and Spencer IB209 Marketing Analysis Anshul Maini 1036526 Marks and spencer also called as M&S and Marks and Sparks was found in the year 1884 by two people Michael Marks and Tom spencer (Bevan, 2007). Ever since then marks and spencer has delivered goods of the best quality and now to day it stands as one of the best retail chains in the UK. They primarily deal in Clothing and food. The company is headquartered in London, UK and is the one of the biggest companies in the world. It’s ranked #725 in the Forbes 2000 list (Marks and Spencer on Forbes 2000 list, 2011) and is amongst the top 5 retail firms in the country. Currently the chairman of the company is Robert Swanell and the Chief Executive is Marc Bolland. (Annual Report, 2011). Over the years Marks and Spencer has gone through ups and downs. It is the first British Retail firm to make a Profit before tax of over £1 Billion which was in the year 1998.After that the company had hit rock-bottom which was due to heavy competition and the company’s inability to satisfy its customers, it went into heavy losses in its turnover. After amending a few policies and the change of the Chief executive, the company looked more closely at the customer’s needs, wants and demands and modelled their strategies around it, thus rising it from the ashes. However again in 2008, the company went into a credit crunch which was mainly because of the recession. (M&S shares dive on gloomy outlook, 2008) (Bevan, 2007).Although M&S has...
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...Marks & Spencer PLC Plan A.Introduction.The total value of UK retail sales were £333 billion in 2014 and 9% of all VAT-registered businesses in the UK retailers, with the total number currently at 192,595. A third of consumer spending goes through these shops and the retail sector generates 5% of the gross domestic product of the UK. (retaileconomics.co.uk 2015). Marks & Spencer PLC has been part of the British high street for over 130 years, starting out as a small penny stall in a market in the City of Leeds, to the iconic £10.3 billion retail brand it is today, employing 83,069 people worldwide. The company has always had a strong ethos of fair trade, treating its staff well, building strong long-term relationships with its suppliers and developing new and initiative relations with its customers from the company outset. (D. Grayson, 2011). Marks & Spencer was the first high street retailer to allow customers to enter their shops without paying for the privilege, prior to this, the proviso was that a customer entering a shop had to buy an item, something that is taken for granted today but in 1894 was unheard of. (marksandspencer.com 2015.) In 1997 the company became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion, although subsequently it went into a sudden slump, which took the company, its shareholders, who included hundreds of thousands of small investors, and nearly all retail analysts and business journalists, by surprise. The reasons...
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...This report highlights on M&S planning, organising, and taking decisions. It further incorporates the history, business operation, and the treats and opportunities faced by the company. It also provides an alternative solution and offers recommendation which might help the company to compete in the market, by providing appropriate service to its customer’s .The main aim of this report is to evaluate how M&S can survive in this ever changing market Introduction: Marks and Spencer the Britain retailer (often referred to as Marks & Sparks by locals) is a general retailer that sells clothes, gifts, home furnishings, and foods under the brand name St. Michael in the UK, Europe, the Americas and Far East. The company also operates in the financial services segment. Marks & Spencer was started in 1884 by Michael Marks in the Leeds market. The company strived for value and low prices and worked for its development. By 1901, the company acquired 35 outlets and had a new partner in Tom Spencer. The company’s stores started to carry the label (St. Michael) by 1949. The company’s vision is to offer consumers great quality, value, and service. With nearly 300 stores in the United Kingdom, M&S is the country’s largest retailer and holds 17% of UK clothing market. The goods they have are perceived be of excellent value and quality. It has been seen that the company adheres...
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...Literature Review History and Culture It was very common to read about Marks and Spencer as ‘one of the best managed and admired businesses in the world’ (Mellahi et al 2002). The company had enjoyed a great success in the retail sector. Marks and Spencer commenced its business activity in Leeds in the late 19th century, as a family-run shop, with strong values. Since then and for many years after, it became popular for its alternative way of business, in comparison to other British retailers (Mellahi et al 2002). It established a good relationship with customers based on loyalty and trust. The firm also gained high respect from the British people; it was considered the biggest corporate charity donor within the UK (Mellahi et al 2002). Not only consumers, but staff and shareholders could share this great success. According to Wallop (2012) the company has been the most important British clothing retailer for decades, and also the first retailer in the UK to publish annual profits of £ 1bn. Lately Marks and Spencer has undergone a difficult period. The latest management changes have once again disrupted stability. In July 2012, M&S announced widespread changes across the company, including a new head of general merchandise, style director and a new head of food. A number of external and internal factors explain these changes. External Factors Consumer spending & Competition External factors can be described as things affecting the company beyond its control....
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...MARKETING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE SM1010 MARKS AND SPENCERS – PLACE MODULE TUTOR: JAYA AKUNURI SEMINAR TUTOR: RULA AL-ABDULRAZAK CONTENTS Page Introduction 4 Abstract 4 Distribution Channel 5-6 Distribution Strategies 7-8 Conclusion 9 Bibliography 10-11 INTRODUCTION Few producers sell their goods direct to the consumers, however most use third parties or intermediaries to bring their products to the market. They try to forge a distribution channel- a set of independent organisation involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user. This report will examine the way Marks and Spencer’s sell their goods direct or indirect to the consumers. The following features...
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