Marketing plan: Primark international

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PRIMARK is termed to be one of the ground breaking affordable retail outlet world wide. Primark retail store grounded its roots from DULBIN, IRELAND, in the year 1969. The founder of Primark ARTHUR RYAN has played a phenomenal role in uprising the company to attain profits with its reproduction of cat walk fashion at a cheap prices. The company operates under the name of Penneys , and being a subsidiary of Associated British Food Plc it was initially under the hands of Weston Family. Penneys than realigned into Great Britain in 1973 as PRIMARK and in May 2009 after opening its first store ever in DULBIN the company has now spread its wings around the globe .i.e. it has its franchise in countries like United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Netherland, Germany and now it is also expanding in Belgium. Considering, today’s scenario Primark is operating 189 retail outlets around the globe which are segmented as 38 outlets in Ireland, 12 in Spain, 136 in UK, 1 in Netherlands, 1 in Portugal and 1 in Germany. Currently, the employees structure of Primark is huge enough attaining 27500 employees pulling their socks up for the smooth running of the company. PRIMARK is termed to be an absolute nuclear bomb in today’s worlds the company is blown to be an epitome of the new fast fashion in retail generation which aims at providing the cat walk fashion at an affordable price to its customers. The company is confident enough about its merchandise and about its cheap .i.e. the affordable prices which proclaims the customers to be loyal to the brand i.e. it attracts and convinces the more amount of consumers and retains them.

PRIMARK has a drive to enforce style, price, quality all the three aspects which are rolled on in one shell. The company’s is recognised as the clothing retail brand covering a wide range of women’s wear products, men’s wear, children’s wear and home products bearing cheap prices with a wide range offers and discounts schemes which proves beneficial to the consumers. PRIMARK has not only restricted itself to the manufacturing of clothes but also deals with apparels and accessories available to all human sizes.

The company’s mission states to give ordinary people a chance to buy the same stuff as rich people do. i.e. at a cheap and affordable price . The company’s objective retrieves to always be the first choice of the consumers and make sure that the consumers do not opt for the competitors products. PRIMARK provides training to its employees on to the international standards and make them aware about customer relationship management. It also ensures that the company gains ISO standards through out the organisation.

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Management is considered to be the stem in regulation of an organisation. The company aims to expand its market and set a benchmark for its competitors which can only be possible by having a strong management team handling affairs of the company. Therefore, while this paper illustrates the talk about re-nouned retail company PRIMARK, its agenda is a combination of product, price and the people working for the company. PRIMARK’S founder, chair person and managing director Arthur Ryan and buying and merchandising director Julian Kilmartin has shown their tremendous potential which reflected in the growth and profitability of the company and has led the company on to an expansion edge.

ENVIORNMENTAL ANALYSIS

Environmental analysis can be justified in an appropriate way by postering it as a PEST ANALYSIS. The analysis tests and examines the impact of certain factors such as political, economic, social and technical and their inter play in the business activities and the company can draw in changes to take advantage of the opportunities and to undertake measures from various threats while preparing the strategic plans for the business activities. The PEST analysis discusses the issues much in detail which is as follows:

Political factors:

Political factors reviews the impact of any political or legislative changes that affect the business. PRIMARK’S business policies are subject to government rules and regulations, the company should confront and make sure that its abound to the rules and regulations which are abide by the government in order to sustain the smooth running of its business.

Economic factors:

Economic entity influence the growth and the stability of any business operations. Similarly, if we talk about PRIMARK , the company has established itself to provide affordable products to its consumers and it has to set standards of price range that the company can also attain maximum profits even out of the discounted prices and offers which are set. For achieving the economic growth PRIMARK has to first analyse the price of the products of its competitors and then take an advantage of the opportunity in setting up a price range which is lower than that of its competitors like TOP SHOP, MARK’S N SPENSOR, PRADA, FCUK etc. This will lead to the growth of the company and will rise the profit margin.

Social factors:

Conserving today’s scenario the business organisations along with the aim of achieving profits they are also involved in inculcating awareness about social and cultural equality. It is very important for the business to understand the as to how the target consumers uses the social techniques today as well as considering the future aspects. PRIMARK has to set a good profile when it connects to the consumers .i.e. it should be able to understand the needs and requirements of the customers bearing the social aspect in mind and should deliver the products accordingly.

Technological factors:

Technology brings about an tremendous change an puts an favourable impact in working of the organisation and also effects the status and has an impact on the marketing programmes. Innovative technology arises new trend and leads to rapid growth in the organisation. PRIMARK should focus on which technology to use adapt a blogging software and select the right technology which will make the process easier.

MARKET ANALYSIS:

The market analysis of PRIMARK could be examined more profoundly by using Porter’s Five Force model which is as follows:

Threat of new entrants:

Entry of new segments in market is been the major reason in declining of independent retailers. PRIMARK is also facing competition from many new entrants in the market and the virtually specified and centralised behaviour is proving advantage to the chain stores over independent retailers.

Bargaining power of suppliers:

Bargaining power of suppliers plays a two way role for the company. Firstly, if the company fails to seek the product from the supplier ,then the consumers would prefer the product of the competitors which would indeed prove a loss to the supplier as well as its product so the bargaining of suppliers should go hand in hand.

Bargaining power of customers:

Customers have a very little bargaining power at a retail outlet. As the products which are offered by PRIMARK are being already sold at a reasonable and a discounted price , so in this case the customer would lack the benefit to bargain for such products.

Threat of substitutes:

PRIMARK not only specials in clothing apart from that it also concentrates on the apparels, accessories and household products considering human sizes. Similarly, the products which are offered by PRIMARK are also offered by many of its competitors. Therefore , it proves to be a threat to such stores and retailers who distribute the products which are unique can only have an edge over its competitors.

SWOT ANALYSIS

While concluding the marketing plan, i would conclude the plan with swot analysis.We can use the swot analysis which would render a clear picture of the company in the market which would help to potray the current scenario of the company.

Swot analysis is the evaluation and examination of the data governing the business activities and the result evaluates the strengths, weakness, opportunities and the threats that the company faces.

Strengths:

Price can prove to be the major strength for the company. As PRIMARK deals with the products that are affordable it drives the attention of the consumers by selling the products at an discounted prices which attracts more number of customers.

An established brand name can also prove to be a strength for the company. As PRIMARK has a well recognised brand name around the globe it has created a strong goodwill in the market.

PRIMARK has opened up many franchise in almost every cities and town which is feasible for the customers to access any outlet in the vicinity.

The company also have diversified its product range and this is a major strength as consumer can get all kinds of variety under one roof.

According to me, PRIMARK has is kind of gift to the students and consumers who are trapped to shed out more amount of money without compromising on the style and fashion available.

The products of the competitors like the TOP SHOP, MISS SELFRIDGE, ACCESSORIES are sold at a tenth of the price.

Weakness:

Primark’s customers services are very few while customers in crowed that’s why you see long and long queues, which are very big problem for their customers, while their competitors properly manage their customers, and you never see long queue there.

Customers fail to prefer PRIMARK’S product as they feel the products are not durable and people fail to trust the quality of the products.

The atmosphere also proves to be a weakness for the company as the products are not managed tidily and there is a crowded and untidy atmosphere which would inturn ruin the shopping experience of the customer.

Opportunities:

The company has organized a new organization structure which is designed to serve its customers better, take advantage of market opportunities and reduce costs.

The company is planning to significantly increase its count of franchise and expanding its market.

Threats:

The competitors selling the same products act as a threat for the company. As PRIMARK has to make sure about its competitors pricing strategies,and to avail the products at a cheaper price than that of the competitors.

COMPETITORS ANALYSIS

In a highly competitive market PRIMARK is outstanding its performance and the reasons for the remarkable performance is the cost advantage over rival firms.

In past three years PRIMARK has got lot of rights which are been reserved. Its strongest competitors are TK MAX, MARKS N SPENSOR, GEORGE at ASDA.

Although all three are in the ‘value’ segment and therefore have similar market positioning, the other two have different strategies to that of Primark. TK Maxx sells heavily-discounted prestige brands and George at Asda has created its own private-label brand mostly at out-of town stores. Primark is a high street retailer which has a family of brands and focuses much more on buying, logistics and supply chain management rather than branding.

In order to sustain in the market Primark should follow cost leadership strategy i.e. it should not sell the products at a lower price rather lowest price than of the competitors so as to raise its profit margin.

CUSTOMER ANALYSIS

PRIMARK has many competitors in market such as MALTAN and BH’S which are struggling to sell the same kind of products which PRIMARK does. Relatively, its not easy to sell cheap fashion but PRIMARK is doing quite well with it.

PRIMARK has targeted customers under the age group of 35 years which are fashion conscious. It offers products at a very competitive prices and with a reasonable quality this strategy used by PRIMARK is known as value for money strategy. It does not prefer to sell its products to every random segment, its target segment include the age group of 18-30. This concludes the customer analysis.

CONCLUSION

Overview about the analysis states that every organisation has its own external and internal problems which has to be taken care of. Therefore, this can be possible by conducting PEST and SWOT analysis. The impact of this analyses reflects the business scenario.

REFERENCES

• http://www.primark.co.uk/page.aspx?pointerid=eb44df4565934edca627dac6ec12145a
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/5828214/Primark-founder-Arthur-Ryan-to-leave.html
• http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-12227-primark-stores-ltd.do
• Primark oldie’s golden touch, The Times, April 22, 2007. Retrieved January 28, 2008.
• http://www.insideretailing.com.au/Latest/tabid/53/ID/1552/Primarks-fast-fashion-revolution.aspx
• http://www.peopletree.co.uk/content/mission.php
• http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=5487098
• http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:EENk-Yeo_zkJ:lecresources.com/Final%2520Assignment.doc+chairperson+of+primark&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
• http://www.marketing-intelligence.co.uk
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1498651/Prada-No.-Top-Shop-No.-Its-Primark-darling.html
• http://ivythesisessaysamples.blogspot.com/2008/09/analysis-on-external-and-internal.html
• http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/primark/history.html
• http://www.open2.net/moneyandmanagement/management_organisation/money/briefs_20051206_primark.html

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PRIMARK is a retail clothing outlet which is famous for its catwalk high street brand, its a fashion tag for youngsters who are strapped with cash and people who are willing to buy the same brands at a cheaper price with reasonable quality. The company provides a wide range of products for all men, women, children, as well as it does not restrict its product range to clothing instead it also deals with the apparels, accessories. The company has now emerged in global information service industry in mid 1990’s.

INTRODUCTION:

PRIMARK is termed to be the second largest retailer by volume. It is considered to be one of the major European brand which are operating in almost 189 retail outlets all over the globe. PRIMARK employees almost 27,500 employees working in its outlets world wide the company is a subsidiary of Associated British Food and is also voted as best value high street fashion brand by GMTV.

Marketing Objectives:

After analysing the current situation of PRIMARK i would propose the following objectives which would lead the company to attain and to achieve growth and profitability with the following objectives:

Expansion of the business:

The company aims at expanding its business activities PRIMARK objective would be to open more number of retail outlets in almost every cities and towns and providing its customers with wide range of products and making its products easily accessible to its target segment.

Increasing sales:

The objective of any business organisation would target to increase sales of the company and achieve higher profits. For achieving this objective it is necessary for the company to lower down the prices and ensure that the product are available at a price which is lowest than of the competitors so that the consumer will automatically prefer the product bearing lower price and this would increase the sales of the company.

Retaining the existing customers:

For any business organisation it is very important to sustain its consumers i.e. the company should set up its products in such a way that the customers would opt for its product and would remain brand loyal throughout. So to attain profits, PRIMARK should retain its existing customers by offering them products at a reasonable and discounted prices.

TARGETING AND POSITIONING

Targeting refers to selecting one or more segments as a focus for the company’s offering or communications. Jobber (2004).

Niche market:

In this competitive world it is very important that company can communicate to its customers in an effective way and the company should be able to set standards when it talks about target market. The company should plan out proper medium and strategies that it would operate in for choosing its target market. It would be a zero percent sale if the company tries to sell its products to the customers of all the age group without knowing the market niche. Therefore, having a tight niche market is of great importance.

For PRIMARK the niche market adopted was the set of customers who would prefer buying fashion at a cheap price, so basically its target customers were consumers in the age group of 18-30.

Positioning

Positioning is considered to be the face of the business strategy. It specifies how the business aspires to be perceived relative to its competitors and markets. Aaker and McLoughlin (2006).

After the organisation has decided over the target market its next stage is to decide how the company is going to positioned its product in the market within that selected market segment. Developing a positioning marketing strategy depends on how the competitors position their product in the market. Positioning is about how you want your customers to perceive your product and services and what strategies will the company adopt to position its product and to reach its target goal.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

When a firm exceeds its profit margin then the average, it is said to be that the company bears a competitive advantage. Now here when we talk about PRIMARK its sales are blooming tremendously and the company bears a potential to expand itself in the economy with these rising amount of sales over its competitors like TK MAX, GEORGE at ASDA, MARKS N SPENSOR which are struggling to sell the same products at a lower price but then PRIMARK adds the gloom to its flourishing stage by providing those products at a lowest price than that of its competitors.

MARKETING MIX:

Marketing mix reflects the combination of elements used to market the company’s product. It consists of the four elements which will help in marketing the company’s product in an appropriate manner. Marketing mix strategy consists of 4p’s i.e. product, price, place, promotion by using this strategy the company can prove successful to establish its product in the market. Therefore the 4p’s of marketing mix are as follows:

Product:

Marketing a product can be very well reflected by analysing the features of the products. A product which is covered with all the good and positive features can be marketed by itself and this proves to be beneficial to the customers. Now when we talk about PRIMARK the competitors of PRIMARK if they have the same product , offering same benefits, same price then it is very important for the company to differentiate its products from that of the competitors, so that the customers would prefer buying the product from PRIMARK over its competitors. This can only be possible by having an attractive packaging to the product, designing, providing valuable and timely services to the products, warranties and also providing after sale services to consumers.

Design:

The design of the product should appeal in the eyes of the consumers over its competitors ,so the design of the product should be attractive enough and as we know that the target consumers of PRIMARK are 18-30 , so the design should be young vibrant and fashionable which will appeal to the target consumers and will motivate them to buy the product over its competitors.

Packaging:

Packaging of the product also plays a crucial role in persuading the consumers to buy the product .packaging provides a better appearance and a convenient use. Therefore , PRIMARK has to draw the packaging of its products in a way that it differ it from that of the competitors

After sale services:

The company should make sure that it not only provides on sale services infact PRIMARK also provides after sale services i.e. PRIMARK has a different counter looking after the exchange of the products and providing the customer with their choice of range.

Place:

Identifying the needs of the customer is an crucial decision in marketing mix. It is very important to identify where are you target customers and accordingly the company should decide where to locate its store and what distribution channels can appeal to the customers so that you can reach your target customers. The company should not place itself according to the location of the area infact the company should place itself where it can have greater number of target customers. PRIMARK is therefore located where it has huge demand of its customers.

Price:

Price reveals the pricing strategy which is used by the customers. PRIMARK follows a “competitive pricing strategy”. This strategy is used by the company when the company sells its products at a lowest price than of the competitors. This strategy is also used when the company operates in the similar market .i.e. if the products range and price range of the products are similar the company opts for this pricing strategy. The most important aspect of this strategy is to achieve high volume and lower costs. PRIMARK sells its products at an affordable price that is at a price which is lowest than that of its competitors.

Promotion:

Advertising, public relations , sales promotions are part and parcel of promotion. The main aim of promotion is to advertise its product in such a way that it affects the buying behaviour of the consumers and empowers the consumers to buy that particular product. There are many forms of advertisement such as TV, radio, internet, yellow pages, newspapers, hoardings, fliers etc. But while advertising the product the company has to take care about the three important notions which are as follows:

Reach:

Reach reflects the number of people that are affected by your advertisement. i.e. the target market which is getting affected by your advertisement. For instance, if PRIMARK advertises its products on radio it has to make sure how many people belonging to their segment are going to be affected by its advertisement.

Frequency:

It illustrates the number of time the consumer will be exposed to the message. It is notified that the customer can be exposed to the message seven times and this should be evaluated by the company before the advertisement campaign.

Message:

Message that needs to potrayed via advertisement should be catchy enough that it could hold the interest of the customers and force the customers to buy their particular product. PRIMARK message revels providing products at affordable price with a wide range of products.

Public Relations:

Public relations rely on the company’s own personality and they are termed to be more suttle and they can talk about and share speeches like on civic groups, economies , political groups, professional associates etc.

Sales promotion:

Sales promotions include various strategy such as fair trade, coupons discounts etc.

Conclusion:

To conclude PRIMARK is at the glowing and blooming side of the market and the company has proved itself to be successful by setting up proper standards and positioning itself in an different way than its competitors, the company has well defined its target segment and has been successful in satisfying its consumers which has resulted in high sales, goodwill and the company has now risen the bar for its competitors.

REFERENCES

• http://www.freeworldacademy.com/newbizzadviser/fw15.htm
• http://www.bsigroup.com/en/About-BSI/News-Room/BSI-News-Content/Disciplines/Risk-Management/Primark-choses-Entropy-Software/
• http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/directory/index.php?PID=66
• http://www.ciao.co.uk/Primark_Shop__Review_5590653