Marks and Spencer
MARKS & SPENCER (Individual Analysis) Words Count:2064(excluding tables) [pic] Introduction: Marks and Spencer plc is a UK-based company. The business is known best as a retailer. There are over 622 Marks & Spencer stores throughout the UK that sell clothing, food and household goods. The core of its retailing business is clothing, particularly women’s. What market segments do the three different product ranges serve? Assume that the Perfect and Classic ranges serve essentially the same segment. |Perfect and Classic ranges |Autograph range |Per Una range | |Logo |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] | |Target Customer Age | | | | |Range |Women of all ages |35 years and above |25-35 years | |Estimated Clothing | | | | |Size |UK 8-24 |UK 8 – 22 |UK 8 – 18 | |Main requirement |Simple and basic pieces. |Elegant and timely pieces. |Special and detail design to make it a | | | | |unique piece of clothes. | Being the largest clothing retailer in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 43rd largest retailer in the world with over 21 million people visiting their stores each week, Marks and Spencer (M) had made a name in the
British culture just as much as the Beatles and Fish & Chips. When people talk about M, people use to think of the ranges of quality clothing they offered that would last for as long as they can imagine. However, in this cutting edge era M had been lost out in the fashion conscious market especially in the ladies department. Fashion savvy women nowadays opt more on rare and unique design clothing where they can be totally different from others, they does not want something that is instantly recognisable as M. Therefore, M had been losing out its market share to the younger generations as M had been consider as a place where its clothes are out of fashion and only older people shops.
The Classic and Perfect clothing is mainly aim at women of all ages. They are the core customers of M; it can therefore be M new customers or returning customers. These two ranges are more to the simple and basic pieces which include plain shirt, sweaters, t-shirts and jeans ranging from size UK8 – UK 24. The Classic and Perfect ranges is mostly aim at customers with a hectic lifestyle where they are looking for quality and reasonable price clothing which is mostly machine washable and tumble-dry friendly and most of all iron free. The Classic and Perfect ranges are also known as the timeless essentials where customers can purchase and wear it throughout the four different seasons. (See Appendix 1)
The Autograph range is aim to provide women mostly at the age of 35 and above with a touch of top designer style at high street price. The Autograph range mostly consists of elegant and timely pieces using only the luxury fabrics such as silks and cashmere. Every piece in this range is perfectly cut which are flexible for women of all lifestyles. With the clothing size ranging from UK 8- UK 22, there is not a chance where women can’t find a suitable piece. The Autograph range is suitable for women who are willing to pay a high price in exchange for a product that look smart and can last long. The Autograph mostly comes in styles which are more formal looking and colours that are more stable. See Appendix 2) In September 28, 2001 M introduce a new range of clothing line under the name Per Una which means For One (Woman) in Italian. Per Una is then set to aim on women in the age group of 25-35 years and within the size of UK8 – UK 18 which had the most buying power and is fashion conscious. With Per Una been translate into For One show that M is prepared to offered this new target group with special and detail style to make it a unique piece of clothes. Customers in this range wanted a sense of style which is value for their money and with a reasonable quality which meets the basic quality such as colour fading or shrinkage after washing.
Per Una is targeted at the young and sophisticated women are not afraid to put colours into their wardrobe. Therefore, the Per Una is nothing like the Autograph or Classic range as there are more colour choices in the range. (See Appendix 3) What are the order winners and qualifiers for these different ranges? Order-winning factors are those things which directly and significantly contribute to winning business. They are regarded by customers as key reasons for purchasing the product or service. Raising performance in an order-winning factor will either result in more business or improve the chances of gaining more business. (N Slack, S Chambers and R Johnston, Operation Management, p. 2) These criteria win orders and they differentiate a product or service from those of the competition by offering product or service features that are superior to those competition. As in the M case, the three different range of clothing line have its own order winners to make it sustain till today. Lets start with the first line, which is the Perfect and Classic ranges, in my opinion these two ranges order winners will be the size availability. These two ranges are the only line in M which provide clothing sizes up to UK 24. Therefore women which fall under this size category will then opt to buy clothing from these ranges from M as most of the clothing brand out the in the market only have sizes up to UK 18.
Take another famous clothing brand for example, like the River Island which only caters women within size UK6-UK18. (See Appendix 4) As for M Autograph range, I felt that the order winners would be the quality and the range of products. The Autograph range had been categorised as the most reliable and trustworthy line as this range only uses the best and quality fabric ever. Customers buying from this range are always satisfied with their purchases and felt worth the money they are paying for. In addition, when a customer wanted to buy clothing with cashmere, they will then look into the Autograph range, as only the Autograph range come with clothing in cashmere. A simple piece of cashmere cardigan can cost up to ? 59 per piece. (See Appendix 5)
Lastly would be the Per Una range, this range order winners would be the product characteristic. As mention earlier, the Per Una range is the most colourful range among all. Its product characteristic is different from Classic and Autograph that is why make it so special and targeted to the younger market. With style ranging from spaghetti strip dresses to big bold colourful print. (See Appendix 6) Other than the order winners, order qualifier is another factor which influences customers to purchase a certain product or services. Order qualifying factors may not be the major competitive determinants of success, but are important in another way.
They are those aspects of competitiveness where the operation’s performance has to be above a particular level just to be considered by the customers. Performance below this ‘qualifying’ level of performance will possibly disqualify the company from being considered by many customers. (N Slack, S Chambers and R Johnston, Operation Management, p. 72) When walking into any M stores, one would find that the stocks may be vary from different locations and different stores. For example, certain M store do not offer the Autograph range, as the Autograph is consider as a high street brand. However, for the Classic and Perfect ranges, one can get hold of it in just any M stores.
This is because the Classic and Perfect range is the core line of M and this leads it to be an order qualifier where customers can buy it’s range of product from just any M stores. As for the Autograph range, its order qualifiers will be it fast turnover in style and design. Customers do expect to see something new and fresh every time they visit the store and this lead to a very major challenge for any retailer. However, at M its team of expert had come up with a new plan where they had adopted a phased approach to introducing new stock, which means that 25% of their women’s wear will be new in every five to six weeks. As for the Autograph range, M will get its product from their supplier in Turkey in eight weeks ahead of time.
Lastly will be the Per Una range, the Per Una range is in its seventh year of success. This shows that the Per Una range is highly likeable and a massive success among women of its target group. With a very unique style and design, Per Una comes along with a very reasonable price tag. The reasonable price tag makes it to be its order qualifying factor. Women nowadays not only want style, but they are also looking for an affordable looks from the catwalk especially during the credit crunch period where customers are carefully choosing what they buy. Figure 3. 6 shows the different between order –winning, qualifying and less important factors in terms of their utility or worth to the competitiveness of the organisation.
The curves illustrate the relative amount of competitiveness or attractiveness to customers as the operation’s performance at the factor varies. Order winning factors show a steady and significant increase in their contribution to competitiveness as the operation gets better at providing them. Qualifying factors are ‘givens’; they are expected by customers and can severely disadvantage the competitiveness position of the operation if it cannot raise performance above the qualifying level. Less important objectives have little impact on customers no matter how well the operation performs in them. (N Slack, S Chambers and R Johnston, Operation Management, p. 73-74) [pic] What are the different operations performance objectives for the different product groups? |Perfect and Classic ranges |Autograph range |Per Una range | |Product |Women’s wear |Women’s wear |Women’s wear | | |Women’s slippers |Women’s shoes |Women’s shoes | | | |Women’s accessories |Women’s accessories | | | |Women’s beauty and cosmetic |Women’s beauty and cosmetic | |Customers |Women of all ages |Women at the age range of 35 years |Women at the age range of 25-35 years | | | |and above | | |Product range |Classic Women’s wear |Autograph Essentials |Per Una Women’s wear | | |Classic Nightwear and Lingerie |Autograph Exclusive |Per Una Accessories | | |Classic Slipper Shop |Autograph Occasion wear |Per Una Lingerie | | | |Autograph Weekend |Per Una Beauty | | | |Autograph Lingerie |Per Una Slippers | | | |Autograph Beauty | | | | |Autograph Nightwear | | |Design changes |Continual |Continual |Continual | |Price |Women’s wear range: ? 7. 50 – ? 69. 00 |Women’s wear range: ? 12 – ? 99. 99 |Women’s wear range: ? 15 – ? 99. 99 | | |Nightwear and Lingerie range: ? 9. 50 -|Shoes range: ? 25 – ? 9 |Shoes range: ? 25 – ? 45 | | |? 25. 00 |Accessories range: ? 5 – ? 149 |Accessories range: ? 7. 50 – ? 29. 50 | | |Slipper shop range: ? 10. 00 |Beauty and Cosmetic range: ? 3. 50 – |Beauty and Cosmetic range: ? 5 – ? 12 | | | |? 15 | | |Quality |Medium, Comfort |High , Durability |Medium, Appearance | | |E. g.
Long lasting fabric and |E. g. Luxury fabrics such as silks and|E. g. Quality fabric with chic design | | |comfortable design |cashmere which is expected to last | | | | |long. | | |Sales Volume SKU |High inventory |Low inventory |Low inventory | |Profit Margins |Medium profit |High profit |Medium to High profit | |Competitive factors | Order Winners |Size availability |Range of products |Product characteristic | | | |Quality of products | | |Order Qualifiers |Stock availability |Fast design and style turnover |Price | |Operations Priorities |Customers satisfaction |Customers satisfaction |Customers satisfaction | |Internal performance |Cost |Quality |Design | |objectives | | | | Polar Diagram |0 |5 | |Cost |High price |Low Price | |Dependability |Proportion of goods out of stock low |Proportion of goods out of stock high | |Flexibility |Low range of goods |Wide range of goods | |Quality |Very basic |Superb quality | |Speed |Long waiting time for stocks |Immediate availability of stocks | |Perfect and Classic ranges |Autograph range |Per Una range | |Cost |3 |1 |2 | |Dependability |1 |5 |5 | |Flexibility |3 |5 |5 | |Quality |3 |5 |4 | |Speed |3 |4 |3 | [pic] Keys: The cost in the polar diagram can be differentiate as the staff cost, technology and facility cost or even the cost of brought in material.
I have rated the Autograph range as the highest among the 3 ranges as the Autograph range has the highest cost among them all. Due to the high quality and durability level of the Autograph range, the cost will therefore be much higher than the other 2 ranges. Per Una is rated as the second highest cost, as that range is only slightly below the quality standard of the Autograph range with medium range of quality. Lastly will be the Classic and Perfect range, which is rated at point 3. These range main value is value and comfortable styles. Next will be the dependability factor which rates the ranges according to the proportions of goods out of stock low at 0 and proportions of goods out of stock high at 5.
Both the Autograph and Per Una range is rated at 5 as the design of this 2 ranges are seasonal, which means M changes the style every season to suit UK’s 4 season weather. So when the style or design runs out for that season, there will be no stocks replacement. However, as for the Perfect and Classic range, it is rated as point 1 as the styles are more basic and will suits every season, therefore M will only need to add on more range or to get more of the same stock from its supplier. Flexibility will be to rate how wide is the range of product offers for the 3 ranges. Point 0 will be low range of goods and point 5 will be high range of goods. And again, the Autograph and Per Una range are rated at point 5.
This is due to the wide product range this two lines offer. Autograph and Per Una offers customers with styles to suit different occasion with either high or low budget, customers for sure to find something they needed. Perfect and Classic range is rated at point 3, the flexibility of this range is not too low therefore it is rated in the middle as this 2 lines still offers basic goods from women’s wear to slippers and nightwear. Quality here will be the quality of the products it offers. When customer’s pays for a high price, their expectation towards the quality of the products such as the fabrics and the product life spend will be expected to be longer.
Taking the lead at quality will be the Autograph range, offering luxury fabrics such as cashmere and silks. Down the line will be the Per Una range follow by the Perfect and Classic ranges, these 2 ranges might not offers luxury fabrics but it still offers quality fabrics which live up to the M core values which is ‘Quality, Value, Service, Innovation and Trust’ Last on the polar diagram will be speed, which is rated at point 0 with long waiting time for stocks arrival and point 5 with immediate availability of stocks. Autograph is rated at point 4 as M responsible group for this range had come up with a new supplier term which they will order the stocks from its supplier in 8 weeks ahead.
This allows the team to work more efficiently with the supplier to ensure no stocks shortage problems happen. As for the Per Una, Classic and Perfect ranges, 25% of women’s wear will be new in every 5-6 weeks or 3 weeks cycle. Appendix 1: [pic][pic] [pic] Appendix 2: [pic][pic] [pic] Appendix 3: [pic] [pic] [pic] Appendix 4: River Island available sizes from UK 6- UK 18 only. [pic] Marks and Spencer available sizes from UK 8- UK 24. [pic] Appendix 5: [pic] Appendix 6: [pic] Reference www. marksandspencer. com Slack N. , Chambers S. , Johnston R. , (2004) Operations Management, Prentice Hall Lecture Notes Workshop exercise ———————– Perfect and Classic Range Autograph Range Per Una Range
