Marketing

Marketing Order Description (75%) of the assignment to be used as maximum of 12 Powerpoint slides for your presentation. (25%) Prepare a ONE A4 page Executive Summary. Page 1 MARKETING COURSE ASSESSMENT 2 Submitting your Assignment 1. For word documents - they should be typed, 10 or 11 point font size (Times Roman or similar if possible) with the page size specified as UK A4. All pages must be numbered. 2. Assignments should be submitted in either Microsoft Office and/or PDF format (.doc, .docx, .pdf etc.). File names should be kept simple and only contain alphanumeric characters (a-z0-9), spaces and underscores (e.g. Valid_filename_1.doc). Files with other characters such as apostrophes, brackets or commas may not be accessible by markers. 3. Assignments may be uploaded only once; substitutions are not permitted and students should therefore ensure that the version uploaded is their final submission. 4. Please ensure you include your student number and the assignment reference (MAR/StudentNumber/Jan15/2) in all submitted assignments and that assignments are paginated. Failure to do this may lead either to a grade not being assigned or being wrongly assigned 5. If you are experiencing any difficulty in uploading your assignment to Blackboard, please email a copy of the assignment and a screenshot of the error message immediately to your local centre/Student Adviser. IMPORTANT: ALWAYS RETAIN A COPY OF YOUR ASSIGNMENT WARNING: Once submitted no substitute assignments will be allowed Page 2 MARKETING COURSE ASSESSMENT 2 ONLY TO BE SUBMITTED BY STUDENTS UNABLE TO ATTEND THE WORKSHOP Background Information: Newsflash: ‘Marks & Spencer’s Sustainability Challenge …’ Back in 2007, Marks & Spencer launched its sustainability strategy: Plan A. It set out 100 commitments for the company to achieve in 5 years. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has always been part of the company’s focus on compliance and philanthropy. Plan A is inherently part of Marks & Spencer’s business model, adding value across its value chain and is at the heart of the company’s core purpose. The aims of Plan A are: - Inspiration: we aim to excite and inspire our customes at every turn - Intouch: we listen actively and act thoughtfully - Integrity: we always strive to do the right thing - Innovation: we are restless in our aim to improve things for the better (see http://planareport.marksandspencer.com/) In 2013, Marks & Spencer’s Plan A sustainability strategy resulted in £135 million worth of savings for the company; a 29% increase on the previous year. In the longer term, Marks & Spencer are working towards Plan A 2020 – 100 Plan A commitments comprising existing, revised and new targets for the future to reduce the company’s social and environmental footprint. However, as Marc Boland, Marks & Spencer’s CEO, notes: “We know we can’t deliver Plan A 2020 alone, that’s why we’re stepping up our efforts to ‘lead with others’ by participating in broader coalitions to deliver sector-wide change”. Therefore as part of Plan A 2020, Marks & Spencer is working with a number of organisations to support sustainability not just within its stores, but also throughout the whole supply chain. It also aims to involve and educate its customers and to help them to be part of this sustainability ‘movement’. Click on the following weblink: http://www.marksandspencer.com/s/mands-tv and use keyword search: Plan A – a number of videos will be displayed, demonstrating the various sustainability activities and projects that Marks & Spencer are involved with, which support its Plan A initiative (for example: ‘Forever Fish’, ‘Energy Efficiency’, ‘The Story of Schwopping’, etc). This case study considers the issues / challenges facing Marks & Spencer to get its sustainability message across, not only to its customers, but also through to its suppliers and employees - and then to use this as a platform to communicate and to better connect with its customers. It also looks at how Marks & Spencer aims to use the initiative to overcome some of the negative perceptions that people have surrounding retailers and sustainability. As a starting, point, please read the article starting on page 5. Also, make use of any further information that you can source yourself. Page 3 Useful References: The following provides some initial readings for this assignment. You will also need to support your discussion with a range of academic and industry sources. Baines, P., Fill, C. and Page, K. (2011) Marketing, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 6: Market Segmentation and Positioning Baines, P., Fill, C. and Page, K. (2011) Marketing, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 10: An Introduction to Marketing Communications Baines, P., Fill, C. and Page, K. (2011) Marketing, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 11: Marketing Communications: Tools, Media and Planning Baines, P., Fill, C. and Page, K. (2011) Marketing, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 17: Digital Marketing Baines, P., Fill, C. and Page, K. (2011) Marketing, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 19: Marketing, Sustainability and Ethics Keller, K.L. (2009) ‘Building strong brands in a modern marketing communications environment’, Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol. 15, Nos. 2–3, April–July, pp.139– 155 Martin, R.L. (2002) ‘The virtue-matrix: calculating the return on corporate social responsibility’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 80, No. 3, March, pp. 68-75 McDonald, S. and Oates, C.J. (2006) ‘Sustainability: consumer perceptions and marketing strategies’, Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp.157-170 McDonald, S., Oates, C., Thyne, M., Alevizou, P. and McMorland, L-A (2009) ‘Comparing sustainable consumption patterns across product sectors’, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2, March, pp. 137-145 Preston, L. (2003) ‘Sustainability at Hewlett-Packard: from theory to practice’, California Management Review, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 26-37 Signitzer, B. and Prexl, A. (2008) ‘Corporate sustainability communications: aspects of theory and professionalization’, Journal of Public Relations Research, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp.1-19 Page 4 Your Task: Acting as consultant, prepare a presentation for Mike Barry, Marks & Spencer’s Director of Plan A, setting out a marketing communications plan that supports the company’s sustainability programme and its ‘Plan A’ initiative, with an emphasis on the use of digital media. Your response should include, but not be limited to, issues such as: - In terms of Marks & Spencer’s sustainability programme: How can the market be best segmented? Who are the target markets that Marks & Spencer should be focusing on? How is Marks & Spencer positioned against its competitors? What is the value proposition that needs to be communicated? - Consider the role of digital media as a communication tool to support this sustainability programme; how would this fit into the overall integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategy for the company. - How can Marks & Spencer maintain the momentum of the ‘Plan A’ initiative to continue to build brand preference and to retain existing brand loyalty? (1) (75%) You are to use a maximum of 12 Powerpoint slides for your presentation response. In addition, you should also include an initial slide, containing your name, student number, assignment reference (i.e. MAR/StudentNumber/Jan15/2) and presentation title on it. Please note, this initial ‘cover page’ slide does not form part of the 12 slides for your presentation response. (2) (25%) Prepare a ONE A4 page Executive Summary, detailing the main points of your response to this task and attach a complete Reference List (see the front page of the assignment brief for formatting requirements; to best utilise the space on the page, you can use single line spacing). Assessment Criteria: Please note that you will be assessed on the following criteria: - clarity and quality of the presentation slides - quality of the case study solution - use of academic theory / literature - use of industry sources Figures in the brackets indicate relative weightings for both parts. Page 5 ARTICLE Source: The Marketing Week, 24 June 2014 http://www.marketingweek.com/2014/06/24/mss-marketing-director-on-the-challenges-ofcommunicating- sustainability/ Case Study: “M&S's marketing director on the challenges of communicating sustainability” Marks & Spencer is hoping to boost customer engagement around its sustainability work with 'more visible' marketing that aligns sustainability with the brand's core products and values. Speaking at an event in London today (24 June), M&S's director of Plan A, Mike Barry, says the updated sustainability programme, which now runs through to 2020, will be "all about engagement", offering customers, staff and suppliers a "simple brand promise" that offers transparency, operates at a local level and can help lead to a culture change. That promise, he says, is to "enhance lives every day" through four core values - inspiration, integrity, innovation and in-touch - that are linked to its core products and reflect the master brand. At the same event, M&S's executive director of marketing and business development Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne claims that 80 per cent of M&S's 31 million customers are concerned about the future but only 10 per cent of those are currently engaged in sustainability issues. The disconnect, he says, is due to a number of factors including a lack of knowledge, the cost and the fact that ideas such as "curing the world" are too daunting. He admits that M&S's sustainability plan has so far been about modernising and evolving its supply chains, stores and factories but admits this is not "aspirational" and doesn't engage with consumers. Instead, M&S must start talking about the "things people personally care about", such as its beach cleaning programme, Macmillan coffee mornings and Schwopping scheme. Marketing Week spoke to Bousquet-Chavanne at the event on the challenges of communicating its sustainability proposition and how it is integrating sustainability across the marketing division. Marketing Week: What will M&S's sustainability marketing look like? Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne: The key word is integral. Plan A should be integral to the way we communicate, engage and converse with the consumer. It cannot be just a one-time Page 6 marketing effort, that will not sustain. The only way to sustain the effort is to make it part of everything that we do and finding a way in all our consumer communication channels. We have credentials now across the vast amount of our products, both in food and in fashion. It is a question of bringing that to the surface, making sure that our quality is understood and dialling the message up. You will see messages coming through much more than you have in the past. But there will not be a one-time campaign, that is not sustainable. Marketing Week: How will you engage with consumers? Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne: There will be a variety of aspects that we will make visible to consumers and ask for them in a very interactive way to participate. I want disciples, ambassadors, people that want to go on that journey with us and that can positively contaminate their friends, families and communities to engage. We just don't have the power by ourselves to do it all. But we have tremendous resource and conversations that we can engage and start, that is our whole objective here. Marketing Week: What channels can we expect to see sustainability marketing in? Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne: You will see it permeate all the communications channel where it ought to be present. Marketing Week: M&S recently made the decision to include sustainability training for all new marketers. What was the reason behind that decision? Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne: It is part of the fibre of the company and just doing it internally now - through engagement, workshops - you realise to what degree our colleagues are really engaged and passionate about it. We start with a workforce who is willing to learn more and very hungry for information and then by providing them with this incremental education they are converting this into the right message wherever they contribute and touch the consumers. It is very important for the marketers in the company obviously. This is not something I am pushing into the structure it is something there is an appetite for. Marketing Week: Will it be necessary to hire marketers specifically to push through the sustainability agenda? Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne: What is fascinating is there is a whole new generation of young and talented men and women who really have it engendered in their DNA. It is pretty rare, especially when you start talking to millennials, to find that their purpose is not much larger than the pure economic purpose when they are joining a company. So we are well positioned for that.