Marketing Planning and process

Assignment 1 of the Marketing Planning and process subject will make readers understand the role of marketing in an organization, which main research object is HM company. It is a global fashion group and has a significant influence on the fashion industry. Marketing is known as a department responsible for representing the companys image in front of the community and society. In the current context, the Covid19 epidemic is still very complicated. Therefore, marketing becomes more critical for every company to pay attention to new customers and maintain relationships with loyal customers. This article will dig deep into modern marketing research and its process to demonstrate its necessity for businesses, especially HM.

ASSIGNMENT 1 FRONT SHEET

Unit number and title Unit 2 Marketing Planning and Processes

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I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own work and I fully understand the consequences of plagiarism I understand that making a false declaration is a form of malpractice

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2 T HE R OLES AND R ESPONSIBILITIES OF M ARKETING D EPARTMENT TO T HE C OMPANY 16

2.2 T HE R OLES AND R ESPONSIBILITIES OF M ARKETING D EPARTMENT 17

3 I NTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARKETING DEPARTMENT AND OTHER FUNCTIONS IN THE COMPANY 18

4 M ARKETING ENVIRONMENT AFFECTS TO CONTEXT OF H&M GROUP 20

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Profile of H&M Group (forbes.com, 2021) 8

Figure 2: The Board of Directors (HM Annual Report, 2020) 9

Figure 3: Vision and Strategy - H&M (hmgroup.com, 2021) 10

Figure 4:H&M and Zara's Gender Segmentation (Phong, 2017) 13

Figure 5: Revenue and Profit of H&M from 2017 to 2019 (My, 2021) 13

Figure 6: H&M ranks by number of Britain's consumer from 2013 to 2020 (Statista Research Department, 2021) 15

Figure 7: Image is cut from the video (Woo,2021) 24

Figure 8: Image is cut from the video (Woo, 2021) 24

Figure 9: The image is taken from Anh (2018) 25

Figure 10: The image is taken from Anh (2018) 25

A INTRODUCTION

Assignment 1 of the "Marketing Planning and process" subject will make readers understand the role of marketing in an organization, which main research object is H&M company It is a global fashion group and has a significant influence on the fashion industry Marketing is known as a department responsible for representing the company's image in front of the community and society In the current context, the Covid-19 epidemic is still very complicated Therefore, marketing becomes more critical for every company

to pay attention to new customers and maintain relationships with loyal customers This article will dig deep into modern marketing research and its process to demonstrate its necessity for businesses, especially H&M

1 Company background

According to hmgroup.com (2021): https://hmgroup.com/about-us/history/

From 1940 to 1950: H&M was a chain of women's-only fashion stores built by Erling Persson called

“Hennes” in Sweden

• From 1960 to 1970: H&M opened more fashion stores for men, children, and teenagers In addition, chain stores began to appear in Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland

• 1980 - 1990: The company started to open branches in Germany and the Netherlands At the end

of the 20th century, H&M was present in France, known as the world's fashion capital

• In the 2000s, H&M expanded its online business and built East branches in Shanghai and Hong Kong

Figure 1: Profile of H&M Group (forbes.com, 2021)

H&M Group was established in 1947 in Sweden called the first name "HENNES" with the desire to create a modern fashion trend for classic women so that people have a different view of fashion After the great success in women's fashion, the company also expanded into men's fashion and different ages After two centuries of establishment, H&M has become a large corporation with headquarters

in many countries and provides the fashion demand of many different customer segments with a particular trust in them

In addition to Helena – CEO of H&M, the group's Board of Directors also includes 12 people:

The Board of directors:

Figure 2: The Board of Directors (HM Annual Report, 2020)

3 Mission, vision and core value

According to hmgroup.com (2021), the company emphasized that:

Mission: “To drive long-lasting positive change and improve living conditions by investing in people,

communities and innovative ideas.”

Vision: “To lead the change towards circular and renewable fashion while being a fair and equal

company”

Core values: “We are one team, we believe in people, entrepreneurial spirit, constant improvement,

cost-conscious, straightforward and open-minded, and keep it simple”

Figure 3: Vision and Strategy - H&M (hmgroup.com, 2021)

In the age of high technology, marketing proves its importance in every company It is a communicative tool to help to advertise the company's products/services for customers Moreover, the competition among companies depends on the company having good marketing strategies and reasonable marketing methods (Ball, 2006)

In addition, marketing is the bridge between businesses and customers It is the aspect helping a company attract, establish awareness of new consumers, and maintain relationships with loyal customers (Hoeffler and Keller, 2003)

1.2 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing

To clarify the prominent roles and responsibilities in each business, the researcher needs to define it through 5 steps through the specific research object, H&M company

1.2.1 Catching up with market trends and customer needs

The first condition, the researcher must understand the market and market demand through the following factors:

Need: It is when people feel unsatisfied with basic things like clothes, food, drink, entertainment

When the feeling of lack is not filled, they will feel anxiety and insecurity and find people to solve that need (Doyal and Gough, 1984)

Want: is considered an upgraded form of "need." It will concretize and personalize each object

through gender and personality (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014)

Example: Women tend to want to wear skirts to show their beauty In contrast, men often tend to wear simple, sporty clothes to show masculinity

Demand: is the fulfillment of people's wants, and they can own them depending on the financial

economy of each person (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014)

Example: A person with a salary of up to 50,000,000 VND and assets of several tens billions of VND -> they always want to use expensive luxury products like Gucci, Prada, Dior A person with a salary about 8,000,000 VND and they need pay to many things in their life which cannot spend a few million to own

a branded shirt Then, the product in the market with a low price will be the right choice for them,

Marketing offers: is a combination of products, services, information, and experiences to offer to the

market to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers It is through two tangible forms (Phone, clothing, food, etc.) and intangible forms (internet, services: dentistry, health, etc.) (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014)

Example: In 2013, up to 95% of used and recyclable second-hand clothing was thrown in the trash

each year Recognizing this problem, the H&M branches in Sweden know that customers are becoming conscious of consuming such clothes Therefore, the company has started advertising a campaign to buy second-hand clothes to reduce environmental pollution through recycling old clothes Besides, consumers are also very excited to earn some money from selling their old clothes The purchased second-hand products will be sold to second-hand clothing stores In particular, the

income earned by selling used clothes, the company will donate to non-profit organizations It will make consumers feel like contributing to the community and protecting the environment Moreover, customers come to sell their old clothes The company will encourage them to buy new clothes by giving them a 15% discount voucher to increase the consumption of H&M goods (Baig, 2013)

1.2.2 Define marketing segmentation and target customer

In the second stage, the researcher has to clearly define the STP strategy, including the following factors: Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning It plays the role of helping marketers create a reasonable marketing strategy and meet the needs of consumers (Dibb, 1998)

- Segmentation:

Marketing segmentation is the process of dividing into targets to manage and optimize revenue easily

It includes four categories: Demographic, behavioral, geographic, and psychographic (Thomas, 1980)

Example: Marketing segmentation of H&M (Milenia, 2015)

Demographic: H&M tends to customers who are from 8 months to 35 years old for both male and female; from 15 to 30 years old for women and blue-collar and working class

Behavioral: Loyal customer likes the product material is on par with luxurious products but cheaper and easier to buy H&M increases about the high customer awareness of H&M's products

Geographic: H&M spreads out from Europe to Asia, and Southeast Asian countries

Psychographic: H&M focus on following the trend, the power of the buyer and suitable fashion for

work and activities in daily life

- Targeting

After analyzing the marketing segmentation, the researcher will continue to identify the target customer of the company It is the process of synthesizing people with similar characteristics, personalities, and social classes to offer the most suitable product However, marketers must understand customer insights to optimize the number of target customers (Cahill, 1997)

- Positioning:

It is the final step in the branding process of the business The company must offer products with

in the same industry Those products will bring the best benefits and value to customers without losing the unique identity of the business brand (Tirado, F and Gálvez, A., 2008)

Example:

Figure 4:H&M and Zara's Gender Segmentation (Phong, 2017)

According to Phong (2017), It can be seen that H&M is strongly targeting women's fashion in Vietnam They know that the beauty needs of women are incredibly high However, it is disproportionate among the genders H&M should balance income from menswear and childrenswear Besides, the price of H&M is lower than Zara, about $ 0.8 - $ 308 for a product It is what makes women so passionate about H&M because of the need to change clothing trends constantly

Following My (2021), the chart depicts that H&M's revenue rapidly increases year by year 2019) It shows that the purchasing power of the Vietnamese people is extreme Vietnamese teenagers are favoring cheap brands Besides, it also shows that H&M is targeting the Vietnamese market with highly effective customer segments and optimizing profit flows

(2017-1.2.3 Explaining about marketing mix 4Ps

In this part, marketers will use a marketing mix consisting of four elements product, place, price, and promotion, so that businesses can make offers that satisfy the needs of each customer (Goi, 2009)

Product: They are goods and services produced by an enterprise to meet the needs of consumers

Example: H&M produces a wide range of clothing and fashion accessories for all genders and all ages

Price: It is the cost that the customer has to pay to own and use the product/service of the supplier

Example: The average price of a H&M product is about $26.2 (Alonson, 2020)

Place: It is a place where people can go to buy or use the company's products/services

Example: In the current, H&M has about 4,913 stores worldwide (hmgroup.com,2021)

Promotion: These are activities aiming at increasing customer awareness of the company's

products/services to enhance the purchasing power of consumers

Example: H&M often collaborates with big brands like Versace (2011 and 2012) to create fashion collections The company's purpose is to increase the frequency of the brand's appearance in the world -> increase customer awareness of H&M's products - low-priced brands (Yotka, 2016)

1.2.4 Determine the relationship between company profitability and customer satisfaction

CRM is called customer relationship management, which manages customer relationships to

maintain customer satisfaction (Paas and Kuijlen, 2001)

In H&M stores, the company has a dedicated staff to serve and follow up with customers to respond continuously to their questions and demands In addition, the company's website always has hotlines and an online customer care department 24/24 to serve customers The company always puts customer satisfaction first

PRM stands for partner relationship management, which manages and maintains relationships within

the company and with partners outside the company to form a unified whole (Dent, 2006)

Figure 6: H&M ranks by number of Britain's consumer from 2013 to 2020 (Statista Research Department, 2021)

From 2013 to 2019, the total sales of H&M products increased steadily every year However, in 2020, the amount of product consumption decreased significantly because of the covid-19 epidemic It can

be seen that H&M continues to hit the women's fashion market Women's fashion products are still increasing every year and show no signs of slowing down It can prove that H&M has many loyal female customers, and their demand for constant fashion changes is very high In addition, Men's clothes also account for a significant amount, which shows that H&M has been very interested in men's fashion needs However, their consumption cannot be equal to that of women Men's fashion needs and characteristics are not as high as women's In particular, H&M also targets loyal customers who are children In general, H&M has many different segments of loyal customers They are the primary source of revenue to help the company develop sustainably and compete with other

competitors

1.2.5 Marketing Management Orientations

According to Kotler and Armstrong (2014), a business that can evaluate practical marketing activities needs to guide the company's marketing concept Marketing concept includes five aspects:

The production concept: based on the influence that consumers can buy products cheaper than the

market This concept helps the company focus on increasing product production to expand markets and improve profits

The product concept: based on consumer attraction with high-quality products and continuous

innovation Companies that use this concept often focus on product quality and constantly improve and create new things to meet customer needs

The selling concept: focuses on conveying the product's benefits and persuading customers to

consume the company's product With this aspect, the company needs to focus human resources on the direct sales department and train negotiation skills

The marketing concept: based on grasping trends and understanding insights of customer goals It

develops to increase competitiveness among companies in order to improve profits and maintain market share

The social marketing concept: based on the company targeting the interests of customers and the

interests of society and the community With this idea in mind, the company will put out advertisements that contribute to society to raise buyers' awareness

From the first days of establishment, H&M company has focused on "The Product Concept" Enterprises aim at the trend of "Fast Fashion" to meet consumers' constantly changing fashion needs

In addition, each product has precise data on the material and origin Moreover, the company works hard to bring out seasonal fashion collections each year to keep up with the trends of its customers

In particular, they continuously create trust for customers by collaborating with high-end fashion brands to increase the power of the brand and compete with competitors and strengthen their image

in the market

2 The Roles and Responsibilities of Marketing Department to The Company

2.1 Modern marketing structure

According to Kotler and Armstrong (2017), The standard structure of a marketing department:

Marketing manager: manage and promote marketing projects and manage risks that will occur during

and after the campaign At the same time, operate and manage the work progress of other positions

in the department

Graphic designer: design images of the content to maximize the message to make it easy for

customers to understand and feel