Frame A Strategic Marketing Plan For Primark

With the decision of opening up store in European countries such a Romania, it needs to analyse all the factor which can influence their marketing strategies which can be external factor. Apart from this strong establishing strategies are required by them to gain advantage over other competitors (Barney, 2017). The major aim and objectives of Primark is to establish theme in the market of Romania along with this develop a huge base of customers. Some of the best strategies which can be opted by it should be segmentation and better positioning in accordance to their preferences. Assessing all the external factors which are influencing that market.

PESTLE Analysis of Primark

Opportunities and threats

Opportunities-

• Opening store in European countries specially Romania can be a good opportunity for Primark as it will be a new brand of retail for their natives which has much chances for attracting them as being a big brand name in other counties can create an differentiating impact on potential customer as well as a competition to other rivals who are providing clothing product to them.
• With the rising up of obesity level the demand for plus size clothing in European countries are increasing therefore as an effective strategy that can be implemented for providing such sizes in clothing in order to gain that segment of customers in market.
• Online shopping trend has completely transformed the retailing market. Primark can also provide online shopping option on their official site for the people of Romania and the type of clothes which are preferred by those people (Ginter, Duncan and Swayne, 2018). Many of the retail Stores of Romania are not providing these kind of service option to potential customers in market therefore this can be regarded as one of the major opportunity for the retail firm.
• Having a good financial strength and high profitability measure can be adopted as an effective promotional strategy which can definitely provide them advantage over other. The strong financial stability determines the ability of the brand to open up numerous stores and occupy larger part of local market in comparison to other competitors.
• Introduction of sportswear in their clothing line can be a good opportunity as individual are diverting on adoption of various physical activities programmes. It has been lead to rise in the demand of active sportswear that can facilitate them in performing any kind of physical activities.

Threats- There many weakness of Primark which has the potential to harm the organisation in many ways:

• Online shopping can lead to outsource the product to a distant place from where it has been manufactured that can lead to risk the quality of the apparel.
• The government of European countries can lead to affect the operations of Primark as it can lead to approach the saga of BREXIT and can impact their functionalities in Market of European Union.
• Other competitors in European market have much effective advertisement and Primark does not believe in effective promotional strategies.
• Many employees have complaint about the poor working condition of organisation. Apart from this quality of the product are not up to the standards which can be considered as a backward point for Primark. Some stores does not have effective customer services which is needed to be resolved because it can harm reputation of the brand among customers.
• Political Scenario for European countries can affect their decision of expanding their stores.

Solutions which can be adopted for overcoming these threats can be opening up online store for targeting those customers who shop online with various promotional offers. Some strategies must be made for future crisis due to no political stability which will be very beneficial for them. Working condition of employees must be improved by introducing structures which can provide a good surrounding for working.

Three modes of market entries

Every company wants to expand its business over the boundaries of the countries. There are various ways in which a company can enter in international market. There will be a number of factor which will influence the entry mode. Expansion or entry of company in international market can increase the operating cost but the sales will also increase which can offset the increasing cost. In this report the three main mode of entry is discussed and the most appropriate mode for Primark Ltd is recommended with justification of the mode.

Exporting-The sale of domestically produced goods and services to other country is known as exporting. Exporting can be direct , indirect and on cooperative basis.

• Direct Exporting: It is very common mode used by the company to entering in the foreign market. Direct exporting is selling of goods or services by producer or suppler directly to the international market. There will no direct contact with the foreign party without any intermediary. Direct exporting requires market research for the product in foreign market and it depends on the size of the company's size and marketing abilities (Ethiraj, Gambardella and Helfat, 2018).
• Indirect Exporting: An intermediary will become the face of the company in foreign market. Their will be no direct contact between exporter and importer,the manufacturer will sale the products to the agent or supplier who than send this product to the foreign market (Ethiraj, Gambardella and Helfat, 2018). The organization opt for this mode as entry as there is low risk because of no direct contact and gets their brand enters in new market.
• Cooperative Exporting: it is an another option which an organization can use to enter the new market,it is an agreement between the producing organization with local and foreign organization as distribution network.

Franchising- It is a foreign market entry strategy where the semi-independent company uses the the franchiser's company trademark and sells its product or services. The franchisee has to pay the fees or royalty to the franchiser. Franchising is commonly used for the expansion of the product in the foreign market . The contract between the two specify all the terms and condition of franchise. It is most common way to enter the foreign market in America. It is most successful method, the main advantage of franchising is it already capitalizing an successful strategy,but it has to follow all the policies by the franchiser like conducting of business,staff etc. the franchisee has to pay a specific amount of profit to the franchiser For example, McDonald, pizza hut, subway are foreign organization which are successfully using franchising in foreign market. It gives rapid expansion of business in foreign market than any other mode of entry (Wheelen and et.al., 2017).

Joint venture- It is a form of partnership where two company involves and create the third independently managed company. Two company agrees to work together in a particular market and profit or loss would be share between them accordingly. Recent example of joint venture is Singapore airlines which entered in a joint venture with Tata groups. Joint ventures allow the organization to access the new market which they are not able to do previously. Joint venture helps to enhance either of the two company and management skills. it is very easy mode to enter in new market like if a Japanese company wants to enter the Indian company it needs to source any Indian partners.

Merger & Acquisition- it is an important entry strategy to enter in international market. Merger includes when two companies come together and become one company, as one company completely merges with other company. Acquisition is where one company overtake full control of other company with the mutual consent of both companies with the growth of companies value. merger and acquisition helps to acquire new technology, new product line, and to gain expertise and intellectual property. most of the time this mode gives the “win-win” for both the companies (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014).

After analyzing the different mode of entry on international market, the best suitable mode for Primark ltd is merger and acquisition. The retail market in Romania is characterized by high volume of entry of new brands. There is lot of opportunities for Primark to acquire any retail business in Romania and established itself in Romania market. The following point will give a better idea of merger and acquisition is the best way for Primark to enter in Romanian market. It will lead to increase their base of customers that will lead to generate a huge profit and provide them an effective capturing of retail market (Rothaermel, 2015).

• Synergy: The business performance, financial gains and overall shareholders value in long term will be enhance with the merger of two companies.
• Cost Efficiency: the acquisition will result in improving the purchasing power of Primark in the country which help in negotiating the bulk orders which leads to cost efficiency.
• Competitive edge: the combined talent of resources of the company will help it gain and maintain a comp edge.

Market segmentation

Market segmentation can be defined as segregation of customer on the basis of homogeneous characteristics which can be related to demographical, behavioural, geographical or phsycographical aspects. It is done in order to provide a base for formulating effective strategies to target them in order to increase their sales by providing effective promotion . These segment are further targeted according to which related tactic are developed to satisfy their needs and requirement (Meyer, Neck and Meeks, 2017). The two major segmentation which the company does are given below:

Psychographic Segmentation- This Market Segmentation provides the division of group on the basis of life style, Social class and personal characteristics. Under this segmentation, Primark has lead the customers to be divided in the category of lower class, middle class and Upper class. They focuses on lower level and middle level customers a their prices are much reasonable and provide an effective range of prices for different type of apparels. They are the people who does not focuses much on current trend and are very price conscious and value the cost of product more as compared to quality . They can also be individual who is fashion forward. This lower and middle segment covers larger part of market, it provides them an opportunity to earn profitability by attracting these buyers and increasing their ale in market. With the adoption of Penetrating pricing strategy it lead them to provide an effective advantage over other retail store (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014).

Behavioural Segmentation- It includes division of buyers on the basis of knowledge, attitude, response or usage of related product. Primark offer product of cheap quality which attracts both types of customers which are regular as well as occasion apart from this new buyer can also get influenced to buy the product. Some of the customers can be price sensitive, opening up of large store can encourage them to buy products in volume. The brand name of the store can change the attitude of several customers towards them. This segment is mostly related to the attitude and behaviour of the customer toward the products and services of Primark. By opening store in Romania it would lead them to provide a brand which has a name in other countries that will be definitely be welcomed by customer of that (Hill, 2017).

Porter's generic strategy

This strategy provides an basis for regarding how Primark can pursue their competitive advantage across the opted market scope. There are four type of strategies which can be used for accomplishing the aim of getting superiority in market can be cost leadership, differentiation, focusing on low cost or differentiation. It can be regarded as a primary determinant of the company' s profitability. The major strategy which can be applied by Primark in Romania can be cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy.

Cost Leadership strategy- One of the major problem which is associated with retailing companies is their high prices which tend to focus only on the customers that belong to upper class level. The range of prices is so high that it cannot be afforded by middle as well as lower class level buyer. Therefore, the penetrating price policy of Primark attracts major part of the segment by providing them apparel at affordable price thus creating a cost leadership in market. This strategy is majorly opted for resisting other companies in the market of Romania and providing them popularity over them. This strategy would lead to provide the firm to serve affordable prices by reducing the cost associated with logistics and production. The lower price of the clothing will attract more buyer from the market. The quality aspect of the clothes must be up to the remark which will boost up this strategy and will provide an advantage over rivals. For this there is an requirement of quality raw material for production.

With the usage of innovative tools related to information technology and operations they are able to make their productivity more efficient that does not include much cost for producing products. There is an issue related with the adoption of this strategy which is the psychological one which tends to change the attitude of customer who seek for product instead of price, as with a lower price they make perception related to poor quality product which are made for lower class customers. This attitude tends to decrease the customer of this segment which can create loss for the company. Therefore, firm should focus on deciding the range of price starting from lowest to highest which can attract high society as well as middle society people. The result will be more availability of products in the situated stores of the organisation (Hill, 2017).

Differentiation Strategy- It is very important to set a different image in the mind set of customers in order to gain advantage over competitors and provide a good base of customer that will lead the company to earn more revenue. Differentiating products can create exclusiveness that is needed to make every customer convinced for choosing the product over other exiting one in market. There can be several tactics which can be adopted for making the store much differentiable such as making the customer serving technique to be much unique which can satisfy every customer's expectations . Apart from this the processing of product delivery can be made in much sorted way that can lead to provide an advantage over others. The adoption of uniqueness can lead to attract more customer providing them several benefits (Hitt and Duane Ireland, 2017).

CONCLUSION

It has been concluded that for establishing a company in any areas requires many measures which are needed to be adopted in order to successful entrance in a new market. There are various external factors which tends to influence the functionality of Primark such as political, social, economical, environmental, legal as well as technological Apart from these, Primark has analysed the threat and opportunity which can make their strategies more effective at practical level and providing them desired result that includes increase of the customer base and a great profitability. Along with this there are many strategies which are adopted by the company to attract customers and gain competitive advantage which is cost differentiation and differentiation from the competitors which are available in the market. These include keeping the low prices in order to attract lower as well as middle class customers which can provide them a source of good earning and would lead to make them better as compared to high pricing strategies of competitors.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Conduction of Market Analysis before entering.
• Penetration Pricing strategies should be adopted for their products
• Mergers and Acquisition should be preferred for market development
• Following of Cost differentiation strategy to get established in market

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• Barney, J. B., 2017. Resources, capabilities, core competencies, invisible assets, and knowledge assets: Label proliferation and theory development in the field of strategic management. The SMS Blackwell handbook of organizational capabilities. pp.422-426.
• Bettis, R. A. and et.al., 2015. Qualitative empirical research in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal. 36(5). pp.637-639.
• Ethiraj, S. K., Gambardella, A. and Helfat, C. E., 2018. Theory in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal. 39(6). pp.1529-1529.
• Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J. and Swayne, L. E., 2018. The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
• Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R. and Schilling, M. A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
• Hill, T., 2017. Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing function. Macmillan International Higher Education.
• Hitt, M. and Duane Ireland, R., 2017. The intersection of entrepreneurship and strategic management research. The Blackwell handbook of entrepreneurship. pp.45-63.
• Meyer, G. D., Neck, H. M. and Meeks, M. D., 2017. The entrepreneurship‐strategic management interface. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset. pp.17-44.
• Rothaermel, F. T., 2015. Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.
• Wheelen, T. L. and et.al., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. Pearson.