THE ROLE OF MARKETING

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

Role of marketing in the organisation.............................................................................................4

Business orientation of the organisation..........................................................................................5

Macro environmental factors...........................................................................................................5

Micro environmental factors............................................................................................................8

STC strategy..................................................................................................................................10

Target customers............................................................................................................................12

Marketing mix...............................................................................................................................12

Product and the pricing strategy....................................................................................................13

Reference list.................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
The fashion retailer organisation that is chosen for this report is Boohoo and the activities they
follow for hold a position in the market is describe here. This organisation has been found by
Carol Kane and Mahmud Kamani in the year 2006, between them one is Executive Director and
the other is “Group Executive Chairman”. Previously they connect with retail organisation like
“New Look” and “Primark”. The main products of Boohoo include tops and dresses and their
collection of cloths are “over 27,000”. They bring 100 of new products on a daily basis and also
bring a new look for the customers. Their main target is the women customer and they embrace
each women individually and they make the fashion more accessible and also for fun. Their
philosophy is quiet simple which is based on hard working, enjoy life and no drama. Their
number of fans is almost 7 million on online magazines and social media platforms. They believe
on the strategy to give rather than receive so that they started their charity programme for fund
raising and aware people about the importance of cloths. From a research it is identified that they
raised almost “£36,000” from “sample sales”, morning coffee, Pendleside charity. They also
organize some surveys through which they went to the “Teenage Cancer Trust” and to the local
people and is able to make a difference between their life style and the across the world.

They also develop an app for the purpose of promotion and reach to people very easily. Their
products are so famous that their app gets positive response from people and they use it more
than to visit their shops because the customers believe on them. The name of their app is
“reGAIN”. Boohoo have some special moments where they are not only promoted their products
but also gets successful to achieve their trust and their support. In 2006, their company has been
started with the idea of innovation of creating new look for the women with the new fashion
trends and involve in the market competition.

In the year 2007, they first make their campaign for advertising their brand sand their products.
They first launched their television advertising in 2011. They first enter into the international
market such as launch their product in the US market and Australian market in 2012. They cross
“1milion followers” on Facebook and they open their office in London in 2013. In 2014, they
float in the “stock market” and Established as a PLC. They also launched “BoohooPLUS”. They
first launched their app in 2015 and also launched “BoohooFIT” and in this year their integral
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followers also cross 1 million. Their employees cross 1000 in the year 2016 and they turned 10
and launched “BoohooKIDS” and “PREETYLITTLETHING” joined with Boohoo. They
launched their “BoohooPremium” and “BoohooBeauty” in the year 2017 and “Nasty Gal” also
connects with them. They careful about the recent fashion trends and provide those products
which will match with the fashion (boohoo.com, 2020).

Role of marketing in the organisation

“Marketing strategy” is a plan that an organisation follow for make profit and reach to the
customers with the respective products and services. This strategy is basically depends on the
organizational development and their activities by which they are going to attract the attention of
the customers. In the strategy the organization consists with the value of the organisation, data of
the customers that they collect through the demographic way, message of the brand and other
elements (Cacciolatti & Lee, 2016). Marketing strategy is quite different from the “marketing
plan” but somehow they share the same factors of the organisation. The “marketing strategy”
based on the strategy that gives the organisation a purpose to follow and make some changes in
the strategy for the future development. On the other hand, the “marketing plan” is based on the
demand of the market and the consumers. “Marketing strategy” also helps to understand the
competitive advantages of the organisation through different activities and functions of the
business (investopedia.com, 2020).

The company Boohoo’s “marketing strategy” is identified through the vision of the company and
it is help them to lead “e-commerce” in the market of fashion which includes 16 to 40 years old
women. Based on this vision they follow four types of “strategic priorities” and those are –

 Insight: Develop a competitive theory on customers.

 Innovation: Engage with the customers.
 Integration: Integrate all new brands.
 Investment: To increase the share of the market, organic products should deliver
(boohooplc.com, 2020).

Based on these “strategic priorities” the organisation is going to improve their infrastructure and
their increase the growth for the future days. The products they serve to the customers should
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manufacture by good quality based raw materials so that the customers does not complaint
against the product (Appiah-Adu & Amoako, 2016). If the customers have any problem
regarding the services then they can solve it or either change the services for providing best
service to the customers.

Business orientation of the organisation

In order to make a business successful, the organisation should follow the strategy and by
following the strategy the organisation can execute their effective operations. The factors
through which the organization identifies the strategies are known as “business orientation”.
There are four types of business orientations are available and those are –

Product: product orientation means the details of the products that an organisation provides to
their customers. Each of the products has their individual orientation but those cannot describe
here because a company is not only serving one type of product, there is variation of products.
Like, the fashion retailer organisation Boohoo provides cloths to the women customers and there
is variety of products (globalnpsolutions.com, 2020).

Production: The “production orientation” depends on the production details of the organisation.
Like, Boohoo is very careful about the production of their products. They made each product
with great enthusiasm. They have individual tailor for their cloths and they make it as the
customer demands.

Sales: Focusing on the sales, the company takes some initiation to increase their sales and make
profit (Mahmoud et al. 2016). The organisation spread their business not only in their nation
market but also in the international market as well.

Marketing: The organisation is very much careful about the demand of the market because they
have to survive in the market for making profit. So that, Boohoo follows some strategies to
survive in the market and compete with their big competitors.

Macro environmental factors

Macro environmental factors are described through the PESTLE analysis which helps the
organisation to identify the external factors that has an impact of the company. The changes of
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the “macro environmental” factors not only change the Boohoo Company from externally but its
impact of the other organisation also reflected. Through this analysis the challenges can identify
that the organisation has been facing and those factors also develop some other changes as well
those are consider as the competitive advantage of the organisation (Kalva, Kumar & Srinivasu,
2018). Like, if the organisation has been make profit from an area, they should careful about that
area and also find out other areas from where they can also benefitted. The PESTLE analysis of
Boohoo Company is described below with the proper identification of each of the factors.

Political factors: The political ups and down of UK directly affected the retail industry and each
and every affected from different perspective. The political factors affected the organisation from
different perspective and those are –

 Political stability directly affected the business of the organisation and the economics of
the country.
 As the government of the country continuously changes their policies and it directly hit
the trend of the country that they follow and also for the organisation who is trying to
involve with that trend.
 The pressure of the political groups on the retail industry is the reason why the
organisation sometimes does not expand their business to their customers.
 Corruption in the country is affected the business industry so that the political groups take
some initial steps against the corruption and then the business industry get back to their
track.

Economic factors: The economic development of the country affecting the organization’s
economic as well. The interest rate, the investment rate, savings rate and foreign exchange rate,
all these come under the economic growth. If these are increased with time then they will
directly affected economic growth of the company.

 Through the free market the government shows their intervention and it is also related
with the customer services and this are affected the economic development of the country
and the company.
 The “infrastructure quality” affected the retail industry deeply so that it also attacks on
the economics of this industry and the company those are connected with it.
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 Labor cost and the cost of productivity also affecting the economy of the organization.
 The economic development increases the rate of unemployment in the country
(fernfortuniversity.com, 2020).

Social factors: The social culture and the social trend impact on the business and culture of an
organisation. The company doing many surveys on the population of the country and identify
those customers who are involved with their products and use it. Based on this research Boohoo
can understand the impact and that area which are require change.

 The skill level and the demographic on the population of the country help the
organisation to understand their key customers.
 The culture of the country which includes the roles of the individual gender and the social
conventions that are directly affected the organizational environment.
 The level of education helps the company to provide the appropriate information about
their products so that they can easily understand it.

Technological factors: Technology always had a great impact on the business industry because
with the advanced technology each of the business has been grown up and developed. The
technological factors those affected the organisation Boohoo is -

 The competitors of Boohoo innovate or use new technology in the organisation which is
affected their business from perspective.
 The technology also affect the offering of the product like the organisation offers new
products when they they use the new technology.
 Technology has its impact on the “cost structure” of the organisation as well as retail
industry.

Legal factors: The laws and regulations of the country affected the business industry and their
legal factors. The organisation Boohoo follow all the legal terms of the country and that
government put on the retail industry.

 The “discrimination law” of the country affected the retail business and the organizations
should create their products based on the discrimination factor (essay48.com, 2020).
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 Based on the “employment law” of the country, the organizations should provide the
proper benefits to their employees and behave with them with manners.
 The “health and safety act” in the organisation directly affected the business of the
organization, because the organization not only focus on the safety of the employees but
also the customers.

Environmental factors: The environment and the geographical norms of the country affected
the retailer business along with other industries. The environmental factors are –

 The climate of the country and if it changes time by time then it affected the business of
the retail business and their production.
 Laws for protect the environment from getting polluted should followed by the
organization and does not throw any material that is harmful for the nature.
 The government put some laws on the waste materials and the business industry have to
follow that laws and it affected their manufacturing process somehow.

Micro environmental factors

The factors of Micro environment are described through the SWOT analysis where the internal
and the external factors of the organization can identified. Through the SWOT analysis, the
organizational internal factors can identified through the “strength and weakness” and the
external factors are describe through the “opportunity and threats” of the organisation. This
organisation Boohoo has their strong holds and their weak points that help the organisation to set
a position in the market. Boohoo is one of the most famous retail fashion whose main focus is
women and their most of the products are between the age group of “14-40” people. The actual
intention of this organisation is to provide the details of their products to their customers so that
they can have a clear idea about their products that can match the current fashion trend. Each and
every factor of the organisation has been identified through the SWOT analysis and those are not
only providing the internal issues of the organisation but it also identifies the external issues as
well (fernfortuniversity.com, 2020).

Strength: Boohoo Company should careful about their strength that will help them to identify
their opportunity and use them to develop their business for the future. Their strong points are –
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 The company has been increasing their growth in the market with the acquisition of two
other companies with them. “NastyGal” and “PrettyLittleThings” are connecting with
Boohoo and increase their market demand and their hare in the market is also get broad
and widening their customer’s base.
 Boohoo Company does not believe in the concept of tie to any corporal store. They
believe in flexibility and like to experiment with new products and suggest customers that
if they like it or not. If they like the experiment then it will increase their demand in the
market and make improvement of their position in the market.
 They built a very reliable and worthy relation with their distributor for the products that
they serve manufacture. Their distributor helps them to provide the products to the
customers within time and without make any harm to the product.
 They also take the strategy to expand their portfolio so that they can positively connect
with other company and merge with the (businessteacher.org.uk, 2020).

Weakness: The weakness of Boohoo organisation is –

 Boohoo invest a lot of money on technology like when a new technology has been came
into the market they use it inn their organisation and make a huge investment. Most of the
cases it give the positive result and sometimes it gives the negative result. Thus it is
consider as a great weakness of the organisation.
 The organisation tries to follow the trend so that they also try to innovate new products
but in this case sometimes they get misguided and any other organisation create problems
for them. This also affected their business growth.
 The “e-commerce laws” are another weakness of the organization. Based on those laws
the organisation cannot expand their business so widely and they also should careful
about the rights of the customers in a company.

Opportunity: Boohoo’s opportunities are –

 One of the opportunities of Boohoo is the expansion of their business in the global
market so that they can easily reach to people from all over the world. This is great
opportunity to inform people about their styles and their product’s quality.
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 As the smart phones are available in the market and their features getting advanced day
by day so that it gives them a great opportunity. Like, they introduce an app for their
company and their products so that they can easily reach to their customers.
 New trend in the market inspire them to also create new products and launch them and
notice the response of the customers. If the customer’s response is positive then they
understand that the new trend give them a big opportunity to improve their business.

Threat: Threats of Boohoo are –

 Based on the current situation of the market, the economic factors those are external
directly affected the business of the organisation and it is threat for them. Like the trade
war between China and US, “Brexit” and the Italian budget of 2019 cause volatility and
variability within the investors.
 Every country have their own “environmental regulations” but the new regulations that
the government is going to implement and it becomes a threat for the organisation to
follow those new implemented regulations because it affected their manufacturing
process.
 If the country faces any problem with the fluctuation of the currency then it will consider
as a threat for Boohoo because the political up and downs affects the business industry
from different perspective (mimt.gov.ir, 2016).

STC strategy
The STP strategy is the most famous strategy for the modern day market and is this placed as
second most popular model after SWOT analysis. It stands for “segmentation”, “targeting” and
“positioning” and this is very much useful model and it is use at the time of develop a good
communication with the market where they are going to hold their position. This model is based
on the audience then the products that they serve and the communication help them to
understand if they are satisfied with the product and the services or not. Based on the “STC
strategy”, the organisation Boohoo is going to identify the segmentation on the basis of the
behavior of the consumers. The factors of the customers which include the buying behavior, their
needs and their expectations are multifaceted and heterogeneous and those are – gender, age,
value, lifestyle and income (smartinsights.com, 2020).
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Segmentation: The use of “segmentation strategy” in the organisation Boohoo some impacts are
shown and those are –

 Through the “geographic segmentation” the organisation can separate their market based
on the “geographical areas” such as country, region and city.
 The “demographic segmentation” helps to divide the market through the gender, income
and age of the customers (repository.bilkent.edu.tr, 2017).
 “Behavioral segmentation” helps to understand the behavior of the customers.
 “Psychographic segmentation” helps to group the customers through their attitude,
lifestyle and values.

Targeting: The differentiation of the market customers along with the small groups helps the
organization to find out the characteristics of the “market segmentation” and focus on those
factors. Boohoo should choose their “target segment” and find out that how their expectations
and needs are compatible with the capabilities and resources of the organisation. They choose the
segment on the basis of the features of the particular segment and organization’s resources.
Before targeting the segment, the organisation should check indicators that are required for a
segment and those requirements are –

 The segment that has been chosen should have a relevant sixe.
 The segment should be different from other segments.
 The estimate cost of the segment need to able to increase the “marketing cost”.
 They should choose those segments which can easily access (essay48.com, 2020).

Positioning: after the segmentation and targeting, Boohoo is now focused on the statement on
positioning which helps to provide a positive picture of the product that they are serving to the
customers. If the customers have a clear idea regarding the product then it will help them to
understand product value and its features. The “positioning strategy” of Boohoo is –

 By providing the detail description of the brand and the market, the organisation set a
positioning statement.
 The company should compare the messaging and the communication strategy with their
competitors so that they develop the potential to easily address the positioning message.
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 By comparing the “strength and weakness” of the competitors with them, make them able
to fill the gap.
 To set their own position in the market the organisation firstly need to identify their
competitor’s position.

Target customers
The target customers are basically gaining knowledge about the consumers which will be taking
up the services and the products offer by the company. The target customers of the company in
this case are the woman. At the time of targeting the customers the company “Boohoo” will get
certain benefits that will help them to focus in their business goals. Being the fashion retailer the
company “Boohoo” should know which are the actual customers of the company and specifically
who are the audiences interested about the services and the products offering by the company.
While targeting the customers the company should focus on their business functions.

Target customers are basically a part of market segmentation which is the process of dividing the
customers into different kinds of categories on the basis of characteristics and the interests of the
customers. The target market is the simplest form of defining audience which has been targeted
by the company “Boohoo”. These are the metrics which are easy for inputting into the platforms
of digital advertising. Location is the important part which needs to be considered by the
company. Only if the company targets a specific group of the customers then it can easily
maximize its profit focusing on that particular group. Here in this case the audience or the
customers whom the company has targeted are the women (startupfashion.com, 2020).
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Marketing mix
The “marketing mix” is considered as the set of actions or the strategies which a company
basically uses for the purpose of promoting their brand in the market. The marketing mix is
considered of the 4ps. The four Ps of the marketing mix are the “price, promotion, product and
the place”.

Price: the factors of price in the marketing mix play an essential role which affects the behavior
of the consumers. The price refers to the product value which the company is offering to their
customers. The price of the product which is sold by the company “Boohoo” depends on the cost
needed in the process of production. Not only the costs of production the price of the product
also depends on the targeted segment, purchasing power of the consumers or the ability of the
customers for paying that particular price related to the product offering by the company. the
company “ BOOHOO” have been found to be setting the price of their product according to their
own plan of business (eli.johogo.com, 2018).

Product: the products in the marketing mix are based on the items which the company is
offering such as clothes and fashion jewelry. The product which is sold by the company should
deliver at least minimum level of performance that is the reason the company also sells
customized products on the basis of the demand of the customers. The company “Boohoo” has
also been found to be producing the products according to the market scenario and the taste and
preferences of the customers (economictimes.indiatimes.com, 2020).
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Promotion: the promotion includes advertising of the products which should be done by the
company in order to attract customers. The company “Boohoo” has been found to be promoting
their products by writing its benefits and other facilities which is of course better than the
product of the competitors. The promotion only does not help the company to boost up their
customer but also help them to gain the competitive advantage over the market.

Place: here in the marketing mix the place refers to the location where the company is selling or
the place where the company has targeted their audience from. In each and every industry,
targeting a particular group of customers from a particular location will help the company to
execute their strategy of distribution in a proper way. It has been found the company “Boohoo”
has paid premium prices for the appropriate location.

Product and the pricing strategy

The product and the pricing strategy of the company is generally set by the companies on the
basis of how much a market can bear for the purpose of making reasonable profit. Based on the
price strategies of the company “Boohoo” some of the important tactics were identified which
are being discussed below:

 Skimming of the price

The company is found to be using strategy of skimming the prices of the product at the
time of introducing a new product in the market. The objective behind of the company
behind the skimming of the price is found that they needs to set their product at high
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price initially in order to recover the costs needed for the production process. The extra
money which comes as a profit for the company ten goes again into the production of
more products of same category. In order use this strategy the company should
understand that the demand for the pro duct they have introduced newly in the market
should remain inelastic.
 Pricing based on the penetration

This strategy can generally be used by the company when they opting for the entrance in
to the competitive market. In this case the company is generally found to lower their
prices of the product than their competitors in order to attract maximum number of
customers towards their company. The company “Boohoo” also has been found to be
using this strategy as a result of which their market share got increased along with the
revenue (smallbusiness.chron.com, 2020).

 Investment pricing
The company will always have a profit figure based on the target or return of investment
which the company wants to earn on a particular product. Therefore it is found that the
company spends maximum amount of time for analyzing the costs which is needed for
the creation of the product and projecting the figures of sales.
 Geographical pricing :
The strategy of pricing based on the standard of living of the people from different
geographical location. In this case when the company realizes that the costs of living are
higher in certain markets they start adopting the strategy of geographical pricing.
Therefore the company uses the structure by setting the prices higher in case of certain
prices.
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