Annexure-V- Cover Page for Academic Tasks

Course Code: MKT 305 Course Title: RETAIL MARKETING

Course Instructor: Dr Mahesh Chandra Joshi

Academic Task No.: 01 Academic Task Title: H&M

Date of Allotment: 18/08/2020 Date of submission: 09/09/2020

Student’s Roll no: B040 Student’s Reg. no: 11812257

Evaluation Parameters: (Parameters on which student is to be evaluated- To be mentioned by

students as specified at the time of assigning the task by the instructor)

Learning Outcomes
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student’s work or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made
explicitly in the text, nor has any part been written for me by any other person.
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 RETAIL MARKETING
MKT 305
Submitted by:

GAURAV ANAND
Registration no.: 11812257
In partial fulfillment for the requirements of the award of the degree
of

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

“Mittal School of Business”

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Phagwara, Punjab.

H&M
 INTRODUCTION
overall association that provides a large assortment of frame. The past
foundation of H&M started with a person named Erling Persson who opened
Hennes women's haberdashery in Vasteras, Sweden in 1947. The principle store
outside Sweden opened in Norway in1964. In 1974, H&M was recorded on the
Stockholm securities market. From 1976 to1990s, nearby the offers of
cosmetics, H&M extended to European markets, as United Kingdom, Germany,
Netherlands, and France. Four years after the principally United States store
opened in 2000, H&M pushed a movement of maker joint endeavors opening
with Karl Lagerfeld. In 2006, H&M started a critical improvement of on the
web and rundown bargains. Until 2014, H&M firmly extended to Asia, Oceania
and South America.

Today, H&M is one among the world's greatest shape associations. It includes

six independent brands: H&M, COS, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday and
Other Stories. With 116,000energetically agents, H&M offers shopping
foundation in 3,388 stores transversely more than 55 showcases round the globe
(Hennes and Mauritz AB, n.d., "Arrangements markets"). per the late nine-
months (1 December 2013 – 31 August 2014) report, the H&M Group's
arrangements notwithstanding VAT is SEK 109 billion, an extension in close-
by fiscal norms by 18 percent within the midst of the underlying nine months of
the cash related year 2014. Advantage after budgetary things signified
SEK18,096 million, an extension of 19 percent (H&M, 2014, "Nine-Month
Report").

Hennes & Mauritz (H & M) AB is engaged within the sale of clothing,

accessories, footwear, cosmetics, and residential textiles. the corporate brands
include COS, Weekday, Cheap Monday, Monki, and H&M Home. The COS
comprises fifty stores and an internet shopping in Europe, which designs and
provides garments, shoes, belts, and jewelry for men and ladies. The Weekday
sells its own brands MTWTFSS Weekday and Weekday STOREMADE. It also
conducts design collaborations with independent fashion labels like Carin
Wester, and Bless and Bruno Pieters. a budget Monday includes denim
collections for men, women, babies, accessories, glasses, underwear, and shoes.
The Monki provides graphic design fashion for young women. The H&M Home
provides fashion for each room within the houses including towels, bed linen,
curtains, and other home textiles. the corporate was founded by Erling Persson
in 1947 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
In 1947 Hennes women’s store opened in Vasteras, Sweden. Today the H&M
Group offers fashion for everybody under the brands of H&M, COS, Monki,
Weekday, Cheap Monday and & Other Stories, additionally as fashion for the
house at H&M Home.

FASION RETAIL FORMET

Retailers is also independent businesses or franchises of other large

international organizations that are given rights to sell a given product to the
ultimate consumer. the most operations performed by most of the retailers are
those of shopping for the products, branding, resell, grading and advertisement.

In the fashion market, the retailers may choose to buy materials and fabric or be
involved within the actual production of the clothing design and manufacture.
In other cases, the retailers may favor to consider supplying goods to the
buyer and contracting the manufacturing works.

In this case, the retailer may be viewed as an intermediary between the

manufacturer and therefore the customer. For H&M, most of their fabrics are
made by suppliers in China and turkey.

For successful retailing operations, proper distribution channels must be

established and therefore the supplier link must be optimized to make
sure that they provide products on time.

In this paper, two clothing companies that operate in UK and internationally

were evaluated. These are; H&M and Top shop. the 2 businesses cater to retail
market and sell to the ultimate clothing to the ultimate consumer.

he H&M Company is one in all the successful clothing retail companies within

the UK and internationally. the corporate could be a market leader within
the clothing retail business. it's one amongst the foremost successful within
the fast fashion business and therefore the main products sold are people
who are currently in fashion. The headquarters are in Sweden.

H&M has quite 1500 stores internationally and it operates mostly within

the UK, Europe, North America and Asia (H&M Company, 2013). the
corporate main business is that of designer cloths. the corporate offers
competitive prices making their products affordable to the foremost of the
shoppers.

H&M retailers operate with different brand names like Stella Mc Cartney, Karl

Lagerfeld and Roberto Cavalli.

The principal success of the H&M retail business may be attributed to the

employment of contemporary well-situated stores where their products will
be bought by the ultimate consumer.

The company maximizes on the web advertisements, use of catalogues and

well-arranged outlets for them to plug their products effectively. H&M ensures
that the merchandise mix is well formulated specified product quality, price and
advertising are appropriately designed so on attract and retain the shoppers.

As it is common in most retail markets, H&M faces severe competitions from

other retailers within the apparel industry. In contrast to top-shop, H&M focuses
on the distributions of quality products at affordable prices.
 Swot analysis
Strength
 One of the largest global clothing retailers
 Offers quality and trendy clothing at affordable price.
 Overall delivery time is very low, it takes only 12 weeks for their
products to come from the design stage to the retailer phase.
 Guest designers coming in for different lines in the store.
 Celebrities’ endorsement
 Cause-related marketing
 Positive brand image
 Strong finance support
 Environment friendly

Weakness
 Competitors such as Forever 21, Zara and Topshop
 No control over suppliers
 Overstocking of basics and later on lead to lowering of the already
affordable prices
 Messy displays
 Limited product quality
 Lack of control in production as subcontracted high level of customer
returns
 H&M – their clothes aren’t that exclusive.
 Small inventory

Opportunity
 Online shopping is gaining a lot of importance
 Social media marketing
 Emerging economies will support H & M’s expansion plans
 They are well positioned to tap the niche organic apparel market
 High demand for products
 Expansion into emerging markets internationally online – expanding
online shopping internationally
 Digital and mobile media channels evolving worldwide brand presence
Threats
 Economic recession
 Increased in labor cost in China, India and Bangladesh
 Unemployment will cause consumer discretionary spending
 In the fast fashion industry customers are affected by economic
circumstances
 Highly competitive market
 Constantly changing fashion trends
 Increased production costs in Asia
 Technological changes can also be a threat if companies don’t manage to
keep up with the development
 Competitors like ZARA, Mango and Gina Tricot which have the same
kind of business idea – to sell fashionable clothes to a low price.

Positioning

Is a marketing strategy that aims to create a brand occupy a definite position,

relative to competing brands within the mind of the of consumers? H&M may
be a retailer that's looking to supply consumers with fashionable, high-quality.
Clothing at the simplest price possible. they provide “fast Fashion” clothing, in
other words from runway to racks in record time, and sell European influenced
clothing within the American market. Additionally, H&M carries clothing in an
exceedingly style of categories including women’s casual, men’s business,
children’s wear, footwear and accessories. the corporate is that the second
largest clothing retailer within the world, the most important in Europe and
actively engages in E-retailing. H&M is additionally economically, socially,
and environmentally sustainable.
H&M is promoting sustainability clothing. the most objective is to create the
clothing industry more sustainable and make positive change within
the communities. they need made substantial efforts to market social
development and reduce environmental impact. They are
the second largest organic cotton consumers and ensure sustainable
development socially, economically and environmentally.

part from top quality at low price, that H&M has extensive market share and
trendy style among its competitors. Gap and Zara have the closest market
shares, the previous is a smaller amount fashionable than H&M while the latter
is as fashionable as H&M, so Zara is that the closest competitor. Uniqlo, a
brand-new competitor to H&M, has been rapidly growing and getting
 considerable market shares with diversified products within the world especially
in Asia, threatening H&M’s market position.

4Ps Marketing Strategies (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) After doing 3Cs
and STP analysis, we are able to find that H&M positions itself as fashionable,
high-quality with low price. Its targeted consumers are women aged 18 to 45
who are trying to find trendy products at affordable price and therefore the main
competitors of H&M are Gap, Zara and Uniqlo.

Apart from sustaining within the keen market competition, building brand

loyalty is additionally important. the thought of fast apparel industry is to
produce fashionable clothes at lower cost. If there appears a competitor with
better offer, customers will switch to it brand without hesitation. H&M faces the
threats that customer incorporates a good ability to modify to a
different brand with none losses. within the following part, we are going
to study how H&M works hard to create brand loyalty and become preferred by
using 4Ps strategies. Those similar strategies adopted by its
competitors won't be discussed.

MARKETING STRATEGY
H&M Place & Distribution Strategy:

H&M sells its products through its exclusive stores located in major cities
across the world (4135 stores). In some countries because of regulatory norms,
H&M offers its products through franchising partners. It also offers its products
through online stores from where the customer can make a choice from the list of
accessible products and buy them through online payment. The products are
delivered at your stated address. Cheap Monday is sold through selected retailers
worldwide and thru standalone stores including its flagship store in London.

H&M Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

Since H&M group encompasses a wide selection of product portfolio catering to

different segments, it uses multi-channel promotional strategy in its marketing
mix.

• TV advertisements: H&M comes with creative ads which specialize in its latest

innovative designs. Each brand handles its own marketing decisions. The ads are
telecasted at regular intervals and on channels mainly watched by youth, to
extend its awareness.

• YouTube: H&M has its own YouTube channel where it comes up with unique
ad campaigns to have interaction with the shoppers.

• Digital Marketing: It indulges in excessive program marketing and social media

marketing to convert the potential buyers into consumers.

• Promo codes and discounts: Promo codes and discounts are offered during the
tip of season sale. The discounts are offered on both online and retail stores.

• PR: Parineeti Chopra opened the primary H&M outlet in India. Such stunts

generate quick publicity for the corporate.

• Sponsorships: H&M signed accommodate The Weekend, sponsors Caitlyn

Jenner, sponsors Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Creative collaborations with high
end designers and magnificence icons, Collaborations with pop stars and sport
stars

• CSR: Water, Planet, Education, Equality

People:
The employees at H&M are trained well at every level. The work culture is
incredibly modern and employees are on a rotation basis at every department and
are motivated to innovate and are available up with the most effective clothing
wear. H&M also holdup with many clothing designers throughout the globe to
form latest trends in fashion. Employees come from diverse backgrounds having
special skills. Personal and Professional development of employees is
extremely promoted.

Process:
High importance is given to customer relationship management. Employees are
trained to retain highly profitable customers by giving them better service and
offers. just in case of any complaints the staff at H&M puts in every effort to
resolve them at the earliest. there's a customer care number through which the
customer queries are resolved. Staff at H&M outlets help the shoppers in
selecting the simplest merchandise for them. Thus, the service and delivery
time is incredibly quick thus gaining satisfied customers.
Physical Evidence:
H&M stores are appropriately lit with great ambience and humble staff. The
apparel is arranged to own a good look which appeals to the shoppers. The
merchandise is of wonderful quality and latest trends. H&M is diversifying its
portfolio and going in more international markets. to form a Buzz within
the market, it engages in PR activities. for instance, celebrities were invited during
its launch which created a Buzz within the market. User stories and
suggestions are always welcomed by the brand which also helps in customer
engagement with the brand.

Competitive advantage within the Marketing strategy of H & M

Exposure of Limited Markets: Since the corporate have the presence in

barely 65 markets globally, it's helping the corporate in being focused in
operational part and safeguards the interest of the corporate from sovereign risk
and race exposures.
Physical store business model: within the emerging markets /developing
nations, since customers prefer more to do the clothing and accessories items at
the physical stores instead of buying online and because of this company has
been performing well nations like India where its sales increased by ?291 crore
during the amount December 2016 through August 2017.

BCG Matrix within the Marketing strategy of H & M

The company operates within the market with the group of brands like H &

M, & other stories, COS, Weekday, Cheap Monday and Monkey.

Distribution strategy within the Marketing strategy of H & M

With employee count of over 161000 worldwide the brand has
been progressing to the most important economies globally.
 COMPETITORS
1) Zara

2) Uniqlo

3) Gap

4) ASOS

5) Macy’s

6) American Eagle Outfitters

7) Abercrombie and Fitch

8) Forever 21

9) Chanel

10) Benetton Group

Recommendation

The analysis above highlights that there are opportunities that H&M should
exploit so as to generate more profits and procure a sustainable competitive
advantage against its rivals. Therefore, the subsequent strategies are
recommended:

1. Growth and Investment (Increase sportswear and investment)

H&M should exploit the chance that's arisen from the increasing

tendency of customers to be more health aware may well be a
possible opportunity which could meet a future high rate. Therefore, the
corporate should provide a quick response to its rivals,
such as Gap, that have already started investing in sportswear unit.

2. Growth (Blue ocean strategy +60 aged population)

The firm should invest in entering a replacement market, the one in every

of the over 60 aged population, which is predicted that may constitute a
customer segmentation, with high spending power in comparison with the
core young and trendy customers. H&M may introduce large scales of
products focused on this customer segmentation, by creating a
replacement sub-brand name for succeeding the upkeep of the
most customer base perception for the brand, whereas all the
manufacturing process will remain the identical as is.

3. Internationalization (Entry of Indian market with joint venture)

H&M should enter the Indian market. that's because it's identified, that

when it involves the garment industry life cycle, that's in growth stage.
Specifically, India experienced a significant rate in industry in 2012,
estimated at US$48 billion. The Indian market is taken into account as
unapproachable, because while social norms are classified as 3rd Strategy
Internationalization Entry to Indian Market- venture 2nd Strategy of
Growth Blue Ocean Strategy +60 aged population 1st Strategy of Growth
& Investment Increase sportswear growth & investment
H&M Strategic recommendations thorough | Vasiliki Evangelou
dominant, however, youth customers’ lifestyle is influenced by the
Western trends. For entering the market H&M is suggested to implement
a strategic alliance, the one of joint venture, because this partnership
should allow the corporate to enter this new spatial market, gain new
capacity and expertise, for a market that's characterized for its unique
special unique characteristics.

4. Internal Improvement (Increase the presence of H&M sub brand

names)

H&M should invest on the H&M collaborates with other global brands,
which have a limited or weak presence within the industry, keeping the
corporate because the dominant brand within them market. Although,
H&M started changing this tendency by introducing new labels, such as,
‘& other stories’, it should introduce new labels that are focused on
providing specific types of wears, such as, innerwear, for attracting a
 wider range of consumers and improving the scale of presence of the
present sub-brand names within the market.

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, H&M a based fashion company which is one in all the

biggest fashion company within the world. We ready to observe that H&M
is persevere improving from time to time. There are two current expansion
strategies that H&M utilized in order to form their business more efficient. one
amongst the strategies is H&M implemented wholly-owned subsidiary which is
able to help them gain competitive advantage of low risk and constant margin of
profit within the specify country. Besides, H&M also expand its business via
using franchising when the country to be entered is politically unstable or facing
barriers to entry. for instance, H&M partnership with franchisee (Alshaya)
is due to Alshaya were the most important retailers in geographic region .

In order to expand within the future, venture mode is that the strategy that

typically being employed. it's normally used after they entered the international
markets. Moreover, H&M should make changes from low to higher entry
strategies during they create investment. Internalization of entry mode able
to aware those from risk, commitment from those resources, evolve with the
international knowledge accumulation on investment location.

Last but not least, image of an organization is extremely important for

each company. this is often because it'll affect their expansion within the future
and communication within those brokers. Till now, H&M image continues to
be in every people mind because it's quite strong enough. Everyone also think
that H&M could be a style of Fashion Company. So, an excellent image of a
corporation will really will bring confident to those buyers.