Executive Summary
Introduction
The main perspective of this assignment is to apply the concept of marketing on a given organization. The company which has been selected for the same analysis is ASOS. Different tools would be applied on the same company in particular, as SWOT, PESTLE, ANSOFF and others. It is assumed in this particular assignment that ASOS is trying to launch a new product of men T-Shirt in the market of the UK and for that stance they want to have a perfect communication or marketing plan.
ASOS plc is a UK’s leading online platform that is associated to offer the line of fashion and beauty products. The company came into being in 2000 that is not only restricted in the premises of UK but also running their operations across the globe. The head quarter of the company is situated in Camden Town, United Kingdom. Being as a genuine E-commerce based retailer, the company has quickly touched the heights of success and got a reputable position in the apparel scene. The company is committed to provide up to 50,000 brands with selling their own labeled diverse range of apparel, jewelry and accessories that are quality oriented. By the year 2012, the growth of the company was outpaced in terms of retail sales and it was the first when more than 50% sales came from different countries except UK (Monitor, 2014). The company has posted an annual turnover of £753.8 million during the fiscal year of 2013 (BBC, 2014), while the net worth of ASOS estimated to be £159 million in the same year (Company, 2014). Moreover, the ASOS plc also reported that the total number of unique visitors in each month was estimated to be 21.3 million during 2013 and over 7.1 million were active customer across the globe (ASOS, 2014). The company has employed around 4000 employees with major population is employed in Barnsley Town
Market Environment
Overview
United Kingdom (UK) is one of the most important parts of the world which has a high economy and the business possession in the country is extremely high and powerful. The essence of retailing plays an important and vital role in the life of British people, unlike any other business in particular. Online retailing is known as one of the most lucrative businesses found in the United Kingdom (UK). Retail is the UK's largest private employer, providing nearly 3 million jobs, and therefore, is responsible for over 10% of total employment in the UK. Special retail work greatly improved flexibility to the proportion of part-time roles than other industries, so that workers greater freedom and wider career development opportunities.
Parent, usually the mother, to better achieve sustainable development work / parenting balance, students are able to fund further education, people have no formal qualifications captions are able to get connected in important first step, in the career ladder. In addition, retail is often many opportunities for young science fiction RST paid employment. In fact, 42% of all working aged 16-17 employed by retailers. Online Retailing is one of the most important sections from the viewpoint of the UK business segments, and it is one of the paragons for them.
Competitor’s Analysis
Competitor’s analysis has been performed on the basis of Competitive Profile Matrix. The names of the competitors of the company are Next Plc, Acadia Group and New Look Retail
Current Market Position
ASOS is competing with the world’s best online cloth retailers. Therefore, they will be required to strategize our business model in a way, which would facilitate us to acquire a sustainable competitive advantage and sufficient market share at the same time.
Market Growth:
The aforementioned table illustrates that the online clothing is a growing market with a robust pace. By the year 2011, the total market income generated by this segment was estimated to be £ 4.8 billion. However, the growth was recorded in the year 2013 by 5% which raised the sales to the level of £ 5.04 billion (Internet retailing, 2011).
Market Forecast:
UK is one of the leading markets in terms of online clothing retail market across the globe. The potential growth of Clothing e-retail is quite impressive. By the year 2015, the total sales are expected to reach a volume of £ 6.9 billion. This represents a growth of 36.90% as compared to 2013 when the income figure was £ 5.04 billion (Internet retailing, 2011). Therefore, in the 2 years duration, the expected yearly growth is likely to be an average of 17.01% that justify the leading status of UK in global online clothing market.
Market Share:
The online clothing market is huge. UK is a leader in European region, which have the most significant share. The share of clothing was 69% in the year 2011and therefore; the highest proportion among all the categories falls in online apparel sector (ilsole, 2011).
Company Current Situational Analysis
SWOT Analysis of ASOS Company
SWOT Analysis is a tool to use for analyzing the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. The tool is used as a fruitful guide but not as a suggestion.
Strengths
- The biggest strength of ASOS is that the company features an exclusive and diverse array of brands in the market of the United Kingdom (UK)
- The company features a unique variety of the categories including the men and women clothing, accessories, make-ups and footwear as well
- The company is one of those companies of the world that maintains innovative and number of ways to display the merchandise to the customers in different interactive ways to shop, including the created looks of the customers and the marketplace of ASOS (Wisconsin, 2014, pp. 62-69)
- The quality of the products in which the company deals are perfect and well organized which is a perfect sign from the viewpoint of the company
- The Company offers free shipping and free return to the customer base
- The marketing strategy of ASOS is wonderful and the company maintains a blog on its particular website that features the content on a variety for latest fashion trends
- The company is expanding its network perfectly in the market. Sales outside of the United Kingdom (UK) grew tremendously by 64% while the growth rate in the market of the US was 91% which is extremely high
- ASOS track and achieve sales of US$ 1.13 billion
Weaknesses
- The biggest weakness associated with the company is that the company does not advertise them on the marketing based platform
- Customers do not have the opinion of trying on or feel the clothing prior to its purchase
- The company produces its merchandise in five different continents which caused logistics costing difficulties.
Opportunities
- Consumers all around the globe are intending to spend more money on the buying of unique products which is one of the major advantage of ASOS
- The market of buying mobile platforms, tablets and I-Phones are increasing day by day, which is a positive sign for ASOS
- Globalization is expanding in all over the world and they are able to connect with the consumers all over the world
- The competitors of ASOS are featuring a limited assortment in their personal merchandising and lacking of diversity
Threats
The competition in the E-Commerce buying and selling is increasing which may create problems for the companies especially for the online retailing companies like ASOS.
PESTLE Analysis
Political, Economic, Sociological, Technical, Legal and Environmental are the segments in PESTLE Analysis and the same could be found in mentioned below analysis of UK Based
Political
The United Kingdom (UK) which is known as Great Britain is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of the continentally based Europe. The country includes the Island of Great Britain. The government of the United Kingdom is one of the strongest governments of the world and the capital city of the UK is London. It is a developed country of the world in which people are spending a happy and wealthy life (Hall, 2014, pp. 51-53). The political influence of the Government on its companies is effective, and it will be extremely vital for the companies that are intending to enter in this particular region as far as their productivity and efficacy are concerned.
Economic Analysis
The economy of the UK is known as the sixth largest economy of the UK. The country reported Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$ 2.378 trillion reported in the year 2013 with per capita income of US$ 38,309 which is known as the 21st largest from the viewpoint of a country (Holden, 2012, pp. 41-44). Economic consequences of a company and the country are effective, which is a positive sign from the viewpoint of the company, and it would be effective for them in particular.
Social
Social factors could be extremely important from the viewpoint of the organization and countries always try to have social influence in their market places in particular. The market of the United Kingdom (UK) is extremely high and broad, and companies have to comply with the standards accordingly to become economically active.
Technology
In terms of technology, the country (UK) is doing an effective job as far as increasing their financial belongings of the companies operating in this region. Technological advancement is an important thing from the standpoint of a company and for an economy and retail companies are doing an effective job as far as maintaining the effectiveness of the companies (Freeman, 2010, pp. 15-19).
Environmental
In terms of environmental based things, the company is also doing their effectiveness and UK is an environmentally strong country of the world that is increasing effectively.
Legal
The legally based stance of the company is high as the Legal issues in the UK is extreme which needed to be covered accordingly by the companies as far as maintaining their sustainability is concerned.
ANSOFF MATRIX Analysis
ANSOFF works in three dimensions
Mentioned below picture is revealing the same
There are two different markets which particularly are New Markets and Existing Markets for ASOS. ASOS already penetrated in the market of the UK with their effective and quality based products, but the company can enter in different regions of the UK by new product development. New Markets would be effective in the market development and diversification, and it will be perfect for the company in the near future. With the help of ANSOFF matrix, it is found that the company needed to be developed new products or diversification their current products in different markets in order to become economically prosper and strategically active. If we taken the analysis of the past, then we will find that ASOS launched their Jeans, which is a clear example of the Product Development and then launch in the existing market for their effectiveness and market expansionary purpose. In order to develop new markets in the region of the United Kingdom (UK), ASOS can move with their existing products in the market, which will certainly help out the company to have sufficient effectiveness in the market. There is a need to develop the products of the company to launch in already expanded market of the United Kingdom (UK) for ASOS, because the company already has a great name in the market, therefore, not enough problem would occur for them.
Marketing Mix Analysis
Marketing Mix analyze the stance on four different things, which particularly are product, price, place and promotion
Product
- Product strategy is one of the most effective things from the viewpoint of the organization in particular.
- Product Strategy which ASOS was using in the past and still has its charm is Analyzer
- In this particular strategy, the company has an idea to launch the product of Men t-shirts in the market with efficacy and the company did the same in their past, as well.
- The company has been using this particular strategy from their past, and it will certainly help them out to assess the growth in the market.
Pricing
- Pricing strategy is one of the most effective strategies from the viewpoint of an organization and it is extremely vital for an entity.
- The pricing strategy could be extremely effective and vital for the organization in particular.
- Likewise, other companies, ASOS also has to attain the most effective pricing strategy and the company is already doing it from the commencement of their operations.
- The pricing strategy which the company was using from their past Competitive pricing
- In this strategy, the prices would have been used accordingly and effectively at the same time to become economically active.
Place
- The place strategies which the company is using are both offline and online marketing strategy from number of years
- The company has to use the same, in order to assume the same to become economically active.
Promotion
- The promotion strategies which the company is using from number of years Pull Strategy
- In promotional activity, both online and offline promotional strategy should be used accordingly.
- In this particular thing, both electronic paper and electronic medium could be used by the company to become economically prosper and active.
IMC Campaign
Target Profile and Positioning
In terms of having effectiveness in the operations of the company, ASOS is trying to attain its effectiveness with their target profile. The target people for the company are the people who would like to consume the T-Shirts and other products on the online basis. Both men and women are the target people for ASOS and the company can position them in front of them merely because of their current effectiveness.
IMC Campaign
In order to further grow the market of ASOS, the company has to increase the stance of communication with their other counterparts with effective strategic alliance. The company has to retain in the market of the UK in some years, and should capture each and every part of the country because the market of the UK is extremely high and huge. After some years, the company can expand internationally. Both electronic and paper media could be used by the company to value their expansion. The past communication strategy of ASOS has both electronic and paper medium in it, and the company is strategizing to use both of these mediums in their future as well with a special emphasize on the banners and panaflex based strategies.
Conclusion
There are a number of departments that usually work in an organization, and every department is important from their own standpoint in particular. Among these departments, the name of the marketing department is one of them, which is known as an important and the most authentic department of a company. The applicability and efficacy of the operational department depend upon the fact that how effectively it manages the operations of the company and how effective it is in bringing the flow of funds towards the company specifically (Sekhar, 2009, pp. 42-47.). Marketing department is the one that needed to take timely decisions for the sake of the organization in particular. With the help of effective strategies, marketing department could be used for different purposes. The main perspective of this assignment is to apply the concept of marketing on a given organization. The company that has been selected for the same analysis is ASOS. From the entire analysis, it is found that the financial position of the chosen company is perfect, and it would be perfect for the company in term of enhancing their product in the market of the UK. The products that have been used for the same purpose is Men T-Shirt, and the market is the UK. From the SWOT, PESTLE and ANSOFF matrix applicability, it is found that the power of the company is high, and it has all the guts to enhance the productivity of their company with effectiveness. Hence, it will certainly prove to be powerful and attractive for the company in the near future and ASOS has to use the same.
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