ASSIGNMENT 1 FRONT SHEET

Qualification BTEC Level 4 HND Diploma in Business

Unit number and title Unit 2 Marketing Essentials

Date Received 1st

Submission date January, 24th2021
submission

Date Received 2nd

Re-submission Date 2 February 2021
submission

Student Name Le Vo Minh Chau Student ID GTD201409

Class GBD0903 Assessor name Alelie Zaragoza

Student declaration

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.

Student’s signature Le Vo Minh Chau

Grading grid

P1 P2 M1 M2 D1
 Summative Feedback:  Resubmission Feedback:

Grade: Assessor Signature: Date:

Internal Verifier’s Comments:

Signature & Date:

 Assignment Brief (RQF)

Higher National Certificate/Diploma in Business

Student Name/ID
Le Vo Minh Chau/ GTD201409
Number:

Unit Number and Title: Unit 2 - Marketing Essentials

Academic Year: 2020-2021

Unit Assessor: Alelie C. Zaragoza

Assignment 1 – The Roles and Responsibilites of

Assignment Title:
Marketing

Issue Date:

Submission Date: 2/2/2021

Internal Verifier Name:

Date:

Submission Format:

The submission is in the form of an individual written report. This should be written
in a course, formal business style using Arial, 1.5 lines spacing and font size 12 with
Justify Text to enhance the legibility for markers. You are required to make use of
headings, paragraphs and subsections as appropriate, and all work must be
supported with research and referenced using the Harvard referencing system.
Please also provide a bibliography using the Harvard referencing system. Any
suspicions regarding plagiarism will lead to failure in results of the assignment. The
recommended word limit is 2,500 words, although you will not be penalized for
exceeding the total word limit.
Unit Learning Outcomes:

LO1. Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of
an organization.

Assignment Brief and Guidance:

You are a new Marketing Executive of Company X (Choose a B2B company in

Vietnam/or UK to apply). The company has not had a Marketing Team since it was
established as the Board of Director did not think Marketing department is important
for the business development in the B2B industry. However, you need to build a
strong Marketing team in order to achieve their business objective. A meeting is held
next week to finalise this decision, your task is to prepare an individual report, which
clarifies the important role of the Marketing function and its relationships with other
functions of the company, in order to persuade the BOD to establish a Marketing
department.
Essentially, the report will contain the following matters: (1) Definitions and the
marketing concept; (2) The role of marketing; and (3) The interrelationships of
functional units.
Structure of the Report:
1. General introduction of the company and the report.
2. An explanation of Marketing to clarify the functions of Marketing with BOD.
Specifically, you need to explain the definition of Marketing and the Marketing
functions, as well as Marketing management orientations. Also, you should clarify how
the Marketing environment (Micro and Macro Environment) influences the roles and
responsibilities of Marketing in a B2B company.
3. An explanation of the role of marketing and how this department helps the
company to overcome issues and achieve the business objectives. Also,
explaining the different roles of marketing within both a B2C and B2B context.
4. Demonstrate the interrelationships of Marketing with other functional units.
Determine how Marketing department supports other departments and what are the
potential conflicts between Marketing department and other departments of the
organisation. Also, critically analyse and evaluate the importance of the marketing
function and sort them base on the level of importance in B2B context. Good
examples, statistics or data should be provided to justify the analysis.

A conclusion to summarize all the key findings and analysis must be presented.

Recommendation – discuss what can the marketing department do for the company
support with evidence – statistics, report etc.

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria:

Learning Outcome Pass Merit Distinction
LO1 Explain the P1 Explain the key M1 Analyse the D1 Critically analyze
role of marketing roles roles and and evaluate the
and how it and responsibilities responsibilities of key elements of the
interrelates with of the marketing marketing in the marketing function
other functional function. context of the and how they
units of an marketing interrelate with other
organization environment. functional units of
an organization.
P2 Explain how M2 Analyze the
roles and significance of
responsibilities of interrelationships
marketing relate to between marketing
the wider and other functional
organizational units of an
context. organization.
 Table of Contents
A/ Introduction: ............................................................................................................................................................ 1

B/ Methodology: ........................................................................................................................................................... 1

C/ Findings and Discussion: .......................................................................................................................................... 2

I/ H&M background: ................................................................................................................................................. 2

1. H&M basic information: ............................................................................................................................. 2

2. History of establishment and development, based on annual report of H&M (2017): ..................... 2

3. The leading global fashion of H&M: ........................................................................................................ 3

II/ Vision - Mission - Values - Objectives:.................................................................................................................. 4

1. Mission: ........................................................................................................................................................ 5

2. Core values: ................................................................................................................................................ 5

3. Objectives:................................................................................................................................................... 7

III/ The main theories of marketing: ......................................................................................................................... 8

1. The Marketing Department: ...................................................................................................................... 8

2. Marketing process: ..................................................................................................................................... 9

III/ Context of marketing environment:.................................................................................................................. 29

1. Micro environment of marketing (value chain): ................................................................................... 30

2. Macro environment (PESTEL and SWOT of H&M): ........................................................................... 32

V/ The success of marketing: .................................................................................................................................. 38

1. The main roles marketing in B2B and B2C: ......................................................................................... 38

2. The importance of marketing department to the company: ............................................................... 40

3. The success of H&M in marketing department: .................................................................................. 40

VI/ Demonstrate the interrelationships of marketing with other functional units: ............................................... 41

1. Marketing department structure: ............................................................................................................ 41

2. H&M’s marketing organization: .............................................................................................................. 42

3. The relations between marketing department and others: ................................................................ 43

 VII/ Conclusion: ....................................................................................................................................................... 45

VIII/ Recommendations: ......................................................................................................................................... 45

List of Pictures
Picture 1: H&M store (H&M tries rental, 2019) ............................................................................. 3
Picture 2: Vision, mission and values of H&M (human support group, 2021) ............................... 4
Picture 3: Values of H&M (seek PNG, 2021) ................................................................................ 6
Picture 4: Marketing department (Bartolacci, 2020) ..................................................................... 8
Picture 5: Marketing process (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014, p.27) ................................................ 9
Picture 6: Marketing function (Udemy blog, 2020) ......................................................................10
Picture 7: Proof of H&M mistake (Post Paris fashion, 2018) .......................................................11
Picture 8: Relationship of customer with needs, wants and demands (Lindekin, 2020) ..............12
Picture 9: H&M demands (A write journal, 2015) ........................................................................13
Picture 10: Marketing segmentation (Tow, 2020) ........................................................................14
Picture 11: Detail market segmentation (Roberts, 2020) .............................................................15
Picture 12: Target customers (Dahlberg, 2020) ..........................................................................16
Picture 13: Value proposition (Norris, 2018)................................................................................17
Picture 14: Value proposition (Norris, 2018)................................................................................18
Picture 15: H&M marketing concept (Bhasin, 2019) ....................................................................22
Picture 16: Marketing mix (Bartolacci, 2019) ...............................................................................24
Picture 17: The collaboration between Balmain and H&M (Faull, 2015) .....................................27
Picture 18: Value chain (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014, p.30) .......................................................30
Picture 19: Pestel in macro environment (Saga, 2020) ...............................................................33
Picture 20: SWOT of H&M (Semtek, 2020) .................................................................................36
Picture 21: Marketing organization (Deiss, 2017) ........................................................................41
 List of figures
Figure 1: Number of stores of H&M group worldwide 2019 (Statista, 2021) ................................20
Figure 2: Sales of H&M worldwide 2007-2019 (Satista, 2021) ....................................................21
Figure 3: The poter five forces (En, 2021) ...................................................................................30
Figure 4: Interest report of H&M from 2017 to 2018 (H&M, 2018) ...............................................35
A/ Introduction:

H&M, founded in Sweden by Hennes and Mauritz AB, is a famous multinational clothing-retail
company around the world. These days, H&M has flourished into one of the most popular and
reputable brands of fast-fashion. In addition, this company has significantly promoted and
mushroomed for nearly 75 years. According to Blomberg (2019), he anticipated that H&M would
own 7000 or 8000 stores worldwide in the future. Furthermore, the high reputation and
ceaseless development can make H&M reach the higher standard of proliferation in the fashion
industry.

The researcher assumes that not only is marketing the main factor to motivate a company
dramatically but also necessary and important marketing campaigns are responsible for the
development and expansion of a company in B2C or B2B industry. Moreover, marketing has an
essential role to quickly enhance the position of a company higher in potential markets and
make it become stronger and stronger.

This report will provide information about a flexible and feasible company with concentrating on
marketing department so as to comprehend deeply about the marketing concepts, the necessary
roles of marketing and how it interrelates with other departments in an enterprise. In detail, the
researcher has analysis of the marketing environment, strategy through 4Ps, SWOT and
PESTEL to emphasis on the marketing role and responsibility in operating a company. In short,
that is an explanation of importance of having marketing department.

B/ Methodology:

Thanks to the reliable sources from marketing books, news, magazines and journals, the
researcher have more and more credible evidence and provable proofs to convince the readers
to believe H&M marketing reports without any suspicions.

Besides that, the marketing essentials subject also provides the researcher with the facts,
theories, situations and practical experiences to analyze, explain the marketing’s benefits,
drawbacks and effective strategy of H&M as well.

1
To increase the trustworthiness, the researcher definitely needs to handle information from the
annual report of H&M, which can raise the fundamentals of analyzing. Especially, this report
creates many opportunities for the researcher to acknowledge and comprehend about the
findings and discussions of marketing functions in the business.

C/ Findings and Discussion:

I/ H&M background:

1. H&M basic information:

 Type : Aktiebolag – Swedish corporation or limited company
(abbreviation: AB).
 Founder : Erling Persson.
 Predecessor : Hennes.
 Founded : 1947.
 Headquarter : Stockholm, Sweden.
 Legal operators : Stefan Persson (Chairman) and Helena Helmersson (CEO and
President).
 Products : accessories, clothing for men, women, children and teenagers.
 Area served : 5076 ( Tugba Sabanoglu, 2021).

2. History of establishment and development, based on annual report of H&M (2017):

Many years for H&M has approached the standard of the fashion industry and built its
own brand equity.
H&M was born when the founder: Persson opened the first store in Sweden,

selling only women’s clothing, is initially called Hennes.

H&M’s worthy milestone is that the first store based in another country: Norway, is

different from Sweden.

The company was renamed to Hennes & Mauritz since then, the beginning of

diversifying H&M’s product portfolio combining women swears, men swears, children
swear, footwear, accessories, cosmetics and home furnishings.

2
 H&M went public on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

Picture 1: H&M store (H&M tries rental, 2019)

3. The leading global fashion of H&M:

The researcher claims that multiple concepts H&M vary a range of inspiring and trendy
fashion that lets customers explore and express their own personal style so H&M always
attracts and conquers satisfaction of many kinds of customers. Day by day, H&M affirms its
brand mark and also achieves brand preference.

Global expansion made great process with new and potential markets like

Germany, Luxembourg, Finland and so on.

H&M attacked Europe, US and Spain market.

This year marked H&M’s designer collaborations start with Karl Lagerfeld and after

that with some of the world’s biggest fashion designers.

Major expansion of online shopping at hm.com began in Europe. It is estimated

that H&M have 33 online shopping around the world these days.

3
 The H&M foundation was established with non-profit and the extension of H&M in

East-Asia. In addition, the new H&M Sport is launched and H&M’s shoe concept is
broadened and updated.

The first H&M Conscious Collection is launched, made with sustainable materials
such as organic cotton and recycled polyester. Store number 2,000 opens in Osaka, Japan.

The H&M supportive and incentive Program for all employees or staffs was

invested by H&M shares, regardless of salary, role, country and whether full- or part-time.

H&M started the Garment Collecting initiative, with the aim of closing the loop for
textiles - becoming the first fashion company to collect old textiles in stores globally for
reusing and recycling.

New brand ARKET is launched. The H&M group sets new sustainability goals: to
use only recycled and sustainably produced materials by 2030 and to be climate positive
throughout the value chain by 2040. The first time H&M appeared in Vietnam.

II/ Vision - Mission - Values - Objectives:

Picture 2: Vision, mission and values of H&M (human support group, 2021)

4
 “The H&M Group intends to be a catalyst for sustainable change across the fashion
industry with sustainability targets. Anna Gedda - Head of Sustainability at H&M to
confirmed that H&M had one of the most advanced and ambitious sustainability goals in
the industry today”.(Vivian Hendriksz, 2018)
H&M vision is “to lead the change towards circular and renewable fashion while
being a fair and equal company”. (Mission statement academy, 2021).
Together with colleagues, customers, stakeholders, business partners and peers, H&M
is favor to have significant transformation, because they want the livelihood of the cotton farmer
can be improved and decrease the level of the environmental impacts (SGDF, 2021).
As a consequence, H&M face to more and more difficulties which become promotion for
this group to make an effort and deal with the rampant problems with best solutions.
a) The growing population leads to run out of the finite resources.

b) H&M don’t have capability of foreseeing population explosion to remain

and distribute clothing for daily necessity.
Challenges
c) H&M itself is being disrupted form cheaper products offered by other
brands or online shops like Amazon or AOS.
d) H&M need to be competitive have a big rival with Zara due to the same
portfolio.

1. Mission: According to Alison (2019), H&M mission is to positively drive long-lasting

change and enhance living conditions by investing humans, communities and
innovative ideas. Basically, H&M have responsibility for making everyone good
appearance, feeling, emotion and give the precious value by offering fashion and quality
at the best price.
2. Core values: According to H&M “mission, vision and objectives, 2021”, the remarkable
values of this group is:
 We Are One Team: Team-work is very important because it can promote and finish
work sooner and better. H&M is good at making the working-environment connect to
each member and they are always supportive and good team-players.
 We Believe In People: H&M almost pay attention to take care for every staff member
to remain in a safe workplace where they can become creative and working-harder.

5
 Entrepreneurial Spirit: H&M always together to overcome many challenging issues
in the business environment and is responsible for their job.
 Constant Improvement: In business, creativity is the foundation of sustainable
development. Designing the new, unique, trendy models can satisfy the expectation of
the customers, which strengthens H&M to compete with other opponents. H&M
owning the superior style cooperating the skillful business capability will maintain and
enhance the position in the present market.
 Cost-Conscious: To provide products with suitable price, high quality and
environmental friendliness, H&M attempt to decline the price to the extent possible,
take advantage of human resources and avoid being inappreciable wastes which can
affect expenses of transportation.
 Straightforward and Open-Minded: H&M’s working environment always acquires
new ideas or opinions of individuality and is ready to help. Therefore, positive
responses contribute to make employees be comfortable to express personal
perspectives and creativities.
 Keep It Simple: Considering that working is simple and easy to do because H&M
acknowledge work in many particular aspects and never be over complicated, which
helps them increase the quality and capacity effectively.

Picture 3: Values of H&M (seek PNG, 2021)

6
 These are vitally the principles or rules that introduce the core operations around H&M.
They are claimed to the impressive culture that characterizes this corporation, making it be the
most global organization.

3. Objectives:
 The H&M group’s operations are contribution to “Agenda 2030 – the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals”. Putting the end of poverty, refugee and hunger, growing economy,
improving equality and limiting climate change are among the H&M group’s new
sustainability strategy (2016).
 H&M intends to use only renewable energy.
 All H&M’s brands will use 100% of recycled or sustainable resources of raw materials:
recycled cotton, recycled polyester in their collections in 2030. For example, in 2017 the
share of the overall product range made of recycled or sustainable materials was 35
percent.
 H&M will create large-scale demand for sustainable materials and circular solutions.
 Suppliers’ production processes of H&M have no chemicals because of its hazard.
 H&M produced jointly with conservation organization WWF and the purpose is to have
better water resource management throughout the garment life cycle.
 H&M tries to raise the target for clothes recycling. Since 2013 customers have been able
to bring in old clothing and home textiles – of any brand and in any condition – to H&M
stores globally for reuse or recycling so the goal is to collect at least 25,000 tons a year
by 2020.(Annual report 2017 sustainable development, 2017)

7
III/ The main theories of marketing:

1. The Marketing Department:

Picture 4: Marketing department (Bartolacci, 2020)

“When marketing’s outputs are so familiar, it is easy to take it for granted and to judge and
define it too narrowly by what they see of it close to home. It is a mistake, however, to dismiss
marketing as ‘just advertising’ or ‘just selling’ or ‘making people buy things they don’t really
want”. (Brassington, F . and Pettitt, S., 2004, p.18).

We have a lot of varied theories of marketing. According to Brassington and Pettitt (2004), we
have two widely accepted definitions of marketing. The first one is the definition preferred by the
UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), while the second is that offered by the American
Marketing Association (AMA):

“Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and

satisfying customer requirements profitably” (CIM, 2001).

8
“Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion
and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfy individual
and organizational objectives” (AMA, 1985).

In summary, according to Kotler and Armstrong (2007, p.26), the fact that the simplest definition
is “marketing is managing profitable customer relationships. The twofold goal of
marketing is to attract new customers”.

Furthermore, marketing plays a vital role in any industries and businesses since it orients them
to approach and reach outstanding achievement and prominent success. Moreover, marketing is
also the main key to motivate lots of enterprises and organizations to turn out unique, own luxury
brands and dominate various kinds of markets. Besides it, marketing contributes to improve,
promote, develop and heighten the productivity of the company. Most people say that the
famous and popular service or products, which are based on almost marketing activities,
strategies and campaigns.

2. Marketing process:
“Marketing has just as much legitimacy as any other business function, and involves just as
much management skill. It requires planning and analysis, resource allocation, control and
investment in terms of money, appropriately skilled people and physical resources. It also,
requires implementation, monitoring and evaluation. As with any other management activity, it
can be carried out efficiently and successfully – or it can be done poorly, resulting in failure”
(Brassington and Pettitt, 2004)

Picture 5: Marketing process (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014, p.27)

9
 Picture 6: Marketing function (Udemy blog, 2020)

This table briefly point out operation of marketing through a five-step process to aware the roles
and responsibilities of marketing profoundly. After that, the researcher will concentrate on
analyzing specifically and respectively about each step in marketing framework in order to
emphasis on the importance of marketing in any companies.

a) Understanding capabilities of company, market places and customers’ needs and

wants:

 Capabilities of company:
“Many commercial disasters have resulted from companies diversifying into activities for
which they were basically unsuited”.

10
For example, in 2018, fashion giant H&M posted pictures of two boys on its website. In the
picture, an African-American boy wearing a hoodie has the words "Coolest Monkey in the
Jungle". Clients expressed indignation, a series of Twitters urged the company to dismantle
because of its lack of cultural sensitivity.

Picture 7: Proof of H&M mistake (Post Paris fashion, 2018)

Thus, organizations or enterprises need to “have a unique set of capabilities in the form of
resources and management skills which are not necessarily capable of taking advantage of all
market opportunities as effectively, hence as competitively, as other firms. To summarize, the
matching process between a company’s capabilities and customer wants is fundamental
to commercial success. That this is so will become clearer as we get further into the task of
explaining the role and the nature of marketing”. (McDonald and Wilson, 2011)

 Definition of needs, wants, demands and market offerings:

Marketing group needs to clearly know four elements above to illustrate and identify what
consumers’ needs, wants and offering market are.

11
  Needs are something humans can live without.
 Wants are things that people just use them for fun, entertainment and satisfy
themselves, but it may be not literally necessary.
 Demands for specific products that the purchaser is willing to and afford to pay for.
 Market offerings are a product, service or information and so on that is sold to the
market so as to satisfy customer requirements.

Picture 8: Relationship of customer with needs, wants and demands (Lindekin, 2020)

 H&M’s needs, wants, demands and market offerings:

The researcher will show particular information about of the goal market in term of H&M:

Needs Remained materials of resources and a certain number of customers

annual
Wants Own weird designs, loyal customers, more online shops, dominate the
market of fast-fashion and so on.
Demands Sustainable materials, certain investments, …

12
Market Clothing, accessories for men, women, children and expanded sport
offerings clothes

Fashion industry is booming annually. It’s always modifying in any aspects. H&M make
endeavor to up-dated, get the best of creativity of designer to create more and more gorgeous T-
shirts, skirts, dresses, gowns and so on. Day by day, the standard of fashion of humans is higher
because they want to focus on the benefits, values, high-fashion and quality of group’s products.
In addition, H&M incessantly try to develop and vary marketing strategies by social media,
advertisement and especially communications or customers’ service.

For example, H&M has what they call “5 Basic Demands”: consist of “eye contact, smile, name
badge, hello, and thank you.” Employees said these demands have been engraved in their
heads to practice with the customers for good service.

Picture 9: H&M demands (A write journal, 2015)

13
 b) Designing a customer - Driven marketing strategy:
Determining and designing customer value is one of the most essential factors support a
company to achieve the success. Furthermore, the target customers’ apparent identity as well as
deep comprehending about value proposition of that enterprise is also important and
appreciated. There are some explanations and analyses of two elements according to Kotler and
Armstrong (2007).

First of all, “marketing manager’s aim to find, attract, keep, and grow target customers by
creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value” (Kotler and Armtrong,
2007, p.30)

Hence, it divides the market into segments of customers (market segmentation) and selecting
which segments it will go after (target marketing).

 Marketing segmentation (S):

Picture 10: Marketing segmentation (Tow, 2020)

Promoting division and concentrating on are essential to recognize and pay attention to make
sure about statistic gatherings. Consumer socioeconomics can integrate age, gender, life cycle
style, family measure, concerns, usage, geographic territory, sexual orientation and even various
ethnic gatherings.

Socioeconomics and psychographic division are consumed for H&M to subdue different types of
their customers. H&M spread quickly and popularized through the world in a short-term. It

14
implies the enterprise goals are numerous religions, variety of traditions, cultures and standard
of life. Therefore, their promoting must be done another successfully.

Picture 11: Detail market segmentation (Roberts, 2020)

The research of H&M (concentrated targeting, 2017):

1. Portions by class: H&M methodology is putting forth high form at low costs, ordinarily taking
care of common workers, bringing down working class and understudies.

15
2. Portions by location, geographic: The most prominent fragment of H&M is ladies maturing
near 15 and 30 years, either yet living at home, in understudy dormitories, or in their first house
in urban cities or districts.

3. Fragments by age: The most prevalent portion of H&M is ladies (15 and 30 years) ordinarily
known as era Y, eager with high purchasing power.

4. Portions by family life: Typical school to graduate female’s life at home single, all alone in
dormitories or in their first home, either single or as a youthful couple without children.

 Target consumers:

Picture 12: Target customers (Dahlberg, 2020)

16
- Benefits: Comfortable, reasonable prices for clothes, fashionable with the latest trends.
- Lifestyles: listen to western music and watch movies.
- Social group: school mates and friends from other schools, women, men, teenagers who
have medium to high-purchasing power and have a completely vibrant attitude and
rebellious behavior.
- Income: Students put away their monthly a few of money to buy clothes: range from 30$
- 100$ and young working adults have constant income range from: 800$ - 3000$.
- Occupation/ jobs: students or people who just start entering workforce.
- Gender: both male and female.
(Coggle.it., 2021)

 Value proposition:
The definition is that a company absolutely keeps their promises with their customers. In
fact, consumer usually have trend to compare a company with another competitor but the
value proposition make clients to choose that company.

Picture 13: Value proposition (Norris, 2018)

17
According to Lipponen (2009),

- H&M is outstanding and highlight depending on lower prices of their products, good
service and selection.
- H&M also emphasizes on the famous and strong brand position, equity which is
associated with modern stylish and cooperate with the talented designers in fashion
industry such as Kate Moss, Madonna and so on but still try to maintain low prices.
- Suitability and convenient is always the priorities of H&M’s value proposition.
- The understanding customers of H&M help them become stronger and always the first
choice of fastidious clients.

With a high street retailer, the well-known brand has to be inclusive and accessible in its field as
much as they can. The phrase “for everyone” is appropriate, coherent and apparent to explain
for it (Training Module - Unique Value Proposition, 2021).

c) Management orientations:
Marketing management is also largely affected by five alternative concepts so the success or
failure of a company depends on that owing to the controlling and manipulation of the company
with the market.

Picture 14: Value proposition (Norris, 2018)

18
  Production orientation:
“The emphasis with a production orientation is on making products that are affordable
and available, and thus the prime task of management is to ensure that the organization
is as efficient as possible in production and distribution techniques” (Brassington and
Pettitt, 2004, p.25)

Production concept is never deficient in business management since it is a crucial part of

foundation in marketing orientation. In the market, price is actually over sensitive. According to
Brassington and Pettitt (2004), it basically means clients or consumers intend to compare
because of the differences of factors among competitive goods or products and choose to buy
the extensively available and cheapest on high assembly efficiency, low cost and mass
circulation. Therefore, philosophy probably is useful and efficient but just in some circumstances
this concept can result in marketing myopia (taking major risks). In particular, a company
ensures to make a research about humans’ needs, wants demands and avoids to produce a
huge amount of inexpensive goods with a narrow sight and easily to be failed. The marketers
always remember to concentrate on the sight of real purpose – satisfaction of costumers and
expansion of relationships.

In case of H&M:

- H&M can be classified as a product and slightly a business product with affordable prices
such as Cardigan: 17$, Denim: 15-20$, Trench coat: 50-70$. It’s very lower than luxury
brands like YSL, DIOR and so on.
- Variety of clothing and accessories: classic basic pieces, swimwear, elegant clothing for a
prom night and shoes to match, even lingerie and sportswear.
- A large product mix size for bras, dresses, trousers, rings, reckless, evening-gowns, suits
and so on (H&M UK, 2021) for reference.
- The turnout was good, with items in the online store selling out within 30 minutes of the
launch (H&M UK, 2021).
- Daily shipments of new merchandise are made to H&M’s 3,900 stores in 61 different
markets, keeping customers always coming back with more to see (H&M UK, 2021).

19
 Figure 1: Number of stores of H&M group worldwide 2019 (Statista, 2021)

 Product orientation:
“The product concept holds that consumers will favor products that offer the most
in quality, performance, and innovative features” (Koyler and Armstrong, 2014, p.32)

Even though, it’s very essential for marketing strategy, product concept can lead to tremendous
marketing issues. The marketers of a company need to pay attention to the necessity of
products. It means with a detail situation, the company’s goods are the best solution can’t be
replaced by any ways. That is main reason why buyers choose, need and believe that company.

According to H&M (2020),

 Belong to H&M autumn collection of clothes made from recycled material that is really into
attracting attention to dramatic innovative materials in current collections.
 H&M Foundation organizes the global change award and the winner is incredible cotton:
innovation of growing high-quality cotton in a lab replaced on big farms.

20
  H&M’s pride is recycled materials such as recycled metal, recycled polyester (BIONIC,
2017), recycled nylon (ECONYL, 2019) that is reduced, reused and recycled from waste
so H&M can contribute to end up in a landfill or an ocean.

 Sales orientation:
According to Brassington and Pettitt (2004),

“The basis for the sales orientation way of thinking is that consumers are
inherently reluctant to purchase, and need every encouragement to purchase
sufficient quantities to satisfy the organization’s needs”.

This concept assumes that an enterprise just put all in their mind into what is the reasonable
ways to convince people purchase the products on sale or decline the standard of price without
customer relationships. In contrast, the target is to sell goods of the company has available
rather than creating what costumers require. As a consequence, this is critically a boom risk,
dangers and damages to a business corporation. However, many companies intolerantly spend
a great deal of money to launch commercial and advertising activities to popularize their goods
and increase the productivity of company.

Figure 2: Sales of H&M worldwide 2007-2019 (Satista, 2021)

21
  Marketing orientation:
“Concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and
wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors
do.” (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014, p.34)

Market orientation viewpoints combine the choice making perception, market intelligence view,
ethnically based behavior, outlook, strategic perspective and consumer orientation perspective.

Picture 15: H&M marketing concept (Bhasin, 2019)

In case of H&M, it is observed that the company sticks to the philosophy, as H&M really care
about the needs and wants of their clients before deigning new collections. H&M recognizes that
the ongoing dip in the world’s economy and it is extremely harder to pay for expensive
clothing. As a result, it is H&M’s concept of trendy and up-dated clothes but accessing to the
common human. For instance, they sell their goods in completely different ways in US and
Europe market: the US targets the young and most fashion-conscious females and in Europe
they are more department stores. This is assumed that marketing strategy.

22
  Social marketing orientation:
“A company’s marketing decisions should consider consumers’ wants, the company’s
requirements, consumers’ long-run interests and society long-run interests” (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2014, p.35)

It means not only dose a company satisfies customers’ demands but it is responsible for society.
Nevertheless, most companies can’t follow this concept due to investing and researching some
kinds of renewable and eco-friendly materials, which need a big deal of money. This process
can bring the advantages, enhance the value, create the unique and protect the environment if
the company put it into practice. For instance,

 H&M organizes Conscious Week (Sustainable Fashion Week) with the striking highlight of
the CE collection, with entirely designs form sustainable materials: recycled metal,
recycled polyester, recycled nylon.
 H&M’s process of creating “green” products make more and inspirational stories.
 2018 is the 7th year of H&M brand has carried out this strategy.
 To initiate and follow to “recycle week”, H&M make a decision to collaborate with M.I.A
(British artist) and release the song: “Rewear It” with the target is to encourage clients try
to collect second-hang clothing regardless of brands or conditions in over 3600 stores in
the world.
 In 2020, H&M will use only cotton in production.

According to Rose (2018), there are a lot of proofs which H&M makes an effort to conserve and
protect the environment, modify and enhance the attitude, awareness and perspective as well of
consumers by the stylish goods, high-quality and especially reasonable prices.

23
 d) Marketing mix:

Picture 16: Marketing mix (Bartolacci, 2019)

According to Mc. Donald and Wilson (2011), managing the marketing mix involves the use of the
tools and techniques of marketing. Thus, in order for the matching process to take place, we
need information.

The major of marketing mix is classified into 4 groups: Product, Place, Promotion and Price of a
product or service. A company analyses 4Ps to generate and utilize the marketing strategy
particularly and flexibly. 4Ps also support the company to determine what clients expect from
them and how their products are more attractive, fascinating than other adversaries.

For example,

 H&M product strategy:

- H&M offers fast fashion clothing for men, women and children.
- H&M range includes everything from designer collaborations to everyday basics and yoga
wear.
- Other Stories: Women wear: shoes, bags, accessories, beauty, ready to wear
- Cheap Monday: Denim, fashion collections and accessories for men and women.
- H&M brand is connected with music and pop culture.
- COS H&M: Classics and wardrobe essentials for men, women and children. The brand
had designs inspired by art and technology from across the world.
- Monki: On-trend lifestyle collections for young women.
- Weekday: It makes clothing for young and style aware young adults.

24
- In summary, H&M’s product concept is “Everyday low price product”.

 H&M price strategy:

- H&M offers high quality clothes at a premium price.
- Comparing to Zara, H&M offers more variety of products. On an average H&M products
are prices at $25 while Zara is $45.
- High quality and considerable prices can easily fascinate the youth and hence results in
the increasing of sales for H&M.
- In brief: attention is cheap, reasonable, comfortable and affordable.

 H&M place strategy:

- H&M sells its products through its exclusive stores located in well-known location, cities
across the globe (4135 stores).
- H&M uses online stores or website to offer its products from and then can provide more
chances for the customer to choose from the list of available products and purchase them
through online payment: banking.
- H&M’s products will be delivered at your stated address.
- H&M has owned an excellent supply chain for many years so the delivery time is instant
and the transportation costs are kept at a minimum.

 H&M promotion strategy:

TV advertisements: H&M is famous for creative ads which take more care about its latest
innovative designs. The ads are popularized at regular intervals and on public channels
often watched by youth.
YouTube: H&M has its own YouTube channel where it gives out unique adverting
strategies to connect and engage with customers.
Digital Marketing: H&M will indulge it in excessive search engine marketing and social
media marketing to convert the potential buyers into consumers.
Promo codes and discounts: Promo codes and discounts are offered by H&M during the
end of sale season. The discounts are offered on both online and retail stores.
PR: Chopra opened the first H&M outlet in India: stunts generate quick publicity for the
company.

25
 Sponsorships: H&M signed deal with The Weekend, sponsors Caitlyn Jenner, Creative
collaborations with high end designers and style icons, Collaborations with pop stars and
sport stars.
CSR: Water, Planet, Education and Equality as well.
(Team M., 2020)

e) Engage customers, build profitable relationships and create customer delight:

Customer and Partnership relationship managements sound like assemble. It is obvious that
CRM is involved in the complete selling concepts while PRM have to come up with the suitable
solutions for a complex ecosystem consisting of employees, investors and so on (stakeholders).

Customer relationship management:

“Customer relationship management is he overall process of building and maintaining
profitable customer relationship by delivering superior costumer’s value and satisfaction.
It deals with all aspects of acquiring, keeping and growing costumers.”(Kotler and
Armtrong, 2014, p.36)

H&M CRM’s work and responsibility with customers (H&M Group, 2021):

 The CRM team works in central Stockholm.

 The group is working with quantitative analysis aimed at optimizing H&M's customer
offering and communication.
 Driving projects to achieve targeted customer communication.
 Working with different types of client activation projects within marketing and cross-
function strategic projects.
 Taking a driving role in creating and managing our consumer segmentation, audience
library and strategy work together with other CRM specialists.
 Having responsibility of driving demands and motivation of systems that is needed for
targeted customer activation.
 Presenting and sharing knowledge about customer behavior, attitude, needs and target
groups for multiform functions within H&M.

26
 Partnership relationship management (PRM) (stakeholders):
PRM is a chain of strategies that company analysis business relationships and then they
cooperate with marketing and purchase the goods. In addition, PRM can lead to significantly
change from simple approaches for managing co-marketing relationships to complicated
campaigns relating intricate marketing programs.

Below are some of H&M global partnerships, memberships and collaborations (H&M
group, 2021):

Picture 17: The collaboration between Balmain and H&M (Faull, 2015)

Customer: is critical factor which decides the existence of H&M brand. Therefore, customers’
service is always put at the 1st priority. As a result, H&M try to make an effort to respond, satisfy
their demands and brings more and more pros for buyers.

Community: is another essential key for H&M to overcome the difficulties intimately involving in
pollution-environment, poverty, refugees and inequality to improve society beneficially and
attract a huge number of costumers.

 H&M long-term partnership with WWF enables us to take a more holistic approach to
address broader challenges and opportunities, going beyond water to include the climate

27
 and strategic dialogue. Starting in 2017, this partnership now includes membership to the
WWF Climate Savers.
 The 2030 Water Resources Group (2030 WRG) supports country-level collaboration
designed to unite diverse groups with a common interest in the sustainable management
of water resources.
 H&M Group has been a corporate supporter member of Transparency International
Sweden (TI Sweden) since 2013. TI Sweden is an independent non-profit organization
that is part of the global coalition Transparency International, which combats corruption in
all forms.
 TENT works to support refugees in the world by partnering with companies to set
particular plans. H&M Group cooperate with it in the year of 2019.

Employees: All H&M employees are entitled to a discount when shopping at H&M worldwide. In
the U.S., employees receive 25% from all H&M brands. H&M also offers its employees Friends
and Family have a right to discount so the people you love can enjoy our stylish and trendy
fashion. Furthermore, H&M provides internal training for every position. Feedbacks and work
assessments of staffs can help H&M develop and achieve their goals (H&M Benefits, 2020)

Together with UNI Global, we have formed the H&M Alliance, an annual meeting intended
to improve our workplace where neutrality and freedom and the right to collective
bargaining are comprehended and enforced.

f) Capture value from customers to create profits and customer equity (relationship
building blocks: customer value and satisfaction):
To maintain and keep clients’ loyalty and believe, it is a hard challenge in marketing strategy so
the marketers of a company must make endeavor to come up with new ideas to persuade and
sympathy their consumers.

o Customer value:
“The customer’s evaluation of the difference between all the benefits and all the
costs of a marketing offer relative to those of competing offers.” (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2014, p.37).

28
To some consumers, value might mean sensible products at affordable prices. To other
consumers, however, value is paying more to get more. It depends on their outlooks, individual
thoughts and unique awareness but it just has the same target for a company how to remain
potential or value costumer with the loyalty. Boosting the loyal clients is creating dramatic
opportunities to raise the proportion of productivity, selling management and enhance the brand
equity.

o Customer satisfaction:
“The extent to which a product’s perceived performance matches a buyer’s
expectations.” (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014, p. 37)

According to Kotler and Armstrong (2014), if the products’ performance falls short of expectation,
it will make the consumers disappointed. Otherwise, the clients can satisfy. However, if that
performance exceeds the expectation, the customers can be extremely delighted and satisfied.

“Most studies show that the higher level of customer satisfaction lead to greater customer
loyalty, which in turn results in better company performance. Smart companies aim to delight
customer by promising only what they can deliver and then delivering more than they promise.
Delighted customers not only make repeat purchases but also become willing marketing
partners and “customer evangelists” who spread the word about their good experiences to
others.” (Principles of marketing book, 2014).

For instance, that’s according to a survey of 4,000 consumers by Market Force Information, a
global customer intelligence solutions company, which found that 39% had tried a new retailer in
the past three months, an increase from 32% in 2011 and 14% in 2010. Out of the top-ranking
retailers in the study, H&M did the best job of attracting new customers for the second time in a
row. The Swedish fast-fashion retailer is received the highest ranking when the survey votes
were indexed to account for number of locations per chain.

III/ Context of marketing environment:

The porter’s five powers is necessary system to point out a company market environment to
come up with the organization strategies and activities to get more and more profits and
benefits.

29
The enterprise can consider and orient the business factors which can promote and develop the
capacity and productivity of the company.

Figure 3: The Porter Five Forces (En, 2021)

1. Micro environment of marketing (value chain):

Picture 18: Value chain (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014, p.30)

a. Suppliers of H&M: (H&M Group, 2021):

 H&M runs business with 750 independent suppliers manufacturing products for our
brands in around 1400 factories in Europe, Asia and Africa.

30
  China and Bangladesh are the largest production markets for clothing and European
Union for H&M’s beauty assortment.
 With lower-salary, the H&M production in China and Turkey can remain low input costs
and often sell with the new trends in a month (Capell, 2002).
 Approximately, 3000 colleagues are employed in our 20 local production offices, working
daily with H&M suppliers, and of which 150 people are sustainability experts,researchers
developers.
 Million people work in the factories of H&M business partners, 62% of whom are women.

b. H&M’s marketing intermediaries:

H&M does not have many middlemen. These independent firms assist in the flow of
goods and services from producers to end-users.
There are many different manufacturing plants, H&M doesn’t deliver products directly to
each store, but uses a network of distribution centers around the world.
Each distribution center will process customers’ order and ship it to the stores in one or
more of the countries for which the center is responsible. Each store must always receive
product from distribution centers. Every time a product is paid for, the distribution center
immediately receives the data and schedules real-time shipping.
With the direction of outsourcing and using the distribution center, H&M also applies a
sophisticated data management network that can reduce production time by 15-20%.

c. Competitors of H&M:
According to the article “H&M marketing analysis”, competitors refer to the activities and
capabilities of business rivals. Where the number of competitors and capabilities are high, there
is little power. Where rivals with limited capabilities put them in a position of great
strength. H&M’s competition is high as products offered are not unique and alternatives can be
widely accessed by customers of the fast fashion industry. For example, Chanel, Christian Dior,
Versace, Valentino, S.P.A, Zara (the best rival) and so on.

Many kinds of customers of H&M: “H&M products are subjective to customer demand. If they
fail to offer on trend products of good quality and reasonable prices the run the risk of losing
customers to their competitors” (H&M marketing analysis, 2021)

31
H&M’s consumers come from around the world. The customers always put H&M at the first
choice owing to the high-quality of clothing, affordable prices and especially, offline/ online
customers’ service.

Number of H&M customers in Germany (the best potential market) 2018: 20.46 million.
Number of H&M followers on twitter: 8.53 million.
Instagram followers of H&M as of May 2017: 21.1 million.
(Statista Research Department, 2020)

d. Public:
Public is a vital factor which promotes a company’s marketing strategy: advertising and direct
marketing. In addition, publics can anticipate and making-decision the success and achieve of
the company’s products. Moreover, they can give lots of chances for the organization to attract
potential and loyal customers who are so clever because they always carefully make a research
and ensure about the quality as well as reasonable prices.

For instance, H&M invests efforts and spirits to improve the quality of goods, create unique
advertisements and trains for employees to provide a good service. H&M always try to give good
price to support consumer can express personal style with high-fashioned regardless of
background, position or job.

2. Macro environment (PESTEL and SWOT of H&M):

2.1) PESTEL:
PESTEL is used to analyze and monitor external powers: political, economic, social,
environmental, technical, and legal to have useful performance in marketing and impact on the
organization. PESTEL should be duplicated for three months at least.

32
 Picture 19: Pestel in macro environment (Saga, 2020)

a) Political: (Content and research team, 2019)

A large of production of H&M is established in Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon. As everybody

knows, Lebanon’s political policies are unstable both before and after its independence and of
course, it seriously impacts H&M’s promotions of productivity. Besides it, U.S and China trade
war is very competitive but beneficial so H&M always put more and more concern on them. It
can lead to the increasing prices of raw materials and textiles.

The worker’s requirements from H&M have been developing in some fields like: working
conditions, safe place and improved salary. Some developing countries with a stable
government will diverse the labor laws such as the minimum wages which has to be provided to
boost the cost of producing systems.

b) Environment:
Textile industry is also the most polluting industry besides oil and petroleum industry. The
extreme percentage amount of water waste pollutes the water resource. The residents who live
nearby to those water bodies suffer from different hazardous diseases.

33
Air is still polluted by the clothing distribution and delivery. If the government doesn’t enact strict
punishments to deal with this rampant issue: declining these emissions, of course the
destruction can’t be under-controlled:

According to Sarah Vizard (2014):

 H&M’s “Conscious” range of sustainable clothes, as well as highlighting its collection

service which offers customers a £5 discount for each bag of clothing to bring into stores.
 The initiative, which launched in February in 2013, runs across almost 53 of the markets
where H&M has stores and targets to reuse or recycle elements.
 “We want to inspire people to make a difference and engage with our customers to do
things that are more sustainable. We are seeing increasing interest from customers in
finding out what they can do to be more sustainable and help us achieve our goal of
making fashion sustainable and sustainability fashionable,” (Laura Maggs, H&M’s
sustainability manager)

c) Social:

Fashion is a field where people are directly influenced by social media and celebrities. They
relate more with the brand that their favorite singer, actor, actress, idol or star promotes such as
Brittany Xavier, Ellen V Lora, Jessi Malay and so on (H&M has 23 ambassadors around the
world). Hence, motivating the goods through social media and creating the hit around the
channels is important. The attitude of buyers is changing positively.

They prefer well-known designer clothes these days and thus the demand for the same is rising
more than ever before.

This changing trend in attitude, buying behavior has to be analyzed throughout more
researches.

d) Technology:
H&M have to keep up with the technological advancements and involving in changing behavior.
Belong to ordering applications H&M has also linked with Hermes since its logistic collaboration
which is extremely better in technology of logistics.

34
H&M group is motivating H&M Home Stylist; a voice application from Google Assistant,
which supports individual styling suggestions and inspiration for any kinds of rooms in the
home.

Monki and HoloMe of H&M are accessible, modern, digital and convenient through a
smartphone or tablet with minimal data usage, turnaround time, and processing power.

e) Economic:
H&M owns more than 4000 store worldwide. Therefore, H&M’s profit source in direct selling or
online stores is annually instant. For example, according to annual report in 2018, H&M online
sales increase 21% in local currencies.

Figure 4: Interest report of H&M from 2017 to 2018 (H&M, 2018)

However, in 2019, owing to COVID-19 pandemic, H&M almost change to online shopping and if
this situation is still happening, its interest will be lower 5% per month. The closure has not
finished with 5000 stores worldwide. If sticking to the latest report pre-tax profits of H&M fell into
2.37bn in 9 months.

35
 f) Laws:
H&M has many stores in over 60 countries and is estimated that it presents nearly 50 markets
so they can avoid some unexpected circumstances relating legal. For example, supposing a new
design is purchased by H&M but it has some problems with legally security. As a result, H&M
can lose their chances to het higher position and unintentionally creates convenient conditions
for the opponents to stole and develop faster. H&M will individually vanish their opportunity to
promote themselves.

Besides that, H&M’s tax policy always reflects our business and shows their responsibility for the
Government. Furthermore, H&M also express that they are a fair competitor. H&M pays its taxes
at the appropriate times without delay. H&M’s internal transaction model is fully in line with the
OECD Transfer Pricing guidelines. They are always apparent in payments for taxes (H&M
annual report 2018).

2.2) SWOT:
SWOT which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is a technique for
assessing these four factors of a company.

SWOT can make the company get the organization’s advantages and try to improve the
drawbacks. The company can understand what the company’s hazards and limitations and
begin to craft an essential campaign to overcome the challenges and become success in their
field.

Picture 20: SWOT of H&M (Semtek, 2020)

36
 Strengths of H&M g) Weaknesses off H&M

 Stylish clothes, value products and  Shortage of control in production as

accessories with lower prices but high- subcontracted high level of customer
quality for anybody. returns.
 H&M – their clothes aren’t that
 Available clothes, variety of new
exclusive.
collections.
 Small inventory.
 Good customer service: listening to
 Don’t have many investments.
consumers’ recommendations and
improving better and better.
 A high number of loyal clients famous
and popular brand advertisements,
images.
 Celebrities and gifted designer
collaborations.
 A lot of global partnerships in many
major: society, environment, refunds
and so on.
 Remuneration of employees is
supportive such as discount when they
or their family’s members go shopping.
 Good wages for workers.

h) Opportunities of H&M: i) Threats of H&M:

 High demand for goods.  In the fast fashion industry, customers

 Expansion into emerging markets are affected by economic situations.
internationally online – expanding  Extremely rivalry market.
online shopping in globally.  Requirements of up-dating new trends

37
  Digital and mobile media channels
involving worldwide brand presence.
 Attracting a lot of partnerships and
collaborations.
 Opening more stores in the world,
especially Africa and Asia.
 Putting into practice with modern
technology like artificial.
of fashion about unique models,
convenience and high-fashion.
 High-cost of production in Asia.
 Technological changes dramatically,
demands H&M keep up with coming up
with new campaigns or strategy to
transform and evaluate.
 Opponents of H&M such as ZARA,
Mango and Gina Tricot which develop
and concentrate on the similar type of
fast fashion – to sell fashionable
clothes to an affordable price.

V/ The success of marketing:

1. The main roles marketing in B2B and B2C:

The differences Business to business Business to customer
Customer relationships Establishing individual B2C completely concentrates on
relationship is certainly critical each customer. Hence, a
in B2B marketing because B2B company need to find out their
marketing is an orientation for client’ satisfactions, needs,
the next generations pay wants to attract more and
attention to build and expand consumers, Especially, making
personal relationships. As a endeavor to maintain potential
consequence, a company can relationships.
achieve realistic goals and ruin
business in long-term.
Branding The foundation of branding is B2C is almost affected by the
begun with the long-term capacity and quality of service.

38
 support of business customers. Especially, online service
To enhance the position throughout massage. Basing on
branding of the company, they that, the marketer can contribute
need to focus on investment of to set up the relationship
products’ quality, service and between a company and clients.
performance. Therefore, that is In addition, The trend of
the main key to remain that consumers is really into good
relationship. service and impressed by staffs’
attitude.
Decision-making process In B2B, if a company mainly B2C intend to be fascinated
remains business relationship, what they are fond of and what
marketing need to make sure business can purchase for them.
what business’s demands to It means that process entirely
respond and reach their relies on their consumer’s
expectation. Business context perspective, thought and favorite
always require the higher of
necessity and convenience so
the company need to be careful
to make a decision in any
majors.
Audience targeting This factor is very essential and Marketers of a company always
obligatory for an enterprise to analysis intricately in
make a research and analysis demographic because the target
throughout demographic like consumers in B2C is larger than
age or gender. After that, a B2B. Therefore, it demands the
company can understand, company focuses and
acknowledge and offer for the researches more vital
demands of that business. information of their customers.
Ad copy A company’s advertisements B2C, they are not really care
need to more obvious and clear about the ad of a company. It
about the efficiency, function depends on their outlook.

39
 and the way to use. If a Sometimes, attractive ads can’t
business can comprehend it, catch customers’ attention. That
the company’s ads are is also the reason why many
completely professional. B2C don’t focus on investing for
their ads

2. The importance of marketing department to the company:

According to Kotler and Armstrong (2014), marketing department can give more and more
information of marketing concept for the marketers. That can make them come up with
reasonable strategy which can create to consumers’ values and establish beneficial
relationships depending on potential kinds of clients.

In addition, inputs of marketing can be provided for marketing team of the company to support
them find out important and vital markets. Then, the company can take many chances to adapt
and make the most of them.

The last one, marketing can create and design unique campaigns for the company to attain
individual business unit’s targets. Furthermore, marketing can help them to identify the
advantages.

3. The success of H&M in marketing department:

Thanks to marketing: H&M reach some considering achievements:

 2% increase in engagement rates on social media in general and 400% of brand

followers on We Chat in specific.
 E-commerce traffic increased by 5 times.
 Achieved more than 100% of business goals set out.
 Top 1 of the most loved brands, surpassing the "giants" is Nike and Uniqlo on We
Chat.
 In October 2019, H&M reported that the online sales increased by 30% due to the
integration of online with store.

40
VI/ Demonstrate the interrelationships of marketing with other functional units:

1. Marketing department structure:

Picture 21: Marketing organization (Deiss, 2017)

 Chief Marketing Officer: who is charge of marketing department is the boss with the
perfect experiences in that field. CMO has a heavy pressure in making decision to choose
the perfect marketing strategy to boost the development of the company and also
dominate the marketing department.
 Marketing Director: has a main role for all the marketing campaigns and activities that
are designed and analyzed. The CMO of the company will be received assistances from
him.
 Vice President Marketing: who support for the Marketing Director is responsible for the
enterprise’s implementation of the marketing strategy. He cooperates with the marketing
manager to consider and determine the effect and usefulness of that strategy, connection
and social media as well.

41
  Marketing Manager: His tasks is that assisting the vice president marketing by
designing almost marketing strategies consisting of making creative messages or
attractive ads for marketing, choosing the performance of messages combining print
media, channels, banners, website and social media marketing and so on. In addition, he
also train, manage and observe employees or workers of this field.
 Marketing Analyst or Researchers: They work for research and analysis respectively
that run the marketing department and orient its activities of marketing by discover about
groups of potential customers as well as competitive markets. Marketing Analysts take
advantage of tools in marketing like studies, surveys to collect more beneficial data for
that major. And then, they report to the marketing manager.
 Public Relation Officer: manage and keep track the spiritual effort and reputation of the
company. He will provide the awareness of the consumers and make endeavor to
empathy their individual perspectives. PRO salvage communication and public media to
establish the company’s background. The PRO works under the Marketing Manager and
of course, reports to him.
 Social Media Expert/Creative services: While the SMEs access to different markets by
marketing the business or service online, the creative services will be in charge of
marketing design and presentation of the organization. The creative services and social
media marketing have to report for marketing manager.
 Marketing Coordinator: links diversified sections of the marketing department and
controls advertisements and make a particular plan for strategy of marketing. He also
ensure about material inventory, event organization, report preparation and so on. He
assists the marketing manager.
 Marketing Assistant: supports to the marketing manager to run the business of a
marketing context and take place administrative work

2. H&M’s marketing organization:

All departments of H&M are controlled by the board of directors. This structure is very important
and useful because of their contribution to design a new products or service of particular
company.

42
 a. Marketing director H&M Fredrik Olsson and Daniel Erver
b. Creative advisor H&M Ann-Sophie Johansson
c. Head of marketing and communication H&M Sarah Spannar
d. Global communication H&M Sophia Jegerborn
e. Head of media relations H&M Emilie Ericson
f. Global sustainability manager H&M Pascal Brun
g. Head of design H&M home Evelina Kravaev Soderberg

3. The relations between marketing department and others:

a. Marketing Department to Human Resources Department:

HR department is responsible for employer branding and that marketing takes care of the
corporate brand. It is the job of every employee in the enterprise to have responsibility for the
brand image – from the top of the corporate ladder all the way down to the bottom.
Nevertheless, HR and marketing have a key role in creating the brand image as they have the
power to communicate and interact with a vast number of potential customers so HRD needs to
find the right staff for the positions needed.

Not only does the HR department strongly motivate the development, accuracy and the capacity
of production in other contexts but also contribute to improve them by getting necessary
experience through training sessions or probations. To become an unbeatable team, marketing
and HR departments have to be a powerful relation.

For instance, H&M always set a goal which is that all H&M staff must be professional and in
any emergency situations. That is a difficult challenge for H&M HR department how to train
employees turn out skillful, perfect and enough experiences in their major. Moreover, H&M HR
context have to be in charge of classifying and providing high quality workers for marketing
department. That is a reason why H&M is always the best choice due to customer service.

b. Marketing Department to Investment Department:

Firstly, investment department take a vital position to remain and promote marketing
department. The fact that if a company try to attract more and more investments’ resources
outside, it will be rely on the benefits of marketing brings back. In addition, investment context
43
probably become the source of payment for outstanding marketing activities or performance.
However, it’s sometimes really hard for investment department to decide because they can’t
foresee the good or bad results of marketing strategy.

For example, H&M annually have lots of resources of international investment to get interest
rate. Therefore, H&M group always make an effort to sell clothing, attack online market to get
many loyal customers and especially, remain the sustainable investors. H&M always need to
emphasize on the achievements as well as successes throughout data or statistics like 24.3
billion USD (total sale of H&M group worldwide).

c. Marketing Department to Research and Development Department:

The core responsibility of R&D is operating all kinds of researches and carrying out the
development of products. This context also determine, widen the influence of an organization
regardless of controversy or national markets. The relation is that R&D will analyze and consider
the marketing activities or campaigns. The official operation of marketing strategy almost
depends on R&D.

In H&M, H&M R&D team always make a detail research of new marketing activities to estimate
the cost, the percentage of popularity, the capability of success that can give H&M more
advantages such as increasing profits, expanding the target cust,omer and broadening the
coverage of a new collection. It’s really hard for marketing department to follow and make a
perfect campaign.

d. Marketing Department to Production Department:

According to Wind 1981, marketing and Production department always support and connect
each other because production context is responsible for control and make sure about the
number, quality and kind of goods or service of a company before purchasing. Of course, the
anticipation of production context about new product is very important for productivity of that
enterprise. After that, they can early prepare to look for suppliers and makes a particular plan
before official production

For example, H&M marketing team will research what the best seller clothing, the most popular
size for women or men. After that, production context immediately determine the suitable

44
material like cotton, an accurate number of each dresses or denim clothes to serve for
consumers.

e. Marketing Department to Financial Department:

Financial department undertakes to support financial aspects to others so as to take place the
marketing campaigns or another activity of an organization. Besides that, finance group directly
relate to money for investing and receiving. Of course, the main sponsor for any strategies of the
company is finance team. Their acceptance, recommendation and analysis is always useful and
decisive. Actually, they understand how to put away money reasonably.

As a realistic consequence, many fierce conflicts or arguments happen among two departments
because the fact that marketing really need to lots of money for payments of luxury
advertisements, famous ambassadors, interesting activities for customers.

For instance, H&M put approximately $100 million on many types of advertising such as digital,
print, and national TV in 2020. They support in premium ad units and advertised on over 250
different Media Properties in the last year across multiple Media formats. H&M launched and
advertised 1 new product in the past twelve months. (H&M advertiser profile, 2020)

VII/ Conclusion:

In conclusion, marketing is a dispensable factor to decide the success of H&M brand in fashion
industry. In addition, H&M can enhance the higher position, popularize the well-known of
clothing quality as well as good service and maintain a number of constant customers annually
basing on marketing department’s flexibility, creativity and absolute necessity in productivity.
That is also the reason why the research need to analysis, explain and give evident for 4Ps,
PESTEL or SWOT to carefully comprehend the importance of H&M marketing group. After all,
they can determine how they can satisfy their clients, transform the strengths, limit the
weaknesses and take opportunities to motivate H&M powerfully. Finally, regardless of marketing
strategies or activities are also have the assemble target to reach the expectation’s consumers.

VIII/ Recommendations:

It is obvious that Marketing Department is decisive factor to make a company become

successful in its major. Marketing is also a flexible tool to support and help the enterprise
45
overcome the difficult challenge. With H&M, they have some problems with their online
strategies, which results in that H&M has been slowing down in online selling. Unreasonable
marketing campaigns are the main mistake. As everyone know, in the present humans need to
fight and vanish covid-19 pandemic which impacts negatively and significantly on economic
growths, commercial, markets, industry H&M is unavoidable be affected. Firstly, the closure of
global H&M stores is happening because of the increasing interest and profit source. For
example, “Sweden's H&M says it plans to cut 250 of its stores globally”. Online-selling
campaigns are necessary and essential to be survive in fashion market now. However, H&M is
very low to keep pace with the sudden and surprising changes. Some suggestion for H&M:

- H&M need to access to their customers throughout official channels regular cascading
rate. For example, H&M marketing team can make a research and come up with new and
unique ideas to make some attractive videos about how to mix-match to become high-
fashion with special face mask. H&M need to get their clients inspiration and attention to
focus and watch their vids.
- H&M need to be smart and fast in ordering of customer and try to develop delivery. H&M
can invest more money to improve the transportation to ensure the quality of clothing
during delivering. Making endeavor to limit time-bound for shipping.
- In the fact that, H&M doesn’t have many intermediaries, they can expand the relationship
and cooperate with them. In contrast, working with the intermediaries can take more risks
due to many situations that products or goods are exchanged from the authentic to the
fake. H&M can be clever and choose the reputable intermediaries.
- H&M can create advanced apps to support for ordering and various payments.
- H&M can discount the price first to attract their consumers concerns, maintain the instant
interest annual and keep the loyal customers for the brand. Besides that, they can send
some small gifts to attach with their products to express the gratefulness and replace
saying “thank you”.
- Customer service online is also very important because consumer can base on that to
judge and consider. Therefore The marketers of H&M need to concentrate on that: try to
encourage customers give opinions, thoughts, outlooks, and especially recommendations

46
- H&M always make an effort to cover social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so
on): post picture of new collection, images of celebs to increase the interaction on the
Internet. They also put their mind on enhancing online service: messages, comments,..)
- Spreading the friendliness, concern make clients can see and feel that.

47
VIII/ References:

1) 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.https//www.semtek.com.vn/phan-tich-swot-cua-

cong-ty/.com.vn/phan-tich-swot-cua-cong-ty/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].

2) Allison, J. (2019). Mission statements and vision statements: examining the relationship
toward performance outcomes. Global Journal of Management and Marketing, 3(1), 1.

3) Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S., 2004. Essentials Of Marketing.

4) Cam: Kenh thong tin Marketing danh cho sinh vien. 2020. Nhin Lai Cach H&M Xay Dung
He Thong Ca Nhan Hoa Nho Ung Dụng Cong Nghe Cao. [online] Available at:
<https://camnest.vn/nhin-lai-cach-hm-xay-dung-he-thong-ca-nhan-hoa-nho-ung-dung-
cong-nghe-cao/> [Accessed 23 January 2021].
5) Capell, Kerry. (2002, November 11). Hip H&M: The Swedish retailer is reinventing the
business of affordable fashion. Business Week. 106-109
6) Cleverism. 2019. Marketing Department: Organization, Tools & Responsibilities. [online]
Available at: <https://www.cleverism.com/marketing-department-organization-tools-
responsibilities/#:~:text=ORGANIZATION%20OF%20A%20MARKETING%20DEPARTM
ENT,-
The%20marketing%20department&text=It%20organizes%20all%20the%20activities,atte
ntion%20of%20its%20targeted%20customers> [Accessed 23 January 2021].
7) Coggle.it. 2021. Target Market Of H&M Fashion Store (Benefits Sought (Reasonable
Price…. [online] Available at: <https://coggle.it/diagram/WBqct754dXJEuNf1/t/target-
market-of-h-m-fashion-store> [Accessed 21 January 2021].
8) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
9) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
10) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].

48
11) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
12) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
13) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
14) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
15) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
16) Dahlberg, N., 2020. The Importance Of Really Knowing Your Target Audience - Refresh
Miami. [online] Refresh Miami. Available at: <https://www.refreshmiami.com/how-to-
understand-your-target-audience/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
17) Endriksz, V., 2018. Sustainability Report 2017: How H&M Aims To Lead The Way To A
Sustainable Fashion Future. [online] Fashionunited.uk. Available at:
<https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/sustainability-report-2017-how-h-m-aims-to-lead-
the-way-to-a-sustainable-fashion-future/2018041229080> [Accessed 20 January 2021].
18) Faull, J., 2015. H&M Taps Into Balmain’S ‘Showbiz Flair’ In Latest Designer
Collaboration. [online] The Drum. Available at:
<https://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/05/18/hm-taps-balmain-s-showbiz-flair-latest-
designer-collaboration> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
19) Gabrielajohnsons.blogspot.com. 2021. Chapter 10: Product Concepts. [online] Available
at: <http://gabrielajohnsons.blogspot.com/2015/11/chapter-10-product-concepts.html>
[Accessed 22 January 2021].

49
20) H&M Group. 2021. CRM Project Leader At H&M's Global CRM Team. [online] Available
at: <https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/HMGroup/743999724605987-crm-project-leader-at-
h-m-s-global-crm-team> [Accessed 22 January 2021].
21) H&M, 2017. [online] About.hm.com. Available at:
<https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/en/Digital%20Annual
%20Report/2017/Annual%20Report%202017%20Our%20history.pdf> [Accessed 20
January 2021].
22) H&M, 2018. [online] About.hm.com. Available at:
<https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/masterlanguage/Ann
ual%20Report/Annual%20Report%202018.pdf> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
23) H&M, 2020. H&M Benefits. [online] Available at: <https://www.glassdoor.com/Benefits/H-
and-M-US-Benefits-
EI_IE11918.0,7_IL.8,10_IN1.htm#:~:text=All%20our%20employees%20are%20entitled,c
an%20enjoy%20our%20great%20fashion!> [Accessed 22 January 2021].
24) H&M, 2021. [online] About.hm.com. Available at:
<https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/en/hm-
way/HM%20Way_en.pdf> [Accessed 23 January 2021].
25) H&M, 2021. [online] About.hm.com. Available at:
<https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/en/hm-
way/HM%20Way_en.pdf> [Accessed 23 January 2021].
26) H&M, 2021. [online] About.hm.com. Available at:
<https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/en/hm-
way/HM%20Way_en.pdf> [Accessed 23 January 2021].
27) H&M, 2021. [online] About.hm.com. Available at:
<https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/en/hm-
way/HM%20Way_en.pdf> [Accessed 23 January 2021].
28) H&M, 2021. [online] About.hm.com. Available at:
<https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/en/hm-
way/HM%20Way_en.pdf> [Accessed 23 January 2021].

50
29) H&M, 2021. [online] About.hm.com. Available at:
<https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/en/hm-
way/HM%20Way_en.pdf> [Accessed 23 January 2021].
30) H&M, 2021. Women's Clothing Size Guide | Ladies' Size Chart | H&M UK. [online] H&M.
Available at: <https://www2.hm.com/en_gb/customer-service/sizeguide/ladies.html>
[Accessed 22 January 2021].
31) H&M. 2020. Innovation In Every Detail | H&M. [online] Available at:
<https://www2.hm.com/en_asia3/life/culture/inside-h-m/innovation-in-every-detail.html>
[Accessed 22 January 2021].
32) Hmgroup.com.2021.SupplierList. [online] Available at:
<https://hmgroup.com/sustainability/leading-the-change/supplier-list.html> [Accessed 22
January 2021]
33) How-to-be-an-entrepreneur-abroad.com. 2021. Training Module - Unique Value
Proposition | Examples Of A Unique Value Proposition | H&M. [online] Available at:
<https://how-to-be-an-entrepreneur-abroad.com/training_details.php?id=85> [Accessed
21 January 2021].
34) Lipponen, R., 2009. H&M Offers A Value Proposition That Succeeds During Recession.
[online] Bus4411.blogspot.com. Available at: <http://bus4411.blogspot.com/2009/02/h-
offers-value-proposition-that.html> [Accessed 21 January 2021].
35) McColl-Kennedy, J.R. and Kiel, G. (2003). Service Marketing. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and
Sons.
36) McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2011. Malcolm Mcdonald On Marketing Planning. 7th ed.
37) Mission-statement.com. 2021. H&M Mission Statement 2021 | H&M Mission & Vision
Analysis. [online] Available at: <https://mission-statement.com/hm/> [Accessed 20
January 2021].
38) Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong. (2007). Principles of Marketing. United Kingdom:
Pearson.
39) Rose, F., 2018. Thuong Hieu H&M Va Nhung No Luc Gop Phan Ton Vinh Gia Tri Cua
Thoi Trang “Xanh” | ELLE. [online] ELLE Vietnam. Available at: <https://www.elle.vn/the-
gioi-thoi-trang/thuong-hieu-h-m-conscious-exclusive-2018> [Accessed 22 January 2021].

51
40) Sdgfund.org. 2021. [online] Available at:
<https://www.sdgfund.org/sites/default/files/business-and-
un/SDGF_BFP_HKSCSRI_Business_and_SDGs-HandM.pdf> [Accessed 20 January
2021].
41) Statista. 2021. Number Of Stores Worldwide Of The H&M Group By Country 2019 |
Statista. [online] Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/268522/number-of-
stores-worldwide-of-the-hundm-group-by-country/> [Accessed 24 January 2021].
42) Team, M., 2020. H&M Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share..
[online] MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share. Available at:
<https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/16924-h-and-m.html> [Accessed 22
January 2021].
43) Tugba Sabanoglu, 2021. Number Of Stores Worldwide Of The H&M Group By Country
2019 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at:
<https://www.statista.com/statistics/268522/number-of-stores-worldwide-of-the-hundm-
group-by-
country/#:~:text=The%20company%20operates%20over%205%2C000,and%20adidas%
20as%20of%202019.> [Accessed 20 January 2021].
44) Ukdiss.com. 2018. H&M Marketing Analysis. [online] Available at:
<https://ukdiss.com/examples/marketing-analysis-h-and-
m.php#:~:text=H%26M%20targets%20woman%20in%20the,H%26M%20is%20for%20y
ounger%20people.> [Accessed 21 January 2021].
45) Unknown (n.d) Concentrated Targeting [Online] Boundless: Available
at <https://www.boundless.com/marketing/textbooks/boundless-marketing-
textbook/consumer-marketing-4/identification-of-target-markets-37/concentrated-
targeting-190-609/> [ Accessed 22 March 2017].
46) Wilson, M., 2013. Study: H&M Luring The Most New Customers To Its Stores. [online]
Chain Store Age. Available at: <https://chainstoreage.com/operations/study-hm-luring-
most-new-customers-its-stores> [Accessed 22 January 2021].
47) Wind, Y., 1981. Research in marketing. [book], 1st ed. JAI Press Inc, p.242.

52
48) Word-of-Mouth and Referral Marketing Blog. 2021. How H&M Became The World’S 2Nd
Largest Fashion Retailer. [online] Available at: <https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/hm-
word-of-mouth-marketing/> [Accessed 22 January 2021].
49) Zaw Thiha Tun, 2019. H&M: The Secret To Its Success. [online] Investopedia. Available
at: <https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/041216/hm-secret-its-success.asp>
[Accessed 20 January 2021].
50) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysis#/media/File:Elements_of
_Industry_Structure.svg> [Accessed 30 January 2021].

53