In this report, the detachable sleeves have been considered a new launching product of H&M. The potential target group would be women aged between 25-34 years. The product’s benefits are detachable, can be worn with any dress, is fancy looking, washable, comfortable, and can be easily carried. Fashion has changed its direction and the market is becoming a fast one where the marketing team is intended to put the products directly from the catwalk to the stores. The industry it is holding is the fast-fashion industry where affordable products quickly get available in the drug stores after being designed and manufactured. Customers are influenced by celebrities and social media which allows them to procure the brand more.
Table of Contents
Marketing Strategy Structure
Executive Summary
Part 1
- Introduction
- Situational analysis – (PESTLE) and (SWOT)
- Competitive advantage (USP)
- Evaluation of current marketing strategy and performance
Part 2
- Segmentation Targeting & Positioning (STP)
- Recommended objectives and goals (SMART TARGETS)
- “Recommended marketing strategies based on the application of the marketing mix to your chosen brand or organization”
- Conclusion
- Reference List
- Appendices
- Appendix 1: Sales of H&M group
- Appendix 2: GDP of the UK
Part 1
Introduction
The approach can only be possible with an affordable range of products and segregated innovation in the marketing strategies. Moreover, the development of a new product approach requires new thoughts, innovation, capital, and a targeted customer base. Therefore, the chosen clothing brand H&M stands for Henners and Maurits multinational Swedish fashion business. The brand’s headquarters resides in Stockholm and it has its brand spread all over the globe. The company develops a multi-channel promotion strategy that includes advertising those are subsumes, sales promotion, internet promotion, and others. Therefore, these approaches allowed the company to get exposed worldwide by having a fast-fashion industry approach. Therefore, the report discusses the new approach to product development by analyzing the existing market of the company.
Situational analysis – (PESTLE) and (SWOT)
PESTLE Analysis of H&M Brand –
Political |
|
Economical |
|
Social |
|
Technological |
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Legal |
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Environmental |
|
Table 1: PESTLE Analysis
SWOT Analysis of H&M Brand –
Strength
| Weakness
|
Opportunities
| Threats
|
Table 2: SWOT analysis of H&M
Cost-effectiveness in a wide and multiple range of products and fast-fashion market model embracement are key points of success for H&M (H&M, 2022). Contrarily, some of its products are controversial, and social issues may arise such as racism which causes social and ethical issues (The Washington Post, 2020). Besides, a lack of innovation is witnessed as the fashion designers are only focused on the new fashion trends and do not take modification of the existing ones into consideration
Competitive advantage (USP) of H&M
The unique Selling Proposition (USP) of H&M among other fast fashion industry giants is being the second-highest clothing retailer and being a part of the world’s largest retail group Inditex group. Being part of such a big retail group the brand is able to sell fashionable fast fashion products at affordable prices (H&M, 2022). Moreover, H&M encourages cross-cultural exchange in products, and that encourages collaboration with Chic, an Indian fashion designer label Sabyasachi Mukherjee creating new designs and products (H&M, 2021).
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis for H&M Company
Factors | Effects |
The threat of new entrants | There are subsequent threats to H&Mas after Covid attracted many other companies are change their USP to emerge in the market such as GAP, and ASOS (H&M, 2022) |
Bargaining Power of Suppliers | H&M consists of a 700-product supply chain and has 1600 ties with factories in Asia, Europe, and Africa. Moreover, the company has been operating for a long span. Therefore, the beginning power is quite low for this. The suppliers provide the product with apparent uniqueness (H&M annual report, 2022) |
Threat of Substitute products | There are threats for product substitutions that are being raised by racism like their different journals of hoodies and knitted sweaters can also get substituted |
Bargaining power of buyers | This is completely restricted as they sell their product with a particular tag price inclusive of the internal taxes. In the case of suppliers and distributors, these are operated by in-house processes thereby skipping the third parties (Vasilev, 2021). |
Competitive rivalries | The existing competitors include Zara, American Eagle Outfitters, Forever-21, Abercrombie and Fitch, and many others (Statista, 2022) |
Table 3: Porter’s Five Forces Analysis on H&M Brand
The above table is describing the market competitors or rivalry of the company H&M. As stated by Lüdeke et al. (2021), there are competitors in all sectors and every big well well-established brand faces market competition from a competitor brand of the same sector. Therefore, the biggest competitor of this brand is ZARA which is also a renowned brand operating clothing and fashion in the industry. The other prevailing competitor brands include GAP, American Eagle Outfitters, Forever-21, Abercrombie and Fitch, ASOS, and several others. [refer to appendix 1]
The above graph represents the market share of Inditex, Primark, and H&M groups between the years 2019 and 2020. Hence, in 2019, H&M acquired 39.04% of the global market, whereas Zara and Primark contributed 69% and 9.1% of the group sales respectively. These two clothes brands are also great competitors of this brand and hence H&M holds a good market share along with its competitors. Primark is holding 35.8% whereas Inditex is holding 33.8% of the overall market share.
Evaluation of current marketing strategy and performance
Current marketing strategy
H&M is a fashion company that follows both B-2-B and B-2-C business sales performers where they apply marketing strategies such as paid media advertisement, email marketing, PR and affiliate marketing, and many others Keshavarzi (2021). The main competitive strategy undertaken by the company in the global market is the combination of “cost leadership and the elements of differentiation”. Furthermore, the company’s fast-fashion business model is focused on the “outsourcing of new designs” to numerous different suppliers all across the globe (Li, 2021). They made the marketing strategy simple and clear and provided the product with the best affordable price to its customers with high dignified quality.
Current market position
The current global market position of the company is quite high with a revenue generation of 5.56T million with an increase of 9.27% in the year 2021 (H&M annual report, 2022). Moreover, the net income stated from the annual report of the company is found to be 469.2 billion with a rise of 157.66% in the same year.
From the above figure 1, it is clear that H&M has a great market position across the globe as the United States holds the maximum number of stores which is 582 by the year 2020. Hence this is evidence that they are successfully applying their multichannel marketing style along with outsourcing the designs to multiple suppliers across the world. Their E-commerce services in the 53 global markets along with franchises especially in the United Arab Emirates.
The above figure shows the current ten markets where the company is prevailing with a great position. Therefore, the higher market position is prevailing in the USA and UK, with store numbers 549 and 272. However, this is evidence that during the Covid outbreak, the operational sources of the company have reduced (H&M, 2022). On the other hand, the number of stores in the native country Sweden is 155. This shows the vast expansion of the country in the global market by applying their marketing position.
Brand effectiveness
The brand effectiveness can be measured by analyzing the current market performance of H&M. As commented by Liu and Chen (2021), it is significant for competing in the business for potential customers and acts as a key for defining an edge for creating sustainable revenue. The analysis allows the identification of the competition in the product line or market segments including services.
(Source: Statista, 2022)
The above figure shows the sales value of the company in the global market from 2008 to 2022. The high sales achieved by Germany is about £3.2 billion on average during this span. Furthermore, the sale that is prominent in the UK is £1,238.04 in 2021. Therefore, the sales performance of most of the countries is good, and this results in high profitability across the global market.
The above figure depicts the profitability of the company worldwide and it is found out that the company has the lowest operating profit of “£254 million” in 2020. However, there is a substantial fall in the profit margin from £2539.27 million in 2014 to £254 million in 2020. Hence, the reason for the fall includes the strike of Covid 19 however, before 2019 the profit started to fall due to a lack of innovative marketing strategies and monotonous product delivery services to the customers (Statista, 2022). Hence, there is an obvious requirement for the new product to market and again reconstruct the target market along with the market strategies.
Market growth of the company is better and it has significantly shown a greater position in the global market with £20.16 billion in 2021 despite the pandemic situation from e-commerce business. As commented by Vasilev (2021), growth is important for sustainability in the global market and it can boost the credibility of the business, allowing the broadening of the supply base along with increased stability and profit.
(Source: Statista, 2022)
Therefore the above graph showcases the market growth of H&M companies from the year 2014 to 2020. The highest market growth is achieved in the year 2019 with net sales of 24,339 USD and subsequently, it will decrease in 2020. Despite the pandemic situation where the profitability got deducted, however, the market growth has increased for the company.
Part 2
Segmentation Targeting & Positioning (STP)
The rationale for the introduction of a new product to the range
The new product range to be introduced within the company is “detachable sleeves” within the existing product range of H&M. New product launch is important to meet the demands and satisfaction of the customers. This helps the company to sustain itself in the long run. The rationale behind applying these marketing policies and strategies is to understand the market needs adequately. As Uyarra et al. (2020) stated, current marketing policies consist of more diverse and innovative strategies. However, they considered these as risk-oriented strategies. Similarly, H&M could face some challenging situations in launching their Detachable sleeve products such as customer base, demand, and sales during the initial time.
Demand for detachable sleeves in the UK is growing and in high demand with their presence both in retail stores as well as online such as Shopify and Amazon. Furthermore, Bridal trends for 2022 can be exotic and contemporary from the traditional forms. Therefore, H&M sets and distinct apart these unusual sleeves with exaggerated detail and, a variety of hem lengths including both midi and mini styles can be considered suitable for the company as a new product in the range (Glamour, 2022).
Features of the Detachable Sleeves
Detachable sleeves are also called false or fake sleeves, as they can be used with numerous clothes. They are called detachable, as these sleeves are not attached to any cloth. Furthermore, these sleeves are warm and cozy, versatile, glamorous sleeves, with small zipped pockets, and small zipped sleeves. Thus, it can be worn with any dress. Another key feature of these sleeves is that they are ecologically and economically sustainable products. H&M claims that they are making their dresses from recycled materials (H&M, 2022). Moreover, these sleeves are removable, and fancy, can be worn with any dress, washable, and can be reused, comfortable, and convenient to carry.
Identification of The Target Segment
Demand for sustainable clothing increases as people want good quality and fashionable clothes at a lower price. In the UK, this notion is also working on wedding dress demands, and the COVID-19 pandemic provides a push for it. In 2020, many weddings will be canceled due to the pandemic lockdown. In 2021, these people wanted to have a beautiful and low-budget wedding. Thus, various new designs are included in the wedding dress market, such as detachable sleeves, detachable oversized Dahlia, Princess silhouette style for detachable dual lock, etc. H&M is positioning the products attribute by product feature and/or product benefits. Therefore, detachable sleeves come to the spot, as it would cost less and give a new fashionable look (London and Teather, 2022). Thus, in this context, the target segment will include customers of H&M would be women aged between 25 to 34 years. They could belong to any social category, such as middle or high class, college students, married or unmarried women. Furthermore, H&M needs to conduct psychographic segmentation to better understand the interests, values, and needs of the women in the selected target group for the new product.
Targeting will be done using social media advertisements and flex and print media advertisements that will make target customers aware of the new product. H&M products will be positioned in a sustainable stage as the sleeves can be combined with high-class brands as well as daily wear trendy fashion products of H&M.
Recommended objectives and goals (SMART TARGETS)
Marketing objectives are very essential for launching a new product as they clearly define the goals and objectives with which the product is underpinning. As stated by Paul and Mas (2021), properly setting a goal allows for the better development of brand awareness, market share, sales, and other profitability.
Specific | Measurable | Achievable | Relevant | Time-bound |
To promote the product by doing social media marketing and PR marketing | It will be measurable with a proper marketing team and social media team | It will be achievable by creating posters with all the features incorporated and creating brand awareness against the new product (Breuer et al. 2018) | It will be relevant social media is more prevent in the technological era and information about the product will spread faster | It will take 3 to 6 months |
To incorporate sustainability in the product such as replacing the use of cotton materials with artificial cotton of the same comfort | It will be measurable by the environmental team and design management team | It will be achievable by proper development of artificial cotton by air drying the barks of the trees | It will be relevant as it saves the natural resources of the environment and spreads awareness of the green revolution | It will take 7 months of laboratory actions |
To maintain the cost-effectiveness of the product | It will be measurable by the project management and finance team | It will be achievable by maintaining the logistics and packaging costs (Lahtinen et al. 2020) | It will be relevant as a cost-effective product will venture into the eyes of the buyers | It will take 1 month |
To bring variation in the products with different designs, patterns, and effects | This will be measurable by the fashion and design team | This will be achieved by implementing new designs and patterns to the product (Lüdeke et al. 2018) | It will be relevant as customers will get multiple options for choosing from the range | It will take 3 to 4 months |
Table 4: SMART targets for the new product detachable hand gloves
(Source: Influenced by Lahtinen et al. 2020)
The above specific targets will allow the company to flourish with the new product. As stated by Lüdeke et al. (2018), creating brand awareness among the people with a new product is a vital marketing procedure. Therefore, creating brand awareness for detachable hand gloves can be initiated by doing social media marketing and using the existing target group of customers so they can proceed with it in a better way. Moreover, doing PR marketing will also serve to increase the process (Mahmoud, 2018). Furthermore, incorporating sustainability into the system by replacing real cotton with artificial one will catch the customer’s attention towards creativity.
Hence, all the above-targeted aspects require a good market share that is estimated to be more than 15 million US dollars in the initial year of its launch. Furthermore, it will target emerging markets such as Germany, Turkey, the UK, and other Asian countries. Hence this target base of customers can bring huge development to the sales. The average sales value estimated for the initial year against this product is 633.55 million US dollars (Estimated). On the other hand, profitability is estimated to be near around more than 20,251 million US dollars.
“Recommended marketing strategies based on the application of the marketing mix to your chosen brand or organization”
7 P’s of Marketing Strategy for H&M –
The launching of a new product requires unique planning and an effective marketing strategy. Therefore, the marketing strategy can be developed by analyzing the 7 P’s of marketing that includes, product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence.
(Source: Influenced by Iankova et al. 2019 )
Product
The product used is the “detachable sleeves” which are in great trend and are mostly demanded by the new youth of this generation. As stated by Li et al. (2021), the uniqueness and compatibility of the products lead to a successful one. Therefore, the new product has highly compatible uses such that people can design it with any dress accordingly. Moreover, they will be more usable for weddings for getting paired with wedding gowns.
Price
The price of the product is estimated to be 150 US dollars per pays for the normal one. However, the cost will increase for the wedding sleeves and additionally, they will be customized according to the customer’s requirements. As stated by Iankova et al. (2021), the cost-effectiveness of a good attracts customers to use it and this is kept minimalistic. Moreover, the packaging materials are derived from recycled products making it more sustainable and cost-effective.
Promotion
The product can be promoted through digital platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and others. PR will also be used to promote the product through blogs and articles. As commented by (Paul and Mas, 2020), Promoting is an important step after product development and better promoting better result achievement.
Place
The product will be available in all the stores of H&M to the targeted countries such as Turkey, the UK, and some other Asian countries. Moreover, product delivery through e-commerce will also be done.
People
The targeted people for these products will be fashion enthusiasts and people with multiple knowledge of fashion and mismatching. Moreover, a huge target people will be the wedding brides to get paired with their wedding dresses.
process
The entry processes will include designing, manufacturing, choosing the fabric, and also making the fabric in the lab. Along with these products packaging will focus on recycled items to make it more sustainable. Apart from these promotions and marketing will be performed to enter into the market.
physical evidence
The business with the new products will be transparent and every detail will be mentioned on the upper packaging. The section will include the way it is manufactured and the materials it includes (H&M, 2022). Moreover, any kind of allergic reaction along with the manufacturing date and MRP will be mentioned there.
Recommendation- Marketing strategy
The marketing strategy that will be more effective for this product launch includes the incorporation of sustainability and innovation in product development. Sustainability can be achieved both by replacing real cotton and inducing recyclable biodegradable products for packaging (Morgan, 2019). Moreover, providing a greater variety of options and customizable products will seek the attention of the target customers.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is clear that H&M is a huge global fashion brand that not only focuses on fashion and design but also emphasizes the cost and materials of the products. Moreover, they hold a great market position in the global market where sales and profitability are very high. They are opting for the fast-fashion model and showing a concern about development from the pandemic. The company also compromises with competitors such as Zara, Forever-21, ASOS, and others that are pushing the company for further development. Hence, they can go through the development of new products such as “detachable sleeves”.
Reference List
Part 1
- H&M annual report, 2022. H&M annual report.
- H&M, 2021. H&M Reveals New Launch Date for Collaboration with Celebrated Indian Designer Sabyasachi, Newsroom. Available at: https://about.hm.com/news/general-news-2021/Sabyasachi-x-HM.html [Accessed 10 January 2022]
- H&M, 2022. About H&M Group.
- Keshavarzi, A., 2021. The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Business Promotion. Journal of Science and Technology Research, 1(4), pp.229-233.
- Li, F., Larimo, J. and Leonidou, L.C., 2021. Social media marketing strategy: definition, conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49(1), pp.51-70.
- Liu, Y. and Chen, W., 2021. Optimization of Brand Marketing Strategy of Intelligent Technology under the Background of Artificial Intelligence. Mobile Information Systems, 2021.
- Statista, 2022. Market share of Inditex, H&Mand Primark over total sales in the Spanish clothing market between 2010 and 2019.
- Statista, 2022. Sales of the H&MGroup from 2008 to 2020, by country.
- Statista,2022.Net sales of the H&MGroup worldwide from 2014 to 2020.
- Statista,2022.Number of stores of the H&MGroup worldwide as of 2020, by selected country.https://www.statista.com/statistics/268522/number-of-stores-worldwide-of-the-hundm-group-by-country/.[Accessed 10 January 2022]
- Statista,2022.Operating profit of the H&MGroup worldwide from 2009 to 2020.Available at:https://www.statista.com/statistics/252191/profit-of-the-h-und-m-group-worldwide/.[Accessed 10 January 2022]
- Statista,2022.United Kingdom: Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate from 2016 to 2026.
- The Washington Post, 2020. H&M faced backlash over its ‘monkey’ sweatshirt ad. The Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/01/19/hm-faced-backlash-over-its-monkey-sweatshirt-ad-it-isnt-the-companys-only-controversy/ [Accessed 10 January 2022]
- Vasilev, A., 2021. How quantitatively important is a public investment for both business cycle fluctuations and output growth in Bulgaria (1999–2018)? Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, 14(2), pp.126-141.
- Vieira, V.A., de Almeida, M.I.S., Agnihotri, R., da Silva, N.S.D.A.C. and Arunachalam, S., 2019. In pursuit of an effective B2B digital marketing strategy in an emerging market. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(6), pp.1085-1108.
Part 2
- Breuer, H., Fichter, K., Lüdeke-Freund, F. and Tiemann, I., 2018. Sustainability-oriented business model development: Principles, criteria, and tools. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 10(2), pp.256-286.
- H&M, 2022. Innovation. Available at: https://www2.hm.com/en_in/life/culture/inside-h-m/innovation-in-every-detail.html [Accessed 11 January 2022]
- Iankova, S., Davies, I., Archer-Brown, C., Marder, B. and Yau, A., 2019. A comparison of social media marketing between B2B, B2C, and mixed business models. Industrial Marketing Management, 81, pp.169-179.
- Lahtinen, V., Dietrich, T. and Rundle-Thiele, S., 2020. Long live the marketing mix. Testing the effectiveness of the commercial marketing mix in a social marketing context. Journal of Social Marketing.
- Li, F., Larimo, J. and Leonidou, L.C., 2021. Social media marketing strategy: definition, conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49(1), pp.51-70.
- London, B., and Teather, C. 2022. 6 wedding dress trends to expect in 2022, from ethereal Princess silhouettes to dramatic sleeves. Available from: https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/bridal-trends-2022 [Accessed 11 January 2022]
- Lüdeke-Freund, F., Carroux, S., Joyce, A., Massa, L. and Breuer, H., 2018. The sustainable business model pattern taxonomy—45 patterns to support sustainability-oriented business model innovation. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 15, pp.145-162.
- Mahmoud, T.O., 2018. Impact of green marketing mix on purchase intention. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 5(2), pp.127-135.
- Morgan, N.A., Whitler, K.A., Feng, H. and Chari, S., 2019. Research in marketing strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), pp.4-29.
- Paul, J. and Mas, E., 2020. Toward a 7-P framework for international marketing. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 28(8), pp.681-701.
- Uyarra, E., Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, J.M., Flanagan, K. and Magro, E., 2020. Public procurement, innovation, and industrial policy: Rationales, roles, capabilities, and implementation. Research Policy, 49(1), p.103844.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Sales of H&M group
Appendix 2: GDP of the UK
