The Marketing Environment Assignment 1

Pestle Analysis on Marks & Spencer

Rachel Pulizzi

Student ID No. 08498890

1st December 2008

Contents

Page 1 – Cover

Page 2 – Contents

Page 3 – Introduction

Page 4 – Political Factors

Page 4 – Economical factors

Page 4 – Sociological Factors

Page 5 – Technological Factors

Page 5 – Legal Factors

Page 5 – Environmental Factors

Page 6 – Conclusion

Introduction

 Marks & Spencer is a British retailer with over 800 stores in more than 30 countries around the world. It is the largest clothing retailer in the UK, aswell as being a food retailer. Most of it’s domestic stores sell both clothing & food, and since the year 2000 Marks & Spencer have started to expand into other ranges such as homewares, furniture & technology.

Marks & Spencer became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion “BBC News online 1998” Though a few years later Marks & Spencer were hit by the “credit crunch” which has had a dramatic effect on the company as they struggle in the current economical climate.

There are plenty of observers who will claim that Marks & Spencer is dying, and I'm inclined to agree. I'm not suggesting that the retail monolith is going bust, or is about to be bought by Wal-Mart and rolled into one brand with Asda. It's just that the old M&S is dying and a new Marks & Spencer is forming. The latest blow came when Marks & Spencer announced it would sever its cosy, 30-year-old supply agreement with its fourth largest supplier, William Baird. Marks & Spencer first started to buy direct from manufacturers in the Twenties, a rather radical initiative in those days, when wholesalers were taken for granted. Since then, Marks & Spencer has been a mainstay for the UK retail industry. Marks & Spencer’s has increasingly moved overseas in recent years, to take advantage of the higher margins offered.

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In this report I am going to be looking at the Political, Economical, Sociological, Technological and Environmental factors that have affected Marks & Spencer and how they have overcome their problems.

Political Factors

The government sets regulations for companies to abide by such as Health & Safety British Standards such as, planning for hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control. If companies do not abide by these regulations they will be fined or even in some cases be forced to close down. Marks & Spencer did not abide ...

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