Introduction:
In the previous marketing blog I explained what is marketing core and as I promised here is the blog about Customers behaviour measurement and the internal factors and forces within the organisations, here F&F is given as an example so you will experience the measurement and analysis in action to observe the marketing better.
Customers:
(Fourali. C, 2020, cited; Solomon et al., 2006) six honest friends, there are who, when and where, why, how and what. These elements enable marketers to understand the customer’s’ needs (Fourali. C, 2020). Based on these six elements, the F&F clothing’s’ demographic is based on age, gender, ethnic, religion. Age target is from one month to 45 years old, for males and females and are designed mostly for European ethnics and non-religious customers, but the home wear clothing range is suitable for all kind of religions and ethnics.
Females are mainly the consumers of F&F products aged between 18 and 45 years old. As per the primary research, the F&F marketer said that the F&F’s are available at NeXTs’ stores and large Tesco supermarkets, but they aren’t available for online shopping “only some limited clothing are sold online via NeXTs’ online shopping facility”, see table 1 (Hooper, 2020). And, according to the primary research one of the questions is, would the customers buy F&F clothing if the prices are low to average and average in quality? 10% answered very likely and 42.50% answered likely (see figure 1).
Next question indicates that customers by 10.26% very likely and by 33.33% likely are influenced and encouraged to buy F&F clothing if F&F’s online shopping were available (see figure 2).
How do they get affected to buy them? Most of the users are affected by word of mouth as per primary research, 12.82% heard about F&F clothing on media, and 30.77% by word of mouth (see figure 3).
The marketing environment of Tesco’s F&F
Internal Forces and Factors, Internal Environment by Five M’s:
(Fourali, 2020) described the five M’s of marketing is one of the models that can be used in many different ways. These five elements are considered as the assets in which the organization has relied to its marketing strategy. The five elements can be used as an auditing tool, internal resources and resources for planning. In this essay, the five M’s are used as internal resources.
Manpower:
(Glassdoor, 2019) Reviews shows 50% of 32 F&Fs’ staffs recommend working for F&F to a friend and 73% approve Dave Lewis (Tesco’s’ CEO). Based on 26 salary reviews, the average salary is between £19K to £60k yearly depending on the job role. For example, a merchandiser administrative assistant annual salary is from £20K to £21K or an assistant merchandise planner annual salary is between £25K and £37K, assistant merchandiser annual salary is £26,670 another example, a marketing manager annual salary is between £52K and £56K. This shows the salaries are based on job roles. Also, the average benefits rate based on six reviews, is two stars out of five which shows lack of good HRM within F&F Human Resources’ policies, practices and strategies. More importantly do the employees work effectively and efficiently?
Materials:
F&Fs’ raw material is based on its marketing strategiy which is using cotton ‘F&Fs’ mission’. It aims to source from farmers who are trained by Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) to use less water and chemicals. F&F in 2017 sourcing 70% (Little, 2017). And %88 of its cotton from BCI farmers in 2018. Their reason is to benefit social and environment wherever there is cotton production globally. However, only half of the clothing is cotton or cotton blend and the rest of raw materials are recycled polyester (Tesco Plc 2020).
Recycled polyester is toxic to the earth and people who wear it. It is produced by recycling plastic bottles into fabrics to keep them away from piling landfills. If plastic bottles don’t belong in the landfills they defiantly don’t belong on the body. There are many articles and researches talking about how dangerous polyester is to human body (The House of Pillows, no date).
As mentioned earlier, recycled Polyester is used for F&F clothing and it’s acceptable by law globally, However, law is not always right. Recycled Polyester is dangerous to human body and washing them splash the toxics so it’s not suitable for clothing. Recycled Polyester can be used to produce products that don’t need to be washed such as bags and shoes and the amount used need to be reduced.
Machinery:
Tesco uses Sandblasting for denim and other fabrics. It uses firing sand, powder (Tesco doesn’t explain what other small particles are used) to create dusty look on the fabrics (Tesco Plc, 2020). Sandblasting is not used in production and sites where garments are produced.
Regarding information system of all Tesco’s’ products uses Oracle Marketing platform system (it enables analysing customer behaviour). For example, Oracle enables to create individualized motivation and offers plans and designs to persuade consumers by Tesco’s’ Clubcard’s or pricing analysis i.e. (UK Essays, 2017).
The vouchers can be used on F&F clothing which leads to encouraging the Tesco’s’ consumers to purchase F&F clothing, but the question’s are, if the Tesco Clubcard holders are aware of existence of F&F clothing and do the consumers know the vouchers can be used on F&F Clothing? Tesco has different types of data systems such as Managing Information System (MIS), Transactional Processing System (TPS) and Decision Support System (DSS) by SAP Business Objects Polestar (UK Essays, 2017).
Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) is the centre of information system for the whole Tesco’s’ products however, Tesco is avoiding electronic commerce for F&F clothing. Why is Tesco avoiding F&F online shopping? Online shopping can save time for both customers and retailer by reducing hours of operation. There are many reasons why customers prefer online shopping nowadays. Diagram one illustrates (Kalam, no date) the input, process and output of Tesco (see diagram 1 on next page).
Minutes:
Due to not providing F&F online shopping, delivery and click and collect facilities, customers and consumers don’t have quick access to the F&F clothing for purchasing. whereas, online shopping is one of the golden keys to increasing F&Fs’ sales “Everyone lives by selling something” for any type and kind of available products and services in the 21st centaury market (Fourali, 2020, cited Stevenson, 1980-1894). And since time is perhaps the most valuable asset for any organization so Tesco’s’ F&F marketing planning process is not concerned and wasting the most valuable asset (time) as well as not meeting the customers needs (lack of value).
Money:
Tesco increased its marketing budget by 68.2% in 2017. Tesco said the big budget is paying off in 2020 by less than 1% growth in revenue. However, this budget was not used on Tesco’s clothing marketing. Therefore, F&F current marketing strategy is not focused on Tesco’s clothing and isn’t taking in account F&F marketing for evaluating their strategy ROMI (Return on marketing Investment).
In the following blog, I will talk about internal and external environment factors and forces of Tesco’s F&F and at the end of the next blog you will appreciate the PESTEL model more in action.
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