Analyses of Factors That Have Impacted the Operations of Selfridges

Introduction

Selfridge Company was founded in 1909 by Harry Gordon, and its main purpose was to imagine and create a sustainable future that accommodates all individuals in the business arena. The business remains a landmark as a social center for online retail shops. Due to its innovation and creativity, the business has accommodated different social-cultural activities, thus enhancing its existence in the global online community. For instance, due to its extraordinary cultural programs, the business has evolved by designing, branding, and collaborating with other organizations to create an enabling environment for all its customers (Benson 1997, 374). Moreover, the organization thrives daily to revolutionize shopping to be more purposeful, fun, and responsible. Over the decays, the organization remains to embrace creative experimentation, cultural enrichment, and activism as one of its ways to enhance customer experience. Being a private limited organization, the company invests more in share capital, allowing other retail shops to run stores independently. The business adopts a corporation legal structure. Here, the business is considered a separate legal entity from its shareholders. In this type of organizational structure, the shareholders hold the company ownership through shares of stocks. The organization’s managing director is Andrew Keith, while the shareholders are Central Group and Signal Holding. Due to the diversity of the business’s social-cultural practices, this type of legal system enables the business to coexist peacefully as a united legal system.

In this organization, shareholders play a crucial role by placing the financial stakes even though Central Group owns 50% and Signal Holding 50% of the business shares; other shareholders play a vital role in the business operations. At Selfridge, Shareholders invest capital into the business, which they expect to get returns in terms of increased share value and dividends. Additionally, through purchases of products and services, customers aid the business in generating revenue. Based on the report issued by Selfridge.com Audience Demographic, statistics review that 36.17% of the customers are males while 63.83% are females. To achieve this, the company has thrived for decays to satisfy customer needs by providing high-quality products and services, which has enabled the organization to create and retain its loyal customers (Benson 1997, 374). As for the employees, they contribute their skills, labor, and expertise, which enables the company to run its operations smoothly. The organization’s suppliers also play a significant role in the company’s supply chain. The company suppliers range from individuals to big companies who provide services and goods that Selfridge Company sells (Newman & Atkinson 2012, 109). By maintaining good relationships with suppliers, the business has created a cost-effective supply of products, thus enhancing the organization’s efficiency. That said, as for the local community, Selfridge Company has been able to operate within a particular region, thus boosting its productivity. For instance, its operations have created job opportunities, social responsibility, and enhanced economic development. As for the creditors, they have played a significant role in providing financial stakes to facilitate the business’s financial needs.

Task 2: External Factors

PESTEL Analyses

Selfridge Company SWOT Analyses

Task 3: Marketing

Marketing strategies involve the action designed to sell and promote the goods and services of a company. The whole process may involve many combined strategies to enhance the sales volume. As for Selfridge, the company invests much in promoting the customer shopping experience while at the same time retaining the integrity and social-cultural values of the business. That said, since the company majors much on online shopping, it became important to adopt e-marketing as its marketing strategy (Newman & Atkinson 2012, 109). This favored the business because it reaches a wide geographical location, thus reaching out to the majority of the targeted groups. Moreover, this strategy has a low cost of implementation, thus allowing the business to channel its funds elsewhere. The strategy enhanced the market outreach of Selfridge Company. For instance, due to the consumer segmentation that the company adopted while currying put market research, this approach became more active as it aided the organization in targeting different demographic groups. As for the employed individuals and families, the organization uses the shopping date receipts of the customer, thus segregating them into different classes, which makes it easy for them to identify the necessary features for each group in society.

The use of social media, such as podcasting, which give the organization a chance to interact one on one with its customers as while as its suppers, has created a chance for the company and suppliers to demonstrate how some of the products are used. This viral marketing strategy allows the company to gather sufficient data that will allow them to re-engineer the products and service features to match the needs of the customers. Additionally, Selfridge Company adopts well-written blogs as one way to provide valuable information that will attract more visitors. For instance, in 2021, the company’s sales volume increased from 67% to 97%. This was marked by the uploaded blogging content that was submitted on the organization’s website. That said, e-marketing has increased the engagement between consumers and suppliers through an online shopping center created by Selfridge (Newman & Atkinson 2012, 109). Here, suppliers can interact with customers as they give customers a chance to bind the prices of the products. Suppliers can come up with the best price for the products from these bids. E-mail marketing is another strategy that the company has adopted. Here, the company can send random mail messages to customers based on their historical shopping experiences. This allows the company to reduce time wastage as they focus the whole idea on a single group of customers.

Based on the e-marketing strategies of Selfridge Company and the existing innovation and creativity, the business stands a great chance of using product portfolio analyses as one of the ways to identify areas that need more forces. By conducting a product portfolio, the management can assess all the products and services that Selfridge deals with while, at the same time, examining the performance rate, growth potential, and the business market share. Additionally, determining the amount of time a product takes from being introduced into the market until it has taken off the shelves also aids companies in determining the efficiency of their marketing strategies (Winston & Mintu-Wimsatt 2013, 115). For instance, when suppliers deliver products and services to Selfridge shops, the company now does extensive marketing to enlighten consumers about the existing products by highlighting their features. By so doing, they go to the extent of offering gifts. After introducing a product, Selfridge Company uses market entry strategies such as offering gifts or selling at lower prices to convince customers and make them buy the new product.

This only goes on for a few days, and then the growth rate of the product in the market starts picking up. During the growth stage, customers have accepted the product in the market, and customers have truly embraced the products and services and are buying it (Gilaninia et al. 2013, 5). As for the maturity stage, the sales have leveled off from the rapid growth period. This is a crucial stage for every business as it can easily lose all its customers if they are not keen on the prices. Due to high rates of competition, the company needs to reduce its prices to compete favorably with other retail shops. Moreover, to be able to make firm decisions, then Selfridge Company utilizes the product life cycle to determine the maturity time of the product in the market arena and come up with the best ways to reduce their prices. Since they are not the producers, they cannot change the product features and rely on suppliers. That said, after the maturity stage escalates, the product reaches its market peak and thus starts declining (Winston & Mintu-Wimsatt 2013, 115). At this stage, new products start penetrating the market, thus making the existing products less irrelevant. To ensure that Selfridge Company retain its online sales volume, the company needs to adopt multicultural social practices that welcome all manufacturers to start supplying their products wholesale. This will ensure that the company has all the products based on the customer needs and that they get satisfaction.

Task 4 The Impacts of External Factors on the Marketing Mix

Based on the PESTEL analyses above, price is one of the marketing mix elements directly influenced by external factors. For instance, if tax policies are numerous, Selfridge Company will sell their products and services at high prices to ensure that they generate some gain. In addition, political factors such as trade barriers and international relations impact the business directly by reducing its imports and exports relations. However, economic interest rates, foreign exchange rates, cost of raw materials, and supply and demand of the products influence the price of a product (Gilaninia et al. 2013, 5). For instance, when the cost of raw materials is high, the cost of production increases, thus increasing the cost of the end product. At the same time, when the inflation rates are high, the prices of products tend to shoot high as manufacturers adjust to the new market prices. Additionally, based on the population growth rates and individual income levels, the price of a product is directly influenced by social factors. For instance, when an individual level of income is low, their purchasing power is low. This gives us more insight into the individual level of income influences purchasing power (Purcell et al. 208, 46). Emerging technology and technological infrastructure influence the price of a product. Due to high rates of creativity and innovation in Selfridge Company, the organization has been able to influence suppliers to adopt new technologies in manufacturing products that enhance the quality of their products at low cost. This influences the growth rates of companies significantly. As for the legal factors, once health and safety laws are regulated, the product prices change to accommodate the new laws. This directly increases the price of products and services.

Based on the above illustrations, the shareholders of Selfridge Company are vulnerable to any slight change in external factors, which they have less power to regulate. For instance, due to high inflation, the stock owned by the shareholders loses its value; thus, they make losses. This is because the stock price they had invested in has lost its value based on the economic conditions (Purcell et al. 208, 46). The future effects of import and export restrictions are devastating regarding marketing. This is because when the volume of suppliers exceeds the demand, the company is forced to perform below its capability, making it less economical. How can this be solved? Here, trade unions should be enacted and issued mandates to look for markets and enact laws to control manufacturing. In addition, when the prices of products are extremely high, most unemployed individuals need help to meet their daily needs.

References

1. Benson, S.P., 1997. The Department Store: A Social History. The Journal of American History, 84(2), p.674.
2. Gilaninia, S., Taleghani, M. and Aziz, N., 2013. Marketing mix and consumer behavior. Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 2(12), pp.1-6.
3. Newman, A.J. and Atkinson, N., 2012. The role of store image in the re-branding of Selfridges. In Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues (pp. 109-124). Routledge.
4. Purcell, J., Kinnie, N., Swart, J., Rayton, B. and Hutchinson, S., 2008. People management and performance. Routledge.pp.46.
5. Smith, P. (2023) Selfridges Retail Ltd: Revenue worldwide 2022, Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/861908/selfridges-retail-limited-revenue-worldwide/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20the%20retailer%20delivered,year%202020%2C%20severely%20limited%20footfall.
6. Winston, W. and Mintu-Wimsatt, A.T., 2013. Environmental marketing: strategies, practice, theory, and research. Routledge. pp. 115.