In the name of
Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful
Introduction
Mothercare plc is a British retailer which
specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for
children up to 8 years old. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a
constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. The Mothercare group is comprised
principally of two iconic retail brands with international appeal; Mothercare
and Early Learning Centre.
The group's brands operate through three distinct
channels to market; UK stores, Direct (being the in-home and in-store
internet-based businesses and catalogue mail order), and International, under
which the group franchises (or participates in joint venture) operations
delivering the Mothercare and Early Learning Centre brand retail operations in
overseas markets. (MothercarePlc, 2013)
Whilst the principal office of the group is in the
United Kingdom, it has invested significant resources in its sourcing and
supply chain operations in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangalore, Singapore and the
United Arab Emirates.
Mothercare’s History
1961 Entrepreneur Selim Zilkha and Sir
James Goldsmith open the first Mothercare store in Surrey
1962 Mail order business launched
1972 Floated on the stock market
1982 Merges with Habitat to form Habitat Mothercare
1984 Begins trading overseas through
franchise partners
1986 Habitat Mothercare merges with British
Home Stores to create Storehouse
2000 Bhs stores sold to Sir Philip Green
and Mothercare becomes the sole brand
2007 Acquires Early Learning Centre for
£85m
2011 Chief executive Ben Gordon quits.
Group unveils UK store closure programme
2012 Simon Calver takes over from Gordon as
CEO in April. (Independent, 2013)
Reasons
for the decline of Mothercare
While Mothercare's previous management team rapidly
expanded its profitable international business to more than 1,000 stores, they
took their eye off product availability, pricing and customer service in the
UK, to the delight of John Lewis and the big grocers. Mr Calver, the CEO of
Mothercare plc has already said it will take three years to restore the UK
business to profitability, as it seeks to eliminate £13m of losses by reducing
its store numbers from 311 to 200 by March 2015. (Independent, 2013)
Task
For this assignment, I have been appointed as the
CEO of the company and my task is to look the factors that cause the decline of
Mothercare UK business. In this role I would be conducting various analyses to
understand the factors affecting the organisation as well as the root causes of
these factors. I would also be taking various actions to eliminate the threats
caused to the company and bring the company back to a stage where it could
again grow substantially in the UK.
1. Conduct analysis of external
environment to understand important factors affecting the environment.
THREATS (External)
• Direct
insurance.
• Fierce
competition
• Decreasing
market share
• The
stagnation in affinity group membership
OPPORTUNITIES
(External)
•
Increased sales
through an expansion of the service offerings.
•
Increasing
credit options for products.
•
Many customers
buy from affinity groups.
•
Can enter a new
market (Diversification)
•
Increased sales
through Tesco’s website
Other opportunities available to Mothercare
Plc which affect its external environment are:
Online Advertisement
Online advertising is a
huge market and with more and more people searching for their shopping needs
online, advertising is the “de facto” of the marketing companies. Advertisng in
search engines like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Bing will give Mothercare Plc
an edge over their competitors.
Online advertising is huge
and still growing. In the UK it has overtaken television to become the biggest
advertising medium and now accounts for 20% of all advertising spend.
Whether selling a product
or growing a brand, online advertising is a flexible and cost-effective way of
getting the message out.
By advertising on search
engines and social media platforms Mothercare can make an impression in the
online space. This is an area where companies need to invest a lot considering
the time most people spend their time shopping online.
Today that target audience
spends time with both online and offline media—internet, video, radio,
television, magazines, newspapers, social. And the same advertising messages
can be delivered on a mobile device as those viewers, listeners, visitors, and
readers go on about their business.
Boasting
Online Sales
A survey showed that
online sales in UK experienced the highest growth in 2012, recording a huge 17%
jump on July 2011. This works out at an annual figure of about £6.5 billion
spent online with each person spending an average of £128. Total growth for the
2012 year to date stands at approximately 13%. On average more than 95% of UK
shoppers have made an online purchase (Electronic-Payments,
2013)
Mothercare is seeking to
boost its online presence in the UK as it looks to reverse months of declining
sales. Mothercare hired Simor Claver, an internet and brand specialist, as its
new chief executive in 2012. Mr Calver left LoveFilm to join mothercare. Mr
Calver has been chief executive of DVD rental service LoveFilm since 2005,
during which time the company was bought by online retailer Amazon.
External
Threats that affect the Mothercare Plc
Financial
Crisis
The economic conditions of
the UK retail market have an imperative impact on the Mothercare. Mothercare’s
net worth has dropped substantially since March 2011, while it has gone from
holding substantial cash reserves to substantial borrowings (HuffingtonPost,
2013). This was also due to the fact that company has to close down many stores
in the UK. According to its last financial statement, it made an operational
loss in the UK of £24.7m for the year end March 2013, and sales were down 4.6%.
Online
Competition
There is a huge market in
online sales and there are various competitors competing in the mother and baby
care range which poses a great threat to mothercare’s sale. As the online
stores offer similar products at a cheaper price so they are a big concern and
Mothercare have to compete strategically in this space acquiring more expertise
and pushing its online reputation as a global brand in mother and baby child
care.
High
Street Competitors
Competitors like Tesco and
Morrisons pose a continuous threat to Mothercare. Tesco have launched its own range of baby
care products.
Mothercare also faces
competition from Kiddicare – which is operated by Morrisons superstore as part
of their strategy to compete in the baby care market.
12.1.1)
and the stakeholder expectations
Stakeholders of Mothercare
have high expectations from the company. The company is listed on the London
stock exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE
SmallCap Index. Its stock price is currently declining and there are many shareholders who are also
stakeholders of the company.
Keeping the shareholders
happy and to understand their expectations is the primary responsibility of the
higher management. They would need to be convinced that the company is moving
in the right direction in order to keep their interest in the company and to
secure their funding.
Mothercare's UK division,
which accounts for 40 percent of group sales and is competing with a growing
number of online retailers and supermarkets, made a loss of 21.7 million pounds
for the year, after a 24.7 million pounds loss a year earlier.
12.1.3)
and comment on the major changes taking place in the external environment that
will affect the business strategy you intend to formulate for Mothercare plc.
In order to understand the
external threats faced by Mothercare, we would conduct PESTEL analysis on the company to underline these factors.
Currently the Mothercare
is going through a very special period in time, when there are tough economic
situations in Europe and across all UK, people are mostly spending time buying
things online, high street retailers have been hit severely by the high
interest rates, change in user preferences and shift to cheaper options are a
continuous threat to the retailers. So Mothercare is going through a difficult
time in their 50 years of trading history.
POLITICAL
UK
Immigration Laws
The political environment
of Britain is very stable in terms of its government affairs, however the
current British government party which is the conservatives part in power have
laid tough rules governing the employees and employers. Most employers are actually pushed to hire from UK or EU which
creates a potential concern to businesses which are always looking to recruit
bright talent from around the world. This is one concern for the Mothercare.
UK
Employment Laws
Another political concern
for Mothercare is the employment laws which favours the employees and employers
are forced to adhere strictly to these laws. Employers are abide by the law to
offer minimum wages and other benefits to its employees. This also includes the
tax rates like PAYE tax, National minimum wage, Statutory maternity, paternity
and adoption pay, statutory sick pay.
UK
Trading Laws
Trading laws are also very
strict in the UK and employers are subject to follow these laws. Companies are
bound to pay corporation tax and VAT which is a big concern for large companies
and most companies would like to keep their businesses head quarters in
companies like Ireland where these corporation and other tax rates are low.
British
economy
British economy is going
through tough times; companies need to move forward while keeping their eyes on
the global threats that might affect them. In current times, when the global
economy is in a standstill, it’s very difficult for companies to invest in new
ideas and businesses.
In 2008, the global
financial crisis plunged the UK into its longest and deepest recession. More
than a million people lost their jobs as businesses - from shops to
manufacturers and banks - either closed or laid off staff.
The credit crunch and job
fears meant consumers cut spending, deciding to pay off debt and save instead
(BBC, 2013)
Financial
Crisis
The impact of economic and
financial crisis of the Europe and the UK economy is very pertinent on
Mothercare plc.
With the UK and rest of
the world plunging into the global financial crisis in the second half of 2008,
many high street retailers found themselves in financial difficulties.
In just last 5 years alone
many high street retailers have suffered the consequences of financial crisis
including:
1.
HMV, the UK's music retailer, collapsed in January 2013
after months of financial crisis. It was hit hard by tough competition from
online rivals, supermarkets and digital downloads.
2.
Woolworths went into administration in January 2009 with debts
of £385m. According to one researcher it couldn't offer the prices that the
discount stores such as Primark, Lidl and others could actually offer.
3.
JJB Sports went into administration in
September 2012. According to the news and media and researchers, the JJB lost
its vision, core values and drive and it couldn’t keep up with its rival’s
competition.
4.
Comet Group an electrical retail chain
went into administration in November 2012.The chain struggled to cope with the
drop in consumer spending in the UK since 2008. (RetailResearch, 2013)
So the threat of economy on Mothercare is continuous and real and it
shadows them throughout. Mothercare would need to learn from the past
experiences of the retailers who have gone out from business and to learn
lessons from these companies.
ECONOMICAL
Challenge
of Global Recession
Global
economic recession poses the unique challenge to the Mothercare plans to
expand. Mothercare as an organization have to be equipped to handle the
recession because of its brand name, reputation and market share. In tough
economic times, companies need to move forward while keeping their eyes on the
global threats that might affect them.
UK
Immigration Laws
With UKBA
laws on work permits, most companies including Mothercare find it difficult to recruit
talented international individuals who graduate from the UK universities but
due to limitations on visa imposed by immigration laws companies cannot recruit
them.
Many
talented students are just kicked out of the country just because of their visa
status, even if the companies want to hire them as they bring fresh ideas into
the company.
UK Business Legal Requirements
Ensuring
legal compliance with labour and tax law is a vital part of ensuring the Mothercare’s
continued existence. The local government where the business operates impose
mandates on companies regarding the working hours of employees, tax allowances,
required break times and working hours, minimum wage amounts and policies on
discrimination. Being aware of these laws and policies and working to keep the
organization completely legal at all times is an essential for Mothercare
business.
Social
Health
consciousness
The
population of UK are becoming more aware of health in recent years with the
governments initiates to educate about health issues. Expectant mothers now
have more prior knowledge than they use to have 20 to30 years ago. The health
rate of UK population is also very good. Life expectancy at birth m/f (years)
is 79/82. The Probability of dying under age of five (per 1000 live births) is
5 in UK according to World Health Organisation. Total expenditure spent on
health is 9.3 % of GDP (WHO, 2013).UK Population growth rate is 0.553% as of
2012.
These are
good signs that a nation is conscious about its health and hence there is
potential opportunity for maternity and baby care products in market.
Demography
of UK
According
to the 2011 census, the total population of the United Kingdom is around 63
million.6.2 % of this population is between the ages of 0 to 4 years. UK
is the third-largest in the European Union (behind Germany and France) and the
22nd-largest in the world. Its overall population density is one of the highest
in the world at 674 people per square mile, due to the particularly high
population density in England (currently over 1000 people per square mile). The
United Kingdom's literacy rate is 99% (ONS.GOV.UK, 2013)
Age structure for men and women in 2011
|
Age group
|
UK Population
|
%
|
|
Male (million)
|
Female (million)
|
Total (million)
|
|
0–14
|
5.681
|
5.419
|
11.100
|
17.6
|
|
15–64
|
20.751
|
20.953
|
41.704
|
66.0
|
|
65+
|
4.597
|
5.781
|
10.378
|
16.4
|
|
All ages
|
31.029
|
32.153
|
63.182
|
100
|
Social
Media
Social
Media is going to play a huge role in next 2 years for Mothercare. The company needs
to be fully aware of the trends in the online social media and be proactive in
this space.
Technology
Research
and Development
Technology
has a huge impact on how Mothercare is structured and how work flows. With
supply chain system across the world, companies like Mothercare face
competition from their competitors who are also make use of advancements in
technology.
Technology
is now making it possible for small companies to compete with large companies
just by making an online store. Technology can create opportunities for
Mothercare and it can eliminate positions.
With more
and more companies encouraging their universities to research in bio technology
and bio chemistry, it is now possible for new innovative products to compete
with Mothercare baby products range.
Trade
Marks and Patents
With more
and more companies now becoming aware of trade marking and patenting their new
research, it is becoming constantly difficult for companies to copy the
products of their competitors and whoever gets the patent first leads the
market. So its very critical for
Mothercare to invest in R&D areas.
Mothercare
would need to constantly innovate in its products in order to keep ahead of its
competitors.
Online
Competition
Mothercare also faces tough competition from online shop stores like
amazon and ebay and with other stores like Tesco and ASDA offering similar baby
care products which are cheaper than Mothercare. With GAP Maternity offering
clothing range for infants and expectant mothers, competition is tough for
Mothercare in Online and Offline space.
Conclusion
Online competition and low economic situation are
going to have major effect on the business strategy of Mothercare.
Mothercare have to build its
own brand name and products that would create difficulty for it’s competitors
to replicate. It could make use of the expertise and knowledge it has about the
baby care and expectant mothers and use the knowledge to innovate exclusive
products.
2.
Perform necessary analysis on Mothercare plc to identify the effects of its
current business plan (12.2.1) (12.3.2), its position in the market (12.2.2) and
evaluate the competitiveness of its current business strategies (12.2.3)
When all the products/services of the company are put in four cells (thus
it actually provides an opportunity reassess the entire position of the
company).
BCG
Matrix of Mothercare
 Stars–High
market share in and a High Market Growth - fast-growing industry.
(Invest for growth of these)
-
Early Learning
Centre (Baby Toys)
-
Gurgle (Modern
parenting brand for mums)
-
Mothercare
Baby and Me Club (Advice &
information website)
|
Question
Marks- Low Market Share and High Market Growth
(Keep
it going and Improve, carefully)
-
Mothercare Photo
-
Mothercare Blog
-
Mothercare Clothing Range
|
|
Cash
Cows- High market share and Low Market Growth - slow growing industry.
(Milk to fund other projects/businesses)
-
Mothercare
Department Stores
|
Dogs
- Low Market Share and Low Market Growth - mature, slow-growing industry. (Liquidate,Kill or Sell off these projects)
|
Market share (Cash Generation)is the % of customers held by company in market.
Market / Industry GROWTH RATE is how much more growth a company can have. Lower Industry
Growth means there is not much room for company to grow in this market. It
already has ample share of that market and there is not much room to grow more.
High Growth Rate means there is still room for company to grow.
The basic idea
behind it is that the bigger the market share a product has or the faster the
product's market grows the better it is for the company.
Cash Cows: Cash cows are units with
high market share in a slow-growing industry. These units typically generate
cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business. This is
the area which has Low Growth Rate but High Market Share.
The Mothercare has High market share of Baby and Maternity
Departments Store, however the Industry Growth Rate is low – so there is not
room left to grow now. Mothercare needs to capitalize from this area.
The cash cow areas for Mothercare are its Department stores in
high streets open to public which offer wide range of consumer goods for baby
care and maternity consumers like clothing, appliances, prams, pushchairs,
feeding and safety etc. They could use these department stores to cash other
online projects.
Star: Stars are units with a high market share in a
fast-growing industry. The hope is that stars become the next cash cows.
Sustaining the business unit's market leadership may require extra cash, but
this is worthwhile if that's what it takes for the unit to remain a leader.
Star units means company has a decent(High) market share in this area
(product or service) and there is High Growth Rate – which means there is more
room for growth.
Mothercare’s services that fell in the quadrant of star are:
-
Early Learning Centre (Offer Baby toddler Toys,
gifts, playsets, learning materials, books, puzzles, gifts, games and other
creative accessories) available at www.elc.co.uk. ELC became part of the Mothercare Company in
June 2007 and it has stores throughout the UK. ELC offers services like Big
Birthday Club which help parents organize their children’s birthday parties.
-
Mothercare Baby and Me Club is an Advice &
information website for mothers. They have a dedicated website at
www.mothercarebabyandmeclub.com. The club offers advice and suggestions to
mothers about baby dressing, feeding, changing, bathing, weaning, safety, baby
fashion and other various handy tips for mums. It offers advice and information
as baby grows. They also conduct special in store events and great offers
-
Gurgle is the modern parenting brand for mums and
mums-to-be. They publish a bi-monthly
magazine and a website at www.Gurgle.com. Gurgle is the magazine that is
dedicated to mums. It delivers everything they need to know about caring for
their babies and toddlers – while inspiring them to have fun, feel fab and look
fit in the process! Gurgle recognises a modern mum’s appetite for absorbing all
the best new ideas out there and serves them up in a super-stylish package
(Gurgle, 2013)
Question Mark: Low Market Share and
High Market Growth. These are the opportunities that no one knows how to
handle. They aren't generating much revenue right now, because you don't have a
large market share. But they're in high-growth markets, so they could become
Stars or even Cash Cows if you can build market share.
However, if company cannot increase market share, Question Marks could
absorb a lot of effort with little return. Question Mark units have the worst
cash characteristics of all, because high demands and low returns due to low
market share. If nothing is done to change the market share of
these Units, then question marks will simply absorb great amounts of cash and
later, as the growth stops, a dog.
Question marks are growing rapidly and thus consume large amounts of
cash, but because they have low market shares they do not generate much cash.
The result is a large net cash consumption. A question mark has the
potential to gain market share and become a star, and eventually a cash cow
when the market growth slows.
If the question mark units does not succeed in becoming the market
leader, then after perhaps years of cash consumption it will degenerate into a
dog when the market growth declines. Question marks must be analyzed carefully
in order to determine whether they are worth the investment required to grow
market share.
They are those units of company which need attention as they have High
Business growth rate but low market share so the company needs to invest in
this areas as they may have potential for growth.
The star units for Mothercare are:
-
Mothercare Photo
(mothercare-photo.com)
-
Mothercare Blog
(mothercareblog.com)
-
Mothercare Clothing vs Gap Maternity, and other clothing companies
Since these
areas have a high market share however the Market growth is higher too which
means that there is much to be done in this market.
Dog: are units with low market share in a mature, slow-growing industry.
These units typically "break even", generating barely enough cash to
maintain the business's market share. These units should be sold or written off
or be invested in a very strategic manner.
The units that come in this section of matrix are Early learning Centers of
Mothercare.
SWOT
ANALYSIS
SWOT stands for strengths, weakness, opportunity and
threat analysis and it’s an internal and external organisational analysis tool.
The opportunities and threats analysis of swot deals
primarily with external factors affecting any organisation. Below is the
comprehensive SWOT analysis of Mothercare.
Strength
Dealing in a Niche Market
If we analyse the main strengths of the company we
find that the company deals with products for mothers, especially expectant
mothers and offer products for infants, baby toddlers and children up to
8 years old. This in itself is a very
niche market and it’s a very lucrative market.
Considering the UK birth rate is 12.26, (12.26
births/1,000 population) which is an average annual number of births during a
year per 1,000 persons in the population (CIA, 2013)
The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of UK is 1.90 (CIA,
2013). TFR gives a figure for the average number of children that would be born
per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing years and bore
children according to a given fertility rate at each age.
So considering these
statistics we know that there is market for products to be offered for
expectant mothers and newborn babies and Mothercare can capitalise on that.
Global
Brand
The name Mothercare is
associated with mothers and babies throughout the world. Mothercare have been
able to tap into all the markets associate with maternity and child care.
It now offers a wide range
of maternity and children's clothing, furniture and home furnishings, bedding,
feeding, bathing, travel equipment and toys through its retail operations in
the United Kingdom, and also operates internationally through franchises in
Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Far East under the 'Mothercare' brand
name.
Mothercare opened 115 new
shops overseas this year, bringing the total number to more than 1,000. International
sales rose 15.5pc in the year to March 30, despite weakness in the euro zone.
Weakness
Threats
from Online Retailers
Mothercare closed 56
unprofitable UK stores this year(2013), mostly Early Learning Centre outlets,
as the focus shifts online and to an expanding international business, where it
enjoys double-digit sales growth. It plans a further 55 closures in the next
two years to shrink its UK chain to 200 stores. (Telegraph, 2013)
Poor
Customer Services
Customer services plays a
huge role in any company. Mothercare have been blamed to have neglected the
customer services as part of their cost reduction programme. Also the
management were focusing on the global expansion of the company. This created a
huge downfall in its UK
The retailer is accused of
chasing overseas glory – it has stores in 59 countries including Nigeria and
Kazakhstan – but forgetting about shoppers at home, losing its competitive edge
on pricing and letting customer service deteriorate.
Opportunities
1.
Designer
Baby Products Range
There is an opportunity for Mothercare to offer the
designer children wear range in posh areas of UK high streets.
Designer wear like Kid Space, Alex and Alexa.com are
already in the market but there is not a fierce competition in this area.
This will ensure that Mothercare will cater the
needs of the wealthy label conscious people and this would also enable
Mothercare to cater the needs of those parents who cannot afford high price
products but still prefer an above average product for their children.
The way this could be achieved is that if Mothercare
could struck a deal with few designer labels and then using their name with
expertise of Mothercare in the baby product range. Then using the joint venture
advertising campaigns with those designers – Mothercare could promote its
products along with the designers brand image.
2.
Online
Advertisement
Online advertising is a
huge market and with more and more people searching for their shopping needs
online, advertising is the “de facto” of the marketing companies. Advertisng in
search engines like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Bing will give Mothercare Plc
an edge over their competitors.
Online advertising is huge
and still growing. In the UK it has overtaken television to become the biggest
advertising medium and now accounts for 20% of all advertising spend.
Whether selling a product
or growing a brand, online advertising is a flexible and cost-effective way of
getting the message out.
By advertising on search
engines and social media platforms Mothercare can make an impression in the
online space. This is an area where companies need to invest a lot considering
the time most people spend their time shopping online.
Today that target audience
spends time with both online and offline media—internet, video, radio,
television, magazines, newspapers, social. And the same advertising messages
can be delivered on a mobile device as those viewers, listeners, visitors, and
readers go on about their business.
3.
Boasting
Online Sales
A survey showed that
online sales in UK experienced the highest growth in 2012, recording a huge 17%
jump on July 2011. This works out at an annual figure of about £6.5 billion
spent online with each person spending an average of £128. Total growth for the
2012 year to date stands at approximately 13%. On average more than 95% of UK
shoppers have made an online purchase (Electronic-Payments,
2013)
Mothercare is seeking to
boost its online presence in the UK as it looks to reverse months of declining
sales. Mothercare hired Simor Claver, an internet and brand specialist, as its
new chief executive in 2012. Mr Calver left Lovefilm to join Mothercare. Mr
Calver has been chief executive of DVD rental service LOVEFiLM since 2005,
during which time the company was bought by online retailer Amazon.
4.
Improve
Store Services
Mothercare needs to
improve its stores and delivery services as well as lowering prices in a bid to
wrestle back cash strapped customers from supermarkets like Morrisons Kiddicare
and online retailers like amazon and ebay. They would need to offer better
services in store in order to provide better services to its customers. This
would involve offering New
range and innovative products for baby care. Improved
value, choice and service for customers would give an edge to Mothercare over its competitors.
5.
Mobile
Apps and Advertisement on Mobile Apps
The transition to a new
online platform and mobile apps is another area where Mothercare can further
increases its sales. By offering new products via mobile phone and mobile phone
advertisement would give them an opportunity to tap into the market as most
people in UK holds a mobile phone.
6.
Making
use of Data and Analytics
Supermarkets are combining
their loyalty card data with social media information to detect and leverage
changing buying patterns. For example, it is now possible for retailers to
predict that a woman is pregnant simply based on the changing buying patterns.
This allows them to target pregnant women with promotions for baby related
goods.
Using Big Data combined
together with social media to detect the changes in buying pattern and offering
product offers before anyone else is a potential opportunity for Mothercare.
7.
Value
Product Range
There is an opportunity
for Mothercare to introduce cheap/value products given the current economic
situation of the country. With companies like ASDA, Tesco and Morrisons
bringing their value range Mothercare should plan to sort out its basic
commercial housekeeping, matching rivals' prices and, given the straitened
economic climate, should introduce a value range.
This would encourage
middle class parents to buy products from Mothercare rather than looking for
cheaper products elsewhere.
8.
Email
Marketing
Email Marketing is another
media by which Mothercare can tap into the online market. By carefully defining
it email marketing campaign during festive seasons and offering its products to
its well targeted customers Mothercare can make use of this medium effectively.
9.
Revamping
Stores
Mothercare has taken
measures to revamp its remaining UK stores, adding Costa Coffee concessions and
play areas, and is trying to push online sales. This is a positive change and
is one needed by Mothercare to offer more services to expand and retain its
customers.
10. Involvement in
Digital Media, Social Media Networks
Using Social
Media, Mothercare can instantly identify emerging and important trends that are
likely to impact its brand. Trace a trend’s origins, amplify what’s beneficial,
curtail what’s not, and pinpoint opportunities to drive new trends favorable to
the business.
Social network websites
continue to aggressively positioning their sites as a link between consumers
and merchants. Both fixed and mobile social networks tend to market themselves
as a tool for merchants to connect with consumers and promote brands – rather
than just as services for connecting friends.
Social media developments
are fascinating and exciting. They show the great potential of the new
communication and tools that are becoming available thanks to the Internet, Web
2.0, email and broadband infrastructure. However, for these new social media
tools to succeed, they need to become fully and totally integrated into our
daily communication. With 3 out of every 5 minutes spend online is on a social
networking site, this is a huge phenomenon and Mothercare would need to fully
make use of this medium (Buddle, 2013)
Mothercare could use
social media to reach its potential new customers and engage them into
interesting conversations about baby and child care products.
11. Using Social
Media to Influence Mothers
Using dedicated Social
Media teams to educate women about baby care and pregnancy can also improve the
chances to of winning the trust of consumers and then using this opportunity to
sell them the products.
Threats
Financial
Crisis
The economic conditions of
the UK retail market have an imperative impact on the Mothercare. Mothercare’s
net worth has dropped substantially since March 2011, while it has gone from
holding substantial cash reserves to substantial borrowings (HuffingtonPost,
2013). This was also due to the fact that company has to close down many stores
in the UK. According to its last financial statement, it made an operational
loss in the UK of £24.7m for the year end March 2013, and sales were down 4.6%.
Online
Competition
There is a huge market in
online sales and there are various competitors competing in the mother and baby
care range which poses a great threat to Mothercare’s sale. As the online
stores offer similar products at a cheaper price so they are a big concern and
Mothercare have to compete strategically in this space acquiring more expertise
and pushing its online reputation as a global brand in mother and baby child
care.
High
Street Competitors
Competitors like Tesco and
Morrisons pose a continuous threat to Mothercare. Tesco have launched its own range of baby
care products.
Mothercare also faces
competition from Kiddicare – which is operated by Morrisons superstore as part
of their strategy to compete in the baby care market.
Mothercare baby clothing range faces tough competition from Gap
Maternity.
3. Inline
with your future pan for Mothercare Plc, propose two strategic options
available for Mothercare Plc. (12.3.1)(12.3.3)and discuss how you will include
the stake holders in the new structure you propose in the process, and its
resource implications. (12.4.1, 12.4.2, 12.4.3)
The proposed strategic options comes under a new product development
category based on Ansoff’s product/market growth matrix.
Product
development: Product development is the name given to a growth strategy where a
business aims to introduce new products into existing markets. This strategy
may require the development of new competencies and requires the business to
develop modified products which can appeal to existing markets. (tutor2u, 2012)
Market
penetration: Market penetration is the name given to a growth strategy where the
business focuses on selling existing products into existing markets.
Market penetration seeks to achieve four main objectives:
•Maintain or increase the market share of current products – this can be
achieved by a combination of competitive pricing strategies, advertising, sales
promotion and perhaps more resources dedicated to personal selling
•Secure dominance of growth markets
•Restructure a mature market by driving out competitors; this would
require a much more aggressive promotional campaign, supported by a pricing
strategy designed to make the market unattractive for competitors
•Increase usage by existing customers – for example by introducing
loyalty schemes
Out of the
11 potential strategies identified in the opportunities section above, the two
most important ones are
1)
Introduction of Cheap/ValueMothercare Products Range(Product Development) and
2)
Investment in the Online Marketing Strategy (Market
Penetration)
1.
Value
Product Range (Product Development)
There is an opportunity
for Mothercare to introduce cheap/value products given the current economic
situation of the country. With companies like ASDA, Tesco and Morrisons
bringing their value range Mothercare should plan to sort out its basic
commercial housekeeping, matching rivals' prices and, given the straitened
economic climate, should introduce a value range.
This would encourage
middle class parents to buy products from Mothercare rather than looking for designer
products elsewhere.
This will ensure that Mothercare will cater the
needs of the middle class people and this would also enable Mothercare to cater
the needs of those parents who cannot afford high price products but still
prefer a fair quality product for their children.
2.
Online
Advertisement (Market Penetration)
Second
recommended strategy for Mothercare is the use of Online advertising campaigns
to advertise its products on search engines so that when potential customers
searches for products related to infants, baby and mother care products then
they should be presented with relevant ads pertaining to Mothercare products.
This could have a huge ROI as online advertising have worked for many brands
that suffered a back lash from fierce competition and these companies turned
the table against their competitors by online advertising.
Online advertising is a
huge market and with more and more people searching for their shopping needs
online, advertising is the “de facto” of the marketing companies. Advertisng in
search engines like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Bing will give Mothercare Plc
an edge over their competitors.
Online advertising is huge
and still growing. In the UK it has overtaken television to become the biggest
advertising medium and now accounts for 20% of all advertising spend.
Whether selling a product
or growing a brand, online advertising is a flexible and cost-effective way of
getting the message out.
By advertising on search
engines and social media platforms Mothercare can make an impression in the
online space. This is an area where companies need to invest a lot considering
the time most people spend their time shopping online.
Today that target audience
spends time with both online and offline media—internet, video, radio,
television, magazines, newspapers, social. And the same advertising messages
can be delivered on a mobile device as those viewers, listeners, visitors, and
readers go on about their business.
According to
Nielsen’s latest Global Trust in Advertising report, which surveyed more than
28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries, 92 percent of consumers around the
world say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and
family, above all other forms of advertising—an increase of 18 percent since
2007. Online consumer reviews are the second most trusted source of brand
information and messaging, with 70 percent of global consumers surveyed online
indicating they trust messages on this platform, an increase of 15 percent in
four years (Nielsen, 2013).
Involving Stake Holders in the Process
Stakeholders are defined as those individual, group
or bodies that have an interest in an organisation. Stakeholders can affect or
be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies. An example
of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, government (and its
agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions and the community from
which the business draws its resources. To involve stakeholders in the process
the most important task is to identify and prioritise the key stakeholders.
Stakeholders
have interest in the company and they can be affected by the company's actions,
objectives and policies. There should be awareness among stakeholders before
any process is propagated. It’s all about letting stakeholders know that why a process
is needed now and what will be the advantages associate to it. This helps stakeholders to accept that a
change is needed because the current situation is not suitable. It’s about creating an awareness among
the incumbent that compel them to unfreeze from their current state.
Stakeholder engagement strategy
Mothercare stakeholder engagement strategy
should establish the objectives of stakeholder engagement through the plan
preparation process and indicate how the involvement of stakeholders is
achieved at each stage of the plan preparation/dissemination process.
Since it’s an “adopt or
die” situation for Mothercare Plc in the
current UK market and the stakeholders would need to realize that change is for
their own benefit.
Once
the key stakeholders have been recognised, then they are prioritised, their
interests and objectives are taken into consideration and a strategy is planned
to articulate process strategy to them. The way this could be achieved is:
·
The designed systems are considered to address the issues
within the stakeholders.
·
The systems suggest issues and their priorities to be
considered within the stakeholders.
·
The systems are designed to receive reports and proposals
from the stakeholders.
·
Meeting held periodically throughout the change process.
·
Provides comment on proposals being made by the
stakeholders.
·
It’s a well known fact that Incentives derives behaviours.
Setting up mechanisms to reward employees otherwise there is a potential risk
that employees may be drifted to old ways.
The
stakeholder engagement strategy builds up trust and understanding between key
stakeholders. Stakeholders are offered
an opportunity to participate in decision-making process. It also helps in
identifying points of dispute at an early stage. Stakeholders achieve a real
sense of the problems to be overcome during the change process.
Resource implications
There are
numerous resource implications for an organisation related to the strategic
processes. These implication could be Human resources, Physical resources and Financial
resources. If the organisation does not address these resource implications
then this will affect its entire operating strategy so its imperative that the
company respond to these implications.
Human resources
To maintain a
healthy, successful and efficient work place, Mothercare should collaborate
with its employees to create a relax working environment for all its employees.
Motivation, encouragement and maintaining employee’s satisfaction and
well-being at work are vital for Mothercare to perform at its best. Mothercare
leaders should collaborate with its employees within formal and informal
networks to allow ideas to be exchanged easily.
Financial Resources
The resource
implications of brining a new product in the market is high cost and also The
resource implications of advertising is high cost. Mothercare would need to
consider these financial implications and how they would be secured.
For Online Advertising
Mothercare would
have to heavily invest in the online marketing campaigns. They would have to
set a budget and would then need to back it up with powerful marketing tools
and data analytics to see which advertising campaigns have worked for them.
4. Using the appropriate model, examine the factors
affecting Mother Care’s strategy plan (12.5.1),
To examine the
factors affecting Mothercare strategy plan we will make use of PESTEL analysis
tool to underline these factors.
POLITICAL
British
economy
British economy is going
through tough times; companies need to move forward while keeping their eyes on
the global threats that might affect them. In current times, when the global
economy is in a standstill, it’s very difficult for companies to invest in new
ideas and businesses.
For Mothercare to start a
value range of products is good in a sense - as most people are not earning as
much as they use to earn. While economy is at a standstill people are not
prepared to spend more and are happy with cheap but cheerful products.
Since 2008, the global
financial crisis plunged the UK into its longest and deepest recession. More
than a million people lost their jobs as businesses - from shops to
manufacturers and banks - either closed or laid off staff.
The credit crunch and job
fears meant consumers cut spending, deciding to pay off debt and save instead
(BBC, 2013)
Economical
Challenge
of Global Recession
The
investors are now very careful when it comes to investing in new ventures.
Global
economic recession poses the unique challenge to the Mothercare plans to expand
or to invest in new ideas which offer better value for money to their customers.
Mothercare
as an organization have to be equipped to handle the recession because of its
brand name, reputation and market share. In tough economic times, companies
need to move forward while keeping their eyes on the global threats that might
affect them.
Financial
Crisis
The impact of economic and
financial crisis of the Europe and the UK economy is very pertinent on
Mothercare plc. For any company to expand and to invest in new ideas they need
cash and loan from banks and since banks are not offering loans on easy terms –
this creates a huge barrier for companies to grow.
With the UK and rest of
the world plunging into the global financial crisis in the second half of 2008,
Mothercare, like many high street retailers have found themselves in financial
difficulties.
Social
Social Media: Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter,
Linkedin and Pinterest represent a huge opportunity for Mothercare to grab the
attention of customers while simultaneously building a brand image. There are
plenty of tactics that Mothercare can employ to do this including the creation
of brand profiles on social networks such as Facebook fan pages and creative
advertising via branded podcasts and apps.
It is worth
noting that individuals trust the opinions of their peers far more than a
glossy magazine advert. Millions of people review products and services
directly via social media sites using video through Youtube, which in many
cases is then shared and disseminated via various other social media websites.
As a consequence, the public increasingly look to social media to find reviews
on various products and services to help them to make buying decisions. As a result,
companies can and do provide products to popular Youtube users to review for
their subscribers as well as create their own branded Youtube channels with
branded videos about their products.
Social media has
had and is continuing to have a huge influence on business, marketing and on
how businesses engage with their target market. The use of social media to
share and engage with others continues to grow at an astounding rate, so it
would be wise for any business to develop and implement a sustainable social
media strategy in order to successfully take advantage of this rapidly changing
environment.
Social Factors: Environmental protection and Health & Safety can become
major issues in the UK for Mothercare. A variety of regulations and laws are
imposed which may unfavorably affect the company's financial condition and
results by requiring a safe disposal or recycling Mothercare’s products.
Technological
The
technological impacts have a profound effect on Mothercare specially with its new
initiatives.
More and more small
companies are coming online and competing with the large brands, the online
advertising industry have all of the sudden given this unique ability to small
startups to start competing with global giants.
Now with web
even the small companies can operate globally and this is a concern for large
multi-nationals. Large companies not only face fierce competition from their
rivals but also from small startups. Hence online advertising is an important
investment that have to be utilized in a very strategic way.
Mothercare also
faces tough competition from online shop stores like amazon and ebay and with
other stores like Tesco and ASDA offering similar baby care products which are
cheaper than Mothercare. So in the wake of all of that Mothercare have to
invest fiercely to win its place in the online space.
Develop appropriate vision and mission for the future (12.5.2,
12.5.3)
Vision:
A vision
statement identifies where the organization wants or intends to be in future or
where it should be to best meet the needs of the stakeholders. It describes
dreams and aspirations for future.
A vision is the
potential to view things ahead of themselves. It answers the question ―where we
want to be. It gives us a reminder about what we attempt to develop.
A vision statement is for the organization and its
members, unlike the mission statement which is for the customers/clients.
It contributes
in effective decision making as well as effective business planning. It
incorporates a shared understanding about the nature and aim of the
organization and utilizes this understanding to direct and guide the
organization towards a better purpose. It describes that on achieving the
mission, how the organizational future would appear to be. An effective vision
statement must have following features:
•
It must be unambiguous.
•
It must be clear.
•
It must harmonize with organization‘s culture and
values.
•
The dreams and aspirations must be rational/realistic.
•
Vision statements should be shorter so that they are
easier to memorize.
In order to
realize the vision, it must be deeply instilled in the organization, being
owned and shared by everyone involved in the organization.
Vision: outlines what the organization wants to be, or
how it wants the world in which it operates to be (an "idealised"
view of the world). It is a long-term view and concentrates on the future. It
can be emotive and is a source of inspiration (rspublication, 2013).
Mothercare
current vision
• To be the leading specialist retailer for mothers to
be & parents of young children.
• To have expertise and service at the heart of the
offer.
Mothercare
New vision
• To be the leading specialist online retailer for
mothers to be & parents of young children.
• To provide affordable, quality products to its
customers.
• To have expertise and service at the heart of the
offer.
Mission:
Defines the fundamental purpose of an organization
or an enterprise, succinctly describing why it exists and what it does to
achieve its vision. For example, the charity above might have a mission
statement as "providing jobs for the homeless and unemployed".
Features
of a Mission
• Mission must be feasible and
attainable. It should be possible to achieve it.
• Mission should be clear enough so
that any action can be taken.
• It should be inspiring for the
management, staff and society at large.
• It should be precise enough, i.e., it
should be neither too broad nor too narrow.
• It should be unique and distinctive
to leave an impact in everyone‘s mind.
• It should be analytical i.e., it
should analyze the key components of the strategy.
• It should be credible, i.e., all
stakeholders should be able to believe it. (rspublication, 2013)
Mothercare Current Mission Statement
Mothercare
mission is to meet the needs and aspirations of parents for their children,
worldwide.
Mothercare Future Mission Statement
Mothercare
mission is to meet the needs and aspirations of parents for their children,
worldwide.
To become one of
the leading producers of children and expectant mother accessories, offering
great products and services at affordable prices.
To become one
stop shop for mothers for all their baby care needs.
And the necessary corporate objectives and comment how
you will measure your strategic plans (12.5.4)
Mothercare aim
to offer its customers products that comprise a compelling mix of strong
design, exceptional quality and great value for money.
Following is the
list of necessary corporate objectives that have to be implemented and executed.
·
Expanding in the right Markets.
·
Launching Right Products.
·
Investing in Research and Development to create an
edge over its competitors.
·
Online Business Strategy.
·
Offer much broader and cheaper range online to compete
with growing number of competitors.
·
Investing in the right products.
·
Listening and Responding to Customer feedback.
·
Customer Engagement Strategy online and offline.
·
Demos on High streets to raise awareness among new mums
and expectant mothers.
·
Advertising in Media, TV, Radio, Web and Mobile.
·
Seminars and other public awareness programs like Gyms
and Health Clinics.
·
Compensating GPs, Doctors and Nurses to recommend and
promote Mothercare Baby and expectant mother care products.
·
Improve Customer Satisfaction level.
·
Promote Brand Name by advertising on Buses and Train
Stations.
Measure Strategic Plans
The
best way to measure strategic plans are by making use of Data and Analytics. Major
High street retailers and Supermarkets
are combining their loyalty card data with social media information to detect
and leverage changing buying patterns. For example, it is now possible for
retailers to predict that a woman is pregnant simply based on the changing
buying patterns. This allows them to target pregnant women with promotions for
baby related goods.
Mothercare can measure its
strategic plans by quantifiable performance statements, performance indicators,
statistical analysis, profit and loss statements and other tracking methods.
Using Big Data combined
together with social media to detect the changes in buying pattern and offering
product offers before anyone else is a potential opportunity for Mothercare.
5.
You have done all necessary preparations to take the leadership of Mother care
Plc. by executing all the tasks above. Please present a schedule for
implementing a most suitable strategy (12.6.1),
Based on an intensive research on
Mothercare, it is evident that Mothercare needs improvement in lots of areas in
order to gain its market share and to be in a much comfortable state. They need
to convince their customers that they are offering much better baby and
maternity products at much cheaper price and high quality than their
competitors.
The most suitable strategy for
Mothercare is to compete in the online space where it faces tough competition.
For that it would need to setup its online media strategy.
Social Media: Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter,
Linkedin and Pinterest represent a huge opportunity for Mothercare to grab the
attention of customers while simultaneously building a brand image. There are
plenty of tactics that Mothercare can employ to do this including the creation
of brand profiles on social networks such as Facebook fan pages and creative
advertising via branded podcasts and apps. This implementation should start by
the end of year 2013.
Customer Reviews: It is worth noting that individuals trust the
opinions of their peers far more than a glossy magazine advert. Millions of
people review products and services directly via social media sites using video
through Youtube, which in many cases is then shared and disseminated via
various other social media websites. As a consequence, the public increasingly
look to social media to find reviews on various products and services to help
them to make buying decisions.
Mother should provide
product review videos on Social Video websites like Youtube, Vimeo etc so users
can review and comment on product reviews.
Social media and
Social Media Video channels is continuing to have a huge influence on business,
marketing and on how businesses engage with their target market. The use of
social media to share and engage with others continues to grow at an astounding
rate, so it would be wise for Mothercare to develop and implement a sustainable
social media strategy in order to successfully take advantage of this rapidly
changing environment.
Feedback
collection from customers online and in stores should be implemented from first
quarter of 2014.
(12.6.2) Create appropriate dissemination process to gain the
stakeholder’s commitment
Mothercare is fully committed to
protecting its customers, people making its products and the environment by
ensuring efficient use of raw materials, optimising the use of energy,
encouraging recycling and sustainability, and engaging business partners and
stakeholder groups. (Mothercare, 2013)
Acceptability is concerned with stakeholder
expectations of Mothercare to earn more profit in future and the expected
outcomes of implementing the strategy to become the market leaders.
Stakeholder engagement strategy
A stakeholder engagement strategy
should establish the objectives of stakeholder engagement through the plan
preparation process and indicate how the involvement of stakeholders is
achieved at each stage of the plan preparation/dissemination process. It should
indicate how the process of policy making will be undertaken and transparency
delivered. As part of delivering transparency, the strategy should be made
publicly available. The strategy should include
1) The vision for stakeholder
engagement and
2) The details of purpose, players,
methods and responsibility. Guiding principles include inclusivity,
transparency, appropriateness, clarity and comprehensiveness.
The stakeholder engagement strategy
builds up trust and understanding between key stakeholders. Stakeholders are offered an opportunity to
participate in decision-making process. It also helps in identifying points of
dispute at an early stage. Stakeholders achieve a real sense of the problems to
be overcome during the change process.
Once
the key stakeholders have been recognised, then they are prioritised, their
interests and objectives are taken into consideration and a strategy is planned
to articulate process strategy to them. The way this could be achieved is:
·
The designed systems are considered to address the issues
within the stakeholders.
·
The systems suggest issues and their priorities to be
considered within the stakeholders.
·
The systems are designed to receive reports and proposals
from the stakeholders.
·
Meeting held periodically throughout the change process.
·
Provides comment on proposals being made by the
stakeholders.
·
It’s a well known fact that Incentives derives behaviours.
Setting up mechanisms to reward employees otherwise there is a potential risk
that employees may be drifted to old ways.
(12.6.3) And design suitable monitoring and evaluation system
for the implementation of your proposed strategy plan
Once all the stakeholders are
involved in the strategy, the next stage is to put the plan into action. The
Mothercare Management Committee is responsible for monitoring all areas of the
organisation's activity, and for evaluating it to determine the impact, quality
and effectiveness of its proposed strategy.
In particular, the Management
Committee will want to determine if the organisation is:
•
Achieving
its aims and objectives;
•
Showing
progress towards its mission/purpose;
•
Meeting
the needs of its beneficiaries;
•
Using
its resources efficiently and to the greatest effect;
•
Complying
with the law; and
•
Working
within its policy framework. (DiyCommitteeGuide, 2013)
Constructing robust measures is the first step to developing Mothercare’s
performance scorecard. Measures are quantifiable performance statements, and
they must follow certain guidelines. Monitoring measures should be:
• Relevant to
the Corporate Goal and Strategy
• In context
of a target to be reached in an identified time period
• Capable of
being tracked after intervals
• Ownership taken
by the People who are in charge of implementing
Monitoring mostly involves keeping
track of what is going on. By undertaking this regularly, the Management
Committee have the opportunity to adjust the project to ensure that the above
concerns are addressed. This is usually carried out through consideration of
regular operational and financial reports on the organisations activities. For
purposes of accountability, the Management Committee should ensure that this
reporting is regular and that discussions on these are properly documented.
Organisations evaluate in order to:
•
Encourage
ongoing improvement;
•
Provide
evidence of the impact of their activities; and
•
Provide
an informed basis for decision making and planning.
Evaluation and review should be an
ongoing process of learning, embedding a process of continual improvement and
development (DiyCommitteeGuide, 2013).
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