International Marketing Project: John Lewis

International Marketing Project: John Lewis

Background

John Lewis is a chain of upmarket department stores operating throughout Great Britain and popular amongst the British middle class for its high quality goods. The chain is owned by the John Lewis Partnership. All permanent employees are partners in the business. There are currently 27 stores throughout England and Scotland and a further 8 stores are confirmed to open in the next 5 years. The brand is known for its slogan "Never Knowingly Undersold" which has been in use for 76 years. In 2007 John Lewis was voted Britain's Favourite Department Store.

On 1 January 2008, John Lewis Oxford Street was awarded a Royal Warrant from Her Majesty the Queen as suppliers of haberdashery and household goods. The John Lewis shop in Reading, Berkshire also has a Royal Warrant from the Queen as suppliers of household and fancy goods, received on 1 January 2007.

Several John Lewis stores are iconic architectural buildings, often with listed building status. These include the flagship store on Oxford Street, London, with its Barbara Hepworth statue Winged Figure, on the corner with Holles Street, and the Peter Jones department store at the corner of Sloane Square and Kings Road, Chelsea, London.

Some of the earlier smaller branches have now been closed, such as Caley's in Windsor, which shut its doors in July 2006.

Source: www.wikipedia.com

‘The John Lewis Partnership is a visionary and successful way of doing business, boldly putting the happiness of Partners at the centre of everything it does. It's the embodiment of an ideal, the outcome of nearly a century of endeavour to create a different sort of company, owned by Partners dedicated to serving customers with flair and fairness.’

‘The John Lewis Partnership aims to deal honestly with customers, securing their loyalty and trust by providing outstanding choice, value and service. Our 69,000 permanent staff are Partners in the business and share in its profits, which is why we care about our customers. We are passionate about the products we sell and strive to offer customers the best service, unrivalled product assortments from our network of suppliers, and unbeatable value in a pleasant, convenient and accessible shopping environment through our shops, websites and call centres.’

‘When John Spedan Lewis founded the Partnership, he set out how the business was to be run in our Constitution, a set of corporate values and principles which govern and guide our business. Our seven business principles purpose, power, profit, members, customers, business and relationships align perfectly with current thinking on corporate social responsibility. They set out how we see our responsibilities in terms of community investment, environmental protection, responsible sourcing and trading and workplace dignity, diversity and equality.’

‘Through the combined efforts of our Partners over the years, we have built a culture based on our principles, which ensures that corporate social responsibility issues are embedded in the way we run the business. We believe that this unique Partnership culture, which makes sure we deal with our customers, suppliers and all stakeholders with integrity and respect, is at the heart of our commercial success. Find out more about our business' principles.

In 2005, the Partnership launched 'Powered by our Principles' (PboP) which defines how all Partners should behave in order to live out our principles every day. Find out more about Powered by our Principles.’

Source: www.johnlewis.com

SWOT Analysis

Strengths for John lewis is mainly based around their reputation of excellent customer service and quality of products, this makes them a very popular store for the midde-class people in Britain. They are obviously striving to create loyal customers, and receive repeat sales, and they’re managing to do this by creating an ideal shopping expeiriance for every customer, the middle class will generally be looking for more that just finding the product they want and being happy with it, they need something special to keep them interested, and likley to shop at John lewis again.

Weaknesses for John Lewis could include the exclusion of working-class people from their shop, their formal, proffesional approach to providing customer service could intimidate and putt-off certain customers, and this could lose John Lewis some vital loyalty and some vital customers.

Oppurtunities for John Lerwis could include expanding the amount of stores further, which is already currently underway with a Cardiff store planned for opening in summer 2009 and another store in Stratford planned to open in 2011, this exapansion will help to maintain the brand identity which is vital to the businesses survival

Threats for John Lewis could be a rise in numbers of similar department stores throughout Britain, ones that challenge John Lewis on price, sacrificing quality a little to make larger profit margins and expand quickly. The lower price also means the working-class consumer is likley to be more attrated to this different store. A less ‘full-on’ customer service approach may make the consumer feel more comfertable in their surroundings.

Target Market

The main target market for John Lewis will be middle-class, middle aged men and women who want something more out of buying a product than just buying a product. They will expect an immaculute serivce, and won’t be afraid to complain if they don’t get it. Because of this, John Lewis knows that exceptional service must come as standard, and that they have to do everything they can to please the customer, to create more loyal customers, achieve more return sales, and higher revenues in the long term.

If this target-market is not happy with the service they are provided they are likley to go elsewhere and not return to John Lewis, so it is vital that John Lewis is able to immediatley impress the customer.

John Lewis also have to, and are, letting their target market know about how ethical ans fair a company they are, which is vital for the life-styles of sucessful, middle-aged men a women. Examples of John Lewis voicing their ethical practises include the ‘John Lewis timber policy’, converting their distribution vehicles to ‘Green Machines’ and using battery recycling, the target market will notice John Lewis doing this and then be more inclined to shop there.

Source: www.johnlewispartnership.com

Product Portfolio

John Lewis is a department store, meaning it sells masses of different products in many different areas. John Lewis is split into 8 different departments, these are;

·  Home & Garden

·  Electrical Applicances

·  Technology

·  Sport & Leisure

·  Fashion

·  Gifts

·  Toys

·  Baby

Each department has it’s own huge number of products, which are available to purchase online, or form a John Lewis store.

Customer service can also be included in the product portfolio, becasuse, although it does not directly generate revenue for John Lewis, the effects of it are highly likely to. If a customer receives a good service, they are likley to return and contonue spending their money at John Lewis, which will generate revenue for them. If the customer is happy with service they are also likley to recommend John Lewis to friends and family, which will encourage new sales, which will then encourage brand loyalty. All of these will help John Lewis to boost revenues, and hopefully profits.

Boston Matrix

Home & Garden Electrical Appliances Technology Sport Fashion Gifts Toys Baby

This Boston Matrix shows where in the market the different departments of John Lewis are placed.

Home and Garden have some growth, but not an enornous amount of growth as a whole market, and John Lewis own a resonable, but nuge huge market share of the Home & Garden market. A lot of products in the Home & Garden market are very seasonal (Mainly garden products), so their place on the Boston Matrix could change depending on the time of year.

Electrical Appliances are similarly placed with the Home & Garden department, in that there is some, but not substational growth in the market, and again, John Lewis own a sizeable, but not excessive amount of that market. Unlike the Home & Garden department, the Home & Garden department, there are no seasonal trends that will effect market size and market share,the products here will instead remain fairly steady.

Technology is a rapidly growing market, the largest out of any of John Lewis’ departments, but John Lewis doesn’t own that much of the market. John Lewis do not own a particularly small share of the market, and the size and growth of the market means that John Lewis may be getting more revenues from this department rather than another department where John Lewis has a large market share, but the market itself is relativley small.

Sport, as a market is not growing very much, it’s staying more or less the same. There are some obvious seasonal trends, like in the Home & Garden department, where the market size will boost in the summer months, but apart from that the growth of the market is very limited. John Lewis do not have that large a share in the Sport markrty