Research Paper on:
Marketing Audit of Marks and Spencer

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
role of informing potential consumers as well as creating a need or desire for the product. The ability to differentiation may also be seen as a key concept. To examine  the role and place of marketing we can choose a UK based organisation that has used marketing in different ways in the past. In this paper we will consider  the way in which Marks and Spencers have evolved their marketing philosophy, and how it has changed in recent years as a result of macro environmental changes. For this we  will use both primary information form the company and first hand observations of the marketing as well as secondary information. To place this into a solid context we need  to consider the basic philosophy of the company, and some background information and place this in the context of the current marketplace in order to ascertain how the marketing fits  with the environmental factors. In analysing this we can consider how the marketing has operated, its effectiveness and make recommendations for the future. II. Background The origins of  Marks and Spencers are modest. Michael Marks and Tom Spencer formed a partnership in Kirkgate market, Leeds (Marks and Spencer, 1999). It was the 1920s which saw the company  takes it strategic direction of dealing directly with producers, a strategy which has remained throughout the years. In 1926 the company became a public limited company and has ever since  been well known for retailing clothing for men, women and children (Marks and Spencer, 1999). In later years there was the addition of house wares and furnishing. The philosophy has  been one of high quality and premium prices, with a strong reliance in the quality and reputation as well as high street presence as the main marketing tools. Marketing took