Primark-TranThiThanhTruc-DigitalMarketing

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Primark
Digital Marketing Strategy
for High-street Fashion
TRAN,TRUC – M2184031

PRIMARK – Digital Marketing Strategy for High-street Fashion
Tran Thi Thanh Truc – M2184031
Digital Marketing – BIN3001-N-BJ1-2012 1
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2
2. Internal Analysis..................................................................................................................... 3
Primark Business Structure ...................................................................................................3
5 S’s Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 3
Competitor Analysis ............................................................................................................... 5
Critical Success Factors.....................................................................................................5
Market Analysis...................................................................................................................... 7
PEST Analysis .................................................................................................................... 7
Customer Profile................................................................................................................. 8
External opportunities and Threats...................................................................................... 10
3. Key issues to be addressed ................................................................................................ 11
4. Digital Marketing Strategy for High-street Fashion ............................................................. 12
Marketing objectives ............................................................................................................ 12
Strategic direction................................................................................................................. 13
Decision 1 – Market and Product Development Strategies ............................................. 14
Decision 2 – Online Communication Mix and Budget...................................................... 15
Resources and Budget......................................................................................................... 16
Control.................................................................................................................................. 16
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 17
Appendix 1................................................................................................................................. 19
Appendix 2................................................................................................................................. 20
Appendix 3................................................................................................................................. 21
Appendix 4................................................................................................................................. 22

1. Introduction
Sales of online clothing and footwear are rising rapidly recent years. However, the
barriers of online shopping are not such a small number. In order to catch more
customers and put people off making actual purchasing is a crucial objective of every
fashion brand. (Mintel Oxygen, 2011) Besides that, the way using internet marketing
and social media to bring the best benefits is, nowadays, becoming massive and
difficult to control ever. While many retailers and clothing chains are developing the
online platform and one shopping, Primark seems not to do the same but at the
moment; Primark is still a big brand with huge number of profits and achievements.
Without online shopping, Primark sometimes performs passively in the market with
updating the trends. In that report, I am going to analysis the company and business
structure as well as the current platform to determine the key issues that Primark is
facing right now. After that, the next part is developed by gathering information,
applying suitable theories and combining the internet marketing with the offline sales
to help Primark attract more customers.
The Digital marketing theories are mainly used throughout the report, which includes
two large parts: Primark Company analysis and Digital Marketing Strategy for High-
street fashion with a detailed 18 months plan for the development the brand by
applying the internet marketing.

2. Internal Analysis
Primark Business Structure
Primark is a low priced fashion retailer which has 242 stores in the UK and other
countries in Europe named as Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and
Portugal. With the huge number of sales, £2,096 million (2012), Primark has been
one of the great successful retailers in Europe over the last decade. The sales keep
increasing over 10% though the poor economics condition (BBC, 2013).
In 1969, Penneys was first founded in Mary Street, Dublin. The first Primark store in
the UK was opened in 1973. The most important reason helps Primark to maintain
the market is quick reaction with the fashion trends, especially high street fashion.
Primark is positioning itself as a young fashion, the scale age is large (from 16 to
45+) and low prices. (Primark, 2013)
The Primark management is always concerned when the transition form is still kept
inside the business structure. Many experts believe believes that Primark is not
going online because of the weird management in Primark. However, it cannot be
denied that Primark is strong and healthy in the massive market at the moment. The
manager wants to earn more profits before going online. In fact, according to
Clothing Retailing UK report on Mintel (2012), Primark worries of going online
because online shopping will be difficult given its low price proposition, which can
affect the garments. Until today, no online is one of huge disadvantages for Primark.
5 S’s Analysis
To examine Primark current webpage to see how they apply e-marketing into the
business, I am going to use 5 S’s method. According to Smith and Chaffey (2008), 5
S’s is suggested as it presents a comprehensive range of objectives. Since then the
marketers can choose to use one or all to drive the e-marketing. Look the table 1.1
to know what Primark has put on the webpage to reach the customers.

Selected Organisation Primark
5S’s Framework Research Findings
Save Customers can visit the page to know where is the closest
store to shop and how can get the gift card which are the
best way for Primark to save the costs and serve more.
Speak “About us” tag shows the company history, suppliers, press
and CSR clearly so the customers can understand about
the brand and products.
“Recruitment” tag is put on the page that helps people can
corporate with the company and find chances to work for
them.
Serve “Ethical Trading” is one of important parts on the platform
and Primark focuses on ethical issues to add values into
their products.
“Gift Card” part is also helping Primark to serve more
people, not only the buyer, but also the user and potential
consumers.
Sell Primark grows sales thanks to cheap prices and they put
attractive products with amazing price on the front of
webpage to catch the attentions. However, Primark has not
offered online shopping yet.
“Gift Card” is a good way to promote the sales and get
people buys Primark more and more.

Sizzle Ethical trading is the most significant element that Primark
wants to build at the moment. Facebook page is linked on
the page as well and good introduction for the whole
products are a structured looking for customers
Table 1.1: Primark 5 S’s Analysis
The Primark platform is structured building but still there is not attractive and well
developed. One of the problems is online shopping and products reviews not
included on the webpage. It may affect the customer’s awareness and interesting on
the brand. The Sell and Speak have to get more efforts to improve to get customers
visit the webpage more before going to purchase outside. For example, Social media
is necessary for Primark to get closer with customers and putting more pictures
about products will be considered.
Competitor Analysis
Critical Success Factors
It is used the McDonald SWOT analysis to examine the competitors against Primark
in the high-street fashion market in the UK. Five critical success factors are showed
on the table 1.2 and the percentages accordingly.
In the Clothing Retailing UK summary in 2012, when asking the satisfaction levels
with factors impacting on fashion purchasing, there are many concerns towards the
products and service more than brands. Most of customers are satisfied with
products quality (88%), value for money (86%), styles of products (81%), way
products are displayed (79%) and brand available (65%). Besides that, customers
also care of ease of browsing before purchasing which holds 86%. The customer
services are offered included the online visiting webpage and feedbacks after sales.

1 Competitive Price 30%
2 Shop Location and Display 10%
3 Brand Awareness 25%
4 Customer Services 15%
5 Latest Fashion 20%
Total 100%
Table 1.2: Critical Success Factors and Weighting
In order to analysis the competitors of Primark, four other high street fashion brands
have be collected such as Zara, Top-Shop, H&M and Mango. See the table 1.3,
which shows the critical success factors with the counting and comparison between
Primark and four other competitors.
Primark Zara Top-Shop H&M Mango
1 30 x 8 = 240 30 x 6 = 180 30 x 7 = 210 30 x 7 = 210 30 x 6 = 180
2 10 x 6 = 60 10 x 8 = 80 10 x 6 = 60 10 x 6 = 60 10 x 7 = 70
3 25 x 5 = 125 25 x 8 = 200 25 x 6 = 150 25 x 7 = 175 25 x 8 = 200
4 15 x 5 = 75 15 x 9 = 135 15 x 7 = 105 15 x 8 = 120 15 x 9 = 135
5 20 x 8 = 160 20 x 9 = 180 20 x 6 = 120 20 x 7 = 140 20 x 6 = 120
Total 660 775 645 705 705
Table 1.3: Critical Success Factors Counting
Primark offers cheap priced products and updates the latest fast in the high street
fashion in order to make a routine on people purchase much every time coming to
the shop. Those two main reasons bring the best benefits for Primark in the UK
market. Moreover, shop located and designed is also considered in Primark when
people can find huge Primark shop in big cities and every centre. The sizes of

Primark store are large and provide huge amount of clothes and trends. However,
Primark does not have online shopping or catchy webpage to serve customers
before coming to shop in store so it is limited the purchasing. The cheap prices are
affected obviously to the brand awareness and higher segmentation.
Market Analysis
PEST Analysis
PEST analysis is a method examined to evaluate a company/organization’s long-
term mission and vision. PEST analysis consists of Political-legal, Economic, Socio-
cultural and Technological factors, which affect the company/organization externally.
(Business Dictionary, 2013)
Political-legal factor shows the ability or adaption of the company to follow the
governmental legislations as well as the flexibility to make business structure
compatible with the regulations. In fact, Primark’s policies are confronted and
ensured which the government abides. The trade inside EU is concerned, which
means the UK can trade with other EU countries without any restrictions. Moreover,
those recent years, the company’s eco-footprint issues are mentioned much in EU
and the UK to encourage more green business running. Primark has tried to
corporate and signed the contracts with supplier included the ethical issues.
(SCRIBD, 2013)
Economy at the moment is worse than ever so every business has tried to maintain
a particular number of market shares. In that way, Primark is recognised as one of
strong business, which is contributing a huge number of GDP thanks to the large
amount of products sold every year. Primark has earned the successes based on the
cheap prices and strong competitive prices with other brand e.g. Top Shop, Zara,
New Look, etc. Therefore, although the economy is going down, Primark still makes
the profits.
Socio-cultural factor is strongly supported to the Primark retailing and becoming a

crucial to find out the trends. Primark offers the clothing for both men and women
with the estimated rate (59% for women and 41% for men) according to Mintel
Oxygen (2012), which helps Primark to expand the market share and create more
chances for shopping. However, the green products and ethical issues are at the
moment getting huge concerns from customers after Primark related to hiring
children for making clothes in Pakistan. Customers are not satisfied with the
Primark’s product quality but they accept the prices and sizes (Mintel Oxygen, 2012).
According to an article in BBC (2010), Primark also got cause on the padded bikinis
for girls, which was not compatible for too young customers. Primark had made the
withdrawal all the padded bikinis and sent apologies to both parents and children.
Technological factor holds the tactics in the retailing industry nowadays. More and
more companies apply the online shopping and it has given a large number of
profits. According to Retail Economics (2012), “Nearly 28 million UK adults used the
Internet to purchase goods and services between October and December 2011
(excluding Christmas sale shopping), the equivalent of 55% of the adult population.”
However, Primark thought online shopping could make the company lose money and
would not make profits in first few years. (Guardian, 2013) Primark’s website is not
very attractive as well. With those existing problems show un-developed
technologies inner the Primark webpage cannot create the awareness in brand
towards customers.
In conclusion, Primark gets not only the forwards steps but also disadvantages in
running retailing business in the UK and other markets. To attract more customers
and improve the quality of services, Primark needs to provide more opportunities on
shopping and take care of the time cycle of products as well as the material of
clothing ethically.
Customer Profile
In the summary in Clothing Retailing UK, October 2012 of Mintel Oxygen, the
customer profile comparison between brands show the detailed different
segmentation and targeted groups from each brand selling in the UK market.

Primark is one of those brands and working quite active in each state of
segmentation.
Gender
Primark offers equal chances to shop in stores between men and women. Look the
figure 1a.
Figure 1a: Primark Gender of Customer profile (Source: Mintel Oxygen, 2012)
Age
In the table 1.4, the main targeted groups of Primark are at age 16-34 owned 51% so
it is a young segmentation. Therefore, we can know that Primark is more focusing on
teenagers and working people who buy more clothes every month and belong to
middle-class in the market.
16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Primark 29% 22% 19% 16% 8% 6%
Average 19% 19% 19% 17% 13% 12%
Table 1.4: Customer age (Source: Mintel Oxygen, 2012)
Region
49%
51%
PrimarkGender Cusomer Profile
Men Women

Primark puts stores mainly in South East/East Anglia with 21%. The inner and
Greater London, and East and West Midlands are the next ones with 15%. Those
areas are crowded, urban living and moreover, shopping malls are around.
State of Finances
The table shows that Primark is under the average when it is just 20% for the richer
segmentation. The main target is middle-class and tight pocket people. It is a true
status at the moment shows how Primark makes money in a difficult economic these
recent years.
Healthy OK Tight Struggling/In Trouble
Primark 20% 45% 26% 9%
Average 24% 43% 24% 9%
Table 1.5: State of finance of Primark customer (Source: Mintel Oxygen, 2012)
External opportunities and Threats
In fact, Primark is still outstanding in the fashion market with a huge number of net
profits from sales. In future, Primark plans to open more stores and move online in
the massive market. (The Independent, 2009)
There are several opportunities for Primark to move on and maintain the market
share as such:
 Open more stores inner the UK and Europe
 Research Asian markets as Primark is cooperating with Pakistan or other
Asian countries for supplying products
 Online shopping and e-commercial to interact and communicate with more
customers
 Become a giant brand in high street fashion, not only about cheap prices but
also the qualities and services
However, though Primark brings a lot of chances for people to shop around and buy
acceptable clothes with soft prices, Primark still cannot build a long term

relationships with customers about the brand. There are many scandals and
problems recent affected badly to the brand and caused confusion of making
products in Primark. Therefore, Primark faces with huge threats as well if the
company still repeats the mistakes. One of the significant issues is green business
and labour standard. Primark can get a serious trouble if more and more customers
do not believe in the products and the way they are made of. People can do any
campaign to anti brand and Primark’s sales will be down obviously. Moreover,
Primark will compete with others new brand outside the market. They may be cheap
and freelance so it is hard for Primark to analysis and control. The copycat products
and better services can turn Primark down if the company is not trying to improve the
webpage performances, launch more campaign and promotions as well as
determine clearly the cost of labours and products.
3. Key issues to be addressed
From the brief about Primark company and business running, there are several
things have been found out:
 Primark platform: the main webpage of Primark is limited at the moment. It
needs to be improved or rebuilt totally to catch more potential customers as
well as serve existing consumer and partners.
 Lacking of speaking/interacting with customers performs clearly throughout
social media is not used based on webpage, absence of twitter or YouTube in
order to communicate outside the stores.
 No online shopping until now becomes one of the most significant points in
Primark chain. Their sales keep rising rapidly despite of lacking of serving
online.
 Ethical issues and material concerned are observed from customers and
other organisations.

4. Digital Marketing Strategy for High-street Fashion
McDonald (2003) defines marketing planning simply as: “the planned application of
marketing resources to achieve marketing objectives… Marketing planning is simply
a logical sequence and a series of activities leading to the setting of marketing
objects and the formulation of plans for achieving them.”
In the marketing plan, the SOSTAC framework is used to set up the goals, ways
approach and control the plan. SOSTAC is a framework applied to digital Internet
marketing strategy development, which stands for Situation analysis, Objectives,
Strategy, Tactics, Actions and Control. (Chaffey and Smith, 2008)
In the previous part, the situation analysis is made by 5 S’s analysis, McDonald
SWOT analysis, and market analysis. Next five steps will be showed obviously below
and a timeline for 18 months plan at the end.
Marketing objectives
According to Chaffey D. (2009, pp. 17-18), the types of goals in internet marketing
based on 5 S’s should use to evaluate the platform of one organisation/company.
They show how the e-marketing helps the company achieve particular benefits when
applying correctly:
 Sell – Grow sales by direct online sales and sales from offline channels
influenced online
 Serve – Add value throughout giving extra benefits online or product
development by feedback
 Speak – Get closer to customers by web interaction such as forums, surveys
 Save – Save costs achieved through online email communications, sales and
services transaction to reduce staff, print and postage costs
 Sizzle – Extent the brand online
Basing on theories about 5 S’s, there are main marketing objectives will be focused
on the Digital Marketing Strategy for Primark:
1. Increase 10% offline sales influenced by online platform and 20% in total
within 12 months after launching the Online shopping officially on platform

2. Increase the 50% customer databases by getting people apply for newsletter
and open Primark card by 12 months after launching the final version of
platform
3. Survey 1000 customers online each three months after 6-month-using new
platform
4. Increase customer interaction via Forum throughout the plan, after launching
the official new platform
5. Improve customer service by providing a response to an inquiry within 2
hours, 24 hours, 7 days
6. Conversion objective, increase percentage of online service equities fulfilled
online by “web self-serve” maximum after launching the Online shopping
7. Create official Twitter page, update social webpages every day
8. Get more recommendations from customers in Forum, Facebook and Twitter
Those critical tasks are SMART, which means specific, measurable, actionable,
relevant and time-related to access the suitability of objectives and drive the full
range of business process. (Chaffey D, 2009, p. 228) Most of the objectives are
hopefully done within 12 months when the whole project time can is around one and
a half year. The most important is time scale and controlling the objectives to
achieve the best results at the end.
Strategic direction
To achieve those strategic objectives, there will be two decisions chosen to
implement:
Decision 1: Market and Product development strategies based on Ansoff matrix
Decision 2: Online communications mix and budget based one the customer lifecycle
of customer relationship management
(Chaffey D, 2009, p 234)

Decision 1 – Market and Product Development Strategies
1. Market Penetration strategies: the Internet marketing is used to sell more
existing products in existing markets. There are three main ways will be
influenced:
- Market share growth: means achievement the objectives, increase the
offline sales throughout the new platform and online shopping and 20% in
total sales increasing
- Customer loyalty improvement: can be made by offering Primark card,
keep updating the customer information and send email and newsletter
frequently
- Customer value improvement: means saving the cost to serve by
launching online shopping and increasing the usage or quantity of
browsing on new platform
2. Market Development strategies: the online channels are used to expand the
sales in new markets with new targeting. It means after launching the online
shopping, there will be new target customers for Primark, they are busy
people who cannot go to store and just can buy online with the limited amount
of money. The Forum, social webpages and 24/7 services can give the best
values for new markets.
3. Product Development strategies: by the updating of platform, more and
more companies know about the Primark existing products and the retailing
chains. The B2B selling can be made in near future. New methods of payment
when shopping online and convenience of connecting with Primark are huge
benefits. The larger networks are, the more opportunities Primark can get.
4. Diversification strategies: new products developed in new markets needs to
concern on this strategy. After the stability of online shopping and customer
services caring, the expanding to new markets can face high-risk for Primark.
However, with the supporting of social webpages and online platform, Primark
can reduce the cost related and unrelated into business.

(Chaffey D, 2009, pp. 235-236)
Decision 2 – Online Communication Mix and Budget
The core issues focused on this strategy are based on performance drivers, which
included “the costs for acquisition and retention, conversion rates of visitors to buyer
to repeat buyers, together with churn rates.” (Chaffey D, 2009, p 256)
New Official Webpage Released
The current platform will be placed by a new one with more pictures, new payment
methods and linked with social media. The front page needs to rebuild totally to
attract the customer’s attention and increasing the user experiences (UX). Look at
the Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 to view the new front and shopping site.
E-mail and Newsletter
The cost of acquisition of customers will be decreased by send email and newsletter.
The content of email/newsletter is developed to focus on person and make
customers feel important. In very beginning time, the advertising on email or
newsletter will not be attached because it can annoy customers. However, the
advertising can consider applying later when the online shopping gets stronger
(Marketing Insights, 2003)
Social Media
Facebook and Twitter is main focusing on the social media. According to Social
Media and Networking UK on Mintel Oxygen, 2012, about 97% of social network
users having accessed to Facebook in the past three months. At that time, the
number of Twitter users is 46%. Most of visited social media websites, which include
videos, own 71%, therefore, YouTube is also considered to invest and develop.

Resources and Budget
Most of the project is failed because of two reasons. One is over of time and the
second factor is over of budget. The timeline and budget needs to be prepared and
planed carefully. The IT staffs and officers are skilled and trained before coming to
the project and the contracts are binding during one and a half year. The salaries are
based on the average salary in the UK, which can find the scale on Pay Scale
website. In the retail industry, the salaries are smaller than others and inner London
is more expensive than outside capital city. (Monster, 2013)
Find the Appendix 3 to see the resource usage and costs during the project.
Control
Controlling is crucial for the process to be completed on time. On the project,
Primark need to have an IT manager who spends his experiences and specialisation
on watching and evaluating the main platform and social webpages. Secondly, the
manager of logistics and delivery is necessary as well to check the product before
coming to customers and ensure the quality/colour/quantity is compatible. The next
kind of controlling is consulting. Primark needs consultants to comment and put the
recommendation or main topics into the webpage. Finally, the general manager is
also important on controlling the whole working areas.
Look the Appendix 4 to view the Gantt chart. The project lasts in 18 months and can
start in the middle of this year or any year in future. The reason to choose middles of
year is because after six months working, the new platform and online shopping can
get stronger and more stable. The greatest shopping time is at Christmas and New
Year, by that time, the system can be fixed and familiar to use. The return cycle can
be shorter. The managers get time to understand about the system, the customers
and the trends.

Bibliography
BBC, 2010. Padded Bikinis For Girls Withdraw. [Online] Available at
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8619329.stm> [Accessed 25 April 2013]
BBC, 2013. Primark Sales Jump By A Quarter. [Online] Available at
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21055646> [Accessed 26 April 2013]
Business Dictionary, 2013.PEST Analysis. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/PEST-analysis.html> [Accessed 20
April 2013]
Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Mayer, R. and Johnston, K., 2009. Internet
Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practise. Harlow: Pearson Education
Limited
Chaffey, D. and Smith, P.R., 2008. E-marketing Excellence: Planning and Optimizing
Your Digital Marketing. 3rd ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann
Guardian, 2013. Primark Expected To Report 23% Rise In Half-year Sales. [Online]
Available at: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/25/primark-expect-23-
rise-sales> [Accessed 26 April 2013]
McDonald, M., 2003. Marketing Plan: How To Prepare Them, How To Use Them.
5th ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann
Mintel Oxygen. (2012). Clothing Retailing UK. London: Mintel Group
Mintel Oxygen. (2011). Fashion Online UK. London: Mintel Group
Mintel Oxygen. (2012). Social Media and Networking UK. London: Mintel Group
Marketing Insights, 2003. E-marketing Strategy. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.marketing-insights.co.uk/wnim0402.htm> [Accessed 30 April 2013]
Monster, 2013. UK Average Salary Graphs. [Online] Available at: <http://career-
advice.monster.co.uk/salary-benefits/pay-salary-advice/uk-average-salary-
graphs/article.aspx> [Accessed 1 May 2013]

Primark Webpage, 2013. Primark History. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.primark.co.uk/about_us/company_history> [Accessed 20 April 2013]
Retail Economics, 2012. Online Retailing 2012. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.retaileconomics.co.uk/online-retailing-2012/> [Accessed 30 April 2013]
SCIRIDB, 2013. Primark PEST Analysis. [Online] Available at
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/49698058/PEST-2-primark> [Accessed 20 April 2013]
The Independent, 2009. Primark Plans Expansion With More Store And First Move
Online. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/primark-plans-expansion-with-
more-stores-and-first-move-online-1814214.html> [Accessed 1 May 2013]

Appendix 1
Front Site

Appendix 2
Body Site

Appendix 3
Resource Usage

Appendix 4
Gantt chart and Critical tasks

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