Study Of Attacks On E Commerce Systems Computer Science Essay

Study Of Attacks On E Commerce Systems Computer Science Essay Electronic commerce (e-commerce) services nowadays have become a core element and more popular on Internet and Web environment. Electronic commerce, Internet and Web environment have enabled businesses to reduce costs and offer many benefits both to the consumer and to the business. According to Forrester Research the online retail sales in the United stated for 2003 exceeded $100 billion. As the Information Technology and the using of internet are increasing every day, the demand for secure information and electronic services is growing. Every online transaction in the internet can be monitored and stored in many different locations, since the Internet is a public network it makes very important for businesses to understand possible security threats and vulnerabilities to their business. The key factor that affects the success of e-commerce is to exchange security on network. In this paper we will describe some of the security threats and vulnerabilities concerning the e-commerce se curity. Keywords: e-Commerce security, threats, vulnerability, attacks 1. Introduction The improvements that Internet has made during the past few years have changed the way people see and use the Internet itself. The more their use grows, the more attacks aim these systems and the amount of security risks increases. Security has become one of most important issues and significant concern for e-commerce that must be resolved [1]. Every private and public organization is taking computer and e-commerce security seriously more than before because any possible attack directly has an effect in E-commerce business [5]. The Internet and Web environment can provide as many security threats and vulnerabilities as opportunities for a company. The low cost and high availability of the world wide Internet for businesses and customers has made a revolution in e-commerce [1]. This revolution in e-commerce in turn increases the requirement for security, as well as the number of on-line cheats and fraud as it is shown in the Figure 1. Although there has been investments and spent a very large amount of time and money to provide secures networks, still there is always the possibility of a breach of security [5]. According to IC3 2007 annual report, the total dollar loss from all referred complaints of fraud was $239.09 million [3]. The majority of these frauds and cheats were committed over the Internet or similar online services. Security is still a significant concern for e-commerce and a challenge for every company. Mitigate security threats and vulnerability is still a battle for every company [5]. Good security infrastructure means good productivity for the company. Figure 1: Incidents of Internet fraud [15] In this paper in the first section we will give a brief describe of e-commerce and the types of e-commerce, and then in second section we will describe the security issues and some of the threats and vulnerabilities- attacks in e-commerce. Last section discuss various defence mechanism uses to protect e-commerce security which is still high concerns of business. 2. E-commerce Background Information and communication technology has become more and more essential and integral part of businesses. This highly uses of information technology have changed the traditional way of doing business. This new way of doing business is known as Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) or Electronic Business (E-Business) [12]. Electronic commerce or e-commerce means buying and selling of products or services over the part of internet called World Wide Web. According to Verisign [2004] electronic commerce is a strategic imperative for most competitive organisations today as it is a key to finding new sources of revenue, expanding into new markets, reducing costs, and creating breakaway business strategies. E-commerce includes electronic trading, trading of stocks, banking, hotel booking, purchases of airline tickets etc [2]. There are different types of e-commerce, but we will encompass the e-commerce on there types of business transaction: B2B ( business to business); B2C ( business to consumer); C2C (consumer to consumer) [4]. Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce- is simply defined as commerce transactions among and between businesses, such as interaction between two companies, between e manufacturer and wholesaler, between a wholesaler and a retailer [16]. There are four basic roles in B2B e-commerce suppliers, buyers, market-makers and web service providers. Every company or business plays at least one of them, and many companies or businesses play multiple roles [9]. According to the Queensland governments department of state development and innovation [2001] B2B ecommerce made up 94% of all e-commerce transactions [8]. The good examples and models of B2B are the companies such IBM, Hewlett Packard (HP), Cisco and Dell. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce- is the commerce between companies and consumer, businesses sell directly to consumers physical goods (i.e., such as books, DVDs or consumer products), or information goods (goods of electronic material digitized content, such as software, music, movies or e-books) [10]. In B2C the web is usually used as a medium to order physical goods or information goods [8]. An example of B2C transaction would be when a person will buy a book from Amazon.com. According to eMarketer the revenue of B2C e-commerce form US$59.7 billion in 2000 will increase to US$428.1 billion by 2004 [10]. Consumer to Consumer (C2C) e-commerce- this is the type of e-commerce which involves business transactions among private individuals or consumers using the Internet and World Wide Web. Using C2C, costumers can advertise goods or products and selling them directly to other consumers. A good example of C2C is eBay.com, which is an online auction where costumers by using this web site are able to sell a wide variety of goods and products to each other [6]. There is less information on the size of global C2C e-commerce [10]. Figure 2 illustrates some of the e-commerce business describe above. Figure 2: Common e-Commerce business model [14] 3. Security threats to e-commerce Security has three basic concepts: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Confidentiality ensures that only the authorized persons have access to the information, not access for the unauthorized persons, Integrity ensures the data stored on any devices or during a communication process are not altered by any malicious user, Availability ensures that the information must be available when it is needed [16]. Security plays an important role in e-commerce. The number of online transaction last years has a tremendous increase; this has been accompanied by an equal rise in the number of threats and type of attacks against e-commerce security [13]. A threat can be defined as the potential to exploit a weakness that may result in unauthorised access or use, disclosure of information or consumption, theft or destruction of a resource, disruption or modification [8]. E-commerce environment has different members involved E-commerce network: Shoppers who order and buy products or services Merchant who offer products or services to the shoppers The Software (Web Site) installed on the merchants server and the server The attackers who are the dangerous part of E-commerce network Looking on the above parties involved in the e-commerce network, it is easy to see that malicious hackers threaten the whole network and are the most dangerous part of network. These threats on e-commerce can abuse, misuse and cause high financial loss to business. Figure 3 briefly displays the methods the hackers use in an E-commerce network [11]. Figure 3: Target points of the attacker [11] The assets that must be protected to ensure secure electronic commerce in an E-commerce network include client (shopper) computers or client-side, transaction that travel on the communication channel, the Web site on the server and the merchants server- including any hardware attached to the server or server-side. Communication channel is one of the major assets that need to protect, but it is not the only concern in e-commerce security. Client- side security form the users point of view is the major security; server-side security is a major concern form the service providers point of view. For example, if the communication channel were made secure but no security measure for either client-side or server-side, then no secure transmission of information would exist at all [1, 2]. According to Figure 3 above there are some different security attack methods that an attacker or hacker can use to attack an E-commerce network. In the next section we will describes potential security attack methods. 4. Possible Attacks This section overviews and describes various attacks that can occur in the sense of an e-commerce application. Moreover, ethical aspects are taken into consideration. From an attackers point of view, there are multiple actions that the attacker can perform, whereas the shopper does not have any clue what is going on. The attackers purpose is to gain access to each and every information in the network flow from the when the buyer has pressed the buy button until the web site server has responded back. Furthermore, the attacker tries to attach the application system in a most discrete and ethical way. An onview of various attacks on ecommerce are given: Tricking the Shopper: One very profitable and simple way of capturing the shoppers behaviour and information to use against the attacker is by tricking the shopper, which in other words is known as the social engineering technique. This can be done in various ways. Some of them are: An attacker can call the shopper, representing to be an employee from a shopping site to extract information about the shopper. Thereafter, the attacker can call the shopping site and then pretend to be the shopper and ask them for the user information, and further ask for a password to reset the user account. This is a very usual scenario. Another example would be to reset the password by giving information about a shoppers personal information, such as the date of birth, mothers maiden name, favourite movie, etc. If it is the case the shopping websites gives away these information out, then retrieving the password is not a big challenge anymore. A last way of retrieving personal information, which by the way is used a lot during the world wide web today, is by using the phishing schemes. It is very difficult to distinguish for example, www.microsoft.com/shop with www.micorsoft.com/shop . The difference between these two is a switching between the letters r and o. But by entering into the wrong false shop to pretend to be an original shop with login forms with password fields, will provide the attacker all confidential information. And this is performed if the shopper mistypes this URL link. The mistyped URL might be sent through email and pretend to be an original shop without any notice from the buyer [11, 15]. Password Guessing: Attackers are also aware of that is possible to guess a shoppers password. But this requires information about the shopper. The attacker might need to know the birthday, the age, the last name, etc. of the shopper, to try of different combinations. It is very common that the personal information is used into the password by many users through the internet, since they are easy to be remembered. But still, it needs a lot of effort from the attackers view, to make a software that guesses the shoppers password. One very famous attack might be to look up words from the dictionary and use these as passwords, this is also known as the dictionary attack. Or the attacker might look at statistics over which passwords are most commonly used in the entire world [15]. Workstation Attack: A third approach is to trying to attack the workstation, where the website is located. This requires that the attacker knows the weaknesses of the workstation, since such weak points are always presented in work stations and that there exist no perfect system without any vulnerabilities. Therefore, the attacker might have a possibility of accessing the workstations root by via the vulnerabilities. The attacker first tries to see which ports are open to the existing work station by using either own or already developed applications. And ones the attacker has gained access to the system, it will therefore be possible to scan the workstations information about shoppers to retrieve their ID and passwords or other confidential information. Network Sniffing: When a shopper is visiting a shopping website, and there is a transaction ongoing, then the attacker has a fourth possibility. The possibility is called sniffing. That an attacker is sniffing means that all data which is exchanged between the client and server are being sniffed (traced) by using several applications. Network communication is furthermore not like human communication as well. In a human communication, there might be a third person somewhere, listening to the conversation. In the network communication technology, the data which is sent via the two parties are first divided in something called data packages before the actual sending from one part to another. The other part of the network will therefore gather these packages back into the one data which was sent to be read. Usually, the attacker seeks to be as close as possible to the either the shoppers site or near the shopper to sniff information. If the attacker places himself in the halfway between the shopper and website, the attacker might therefore retrieve every information (data packages). Given an example in this, then assuming a Norwegian local shopper wants to buy an item from a webshop located in the United States of America. The first thing which will happen is that the personal information data which is being sent from the shopper will be divided into small pieces of data to the server located in the USA. Since the data flow over the network is not controlled by the human, the packages might be send to different locations before reaching the destination. For instance, some information might go via France, Holland and Spain before actually reaching the USA. In such a case, the sniffer/attacker was located in France, Holland or Spain, will mean that the attacker might not retrieve every and single information. And given that data, the attacker might not analyze and retrieve enough information. This is exactly the reason why attackers are as close as possible to either the source or the destination point (client side or server side). Known Bug Attack: The known bug attack can be used on both the shoppers site and on the webpage site. By using already developed tools, the attacker can apply these tools to find out which software to the target the server is having and using. From that point, the attacker further need to find patches of the software and analyze which bugs have not been corrected by the administrators. And when knowing the bugs which are not fixed, the attacker will thus have the possibility of exploiting the system [11]. There are still many various of attacks one can do more than these described above. More attacks that be used against ecommerce application could by doing Denial of Service (DOS) attacks where the attacker impact the servers and by using several methods, the attacker can retrieve necessary information. Another known attack is the buffer overflow attack. If an attacker has gained access to the root, the attacker might further get personal information by making his own buffer, where all overflow (information) is transferred to the attackers buffer. Some attackers also use the possibility looking into the html code. The attacker might retrieve sensitive information from that code, if the html is not well structured or optimized. Java, Javascript or Active X export are being used in html as applets, and the attacker might also distort these and set a worm into the computer to retrieve confidential information. 5. Defence For each new attack presented in the real world, a new defence mechanism needs further to be presented as well to protect the society from unsuspicious issues. This section introduce some defence issues how to protect the attacks described in the section before. However, the main purpose from an sellers point of view in an ecommerce application is to protect all information. Protecting a system can be performed in several ways. Education: In order to decrease the tricking attacks, one might educate all shoppers. This issue requires a lot of effort in time and not simple, since many customers still will be tricked by common social engineering work. Merchants therefore have to keep and remind customers to use a secure password since this person is used as the identity. Therefore it is important to have different passwords for different websites as well and probably save these passwords in a secure way. Furthermore, it is very important not to give out information via a telephone conversation, email or online programs. Setting a safe Password: It is very important that customers do not use passwords which are related to themselves, such as their birthdays, childrens name, etc. Therefore it is important to use a strong password. A strong password has many definitions. For example, the length of passwords is an important factor with various special characters. If a shopper cannot find a strong password, then there are many net sites proving such strong passwords. Managing Cookies: When a shopper registers into a website with personal information, a cookie is being stored into the computer, so no information is needed to be entered again at next logon. This information is very useful for an attacker, therefore it is recommended to stop using cookies, which is an very easy step to do in the browser [11]. Personal Firewall: An approach of protecting the shoppers computer is by using a personal firewall. The purpose of the firewall is to control all incoming traffic to the computer from the outside. And further it will also control all out coming traffic. In addition, a firewall has also an intrusion detection system installed, which ensures that unwanted attempts at accessing, modification of disabling of the computer will not be possible. Therefore, it is recommended that a firewall is installed into the pc of a shopper. And since bugs can occur in a firewall, it is therefore further important to update the firewall [11]. Encryption and decryption: All traffic between two parties can be encrypted from it is being send from the client and decrypted when it has been received until the server, vice versa. Encrypting information will make it much more difficult for an attacker to retrieve confidential information. This can be performed by either using symmetric-key algorithms or asymmetric key algorithms [11]. Digital Signatures: Like the hand signatures which are performed by the human hand, there is also something known as the digital signature. This signature verifies two important things. First, it checks whether the data comes from the original client and secondly, it verifies if the message has been modified from it has been sent until it was received. This is a great advantage for ecommerce systems [11]. Digital Certificates: Digital signature cannot handle the problem of attackers spoofing shoppers with a false web site (man-in-the-middle-attack) to information about the shopper. Therefore, using digital certificates will solve this problem. The shopper can with very high probability accept that the website is legal, since it is trusted by a third party and more legal party. In addition, a digital certificate is not a permanent unlimited time trusted. Therefore one is responsible to see if the certificate is still valid or not [11]. Server Firewall: Unlike personal firewall, there is also something known as the server firewall. The server firewall is an more advanced program which is setup by using a demilitarized zone technique (DMZ) [11]. In addition, it is also possible to use a honey pot server [11]. These preventions were some out of many in the real world. It is very important to make users aware and administrators update patches to all used application to further protect their systems against attacks. One could also analyze and monitor security logs which are one big defence strategy, to see which traffic has occurred. Therefore it is important that administrators read their logs frequently and understand which parts have been hit, so administrators can update their system. 6. Conclusion In this paper firstly we gave a brief overview of e-commerce and its application, but our main attention and the aim of this paper was to present e-commerce security issues and various attacks that can occur in e-commerce, also we describe some of the defence mechanism to protect e-commerce against these attacks. E-commerce has proven its great benefit for the shopper and merchants by reducing the costs, but e-commerce security is still a challenge and a significant concern for everyone who is involved in e-commerce. E-commerce security dose not belong only technical administrators, but everyone who participate in e-commerce- merchants, shopper, service provider etc. Even there are various technologies and mechanisms to protect the E-commerce such as user IDs and passwords, firewall, SSL, Digital certificates etc, still we need to be aware and prepared for any possible attack that can occur in e-commerce.

Servicescape for Hotel

Service and Customer Management Final Report â€Å"Little Woods† Submitted to: Dr. Mohan N J Monteiro Submitted by: Group 5 (Section-B) Jayakrishnan Nair N J (11023) Sourabh Rai (11053) Prasad Krishna (11094) Bhushan Atul Ashok (11131) Rishi Kumar Gandhi (11164) 1|Page â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) Table of content: Introduction: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1 Positioning Services: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Competitive advantage through Market focus: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1 Developing an effective positioning strategy: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 1 Market Analysis: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 1 Internal Corporate Analysis: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 1 Competitor Analysis: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 Ps of Service marketing for Little Woods: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 Managing relationship and building loyalty: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 3 Consumer Behaviour: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 Pre-purchase stage: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 Service Encounter Stage: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Post Purchase Stage: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 Three parts of this script that â€Å"went smoothly† and conformed to our expectations:†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 6 Three parts of this script that deviated from our expectations: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7 The Servicescapes Model- An Integrative Framework: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 Internal Responses: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Environment and Cognition: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 Environment and Emotion: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 Environment and psychology: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 8 Service Blueprint: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 9 Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) Introduction: Little Woods is one of the most popular restaurants on the Chamundi Hill road being visited by a number of people from Siddhartha Nagar and the nearby apartments. The various varieties of food items along with the lightening fast service makes it one of the most sought after restaurants in the vicinity. Positioning Services: Competitive advantage through Market focus: Market focussed strategy is one of the strategies where an organisation provides a variety of services in a limited market.When we put Little Woods on the positioning map, it comes around moderate service with moderate price. Developing an effective positioning strategy: Market Analysis: Location: The restaurant is strategically located on the main road which leads to the Chamundi Hills. It’s readily visible by anyone who travels on this road. The display boards on the road s ide also attract a lot of people to take note of the location of the restaurant. Composition: Little Woods has had a strong competitor named Pate Bharlo (now Cafe Hotel) which used to offer both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.Generally it’s found that pure vegetarians do not prefer to eat in a restaurant which offers both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food items. So, it can be said that the target audience of Pate Bharlo was non-vegetarian people. Inspite of such a focussed target mark et, Pate Bharlo eventually had to wrap up its operations due to huge losses and lack of customer base. At the same time, Little Woods performed very well and its customer base kept on increasing. This shows that most of the people in the target market are vegetarians. The more a restaurant offers varieties, the more benefits a person derives.When someone sees another variety of an item in a particular category, he tends to order that item and thus derives more benefit. This happens in any category of food items. Hence, it ’s important to offer more and more variety of offerings in order to provide more benefits to the customers and retain them in the long run. Internal Corporate Analysis: One of the resource constraints of Little Woods is the space constraint. Little Woods has a limited space and hence it targets a limited segment on the basis of the geographic area in and around Siddhartha Nagar. |Page â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) Competitor Analysis: The found ers of Little Woods have a vast experience dealing with this business. They have a couple of more restaurants in Mysore and this has helped them to know the tastes of the people and create harmonious relations with the vegetable vendors. Little Woods is a pure vegetarian restaurant. Hence, it has created a very much focussed market for itself where most of the people who are pure vegetarians are its customers. The other set of customers are the ones who eat both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items. Ps of Service marketing for Little Woods: Product: ? Core products of Little Woods are North-Indian food items, South-Indian food items, juices, ice-creams. Little Woods product includes vegetarian items ? Supplementary products include the parking facility, ambience, lighting, music etc which creates a wonderful and hassle-free experience for the customers. ? Quality level of the food is in par with many of the major restaurants ? Product line includes South Indian, North Indian, Beverag es and snacks ? Parcel facilities are available with home delivery services provided Price: They provide flexibility; certain dishes are available in North Indian and South Indian tastes ? Price level of all the dishes are quite affordable ? They provide certain allowances for regular customers as well as students of institutes nearby to attract them Place: ? It is on the way to Chamundi which is tourist destination thereby trying to attract devotees and other tourists ? It is a single outlet restaurant ? Since the restaurant is located in a main road it is easily accessible to general public ? It has a good parking space which makes the place suitable for travellers Promotion: Word of mouth publicity is one of the most effective methods of marketing and this is the reason why it is viewed positively by the people ? The roadside boards on Chamundi Hill road and a big banner in the Siddhartha Nagar circle are the other promotional aspects used by Little Woods People: ? Little Woods p rovides on the job training to the new employees where they are taught the intricacies of the work to be done. 2|Page â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) ? ? ? Employees patiently hear any grievances by the people and get it rectified as soon as possible in order to give the best possible service to the customers.They are fluent in Kannada and Hindi but they do not understand English Most of the Customers are those people who live nearby and devotees/ travellers to Chamundi Hill. The students from nearby institute also goes there Process: ? Level of customer involvement is very low as they do not provide adequate training to employees ? Flow of activities include Home delivery service, parcel provisions, serving in restaurant, also a provision to provide food in customer’s vehicles Physical Evidence: ? They have employee dress code but it is rarely followed ? They have 2 floors with closed space and an open area They provide good ambience but they do not have separate air conditioned area ? They play music in the restaurant which is melodious Managing relationship and building loyalty: Little Woods offers 10% discount on the final bill for the SDMIMD students. However this is given only when the amount exceeds Rs 200. This is offered to the other regular customers too. Consumer Behaviour: Pre-purchase stage: We have already visited Little Woods a number of times since the last one year and are familiar with the quality of the food served over there. Most of the Wednesdays when the mess remains off, we usually go there to have a sumptuous dinner.Even this time, expecting a very delicious food, we visited this restaurant which has become one of the most popular restaurants to visit among the student community in SDMIMD. The most important factors to visit it by us are the proximity to our college; and the appetizing taste as well as the wide variety of food available over there. Service Encounter Stage: Customer 1. Form a group of 6 friends and arr ive in the hotel 3|Page Waiter Chef Cashier â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) 2. See if there is a table for 6. If not, then we ourselves pull some chairs and tables to make sure that everyone can at together 3. Waiter comes with a glasses of water and a menu card 4. We discuss the items to be ordered ourselves 5. We call the waiter to place an order 6. Waiter arrived and took the order in his notebook 7. Waiter goes to the kitchen and communicates the order to the chef 8. Waited for 10 minutes after which we call the waiter to ask him how much more time will it take. 9. He tells us 15 minutes more, hearing which we order cold drinks. 10. He gets the cold drinks in 5 minutes. 11. After 10 minutes, the chef hands over our order to the waiter in a tray. 12. The waiter gets the ood for everyone to devour. 4|Page â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) 13. We find out that the waiter has actually brought Chilli Paneer Dry instead of Chilli Paneer Curry and Veg Hyderabadi ins tead of Paneer Hyderabadi. 14. We straightaway notify the waiter about the issue and ask him to take away the items which we didn't order and ask him how much more time will it take to get the items which we had previously ordered. He tells us that we have to wait for 10 more minutes. 15. We start eating whatever items we have on the table and notice that we do not have onions, which are usually omplementary for SDM students. We call the waiter. 16. We ask for the onions, which he promptly arrives with within 2 minutes. 17. 10 minutes had already passed and our 2 items had not yet arrived. We called the waiter again. 18. The waiter told us that we had to wait for 5 more minutes and apologised for the delay when he saw us getting irritated with the delay. 5|Page â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) 19. The items surprisingly arrived within the next 2 minutes and we ate the delicious spicy food which we had been waiting for so long. 20. We ask the waiter for the bill. 21. The wa iter goes to the ashier to get the bill. 22. We find out that the items which we had been mistakenly given previously had also been billed and the customary discount given to the SDM students was also not included. 23. We ourselves go to the cashier and tell him the issues, which he addresses promptly. 24. We pay the bill and leave the restaurant. Post Purchase Stage: Three parts of this script that â€Å"went smoothly† and conformed to our expectations: Taste: The taste definitely conformed to our pre-purchase expectations. We had visited ‘Little Woods’ a number of times before and had already developed a taste for it.The taste of the food items has always been up to great standards and we have never had any deviations in the taste every time. Ambience: The ambience of the restaurant is one of the best in this area. The colour scheme on the wall blends with the architecture very beautiful. Soft music is played in the background which gives us a very good feeling while eating the food. 6|Page â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) Manager/Cashier Behaviour: The manager was very kind and listened to our problems and straightaway corrected the bill without asking the waiter for any kind of confirmation.He trusted us and solved the issue in a jiffy. Three parts of this script that deviated from our expectations: Table and Chair Arrangements: We were highly disappointed that we ourselves had to arrange the tables and chairs so that all the 6 of us can sit together. Even the waiters did not help us. They were just carrying out their usual work without even asking us if we needed any kind of help. No timely Delivery: We were told initially that the food will arrive in 10 minutes. But in reality, it took almost 25 minutes for us to see the dishes on our tables. Communication:We sincerely feel that there existed a big gap in the communication between the different parties involved. The order which we had given was not communicated correctly wit h the chef by the waiter. The waiter also had not communicated well with the cashier, which is definitely the reason for the discrepancies in the bill. The Servicescapes Model- An Integrative Framework: We know that employees and customers in service firms respond to dimensions of their physical surroundings cognitively, emotionally and physiologically, and that those responses are what influence their behaviours in the environment.Internal Responses: ? ? ? Cognitive – knowledge structure Affective – feelings & emotions Physiological- changes in Environment and Cognition: The perceived servicescape may elicit cognitive responses influencing people’s beliefs about a place and their beliefs about the people and products found in that place. Belief: In little woods , particular environment cues such as the type of furniture in the restaurant, ambience of the restaurant, lighting of the restaurant may influence customer belief’s about little woods and then cu stomer tries to predict the quality and price of the food. |Page â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) Categorize: Categorization is the process, by which we assign a label to an object; perceptions of the servicescape may simply help people to distinguishing a firm by influencing a firm how it is categorized. In the resturant industry a particular configuration of environmental cues suggests that â€Å"fast food† where generally self service system is there whereas another configuration suggests â€Å"elegant sit down restaurant† where you can order for the food.In little woods we have second type of configuration in which pepole come, sit and take food. Environment and Emotion: In addition to influencing cognitions, the perceived servicescape may elicit emotional responses that in turn influence behaviours. Emotion eliciting qualities of environments are captured by two dimensions: pleasure and displeasure and degree of arousal. For example, environments that el icit feelings of pleasure are likely to be ones where people want to spend money and time, whereas unpleasant environments are avoided.In little woods we have seen that people are ready to spent money and time for the service they have in restaurant. Environment and psychology: The perceived servicescape may also affect people in purely physiological ways. In a particular restaurant noise that is too loud may cause physical discomfort, the temperature of a room may cause people to shiver or perspire, the air quality may make it difficult to breathe, and the glare of lighting may decrease ability to see and cause physical pain.All of those physical responses may in turn directly influence whether or not people stay in and enjoy a particular environment. In little woods we have seen that physical discomfort is not there. Relative comfort of sitting in a restaurant influences how long people stay. When they become uncomfortable sitting on a hard surface in a fast food restaurant, most people leave within a predictable period of time. In little woods we have seen that sitting arrangements are very good. The floor of restaurant is also is very good.In addition to directly affecting behaviour, physiological responses may influence seemingly unrelated beliefs and feelings about the place and the people there. 8|Page â€Å"Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) Service Blueprint: Physical Evidence Arrive at the restaurant Parking area Enter the restaurant Go to the table Dining area Go through the menu Place the order Receive food Eat Receive and pay bill Leave the restaurant Customer Line of interaction _________________________________________________________________________ C o n t a c t P e r s o n Onstage) Greeted by the waiter Shown the table by the waiter Provide menu Take order Serve beverrages Serve meal Clear dishes and trash Collect payment and return receipt Line of visibility ——————————â €”——————————————————————————(Backstage) Check table availability Place order in kitchen Pick up order Process payment Line of internal interaction ___________________________________________________________________________ Support Processes 9|Page Prepare meal Inform waiter Final Report†, Group-5(Sec-B) Service Blueprint: is a technique used for service innovation. Service blueprint consists of 5 components: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Customer Actions Onstage / Visible Contact Employee Actions Backstage / Invisible Contact Employee Actions Support Processes Physical Evidence 1) The customer actions include: o Entering into the restaurant o Go to the table o Review the menu o Place order o Receive food o Eat o Pay cash/cheque o Receive change o Leave the restaurant 2) The onstage employee actions include: ? Greet customer ? Show customer to table

Marks and Spencer Overview

An overview of Marks & Spencer plc Marks & Spencer (M&S) is a leading British retailer, with over 895 stores in over 41 countries around the world. As of 2009, 600 stores currently located throughout the United Kingdom along with 295 stores planted internationally (M&S 2009). According to Deloitte (2009) M&S is the largest clothing retailer in the United Kingdom, as well as being an exclusive food retailer and as of 2009, the 43rd largest retailer in the world.The large majority of its domestic stores sell both clothing and food, and since the turn of the century it has started expanding into other ranges such as homewares, furniture and technology. Figure 1 illustrates M&S’s overall sales in millions from the years 2005 – 2009. The graph trend shows a gradual increase in turnover every year. By the end of 2009 M&S revenue reaches 9,062. 1 million compared to 2005 revenue of 7,490. 5 million. A difference of ? 1571. 6 Data taken from M&S 2009. Figure 1: M&S Sales (2005-2009) Figure 2 represents the operating profit of M&S.There is a steady rise in the growth of sales from 2005 to 2008. However in the year 2009 there is a decline in the growth of sales. This is fairly due to the economic recession resulting in less economical activity. M&S prices would have risen resulting in a decline in demand for their products and services. Data taken from M&S 2009. Figure 2: M&S Sales growth (2005-2009) Figure 3 displays the two primary categories of business for M&S. Food as a whole and all other products falling under house hold products. Both areas of business are equally important as they hold a near perfect hare of the business. Data taken from M&S 2009. 51% 49% Figure 3: M&S main business areas Business strengths and weaknesses: M&S has grown over the 21st and it is arguable that the company has moved from strength to strength. M&S are strong in many dynamics ranging from a political ly, economically and highly strategic company. One major strength of M&S is its emerging image of an active environmentally friendly company. On 15 January 2007, M&S launched an initiative, known as ‘Plan A’ (M&S, 2009) to dramatically increase the environmental sustainability of the business within 5 years.In 2006 the Look Behind the Label marketing campaign was introduced. The aim of this campaign was to highlight to customers, the various ethical and environmentally friendly aspects, of the production and sourcing methods engaged in by M&S including Fairtrade products and sustainable fishing. As indicated by A. Fletcher (2006) all coffee and tea sold in M&S stores is now Fairtrade. According to the BBC (2006) the company offers clothing lines made from Fairtrade Cotton in selected departments.This aspect of M&S emphasises the equality and fairness to the public and helps promote its products to certain groups in the market who would not previo usly purchase their products for this specified reason. Although M&S is a highly recognised and established company it has fallen under heavy criticism in the past. War on Want (2007) criticised M&S, in its Growing Pains report for using its influence to force overseas suppliers to continuously diminish their costs while boosting their own profits. Political issues have also arisen, the company has been criticised for its support for the State of Israel during wars and conflict.According to J. Smith (2004) activists have campaigned against the company and some stores have had their signage altered and their goods re-labelled. As a result boycotts have taken place with little effect on M&S sales and profits yet this has led to a disruption in social cohesion of society demonstrate through protests. Development of new products and services: Most (M&S, 2009) stores originally sold both clothing and food, and since the turn of the century it has started expanding into ot her ranges such as homewares, furniture and technology, beauty and energy.The Indigo collection (M&S, 2009) is a new range of clothing aimed at the core, 35-45, feminine businesswoman type. The shoes, trousers and jeans will be UK-sourced and the T-shirts will involve Fair trade cotton from Senegal, India and Pakistan. Beachwear may be added to the list if the success continues. Per Una, also a relatively new product for younger female's clothing sold at M;amp;S stores. The product was launched on September 28, 2001 as a joint venture between M;amp;S and Next. All per Una items include the three hearts logo.The BBC (2005) states Per Una has been a major success for the company. In 2006 (M;amp;S, 2009) launched a range of domestic technology products. Thirty-six stores now offer this range. Additional services offered include television installation and technical help. Competitors: M;amp;S does not have any one store that is a complete competitor in terms of products and services . Supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys compete with M;amp;S to a certain extent, primarily in the food industry. Marks ;amp; Spencer is predominantly a clothing store which obtains most of the company’s profit.Yet due to the significant product differentiation, M;amp;S competes with many companies for example Cotton Traders are a competitor in their clothes, John Lewis competes in their home accessories whereas Waitrose competes in food. As a result M;amp;S have to constantly innovate and outsource to stay competitive in the market and dominate. Marketing Strategies: By training and developing its staff well, M;amp;S is in a position to develop a competitive advantage over its competitors Firstly, developing value-for-money products that customers want.Training and development brings new skills which help to add value to its products and services, for example by cutting costs. This enables the company to keep prices lower to benefit the customer and increase consum er demand leading to profit in the long run. M;amp;S provides good customer service through communication skills, this can have a positive impact on customer service. Training and development equips individuals with the skills they need to achieve their targeted role in the business.When Steve Sharp joined as marketing director in 2004, he introduced a new promotional brand under the Your M;amp;S banner, with a corresponding logo. This has now become the company's main brand in its advertisements. The use of high profile television campaigns has been influential in the company's recent success, particularly with the achievements of a new clothing campaign featuring high profile models, and the new TV ad campaign for its food range. These adverts have the tagline ‘This is not just food, this is M;amp;S food’.Furthermore the use of camera special effects and footage along with music and a pleasant voiceover leads to a very persuasive advertisement. A new store format desi gned by Urban Salon Architects has won much praise and is in the process of being rolled out across all stores, with a majority of stores being completed by the end of 2008. The full new look makeover is a reworking of store design, including the gutting of old stores. An increase in display and product walls, window display styles, larger fitting rooms, glass walls, till points, and general total updating of decals, equipment, and lighting.

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