The Target market of Next is primarily Men and Women 25-45 years old. This is relatively good market positioning because it is a vastly lucrative social target market. Next have also extended their departments from just menswear and womenswear to childrenswear and Homeware – a particularly wide market which targets many age groups and thus expanding their scope within the markets they are already operating in. The target market is crucial as it directly correlates and contributes to success marketplace functionality (Kotler, 1984; Levitt, 1960). The positioning of Next relative to competitors is unique as it is considered to have a large and varied range of segmented clothes. Next would also be considered to be of superior quality of clothing compared to direct rivals such as Primark, Asda, Tesco and Marks & Spencer (figure 1). Next maintain their reputation as a provider of good to superior quality fashion at a slightly above market average pricing policy. Next’s breadth, in terms of their range of products, is extensive in comparison to their competitors for childrenswear (figure 2). One of the strategic successes of Next is its marketing. Their advertising spend is far superior to that of their competitors – particularly in children’s retail (figure 3). Although next do have over 500 UK …show more content…
There are opportunities for Next expand into new markets in other regions outside of the UK. However, it would be wise to better penetrate the regions that they are already functioning – in terms of marketing, revenue, brand loyalty and market share to compete better on a global scale. This would spread their risk of failure and considerably reduce their susceptibility to the UK business environment alone. Opportunities to better exploit global markets through e-commerce but distinguishing their strategies for each country in order to best serve those markets and