Financial accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Financial accounting - Essay Example Marks and Spencer’s well established business attracts a great deal of consumer base irrespective of demography. The primary business of the company comprises of selling general merchandise which mainly consists of womenswear. menswear and an expanding kids wear. The company, through its resilient and effective marketing tactics, has able to capture market share of around 11.0% by value and 11.2% by volume. Another source from where the company earns a great deal of its revenue is through selling food items. Marks and Spencer is the leading provider when it comes to selling fine quality food. The company sells everything from fresh meals to canned food items, highly acclaimed and praised range of wines to other groceries products. The company has improved its shelf availability and has adopted the strategy of renewing its food range. The proactive approach has resulted in an increase of 1.8% in sales revenue from food business. The financial year 2010 proved to be another prog ressive year for Marks and Spencer. During the current year, Marks and Spencer’s revenue increased by 5.2% during the current year to an impressive ?9.5 billion which has caused the operating profit to increase by 9.8%. The company, following its growth strategy, aspires transform its operation into multi channel business. The company has taken major steps in investing its direct sales business which enhanced the revenue by 27% during the current financial year. In addition, the company is actively following its strategy of refurbishing its stores and giving them a new and improved look. The refurbishment has resulted in an increased storage space and has created a fashionable shopping environment. The following table compares the financial results of Marks and Spencer, for the financial year 2010 with that of the year 2009. As quite evident from the above comparison, the financial outlook of the company has improved. The increase in group revenue primarily pertains to the in crease in like-for-like sales as well as the addition of new stores and outlets, both in and outside of England. Since Marks and Spencer do a significant number of its sales overseas, the company’s revenue is majorly increased due to the fluctuation in exchange rate. Although the recent credit crisis and global economic meltdown proved to be a hurdle, but the impact was offset by prudent risk management and apt allocation of capital investment. The gross profit to sales ratio for the year ended December 31, 2010 was 8.93% which has decreased by 0.67% during the current year. Despite the decrease in gross profit to sales ratio, the net profit of the company has increased by ?16.2 million. The increase in net profit is due to the fact that during the current year the company did not spend any exceptional cost which it incurred during the prior year on strategic restructure. In addition, the company took strong measures to control its finance cost during the current year and cur tailed it by ?52.3 million. An analysis of balance sheet of Marks and Spencer highlights the fact that during the current year the company’s non-current liabilities, in terms of borrowings from banks and other financial institutions, was comparatively less than the previous year. The fact that Marks and Spencer curtailed its borrowings highlight the fact that the company is focusing on gearing is business through raising capital by issuance of share capital, rather than acquiring capital from financers. The earnings per share (EPS) of

Consumer Behaviour Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Consumer Behaviour - Coursework Example Each society their is some type of social class that is significant to the marketers since the buying behaviour of persons in a given social class is alike. In this way, marketing actions could be designed according to diverse social classes. Now we should note that the social class is not determined by income alone but there are several other reasons as well such as: assets, education, profession etc (BABIN & HARRIS 2011). Social factors also affect the consumer behaviour of customers. The significant social factors are situation groups, family, the role and the status. The members of a family adversely influence buyer behaviour. Consequently, marketers are working hard to find the roles and power of the husband, the wife and the children. If wife influences the buying decision of a particular product then the marketers will attempt to target women in their advertisement. Now we should note that purchasing roles change with vary in the consumer lifestyles (BEST HAWKINS & MOTHERSBAUG H 2007). Every person possesses unique roles and status in a society relying upon groups, family, clubs, and organization to which the person belongs. For instance, a woman is working in a certain organization as the finance manager. Here she is playing double roles, one as the finance manager and other role as a mother. Consequently, her purchasing decisions will be influenced by the role and the status (DEBRUICKER QUELCH & WARD 1986). (2) Personal Factors Personal factors also shape the consumer behaviour. The important personal aspects that influence the purchasing behaviour are the lifestyle of a person, economic condition, profession, age, character and self-concept. Age and the life cycle have noticeable impact on... The paper shows that when you are aware of how consumers behave in relation to the goods, you are selling, and then you have a good understanding of how to give good service to them, raising the probability that you will have repeat consumers. For instance, if you know that consumers tend to come to your hotel since they can get good food devoid of waiting for a very long time, you should carry on training your wait employees to be as resourceful as possible. Gather some customer behaviour data by just analyzing the sales data you already have. For instance, you can see whether the majority of your goods are brought with cash or credit card. If you happen to have a clock on the register, you know then when individuals tend to buy in your store. Nevertheless, you should not restrict yourself to that information. The most important information is from the depth answers from your customers about their expenditure. Focus groups, the surveys and the one-on-one interviews are better ways to get the information about customer behaviour. Encourage the consumers to contribute in these projects by offering rewards, like a contest entry or a discount, for the survey completion or the focus group contribution. This paper approves that consumer behaviour assists organizations decide what goods and services to produce or offer. Once they evaluate on what customers purchase and how they come up with they different ways of identifying what products to purchase and what to be left out, companies can more simply spot a necessitate that lacks in they product and supplement it with something either of the same quality or of a supplementary function.