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Marketing Mix Barclays Bank Marketing Essay

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Marketing
Wordcount: 2063 words Published: 1st Jan 2015

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Barclay’s plc is a British financial services firm which operates worldwide. It is a company that is listed on the London and New York stock exchange. The company grew into one of the largest financial services groups in the UK and is involved in large range of operations including banking, investment banking, and investment management. It operates 2,000 domestic branches and is nearly 850 internationally branches in more than sixty countries all over the world. Barclay’s has seven sub-units, namely Barclay’s Africa, Barclay’s Capital, Barclay’s Global Investors, Barclay’s Private Clients and UK Banking etc. The company has over 4.5 million registered online bankers and over 10.6 million Barclay’s customers in the United Kingdom. In 2003 Barclay was the world’s ninth-largest bank based on market capitalization.

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 Barclays’ main objectives is to help their customers by considering them as individuals, offering services and products that expects and satisfy their requirements. The company explains, “We must continue to understand, in detail, what customers require. The financial services market is ever more competitive and it is becoming easier for others to provide financial services, especially during this time of rapid technological change with the seamless integration of the Internet, digital TV and teletext. It is important to distinguish our market research and keep a finger on the customer’s pulse.” (Barclays, 2010)

Stakeholders:

The stakeholders are the persons or group of persons that have a key interest within the business. Their interest as a stakeholder will differ according to the type of business in which they have an interest. The internal stakeholders in Barclays plc are the following:

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Targeting Analysts

The CRM Targeting Analysts measure the performance of response-based marketing campaigns by examining replies and results. (Barclays, 2010)

2. Campaign Executives

The Campaign Executives help come up with cutting-edge campaigns to promote Barclays products to target customers. (Barclays, 2010)

3. Campaign Managers

The Campaign Managers lead a team to develop, implement and manage cost

 The company also engages with colleagues across the business in several ways, from focus groups to networks and through union representation. Annual Employee Opinion Surveys are also a valuable means of gaining feedback. Senior leaders hold regular colleague presentations during which issues of interest are discussed with groups of employees. (Barclays, 2010)

There are also a large number of external stakeholders in the company:

1. Customers and clients

Customers and clients are the most important stakeholders. Regular surveys and focus groups are used to hear views on how the company can improve its products and services to better meet needs.

2. Private shareholders

Its shareholders receive communications in electronic or printed form, such as the Yearly Review, and notices of shareholder meetings.

3. Consumer groups

Barclays, works with consumer groups to get to know their views on practical improvements which can be applied to products and services, or propositions that have to be launched. In 2006, the company’s Consumer Champion team set up a group to discuss work with consumer organizations. Feedback is continually used to make changes to the company’s products and services in the UK.

4. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

The company recognizes that NGOs have a major role to perform, working with governments and businesses to highlight issues of concern in a range of areas. Dialogue is maintained with a range of NGOs and their feedback is welcomed. (Barclays, 2010)

SOURCES OF FINANCE:

Internal sources:

Personal savings: this is most the choice for small businesses where the owner has some savings available to use

Retained profit: that is, profits which, rather than being distributed to shareholders or taken as drawings by the owner/s, are ploughed back into the business to generate more profits in future.

Working capital: This is short-term money that is held in keep for day-to-day expenses such as salaries, rent, bills and invoice payments.

Sales of assets: There may be more fixed assets, such as buildings and machinery etc. Choices to sell items that are still used should be made carefully as it could affect capacity to deliver accessible products and services. (Barclays, 2010)

External sources:

Shares: Limited companies could look to sell additional shares, to new or existing shareholders, in trade for a return on their investment.

Loans: These may be in the form of debentures (with fixed/variable interest) which are usually protected against the asset invested in, so the loan company will have a legal shared interest in the investment. This means that the company won’t be able to sell the asset without the lender’s agreement and the lender will take priority over the owners and shareholders if the business should fail making sure the cost is repaid even if a loss is made that’s the new Loans: replace that. (Barclays, 2010)

Venture capital: It is usually used to develop new business or ventures. This finance is available to Barclay’s whose projects may be too risky to secure a bank loan, but are judged viable by the specialist organisations offering this help. (Barclays, 2010)

Factoring: Factoring is where it contains the organizational outsourcing and charging arrangements to an external organization. This involves the firm selling its debts to a ‘factor’ for less than their face value. The factor collects the full amount from the debtor and his profit is the difference between the two. This can enable small firms to avoid cash flow problems. (Barclays, 2010)

SWOT ANALYSIS:

Strengths

Barclays is known worldwide and its influence also spreads across the globe. This allows it to be able to spread its risk across a wide range of markets and enjoy the necessary economies of scale

The Barclays brand is established and has a very strong reputation in the market. (Barclays, 2010)

Weaknesses

Plans to expand in Asia were stopped as ABN amro got most of the shares in 2006. Barclays introduced a new share system.

The bank won’t be paying dividends on its shares until 2009 which is an unattractive fact in the eye of the share holder. (Barclays, 2010)

Opportunities

The bank is going to present a portfolio of their services worldwide, providing a wide range of cross-selling opportunities

Barclays still has the added option of expanding into Asian markets, and sees itself setting operations into a number of these markets. (Barclays, 2010)

Threats

The recession however, could prove Barclays acquisition of Lehman’s assets to be detrimental to its future

Barclays has also been slated to have invested in failing businesses and therefore the shareholders in the business are liable to be at high risk. So, they may also look to sue the bank. (Barclays, 2010)

Product life cycle:

a. Introduction Stage:

This stage refers to the period when the product which is the services of the bank is introduced in the market. During this phase the sales is low as competition is not yet entered in the market and also till consumers become responsive of the product and its features. In this stage, Barclay bank creates awareness for their services among the customers and hence the advertising costs typically are high. The objective in this stage is to generate demand for the services and create a market for its operations. (Barclays, 2010)

b. Growth Stage:

In this stage more customers become responsive of the product and its attributes. Sales grow rapidly. The objective in the growth stage is to further increase the demand for their product and services by gaining consumer attraction and increase the sales. And the competition increases at this point . (Barclays, 2010)

c. Maturity Stage:

During this stage sales continue to increase although at a slower pace. Maturity stage is considered as the most profitable in the life of a product. Advertising expenses are lower as the product or a service is well established in the market by now, and brand awareness is strong. The objective in this stage is to maintain market share . The competition is high at this point. In order to increase more shelf space from the retailers the company will need to apply different promotional activities to attract their attention. (Barclays, 2010)

d. Decline Stage:

This stage witnesses a decline in the sales as the market becomes saturated. Since the services of Barclay have been in the market for a long time now, its features become technologically outdated with respect to customer’s changing tastes. Finally a stage will be attained where the product will be in no position to generate profits. (Barclays, 2010)

MARKETING MIX

1. Product:

Refers to the goods and services Barclay offer’s to its customers. Barclay must place enough importance to the product and service as well as to attract customer attention. Some elements of product and service that require notice for a successful business are: features, price, quality of the service or product, the way of packaging and Support. (Barclays, 2010)

Price:

Refers to the cost of a product or service. It is what plays an important role in customer’s decision of purchasing a product/service. Thus careful attention should be paid to decide the price of a particular product/service. Customers would choose for a product or services which has the related features but is priced relatively lower than the one offered by Barclay if their prices are too high. However, if the price determined by Barclay is lowest among the competitors; customers might consider it as a sign of low quality. Therefore, the company must price the product in a way which gives an appropriate position of the product in the market. This Price of the marketing mix is highly important for the success of the business as it is the one that determines the revenue the revenues generate or the profits that can be achieved. (Barclays, 2010)

3. Place:

Refers to the distribution channels used to get Barclay’s products or services from the manufacturer/service provider to the end customers.. For Barclay to be a success, it is important that the product or service offerings are at the right time at the right place. So great importance should be placed in influential the distribution medium. The select of the distribution method should be carefully made keeping in mind the target audience and the positioning of the product in the market. It also could be the bank itself. (Barclays, 2010)

4. Promotion:

Promotion refers to the awareness created and advertising is used to attract the customers. The main objective of promotion is to make customers aware for the service features of Barclay bank, its uses and benefits. Promotion helps the company to position their products in the right way in the market to reach the target customers. Effective promotional activities consist of a clear and simple message which is directly targeted at a specific group of people, reached by means of an appropriate medium like television or print adverts. It also involves personal selling, public relations and sales promotions. (Barclays, 2010)

Input-Process-Output:

Input: customer deposits: the amount deposited by customers in their bank account is used by bank to carry out the credit creation process which in turn profit. Also the equipment, labour and raw materials are used.

Process: ATM: is where you can store money and so the customers will be able to get money from their atms of habib bank limited.

Output: profit: profit which gives you income.

 

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