Contemporary Developments in Business and Management Assessment

This report discusses the recent changes in business in the context of BBC and the primary external influences affecting the organization. It also explores the relevance of marketing communication mix for BBC and its influence on policies and decision making.

CONTEMPORARY
DEVELOPMENTS IN BUSINESS
AND MANAGEMENT
ASSESSMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
Primary external influence to which BBC is subject and their importance for the organization 2
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................5
Organization’s profile..................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Relevance to BBC and its influence on policies and decision making........................................6
Evaluation of Response of BBC..................................................................................................7
Recommendations........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REREFENCES..............................................................................................................................12
1

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary development in business discusses about what are the recent changes that
have been made in businesses and this is important for businesses to know as this gives correct
idea about what are the current trends going on. This enables company to keep its practices along
with the time and changing trends. This report will discuss about the changing trends in business
in context of BBC. British Broadcasting Corporation which is a British public service
broadcasting agency headquartered at London (Johnston, 2017). This was founded in 1922 and
its broadcasting services are provided in form of television, radio and web portals. This report
will discuss about the primary external influence to influence and affect BBC along with what
are their importance for the BBC. These are important as they provide idea about whether they
are harmful and negatively affect or present opportunity for the organisation. Marketing
communication mix was another point of discussion in relation with BBC. Communication mix
is a set of forms and method of communication which organisation can adopt to transfer its
message to its customers and potential customers.
TASK 1
Primary external influence to which BBC is subject and their importance for the organization
There are various kinds of tools that can be used for analysis of external factors influence
upon organizations. PESTLE analysis is one of the most commonly used tools that can be used
for conducting external analysis of business, so that impact outside factors upon the organization
can be analysed or identified. PESTLE analysis focuses on external factors such as: Political,
Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors that can impact BBC.
Political Factors: It is one of the most important factors that can impact survival chances or
profitability of an organization. There are various kinds of political factors that can impact BBC
in many different ways (Laviosa and et. al., 2017). BBC is a self- regulatory and independent
organization. Main responsibilities, functions and finances are stated by Royal Charter. In every
year’s government reviews Royal Charter. Government has even made a process named
as ‘review of Royal Charter’ that helps in gaining control over applications of broadcasting
content especially current affairs and news. It has been observed that political factors have a
positive influence over functioning and operations of BBC. Political policies do influence BBC
as majority of the license fee is controlled by the government. However, they have faced various
kinds of pressure from the government as license for broadcasting has never been issued for
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infinite time period because of which they have faced various kinds of conflicts. It has also been
observed that political stability of government in recent years has also helped BBC to gain
stability within the market, has also helped in expansion of their business operation in a much
better and appropriate manner.
Economic Factors: Economic factors are those factors that are related to overall economy of a
country. these factors also impact organizations like BBC. BBC do not operate on commercial
ground. They are basically a national institute and a non-profitable organization. Overall GDP or
growth rate of country can impact the way in which BBC can grow in near future as it is mainly
funded by license fee which helps in delivering more than £3.5 billion a year (Johnston and
Robertson, 2019). But recently Government has decided to cut down government spending due
to which BBC agreed to keep the current license fee at the defined amount and focus on reducing
their overall budget by at least percent. other than this interest rate of a country also helps in
deciding how many individuals or other organizations are willing to invest within the
organization i.e. if the interest rates are higher then it will result in larger amount of investment
which will further result in growth for BBC.
Social Factors: It has been observed that UK has always been a leader in striving quality of life
by getting Britain completely connected. Impact of social factor can be directly seen upon
overall operations of BBC. It has also been observed that Britain has always benefitted from
social and cultural benefits of BBC. BBC has expanded their business till such an extent that
their consumers behaviour has also changed especially in terms of usage of new media. Today
most of the consumers prefer using internet in their everyday lives as it easily provides latest
news, developments and many more (Ezeah and Emmanuel, 2016). Most of the people today
prefer using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. These changes within social
life of people has also brought changes within BBC. BBC has also started their online channels
has created their page on social networking sites so that latest news can be delivered to their
consumers in an easy and appropriate manner. They have also introduced various channels for
children and young generation which will help them to increase their consumer base. This
initiative has been taken because their number of viewers of public- service programmes were
decreasing drastically.
Technological Factors: Technological factors can directly impact overall profitability and
competitive advantage that organization has in a very short duration of time period. In past few
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years advancement in technology has increased in a drastic manner. With this advancement
behaviour of consumer is also changing. Today most of the broadcasting organizations are using
internet for broadcasting things and covering news from all over the world. As a result, BBC has
also focused on enhancing their website and are focuses on world news. This has helped them to
increase their number of viewers. Currently they have 25 million viewers on a weekly basis.
BBC has also adopted new technology within their internal work process which has provided
them with cost advantage and also increased opportunities to grow over internet. This
advancement in technology has helped them to increase to provide world wide news and updates
to their consumers in a fast manner (Johnston and Robertson, 2019). Usage of this advance
technology has also helped them in checking overall accuracy of the news broadcasted by them
on televisions, radio, internet and many more.
Environmental Factors: Today various countries have made various kinds of norms,
legislations and regulations that have become quite important for all industry organizations so
that green- house gases can be reduced. Each organization is required to follow all the
regulations. BBC is participating in environment awareness programs and is focusing on global
urge in order to protect the environment and reduce harmful impact which is being created by
emission of harmful gases, harmful waste material which is thrown into the environment. They
have focused on incorporating all kinds of environmental features (Rata and Rusu, 2018). Head
office of BBC has rain water harvesting system and they also have water saving toilets.
Disposable cups are not allowed within the organization. Not only this they have also installed
centralized recycling point of waste. They have taken various other kinds of initiatives they have
adopted energy saving lighting system so that they can provide all of their services in an ethical
manner. These initiatives taken by BBC has not only helped them to take a step towards
environmental benefits but it has also helped them to bring reduction within their overall
operational cost as well.
Legal Factors: These are one of the most important factors that can impact an organization in
many different ways. BBC is completely dependent upon government as board of governors
choose and decide amount of licence fee which will be funded to them. Whole license fee is not
provided to BBC, some of them is hold by the government for various other purposes. Other than
this, broadcasting permission to BBC is never granted for infinite purposes in fact it is given for
few purposes only (Rata and Rusu, 2018). Laws made by government are made in such a manner
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that organizations like BBC can ensure that a certain level of responsibility and quality level is
being maintained by the organization so that customers and employees of the organization can
feel safe and do not feel discriminated.
These are some of the main external factors that can impact or influence BBC and its operations
in many ways, these factors are extremely important for BBC to be focused on and if not done so
then it can impact overall operations, functionality and profitability of an organization in many
different ways.
APPENDIX
Organization’s profile
Programming and broadcasting activities- BBC
Programming and broadcasting activities comes under television and radio activities. It
includes activities that majorly focuses on creation of content or acquiring rights to distribute
content. It also includes data broadcasting which is typically integrated with TV or radio
broadcasting. There are various kinds of organizations that comes under this. BBC is one of
those broadcasting organization.
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)
BBC is a British public service broadcaster that was founded on 18 October 1922, whose
headquarter is in Broadcasting House, Westminster, London. It is world’s oldest national
broadcaster, not only this they are world’s largest broadcaster present in the world with highest
number of employees. BBC was founded by Jhon Reith HM Government who was the first
director- General of BBC. In present, Lord Hall of Birkenhead is the director- General of BBC
and Sir David Clementi is the Chairman. They have employed more than 22,000 employees and
out of those 22,000 approximately 16,000 employees are in public sector broadcasting. Other
than this, they have almost 35,000 staff members who are working for them for flexible, part-
time and fixed contract. They have established themselves under Royal Charter and majorly
operates under their agreement with the Secretary of state of culture, digital, sport and media.
Majority of their work is funded principally by an annual television license fee which is charged
to almost all British companies, households and organizations who uses any kind of equipment’s
that can be used for recording or receiving live iPlayer catchup and television broadcast. This fee
is used by government for funding BBC world service as it is broadcasted in more than 28
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languages and provides services like online services, BBC Online, BBC Mobile, radio,
Television, 24*7 news channel in English.
TASK 2
Marketing Communication Mix
Marketing communication Mix refers to various communication mix which are used by
company to promote and communicate about their product and service. This communication mix
includes Advertising, Sales promotion, personal selling, public relation, direct/internet marketing
and packaging. Through all these forms company can communicate about its products.
Relevance to BBC and its influence on policies and decision making
Marketing is an important for all type of business organisation regardless of their nature
and size (Genchev and Todorova, 2017). All business organisations undertake marketing as their
important function. Communication mix that is why important as this enables BBC to
communicate and promote its business to its customers and potential customers. In case of BBC
its customers are its viewers and potential viewers. BBC use communication mix to
communicate and corresponds its values which it provides to its viewers. Values that BBC can
provide to its viewers and customers are updated news on right time and correct factual news
available to the viewers all the time. This communication mix influence policies as
communication mix involves various forms in which BBC can communicate and promote its
channel and this mix affect its marketing and promotion policies. BBC is a news channel and
like other businesses which are involved into selling of goods and services BBC directly do not
sell itself and this is why its communication mix and method also requires to be chosen correctly
as it cannot promote itself through sales promotion or personal selling. But public relation and
internet marketing is suitable methods of promotion for BBC. Policies which are affected by
communication mix are policies related to marketing and BBC news as do not offer anything in
person needs to stick to what it says and its policies should include that it provides correct and
timely information and news as it communicate through its promotions (Rusdi Hidayat and et.al.,
2018). This is also a duty and responsibility of the BBC as it is a news channel.
This also affect decision making in the BBC as all the type and forms of communication mix
requires different material and this a major decision as this also affect effectiveness and
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organisational decision making. Advertising includes decisions regarding content, broadcast,
printing decision related to platforms of advertisement and this is how marketing mix affect
decision of BBC. For example BBC is a news channel and this may take decision that the
channel will only advertise through its channel and this may also include advertising through
internet. Public relation includes press release, sponsorship and special event. This affect the
decision related to which event should be sponsored by BBC news and what are the cost and
benefits associated with each option. Other decision affected by this includes regarding selection
and use of social media and social media platforms.
Other decisions which are affected by the Communication Mix in BBC are decision
related to Cost and Expense. This is a major decision which gets influences by marketing mix
and selection of method of communication also gets affected by decision related to cost and
expense (Sitorus, 2017). For example in BBC wants to keep its communication and marketing
mix less in such case company will select social media and internet marketing and if company
has high budget for marketing and communication then they can select advertisement as
communication form. Purpose of the communication is also gets affected by the selection of
communication method. BBC in case wants to remain in personal connect with its audience in
such case BBC can select internet and social media marketing so that it can remain in connect
with its viewers this also allows BBC to know perception and thoughts of its viewers about the
company. In case company just want to give information and communicate value of the news
channel in such case it can communicate through advertisement.
Selection of target market is another decision which affect communication mix of the
company (Fajar, Sobari and Usman, 2018). Target market of BBC will affect what method
should be effective in communicating to target market of BBC.
Evaluation of Response of BBC
Response of BBC regarding communication mix can be selection and application of the
methods of communication. Being public service broadcaster BBC does not indulge into any
type of advertisement and promotional activities. But BBC world which is its commercial unit
involves and employ digital marketing for BBC. Digital marketing is marketing where BBC
market and promotes itself at various digital platforms with help of internet. Digital
advertisement involves social media advertisement. This involves that BBC involves itself into
organic social media marketing where BBC has its own link and profiles on social media
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websites and this allows BBC to connect with audience and at the same time promote itself. This
is one of the most effective marketing and promotional tool which is being used by most of the
organisations (Richards and Marshall, 2019). There are various benefits associated with Social
media marketing as these allows to connect with audience, increases visibility of the BBC and
also increasing users of social media is a separate benefit associated with social media
marketing. Cost aspect in social media marketing is also in favour of the BBC. BBC is a
international company and this is why social media marketing is most suitable as social media
marketing is not bound and limited to any country and this makes to possible to promote
worldwide with limited expense and cost. Negative side of social media is that increasing users
are there but elements which can negatively affect the image of the company are also increasing
on social media and for BBC this is a complete threat.
Other than this BBC also involve into SEO (search engine optimization) marketing.
Presently marketing and promotional activities are increasingly using this method of promotion.
This method of marketing is about getting the traffic from organic, free, editorial and natural
search engines (Valos and et.al., 2017). This is a activity which is carried out by BBC to improve
the ranking of search engine and this also known as quality control for the websites. In this
method of promotion and marketing BBC undertakes activities which assure what are the
strategies through which it can increase and improve its search and website search. This involves
designing proper content which is able to attract retain on the website and also increase the
search engine by taking proper and adequate measures for the same. This is also used for
measuring and monitoring success in other digital marketing initiatives taken by the company.
Increased search engine ranking suggests that other digital marketing initiative and strategies
have been successful.
Billboards in cities are another place and platform it is also a part of direct marketing. In
this type of communication form BBC communicates to prospective audience and audience
through billboard appearance in this advertisement are displayed in billboards in the city and
people passing by can get information and what BBC communicates with its viewers and
potential viewers. This is effective form of promotion as billboards are effective medium to
attract attention of the people passing by and these are usually installed at busy streets and city
places so that most of the people can get the message of the BBC. This images and
advertisements at the city are presented effective line to catch attention of the viewers. Presently
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digital billboards are installed and the benefit of them is that company and organisations can
creatively use and present their message in unique and creative formats which are able to catch
attention and then retention attention of the viewers so that they can recognise BBC later (Bacik
and et.al., 2018). Negative side of billboard advertisement is that it is installed at limited places
and this way message of the company goes to limited people. BBC is a international news
channel and this method of marketing and promotion can be used at limited places only.
Recommendations
There are different processes and methods can be used by the business organization to
improve their marketing communication process in order to gain higher efficiency in marketing
process. These processes can help organization to attract or target more people some of the
common processes that can be used by the organization are- collecting more information and
data about the customer in order to improve the marketing communication processes that are
currently used by the organization to make effective communication with customers, by
considering unique selling proposition can be considered by the marketing department in order to
attract customers in effective manner, brand image of the organization need to be improved in
order to improve the marketing operation, by improve the consistence of communication process
effective process can be developed in the marketing communication process, effective selection
of the marketing mix also can help the organization to established effective marketing
communication process in organization, established various measurements can be considered by
the organization to get and manage leads in market place and client data can be effectively to
manage the marketing communication process more effective(Sitorus, 2017). There are some
other processes can be used by the organization to get better result with the marketing
communication process.for example various technological implementation can be implemented
in the organization to improve the marketing communication process to get better result. For
example digital technology and artificial intelligence technology can be used by the organization
to provide higher satisfaction to the customer with the communication process.
Collect Effective Data About Customer
This is one of the most effective processes that are used by the organization to improve
the marketing communication process that is used by the marketing department of the
organization. The operations of the marketing department can be improved by improving the
data base of the customer in the information storage of the organization(Puke and Batraga,
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2016). This data base or customer information can be used by the organization to develop
effective processes and strategies that can help to develop better relationship with customer in
market place. Customer data can help the marketing department to effectively design custom
marketing plan for the specifically targeted customer in the market place. There are different
processes can be used by the organization to improve the data collection process related to the
customer data base management. For example management information system can be used by
the organization to develop effective customer data base in order to make proper utilisation of
the customer data. This is how by using different information system organization can develop
effective data base of the customers
Utilisation of Unique Selling Points of Organization
There are different products and services are provided to the customer by the
organization. In case of the BBC products and services are related to digital technology and
broadcasting processes. In this case there are different key selling points of the organization can
be considered by the organization to develop better overview for customer of organization to
develop customer base of BBC(SEUKINDO, 2017). These unique selling points can be targeted
by the organization to attract the customers in effective way to develop better result from the
market place. It is most important for the organization to identify their key selling products in
order to utilise this key selling points in order to improve their performance in market place.
Development of Brand Image
In the perspective of the multinational organization it is important for them to develop
effective brand image in market place. it is most important to attract more customer to take
services from BBC. There are different processes can be used by the organization improve the
image of the organization in market place. These process are mainly related to the promotion of
the goodwill of company in market place. These processes can be used by the organization to
provide better capability to the organization in market place(Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017).For
these marketing department can collect data about the customer need from the market place to
make effective changes in the services that are developed by the organization for the customers.
Maintaining Consistence in Communication Process
This is most important for the organization to make effective relationship with customer
in order to make long term relationship with customer. In these process marketing department
can use the data base of the organization to get detailed information to develop effective
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marketing campaign in order to improve the response of the customer in order to gain higher
profitability in market place.
Selection of Proper Market Mix
There are different element of the marketing mix can be considered by the organization to
develop services as per the needs of the customer. This processes can help them to develop better
marketing plan for organization. Through these process goals of the marketing department can be
easily achieved in market place.For better result organization can use data base of the
organization to develop effective changes in the Seven P’s of marketing mix.
Using Effective Measures to Analyse Efficiency of Marketing Department
This processes can be used by the organization to evaluate the efficiency of marketing
department in market place. Company can use various key indicatives in order to efficiently
design marketing communication for organization(Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017). Through these
process better developments in the marketing operations of the organization can be achieved by
the organization in market place.
Manage Leads and Client Data
This is main role of the marketing department to improve the customer base of the
organization. To improve the customer. Marketing department can use various technologies in
order to develop new leads to the customer. For example social media marketing and digital
platform to develop customer base of the BBC.
CONCLUSION
This report is concluding importance of external factor analysis organization. The
external factors can be analysed for the organization to analyse the impact external factor on the
decision making of organization in market place. Marketing communication mix has been
analysed in the report to get overview of marketing operation in market place. The response of
the organization also has been evaluated in the study. Various recommendations has been
provided in the report to improve the marketing communication of BBC.
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REREFENCES
Books and Journals
Bacik, R and et.al., 2018. Factors of communication mix on social media and their role in
forming customer experience and brand image. Management & Marketing. Challenges
for the Knowledge Society. 13(3). pp.1108-1118.
Bruhn, M. and Schnebelen, S., 2017. Integrated marketing communication–from an instrumental
to a customer-centric perspective. European Journal of Marketing.
Ezeah, G.H. and Emmanuel, N.O., 2016. Foreign media framing of Boko Haram insurgency: A
critical analysis of BBC and Aljazeera online coverage. International Journal of
Advanced Scientific Research and Management. 1(10). pp.30-44.
Fajar, A., Sobari, N. and Usman, H., 2018. Impact of marketing communication mix towards
image, brand awareness, and costumers decision to choose Islamic insurance. Journal of
Islamic Economics Lariba. 4(2). pp.109-122.
Genchev, E. and Todorova, G., 2017. Sales Promotion Activities–Effective Tool of Marketing
Communication Mix. Available at SSRN 3089894.
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London.
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Sitorus, S.A., 2017. Marketing communication mix and innovation on customer retention and
sustainable competitive advantages in culinary tourism business environment in the City
of Medan. Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism (JEMT). 8(24).
pp.1579-1590.
Valos, M.J and et.al., 2017. Integrating social media within an integrated marketing
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