Marketing and Communications in the Context of Metro Bank

The report gives an overview of marketing and communications in the context of the Metro Bank, the first retail lender of United Kingdom that tried to bring in a revolution in the banking industry by following a customer centric approach. The report commences with the overview of the bank. There are also discussions on the understanding of the needs, want and demands of the consumers in the context of understanding the marketing of Metro Bank. The report also discusses about the marketing environment with focus on a technological and economical factor that influences the operations of the Metro Bank. The report also gives an insight into the concept of competitor analysis with a focus on three key competitors of the Metro Bank. Through the report, one can also find the analysis of competitors. The report also goes on to discuss the seven Ps of marketing mix and put forward an overview of the current marketing mix of the bank.

Running head: MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Marketing and Communications
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Executive Summary:
The report gives an overview of marketing and communications in the context of the Metro
Bank, the first retail lender of United Kingdom that tried to bring in a revolution in the banking
industry by following a customer centric approach. The report commences with the overview of
the bank. There are also discussions on the understanding of the needs, want and demands of the
consumers in the context of understanding the marketing of Metro Bank. The report also
discusses about the marketing environment with focus on a technological and economical factor
that influences the operations of the Metro Bank. The report also gives an insight into the
concept of competitor analysis with a focus on three key competitors of the Metro Bank.
Through the report, one can also find the analysis of competitors. The report also goes on to
discuss the seven Ps of marketing mix and put forward an overview of the current marketing mix
of the bank.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the Metro Bank:......................................................................................................3
Purpose of the Report...................................................................................................................4
Task 1: Needs, Wants and Demands...............................................................................................5
a. Explain the Importance of Understanding Customers’ Needs, Wants and Demands within
Marketing.....................................................................................................................................5
b. Discussing the Needs, Wants and Demands of the Metro Bank Customers............................5
Task 2: Marketing Environment......................................................................................................6
a. Explain the Relevance of Situation Analysis to an Organization............................................6
b. Discussion of One Technological and One Economical Factor Impacting Metro Bank’s
Business Operations.....................................................................................................................7
c. Importance of Competitor Analysis in Marketing...................................................................8
d. Competitor Analysis of Metro Bank........................................................................................9
e. Findings of the Competitor Analysis.......................................................................................9
Task 3: Marketing Mix....................................................................................................................9
a. Description of the Current Marketing Mix of Metro Bank Based on 7 Ps of Marketing........9
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................11
Appendix A: Branches of the Metro Bank (Actual, Planned and Targeted)................................12
Appendix B: Primary Products of Metro Bank.............................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................14

3MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Introduction:
Overview of the Metro Bank:
Metro Bank represents a retail bank launched in Holborn, United Kingdom in the year
2010. It is the first UK retail lender in a century and has a listing in the London Stock Exchange
(metrobankonline.co.uk 2018). The Bank also known as the challenger ensures revolutionizing
the banking sector and challenges the primary retail banks of UK with a customer service and
customer centric focus. The bank provides necessary banking services to not only the business
but also the personal customers. Metro Bank authorized and controlled by the Prudential
Regulation Authority. However, Financial Conduct Authority also undertakes the control of the
bank. The Bank in addition to providing traditional services also offers non-traditional banking
services that include quoting a fifteen-minute time for opening a bank account, providing pet
friendly policies and providing machine to the customers for depositing and sorting change. The
stores of the bank are open on seven days a week and require no appointment for opening a bank
account. Metro Bank aims at opening around twenty stores by the year 2020
(metrobankonline.co.uk 2018). The bank acquired SME Finance in the year August 2013 which
it rebranded as the Metro Bank SME Finance in the year May 2014. Thus, through the Metro
Bank, the customers knows where they are getting since it always keeps the customers first.

4MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Figure: The Actual, Planned and Targeted Branches of Metro Bank
Source: (French, Leyshon and Meek 2013)
Purpose of the Report
The report aims at giving an overview of Metro Bank. Thus, the report focuses on the
needs, wants and demand of the Metro Bank customers with respects to marketing. The report
puts forward the situation analysis of the organization along with giving an overview of a
technological as well as an economical factor that affects the business operations of the Metro
Bank. The report also outlines the competitor analysis and identifies three competitors of the

5MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Metro Bank thereby highlighting the areas for the metro bank that requires consideration. The
report also describes and identifies the current marketing mix using the seven Ps of marketing.
Task 1: Needs, Wants and Demands
a. Explain the Importance of Understanding Customers’ Needs, Wants and Demands
within Marketing
Understanding the needs, wants and demands of the customer represents the fundamental
concepts of the marketing. Needs represents the initial stage of marketing. Human needs are
social, psychological, individual and cultural (Wilder et al., 2014). There are however, an
innumerable human needs and most new inventions tries to satisfy human needs. In absence of
human needs, there cannot be any existence of the marketing activities. Wants represents the
desires that are the specific satisfiers of the needs. There are unlimited needs of a human that
desires different services, products and method (Osterwalder et al., 2014). Such a desire for
satisfying the customer needs is known as wants. However, individual personality, social class
and culture determine wants. Marketers are able to influence the human wants through providing
various objects that satisfies need. Demand represents the wants of the humans backed by the
willingness and ability for buying. Those goods remain in demand that provides the maximum
satisfaction. Marketer influences the demand by offering products of different quality and price
(Porter and Kramer 2017).
b. Discussing the Needs, Wants and Demands of the Metro Bank Customers

6MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
The need of the metro bank customers revolve around opening a personal account or
application for credit. The Metro Bank puts forward hassle free and easier means for meeting
the customer demand (metrobankonline.co.uk 2016). The only criteria remains in providing the
right set of documents that will ensure smoother flow of the process. The customer stay far away
from a bank store also wants to experience the bank’s service. Metro Bank thus addresses the
wants of the customers by offering online service for the customers who does not live close to a
branch. Mostly, the online service of the bank is targeted towards attracting the customers across
Britain. The entire process completed within a period of ten minutes and requires no fee for the
customers of the European Union. Customers have various demands in terms of bank account,
borrowing, savings, mortgages and private banking. The Metro Bank meets the demand of the
customer by offering bank account in the form of current accounts while the savings account
made available with options like fixed term savings, instant access savings, instant access cash,
young saver options. The borrowing facilities of the bank include personal loans and credit cards.
In terms of mortgage facilities, the bank allows residential mortgages, buy to let mortgages and
mortgages to the existing customers. Further, for meeting the customer demand, Metro Bank
allows banking through online personal banking, app related to mobile banking and through the
Apple and the Google pay (metrobankonline.co.uk 2018).
Task 2: Marketing Environment
a. Explain the Relevance of Situation Analysis to an Organization
The situation analysis represents the compilation of the methods used by the managers
for analyzing the internal and external environment for understanding the capabilities, customers

7MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
and the business environment of the organization (Cohn, Fehr and Maréchal 2014). The situation
analysis is done based on several methods like 5Cs analysis, Porter’s five forces analysis and
SWOT analysis. The five C’s represent the company, customers, competitors, collaborators and
climate. The situation analysis refers to the second step in a marketing plan and is a vital step for
establishment of lasting relationship with the customers. The analysis helps in getting an insight
into both into the macro-environmental factors that influences the firms within environment and
micro-environmental factors that exclusively influences the firm. The purpose of situation
analysis lies in indicating about the product and the organizational position along with the overall
survival of business within a particular environment. Thus, organizations must summarize
problems and opportunities within environments to understand the capabilities within market
(Fox et al. 2013).
b. Discussion of One Technological and One Economical Factor Impacting Metro Bank’s
Business Operations
Technological Factor
According to the Treasury Select Committee the biggest technological barriers faced by
the Metro Bank in United Kingdom was Information Technology (IT). Like United States,
United Kingdom do not have outsourced providers and therefore requires undertaking of the
construction challenges of IT from the scratch whenever required (Booth et al. 2015). The
strategy of Metro Bank in adopting IT remained in minimizing the magnitude of the primary
capital outlay thereby contributing to the profitability and cash flow of the bank. Therefore,
Metro Bank preferred to work with the Temenos that enabled it with IT platform for a single
customer view thereby underpinning the banking services. The bank selected Temenos since it

8MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
put forward IT solution that was integrated and at the same time that lowered the barriers to entry
through offering a massively scalable and flexibly scalable delivery model that reduced the
outlay capital and the operating costs to minimum.
Economic Factor
The economy and the banking industry remain somewhat tied. The capital access of the
bank depends on income flow during economic prosperity or the times of recession. On the other
hand, the borrowing and spending of funds by the customers depends on the spending habits.
However, the economic factor that influences the operations of the Metro Bank has revolved
around the significance of the expansion in the branch network. The more stores the bank is able
to put up will up within the same market, the better they will be able to perform (Sassen 2013).
The customer feedback put forward by the Metro Bank also portrayed the importance of the
branches. Further, the customers of the Metro Bank is primarily based in the communities and
the areas that surrounded the stores and the fact that the new customers needed to open the first
account in the bank store reinforced the importance of the branches.
c. Importance of Competitor Analysis in Marketing
The importance of the competitor analysis lies in the determinations of the strengths and
weakness of competitors within the market, strategies that provides distinct advantage and
barriers that needs development from preventing competition from entering the market. It also
helps in identification of the weakness that required exploitation within the cycle of the product
development (Grant 2016). A competitor analysis also helps in trying to break into a newer
market. Through conduction of a competitor analysis of an unfamiliar environment, one can

9MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
easily model a newer business and understand the role of the competitors. It also helps in
understanding some of the unique customers that drives customers away. Competitor analysis
also helps in identifying the features preferred by the customers. If a particular company offers a
feature or products sold by none of its competitors then other companies must model their
products, tools and features in a manner that provides it an equivalent position. Competitor
analyses represent the basic steps in the planning and research of a company and are one of the
vital components in the development of effective plan for marketing.
d. Competitor Analysis of Metro Bank
Metro Bank Trustco Bank Territorial
Bancorp
Salisbury
Bancorp
Net Income £ 16.8 million $ 43.1 million $15 million $ 6.3 million
Valuation ($) 3.8 billion 831.4 billion 285.2 million 128K
Location: London,
Headquarters
Schenectady, US,
Headquarters
Honolulu, US,
Headquarters
Salisbury, US,
Headquarters
Employees 2,831 808 265 159
No. of Stores 55 145 29 14
Figure: Competitor Analysis of Metro Bank
Source: (Claessens and Horen 2014)

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e. Findings of the Competitor Analysis
The three competitors of Metro Bank include Trustco Bank, Territorial Bank Corp and
Salisbury Bancorp. Like Metro Bank, all three represents a public sector bank and offers various
financial services to the customers in the form of payments, mortgages and loans. In term, of
valuation Metro Bank is the leader and stands at 3.8 billion compared to Trustco which is
831.4 million dollar, Territorial Bank Corp which is 285.2 million dollar and Salisbury Bancorp
which is 128 K dollar. They also vary in terms of headquarter location, as Metro Bank is located
in United Kingdom, Trustco Bank is located in Schenectady, US, Territorial Bank Corp is
located in Honolulu, US and the Salisbury Bancorp is located in Salisbury, US. In terms of net
income, Metro Bank stands at higher value of £ 16.8 million compared to its competitors. One
can also see from the tabular representation that Metro Bank stands as leader in terms of
employee strength that stands at 2831. However, the Bank lags behind in terms of the number of
stores in comparison to the Trustco Bank. Therefore, Metro Bank must focus on increasing the
store branches that will help it to become a leader in the banking sector.
Task 3: Marketing Mix
a. Description of the Current Marketing Mix of Metro Bank Based on 7 Ps of Marketing
The 7Ps represents a set of marketing tactics that one can utilize in any combination for
satisfying the customer of the target market (Khan 2014). The Seven Ps of marketing mix can be
controlled and depend much on the external and internal conditions for marketing. However,
these seven Ps includes:

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Product:
Product is referred as the products the company is selling including all its advantages,
features and benefits that the customers are able to enjoy from the buying and selling of the
goods and services. In terms of products, Metro Bank offers personal banking products,
products related to savings and borrowings and mortgage products. While marketing the product
Metro Bank thinks about the benefits and the features of the customer need and want.
Price:
This represents the pricing strategy of services and the products and the way it influences
the customers. Metro Bank sets its pricing through identification of the willingness of customers
for repayment, mark up for catering the overheads, payment methods, profit margins and other
related cost. For attracting the customers and retaining its competitive advantage, the bank also
considers the possibility of seasonal pricing and discounts.
Place:
Place refers to where the services and the products are distributed and sold. Accessibility
of the customers to the products is important so that the customers can easily find the products.
In order to become accessible to the people of Britain the bank has close to 55 stores which are
open seven days a week thereby encouraging the customers to walk in anytime that they find
suitable.
People:
People refer to the salespeople and the staffs who work for the business. The staffs of
Metro Bank render it the uniqueness. Being a community based bank, it primarily recruits local

12MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
people who care about the customers and puts in 100 percent in supporting the colleagues for
reaching complete potential. Moreover, each store of the bank has a deep rooting for the
community it serves and the staffs possess a better understanding of the ambitions and needs of
the customers.
Process:
Process deals with the methods involved in the delivery of the services and the products
to customers. It also ensures doing easier business. Good processes helps in ensuring that there is
repeated delivery of the same service standards to the customers along with increased efficiency.
This also helps in saving sufficient money and time. In term of processes, Metro Bank stands
apart from the conventional financial organizations in following a customer driven approach that
put forward services on 24/7 basis along with the facility of opening an account within a matter
of 20 minutes without having to fix prior appointment.
Physical Evidence:
This referred to every possible thing that was visible to the customers while interacting
with the business (Baker 2016). Metro Bank therefore made sure that it offered physical
evidence in the form of an environment to the customers that not only took care of the interior
design and layout but also the branding and packaging. They also make sure of selecting the
staffs and the manner in which they act and dress.
Conclusion:
To conclude one can say that the Metro Bank not only overcame all the obstacles but also
flourished as a high street bank. Although the bank has several competitors but stands apart in

13MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
gaining a competitive advantage through its customer centric policies and IT systems. The bank
consider requirements of capital holding so that it is able to subsidize the newer customers and
have indirect payment system access for ensuring further expansion. However, the Metro Bank
chose to focus on the expansion of around the South East commuter belt of London. The bank
adopted a branch based business model for not only promoting itself but also acquiring the
customers. The bank also feels that if it is unable to open newer branches then it might
influences its ability in acquiring newer customers and thereby reaching a specific scale.

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Appendix A:
a. Branches of the Metro Bank (Actual, Planned and Targeted)
b. Competitive Analysis of the Metro Bank
Metro
Bank
Trustco
Bank
Territorial
Bancorp
Salisbury
Bancorp
Net
Income
£ 16.8
million
$ 43.1
million
$15 million $ 6.3
million
Valuation
($)
3.8 billion 831.4 billion 285.2
million
128K
Location: London,
Headquarter
s
Schenectady
, US,
Headquarter
s
Honolulu,
US,
Headquarter
s
Salisbury,
US,
Headquarter
s
Employee
s
2,831 808 265 159
No. of
Stores
55 145 29 14

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Appendix B: Primary Products of Metro Bank
Banking for Business:
 Borrowings like Small Business Loans
 Bank Accounts for Business
 Deposit Account with Instant Access to Business
 Commercial or Nonprofit Banking
 Finances services for SME
 Services related to cash management
Banking for Personal Use:
 Savings Account like the Savers Account for the Youth
 Mortgages like Residential Mortgages, Buy to Let Mortgages
 Current Accounts
 Borrowings like Overdraft, Credit Card, Professional Study and Personal Loans
Other Services:
 Safe Deposit Boxes
 Online and Mobile Banking

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