Marketing and Communication (Coursework 1): Metro Bank Report

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis of Metro Bank, a retail banking organization in the UK. It begins with an introduction to the bank, highlighting its services, competitive advantages, and financial performance. The report then delves into the core marketing elements, including an examination of customer needs, wants, and demand within the UK banking sector, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer perspectives and adapting services accordingly. A situational analysis is conducted to assess the external and internal market environments, encompassing economic and technological factors, as well as competitive analysis of major UK banks like NatWest, Lloyds, and HSBC. The report also details the application of the 7Ps marketing mix (Product/Service, Promotion, Place, Price, People, Process, and Physical Evidence) to Metro Bank, providing insights into its marketing strategies and operational processes. The analysis underscores the bank's focus on digital banking, customer service, and its competitive position within the UK banking landscape.

Running head: MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION.
Marketing and Communication (Coursework 1)
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Task 1: Needs, Wants and Demand.....................................................................................4
Task 2: Situational Analysis................................................................................................5
Task 3: Marketing Mix (7Ps)...............................................................................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................9
Reference...........................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The Metro bank is one of the popular retail banking Organisation in United Kingdom,
which started its financial operation in the year 2010. The bank is one of its kind to offer all 7
days service to the public. Being one of the newly opened banks, the customers can get advanced
level of banking service, which can help them to get better guidance about financial services.
Simple banking policies by focusing up on interest and rate of exchange, is one of the major
competitive advantage of the Metro Bank. Headquarter of the bank is located in London with
nearly 55 other branches in all over UK. The total estimated revenue of the bank in a financial
year 2017 was calculated to be 293.8 million pound. The operating income level was estimated
to be about 18.7 million pound with the net income level of 10.8 million pound (About us |
Metro Bank, 2018). With nearly 3000 employees, the Metro Bank is one of the biggest recruiter
in the UK region.
One of the essential features of the bank is the ability to inherit multiple culture and
diverse network, which has helped them to reach out to wider range of customers in a short
period. The cultural diversity of the bank is reflected in their employee selection process, where
Asian British are the highest group of Employees besides the white British.
The aim of the current report is to organise the marketing element of the Metro Bank,
where the customer need and demand level are described. It will also describe the marketing
environment of operation along with the importance of implementing marketing mix tool. The
situation analysis of the banking industry in UK will be conducted that will help in the matter of
the marketing environment analysis tool. This will help to understand the position of the Metro
Bank. Important information related to the competitive Rivals of the bank will also be discussed
that is an essential part of situational analysis.

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Task 1: Needs, Wants and Demand
According to Armstrong et al. (2014), besides improving the quality and features
associated with product or service, it is essential for the business organisation to understand the
needs of the target customers. Understanding the specific requirement of the customer is denoted
as the needs within marketing. The success of a business organisation it depends upon the extent
to which, the customer need is being fulfilled. Another key aspect of every business in to
understand the difference between customer and need and customer want. It is the duty of every
responsible business to understand the real customer needs, which can be quite different from
what the customer wants. Convincing the customer in purchasing the things they need rather than
the things they want is key to business success.
Customer demand is also another important criterion in the given context, which will help
them to determine the quality and associated features of the service. It is also important to
understand the perspective of the customer, which will help them to modify service or product
type (Wilder et al. 2014).
For the management of Metro Bank, it is essential to understand the importance of
banking service within the people of UK. It is needless to say that better and efficient quality of
banking service is the basic requirement for all customers. In order to effectively manage the
banking service it is essential to understand the frequent change in customer need and demand.
According to Rao and Budde (2015), need and the demand of the banking customer is highly
dependent upon behaviour and Expectations of the society and their personal financial
performance. Being one of the newest banks in London, the Metro bank is emphasizing on better
quality of customer service my understanding the need and the demand. Banking service is
considered to be one of the essential requirements within the society, and the customers’ needs

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that for all days in week. The bank has fulfilled this need by remaining available to the customers
and all 7 days a week.
Providing highly efficient customer service with digital technology can help the bank to
connect with all their clients. Customer of the metro bank also need to get latest and updated data
related to the financial performance, which will help them to decide upon their investment. High
level of clarity also needs to be maintained by providing essential information related to all
forms of transaction. This will significantly reduce the risk of any fraud activities, and can be
regarded as one of the important demand of the customers.
Task 2: Situational Analysis
Situational analysis is an important event in marketing which helps an organisation to
collect information from both external and internal market environment. With the detailed
information it is possible to interpret the position of a company in the context of the current
situation in market. Morse et al.(2016), have mentioned that situational analysis need to be
conducted in regular interval, which will help to predict all kind of changes that occur in the
business environment. The situational analysis is also considered to be an essential tool to
understand the competitive advantage of an organisation in the respect to their business rivals.
In most of the business environment in the modern days frequent changes can be a major
challenge for business sustainability. With effective situation and analysis it is possible for the
business organisation to predict all forms of future changes, which will help them in retaining
customers and implement innovative business policies for higher sustainability.
Analysing the Macro business environment is an essential part of situational analysis,
which can help the management of the Metro Bank to identify all external factors that can have a
significant impact upon their business. In the given context it is essential to discuss about the

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economic factors of UK, which needs to be considered in order to understand the banking
policies. Frequent changes in the inflation and foreign exchange rate are essential in all banking
transaction process. The Metro Bank can use the stable economic growth of UK as one of the
major external opportunity to implement aggressive marketing strategies (McCombie and
Thirlwall 2016). Britain is also considered to be one of the fastest growing economies in the
European region. In spite of higher inflation rate in 2017, due to effective government policies
the economy has recovered at a rapid rate, which is one of the major causes of effective business
growth in the region (Guerrero et al. 2015).
The technological factors are essential part of the situational analysis of the banking
service. With the advancement of the digital age, it is essential to provide the innovative forms of
banking service that is obtained in the forms of mobile and internet banking. The rapid
technological developmental infrastructure of UK is one of the biggest forms of investment that
helps in better quality of customer services.
Competitive analysis is also another essential step of analysing external market
environment, which is mainly aimed to focus upon the strengths and weaknesses of a business
organisation in the context of the current market situation. Potential threats that are obtained
from the External competitors can also be analysed. Detail information of competitive analysis
can help to understand the context of defensive and offensive strategy context (Fleisher and
Bensoussan 2015).
As new business organisation enter the market zone, it is essential to understand their
business policies in order to retain old customers. This is essential due to the fact that the modern
customers have the behaviour to switch over brands, in case they are not satisfied. With essential

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competitive analysis, it is possible for a business to understand the exact need and demand of the
target client group. The market position of a company can also be evaluated by competitive
analysis, which provides essential information about the market share hold within the respective
industry.
Bank Total no of
Branches
Total no of
employees
Self –service
machines
Total Asset
values (£)
Total profit
values (£) in
2017
NatWest bank 3,600 33,300 3,400 316.5 billion 159.8 million
Lloyds Bank 4,500 45,836 5,400 436 billion 17.5 Billion
HSBC Bank 7,500 85,000 9,000 2.374 trillion 56.9 billion
The above table has provided essential information about three of the major banks in UK.
It is important to note that the Metro bank being one of the new entrants in the banking industry
has quite less asset value and income level compared to the top banking sectors. The aggressive
and advanced banking business policies implemented by the Rivals including Lloyd Bank HSBC
and NatWest Bank is one of the major external thread that needs to be evaluated.
With significant less number of total branches in all over UK, the market share of the
metro bank is significantly low compared to major players of the given sector. With just 3000
employees, it is highly challenging for the bank to reach out to more number of customers. Due
to the less number of branches, it is not possible for the bank to provide efficient financial
services from all parts of UK.

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With significantly lower side value it is not also possible for the bank to rapidly improve
upon their infrastructure for gaining effective competitive advantage. Nevertheless, one of the
major highlighting business strategy of the bank is to provide 24/7 customer service, which
includes opening the banking operations 7 days in a week.
Task 3: Marketing Mix (7Ps)
The Marketing mix is an essential tool of implementing business strategy, which mainly
focuses upon certain elements that can be altered according to the need and demand of target
customers. According to Mohammad (2015), there are 7Ps or 7 major elements of marketing that
need to be focused while implementing the policy of the marketing needs.
Product/ Service: Deciding up on the product or service feature is the primary step in
implementing the marketing plan. In case of the banking sector, the product mix includes
elements related to Financial Services, which is implemented according to the socio-economic
need of the customers. With a change of lifestyle in people of UK, the Metro bank is focusing up
on providing internet and mobile banking service. This can help them to provide latest
information related to all type of financial and personal transaction within the banking sector.
Promotion: The Promotional factor is essential elements that are used in marketing mix
to communicate with target customer. Advertisement and selling policies is essential tool that
need to be included in promotional strategies (Khan 2014). The marketing department of Metro
bank is dependent on digital platform for promoting their effective banking service. Providing
optimised information to the customer is crucial to ensure that it is easily possible to seek their
attention.

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Place: Headquarter of metro bank is located in London, which is the main place of
operations. There are over 3,000 branches of the bank that is located in all over Britain and
Scotland.
Price: The pricing strategy is implemented depending upon the feature of product or
service that is being offered. Essential information gain from competitive analysis also needed to
be included in the pricing mix strategy. This is believed to be one of the key elements in gaining
competitive advantage (LIU and GU 2016). The price that is charged by Metro Bank includes
the rate of interest and processing fees that are charged after each financial transaction.
People: The bank is currently one of the biggest recruiter in UK, which mainly focuses
on employing technological expert improving the quality of digital banking service. The
employees also need to have effective communication capability for smooth interaction with
customers.
Process: Operational process of the bank is mainly dependent upon the use of digital
technology. With advanced mobile and Internet Banking service, it is possible to provide
customisable service according to the need of the customers.
Physical Evidences: In order to seek banking service from the Metro bank is customer
has to provide their official identity. Other Physical evidences include banking passbooks and
cheque books
Conclusion
The given assignment has discussed about the importance of focusing on customer need
and demand level for a banking service. It has also focused upon the importance of conducting
situational analysis and gaining important information related to the competitors that are needed

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in implementing business strategy for the Metro Bank. One of the essential part of the banking
service of the Metro Bank is that they offer banking service 7 days in a week.
The bank is also aiming to improve the quality of customer service by introducing
innovative digital formulas. From the element of marketing mix theory it is important to ensure
that pricing strategy in the form of interest rate are kept at competitive level. Essential
information need to be gained from the external market situation which can help the bank to
modify up on their business strategies for gaining longer sustainability in the UK banking
industry. Operational process also needs to be enhanced for ensuring that internet banking
service is available to every customer. This can also provide them the opportunity to easily
connect and directly communicate with the banking partners.

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Reference
About us | Metro Bank. (2018). Metrobankonline.co.uk. Retrieved 13 April 2018, from
https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/about-us/
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Pearson
Australia.
Fleisher, C.S. and Bensoussan, B.E., 2015. Business and competitive analysis: effective
application of new and classic methods. FT Press.
Guerrero, M., Cunningham, J.A. and Urbano, D., 2015. Economic impact of entrepreneurial
universities’ activities: An exploratory study of the United Kingdom. Research Policy, 44(3),
pp.748-764.
Khan, M.T., 2014. The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual review paper).
International journal of information, business and management, 6(2), p.95.
LIU, X. and GU, L., 2016. The Study of Pricing Strategy in Online-offline Channel Based on the
Consumer's Switching Behavior. Journal of Management, 2, p.009.
McCombie, J. and Thirlwall, A.P., 2016. Economic growth and the balance-of-payments
constraint. Springer.
Mohammad, H.I., 2015. 7PS marketing mix and retail bank customer satisfaction in northeast
Nigeria. British journal of marketing studies, 3(3), pp.71-88.
Morse, J.M., Stern, P.N., Corbin, J., Bowers, B., Charmaz, K. and Clarke, A.E., 2016. From
grounded theory to situational analysis: What’s new? Why? How?. In Developing Grounded
Theory (pp. 194-235). Routledge.
Rao, Y.V. and Budde, S.R., 2015. Banking technology innovations in India: Enhancing customer
value and satisfaction. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 8(33).

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Wilder, K.M., Collier, J.E. and Barnes, D.C., 2014. Tailoring to customers’ needs:
Understanding how to promote an adaptive service experience with frontline employees. Journal
of Service Research, 17(4), pp.446-459.