Marketing Essentials Report: Virgin Money's Marketing Strategies

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MARKETING ESSENTIALS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................................ 3
LO1................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
P1 ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING FUNCTION OF VIRGIN MONEY..........4
M1 ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF VIRGIN MEDIA IN CONTEXT OF MARKETING
ENVIRONMENT.................................................................................................................................................... 7
P2 ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING IN WIDER ORGANIZATIONAL
CONTEXT................................................................................................................................................................. 9
M2 SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARKETING AND OTHER
DEPARTMENTS.................................................................................................................................................. 11
LO3................................................................................................................................................................................ 12
P3 AND M3 COMPARISON OF MARKETING MIX ELEMENTS APPLIED BY DIFFERENT
ORGANIZATIONS TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES...............................................................12
LO3................................................................................................................................................................................ 16
P4/ M4 MARKETING PLAN FOR THE ORGANIZATION................................................................16
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................................................16
2. SWOT ANALYSIS.............................................................................................................................. 16
3. OBJECTIVES....................................................................................................................................... 18
4. STRATEGY (STP)............................................................................................................................. 18
5. ACTION PLAN................................................................................................................................... 19
6. FORECAST........................................................................................................................................... 21
7. CONTROL AND MONITORING:.................................................................................................22
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................................... 23
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................................... 24
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INTRODUCTION
In this report of Marketing Essentials, the roles & responsibilities of the marketing
function of the organization will be analyzed. Further, marketing responsibilities will
be analyzed with reference to the marketing environment and also identifies how an
organization relates to the organizational context. In addition to this, the significance of
this interrelationship between the organizational function and the marketing function
will also be analyzed. In the next part, a comparison will be made to determine the
ways in which that organization applies the elements of the marketing mix for the
achievement of overall business objectives. At last, a basic marketing plan will be
evaluated in order to achieve the desired organizational goals. All of these points will
be covered with reference to a financial service organization Virgin Money.
A Private company Virgin Money deals in the financial services along with banking &
Mortgages and this brand is used by the three brand licenses from all over the world. It
was found on 3 March 1995 by Richard Branson. It is scattered in the areas of UK,
Australia and South Africa.
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LO1
P1 ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING FUNCTION OF VIRGIN
MONEY
The financial service brand Virgin performs its marketing functions to build the trust of
people. Virgin Money has entered into the banking sector to change the traditional
style of marketing. The marketing manager of Virgin Money is breaking the rules of
traditional marketing in financial services to simplify the working style as well as tries
to getting things done in an easier way for consumers (Blythe, and Martin, 2019).
The chief marketing officer of Virgin Money is Paul Lloyd according to which the center
focus of Virgin should be on the fairness to build confidence among consumers. Paul
thinks that fairness is not just a marketing strategy but it is the way to run any business
smoothly (Blythe, and Martin, 2019).
Virgin Money has started the ambition of making “Everyone better off ” under which it
believes in making better the people of Virgin whether they are customers and staffs or
shareholders and partners (Froud et al., 2017).
Following are the roles and responsibilities of a marketing manager of virgin
money:
Anthea Henderson, the marketing manager of Virgin Media committed to delivering the
business by covering all the aspects of the marketing mix (Blythe, and Martin, 2019).
The manager of Virgin Money builds a better kind of a bank by doing the activities what
bank should do:
Roles of the Marketing function
 Market research
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The very first step in the roles of the marketing manager is market research. In order to
figure out the customer’s perception & the target market, Virgin Money has performed
the market & customer research (Ogilvy, 2017).
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 Managing the brand
Virgin Money is a financial services brand and the role of the marketing function of
Virgin Money is to manage its brand by defining the proper goal & experience for
customer awareness (Ogilvy, 2017).
 Satisfying customer needs
The satisfaction of the customer is the first goal of Virgin Money. The marketing
manager of Virgin always uses the marketing function for the value creation of
customers and improving their lifestyles (Ateba, et al., 2015).
Responsibilities of the Marketing function
 Creates a no-nonsense product and provides an honest deal
The marketing manager of Virgin Money has always given an honest deal to its
customers. Unlike other banks, things are clear without any surprises and let their
customer known about all banking policies (Froud et al., 2017).
 Treats a customer as a person, not a number
Virgin Money provides a comfortable atmosphere for its customers. As its stores are
scattered across the UK (Molyneux, 2016), it is making its whole banking experience to
feel comfortable as well as in the national network of stores.
 Always find the way of making everyone better off
The marketing manager of Virgin Money aims at making its customers, staff,
shareholders and the society better off. A manager believes in providing fairness to all
members those are a part of Virgin. From attractive offers to the exclusive lounges,
rewards, and discounts, a manager is responsible to provide easy access to all these
factors through ‘My Virgin Money' (Molyneux, 2016).
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 Simplify the things for easier use
The manager at Virgin is responsible to remove the complexity of money world by
simplifying the things in a very clear manner (Froud et al., 2017). The customer will
never buy a product without full knowledge about it; therefore Virgin Money works
with the attitude of better and simpler.
 Delivers smiles not sales
The manager at Virgin provides the services of smiles not sales. A manager must
ensure that the staffs are not encouraged towards sales (Molyneux, 2016), they must
provide amazing services to their customers.
The marketing role of Virgin follows the concept of empowering, mentoring &
developing people at Virgin. Enabling people effectively has resulted in getting true
satisfaction from them (Ateba, et al., 2015).
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M1 ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF VIRGIN MEDIA IN CONTEXT OF
MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
From the above analysis, it has been made clear that the marketing function of Virgin
Money plays a vital role in identifying the expectations, needs & requirements of
customers (Ogilvy, 2017). Marketing environment has different approaches to
effectively identify the needs that are:
Direct needs: Customers will directly express through their feedback.
Hidden needs: Difficult to identify but possible through observational approach by
beta testers (Mukherjee and Shivani, 2016).
Assumed needs: These are the Assumptions of customer needs through survey and
market research.
Marketing functions of Virgin Money is responsible to create a market environment for
product innovations and at the same time maintains its brand image in the market
environment (Froud et al., 2017). All these can be done by performing the following
roles and responsibilities.
Analyzing the competition:
Competitor analysis will help to manage the brand of Virgin Money by testing products
of its competitor using strategic tools of SWOT & PESTEL (Ogilvy, 2017).
Analyzing the market environment:
Identify the company’s flaws by performing strategic analyzing that helps in value
creation (Baker, 2016).
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Identify Potential customers:
Proper identification of potential customers will lead Virgin Money to run a business in
a more strategic way (Froud et al., 2017).
Promotions:
Hiring celebrities for promotion & advertisement strategies will lead to creating a
mindset for customers in purchasing the company's brand (Ogilvy, 2017).
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P2 ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF MARKETING IN WIDER
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
Virgin Money shows an interrelationship between the other departments of the
organization. This interrelationship will help the company to perform the business
operations effectively and action that will lead to the continuous progress of Virgin
Money (Baker, 2016). On the other hand, if any of the department got fail in its
activities then it will negatively affect all other departments.
Marketing relation of Virgin Money within the wider organizational context is as
follows:
Finance Department
As Virgin Money is a financial services company, there is a major role of the finance
department at Virgin. It has introduced a scheme of financial services compensation
under which a person is allowed to deposit its money up to £85,000. This scheme of UK
guaranteed people to keep their money safe (Mukherjee and Shivani, 2016). The
marketing department of Virgin Money has shares a link with the finance department
to provide a wide range of financial products including savings, mortgages, current
accounts, pensions, credit cards, insurance, investments, etc.
HR Department
Virgin Money shares a link with the HR Department to recruit and select the potential
employees for the Virgin bank. The marketing department is responsible for the market
research where the HR department is responsible to hire an effective candidate for the
company by analyzing the market research (Baker, 2016). Therefore, they share an
effective relationship between them.
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Sales Department
The marketing department is connected with the sales department of Virgin Bank to
market banking products & services. A sales officer at Virgin is responsible for the
selling of its products to its customers (Mukherjee and Shivani, 2016). This includes
Bancassurance (the insurance offers by the bank), current accounts, saving accounts,
etc. The relation between marketing & sales is built to ensure that whether Virgin
Money is going in the right tractor not to reach the right client base in the market
(Mukherjee and Shivani, 2016).
Operation Department
A relationship is formed between marketing & operational department of Virgin Money
to ensure that the operations and the transactions at Virgin are running smoothly
(Baker, 2016). Operation department is responsible to check that the procedures and
the practices at Virgin are appropriate to perform the customer transactions accurately.
Virgin Money has expanded its operations across the world by introducing the market
with a value Personal Equity plan (Mukherjee and Shivani, 2016).
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