Marketing Analysis Of Virgin Media Marketing Essay

Marketing Analysis Of utter(a) Media Marketing EssayServices merchandising ar a machinate of selling which focuses on selling processs. Services hobo be clever to sell and the marketing approach for them is much different than the approach for harvest-homes. both(prenominal) companies crack both wares and supporters and mustiness use a premix of styles for example, a store which sells predict also t curiositys to offer go such(prenominal) as helping plurality select phone as weigh and providing wideband portion and phone repair. Such a store must market both its harvests and the supporting services it offers to appeal to clients. utter(a) Media is an modernistic upstart media familiarity that was formed as a result of a merger between NTL and Telewest and then a re- dishonoring as vestal Media. Its master(prenominal) strength lies in the branding and the innovation that the name vestal offers. Intern anyy, virtuous Media is the only company in the United K ingdom that offers all quatern of the chief(prenominal) media services, i.e. digital television, wideband, laid line telephone and mobile phone packages. The ability to offer these products all to digesther in one compile is the unique selling point of arrant(a) Media and clearly tempereds the company asunder from its competitors.Swot analysis is the most important and first stage of planning. It is a feedback mechanism to make new strategies for any organisation. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are the four components of a swot analysis. Weaknesses and Strengths are correlated and examine the internal part of the vocation analysis whereas Opportunities and Threats deal with the external environment of business operation. Weaknesses and strengths refer to facial expression at of marketing, finance, manufacturing or organisational structure. Swot analysis helps clarifies the objectives of the organisationStrengthsIn fling these unite services, the company ha s substantial economies of scale as it is able to combine legion(predicate) of its generic roles such as administration and finance, thus allowing the company to scathe to a greater extent than competitively for the benefit of its clients. Due to its perceived leading brand name in the media, new Media has managed to secure an ongoing contract with Sky, extending and still its inclusive offering to its customers. Technical ability and stem are also two of the headstone internal strengths of the company, which befool been exploited to be seminal fluid a market leading position.WeaknessesDespite this, the company does defend just about internal weaknesses that need to be managed. The merger between NTL and Telewest is still comparatively new and there are cultural clashes between the two styles and the uphill virtuous style. In recent years, there accommodate been several redundancies and outsourcing of customer services, in an assay to bring down costs. This has resulte d in a grad of unsettled conduct and lack of loyalty from staff. Due to the size and complexity of the growing organisation, there are likely to be ongoing conflicts which allow need to be managed if this cultural shift is non to impact on the customer experience.Opportunities and ThreatsExternally, the opportunities and threats facing sodding(a) Media are ever changing. The media domain is evolution an exceptionally fast pace, resulting in both opportunities and threats for companies such as Virgin Media. Opportunities are widely available for Virgin Media, predominantly in offering value added services such as online gaming or more reliable wideband connections. Bundling these media services to gether, as Virgin Media has already done offers to that degree further opportunities within the media sector, in terms of grasp greater market share. Consumers like simple, one-stop shopping when it comes to the media options available this is something that Virgin Media can contin ue to exploit, particularly now that it has signed an agreement with Sky.Threats to Virgin Media come from opposite similar media companies such as Orange or BT who confront as large players in the market. In particular, Virgin Media is rumoured to have difficulties with its infrastructure reliability, which could potentially allow competitors such as BT to increase market share. The media sector as a whole is extremely fast moving therefore, the main threat is that Virgin Media may fail to keep pace, thus losing its customer base to a nonher more innovative company.The flower of serviceFacilitating elements(services) info Customers often await entropy about how to obtain and use a product and services. They may also need remainders and documentation. Example,Of virgin broadband information services are Direction to service site and using instruction, ensample and insurance, terms and condition of services.Order taking more life-threatenings and services must be ordered or r eserved in advance. Customer involve to know what available and may want to secure commitment to savingBillingHow much do I owe you? .Customers deserve clear, absolute and intelligible bills and statements.Payment Customer may pay faster and more cheerfully if Virgin makes transactions simple and convenient for them.2) Enhancing services computer address Value can be added to goods and services by offering advice and consultation. caoutchouc keeping Customers prefer non to worry about looking by and by the personal possessions that they bring with them to a service site.Exceptions Customers appreciate some tractability in a business when they make special request. They expect it when not e reallything goes according to plan.Hospitality Customers who invest time and effort in visit a business and using its services deserve to be do by as welcome guests.User PreparationWhen implementing new system, it is important that personnel, employees, managers and others in the organizati on are prepared for it. This wreak is also called process of fix the decision makers, managers, employees, and stakeholders for a new system. In this regard, user training becomes very essential, because without it the success of the system cannot be guaranteed. This process of user preparation is be after and executed properly and involved a lot of arrangement, and consideration (Stair Reynolds, 2008).Virgin Media, the UKs leading fibre-optic broadband set asider currently has almost 60,000 SME and domain sector broadband clients, but has announced that it is looking to grow this significantly.Virgin Media has unveiled plans to laughingstock the small and medium business customers of its rival broadband giant BT.The move comes soon after BTs commitment to undercut Virgin Medias residential super-fast broadband prices, with its new fibre-optic broadband service which BT is curlicue out this year.There is a very big market up for grabs, as small and medium-sized enterprises ( SMEs) spend about 18bn a year on IT and telecoms.Virgin Media currently have revenues of about 600m pa from business broadband customers and this is forecast to rise to about 1bn pa in three to vanadium years.Virgin Media chief operating officer Andrew Barron said This is another footprint forwards. Weve been working in the business division for 18 months on get the business processes to the righteousness level. Weve improved it dramatically. We can use the fibre-optic meshing to differentiate ourselves.Marketing communication MixThe marketing mix is the set of controllable tacticle marketing tools that the firm blends to produce theResponse it wants in the sucker market (Melewar. T.C., Saunders.J, 2000)Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade, and remindconsumers exactly or indirectly about the products and brands that they sell. A company s totalmarketing communication mix also called progress mix (Kotler, 2005) consists of specif ic blending of advert, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing tools that are usedby company to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives.The marketing communication activities which contribute to themarketing of any new or existing product by creating awareness of the brand linking the rightassociations to the products image in the consumers memory, facilitating stronger consumer-productconnection etc.Current blanket(a) marketing mix marketing mix.People People is one of the elements of service marketing mix. People define a service.. In case of service marketing, people can make or break an organization. Thus virgin media present are involved into specially getting their staff trained in interpersonal skills and customer service with a focus towards customer satisfaction. In fact many companies have to undergo accreditation to show that their staffs are improve than the rest. Definitely a USP in case of services.Process Service process i s the way in which a service is delivered to the end customer. The process of a service company such as virgin media in delivering its product is of utmost importance. It is also a critical component in the service blueprint, wherein before establishing the service, the company defines exactly what should be the process of the service product reaching the end customer. corporal Evidence The last element in the service marketing mix is a very important element. As said before, services are intangible in nature. However, to create a better customer experience tangible elements are also delivered with the service. Physical evidence is used as a differentiator in service marketing.This is the service marketing mix (7p) which is also known as the extended marketing mixPositionPositioning in different areas is not always easy (I can say it is too difficult). Virgin gathering was aware of the difficulties so they had to debate about the Virgin brand name. They have never entered in a bu siness before doing solid researches and analysis. They have reviewed the industry and tried to look from customers eyes. They were aware of the trade-offs they had to think before incoming a new business venture and they have never underestimated the risks female genitalia new entrance.AdvertisingVirgin Media launched to much fanfare in February 2007, with a public relations event and an expensive advertising campaign which cover major UK television channels, newspapers and billboards. In an effort to increase awareness of the multitude and its services, Virgin Medias campaign used bright red colours to limn its brand image. Recentupdate television advertising featured actress Uma Thurman and comedienne Ruby Wax, and currentlyupdate features faker Samuel L Jackson, whilst the print advertising features bold typography. Virgin Media also sponsored the air 4 reality TV show Big Brother until the end of the ninth series.Virgin Media care/On Thursday 11 February 2010, Virgin Med ia announced that its business division would be rebranded as Virgin Media occupancy with immediate effect. The company, which had been operating as ntlTelewest Business, is now the largest B2B brand in the Virgin Group. This marked the end of the NTL and Telewest being used by the company.Virgin Media Business is the UKs only telco with a national fibre optic near Generation Network. Organisations working with Virgin Media Business take on London city Airport, Arqiva, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Partnership and South West Water.Consumer behavioursUnderstanding how consumer behaviour is changing will be an important requirement of Virgin Medias coming(prenominal) music offering and, should they become law, the Governments legislative proposals will also require measurement of the level of copyright infringement on ISPs intercommunicates. Deticas CView technology potentially offers a non-intrusive solution which enhances our understanding of aggregate customer behaviour without identifying or storing individual customers data.Consumer SegmentWe face intense competition from a compartmentalisation of entertainment and communications serviceproviders, which offer comparable broadband internet, television, fixed line phone and mobiletelephony services. In addition, technological advances and product innovations have increased, and willlikely continue to increase, the number of alternatives available to our customers from other providersand intensify the competitive environment. See Risk Factors-We operate in highly competitivemarkets. However, we believe that we have a competitive advantage in the U.K. residential marketdue to the superior technical capabilities of our cable network over the network of the incumbent BT,which many of our competitors rely on to provide their services. We also face intense competition inthe mobile telephony market, primarily driven by increased pricing pressure from both established andnew service providers, evolving customer needs and technological rise upments.We offer most of our products on a stand-alone basis or as part of bundled packages designed toencourage customers to subscribe to multiple services. We offer broadband internet, fixed linetelephony and mobile telephony and data services throughout the U.K., and currently offer televisionservices exclusively in areas served by our cable networkSegmentation, Targeting, Positioning (STP)Before start think about marketing (4P), you must understand what is STP. Terms of STP intromit market system fair game markets lieu market divider and target markets market segmentation and demographicsSegmentationSegmentation Identifying all segments for the product/service. Many of the resources listed in module 3 will be helpful to you when you go against segments. To be useful, segments should beMeasurableAccessible (can you reach them)Profitable distinguishable from one anotherthe objective of segmentation is to find attractive markets. Strategies in cludeBreak market into componentsRegroup into market segmentsSelect which segment to targetTargetingVirgin Media is currently number two in the home broadband market in the UK, but it obviously doesnt want to be left wing behind when it comes to broadband on the move. The company has its own-brand mobile phone service, so its wasnt that much of a leap for it to add mobile broadband into the mix.Virgin is offering mobile broadband via a number of different deals. For example, if youre already a Virgin customer using its XL (20Mb) or L (10Mb) cable broadband packages or its ADSL Bundle 1 offering, you can get mobile broadband with a 1GB usage allowance for an additional cardinal a month. If youre on one of the lower-end home broadband deals you can get the same package for a tenner a month.However, for this review were looking at the standard retail pack which targets people who dont already have a Virgin service. This deal costs 15 a month on an 18-month contract for a 3GB monthly download allowance and a free USB modemPositioning.Positioning is an essential component and skill in good marketing. Perceptual maps are used to determine the position of a product, firm, person, service or idea. Positioning maps or perceptual maps can be simple, yet very effective marketing tools. One definition of Positioning system is the science of perceptual strategy. It is based on a theory that strategy can only be planned in the mind of the consumer, not the marketplace*.It is important to understand the levels of competition because positioning applies at all levels of competition. For exampleProduct directCorporate LevelIndustry LevelThe STP ProcessThe growing use of the STP process has occurred as a direct result of the prevalenceof mature markets, the greater mixed bag in customer needs, and the ability toreach specialized or break segments. As such marketers are increasingly segmentingmarkets and identifying attractive segments (i.e. who to focus on and why?),in or der to identify new product opportunities, develop suitable positioning andcommunications strategies (i.e. what message to communicate), and effectivelyallocate resources to key marketing activities (i.e. how much should we spendand where?). Organizations will often commission segmentation research whenthey want to re-scope their marketing strategy, investigate a declining brand,launch a new product, or restructure their pricing policy. Organizations operatingin highly dynamic environments seek to conduct segmentation research at fixing intervals, to keep in touch with changes in the marketplace.STP refers to the three activities segmentation, targeting, and positioningSOURCES1. Virgin Media, fourth quarter 2007 results presentation, February 2008.2. Carphone Warehouse Plc fourth quarter avocation update, April 2008.3. Domestic Competitive Market Review, 2004, Ofgem.