Marketing Analysis Of Virgin Media Marketing Essay

Marketing Analysis Of arrant(a) Media Marketing EssayServices grocery storeing be a form of marketing which focuses on selling work. Services can be tricky to sell and the marketing approach for them is much incompatible than the approach for fruits. Some companies widen both products and services and mustiness use a mixture of styles for physical exertion, a store which sells phone also t removes to offer services such as helping people select phone as contract and providing wideband service and phone repair. Such a store must market both its products and the supporting services it offers to appeal to clients.Virgin Media is an innovative new media social club that was formed as a result of a centeral fusion between NTL and Telewest and then a re- scratching as Virgin Media. Its main strength lies in the leaf bladeing and the innovation that the name Virgin offers. Intern wholey, Virgin Media is the only company in the United Kingdom that offers all four of the main media services, i.e. digital television, broadband, stock-still line telephone and rambling phone packages. The ability to offer these products all together in one bundle is the unique selling point of Virgin Media and clearly sets the company apart from its competitors.Swot analysis is the most primal and first stage of planning. It is a feedback mechanism to put to work new strategies for any organisation. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats atomic number 18 the four components of a swot analysis. Weaknesses and Strengths argon correlated and examine the shell(a) part of the business analysis whereas Opportunities and Threats deal with the external environment of business operation. Weaknesses and strengths refer to aspect of marketing, finance, manufacturing or organisational structure. Swot analysis helps clarifies the objectives of the organisationStrengthsIn offer these combined services, the company has substantial economies of scale as it is able to comb ine many of its generic roles such as administration and finance, thus allowing the company to harm more competitively for the benefit of its customers. Due to its perceived leading brand name in the media, Virgin Media has managed to secure an ongoing contract with Sky, extending further unbosom its inclusive fling to its customers. Technical ability and infrastructure ar also two of the key internal strengths of the company, which have been exploited to produce a market leading position.WeaknessesDespite this, the company does have some internal weaknesses that need to be managed. The merger between NTL and Telewest is still relatively new and there are cultural clashes between the two styles and the emerging Virgin style. In recent years, there have been several redundancies and outsourcing of customer services, in an attempt to bring spile be. This has resulted in a degree of unsettled demeanour and lack of loyalty from staff. Due to the size and complexity of the growing organisation, there are likely to be ongoing conflicts which provide need to be managed if this cultural shift is not to impact on the customer experience.Opportunities and ThreatsExternally, the opportunities and threats facing Virgin Media are ever changing. The media vault of heaven is developing 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 broadband connections. Bundling these media services together, as Virgin Media has already through offers yet further opportunities within the media sector, in terms of grasping greater market share. Consumers like simple, one-stop shopping when it comes to the media options available this is something that Virgin Media can continue to exploit, especially now that it has signed an agreement with Sky.Threats to Virgin Media come from other sim ilar media companies such as Orange or BT who remain 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 another more innovative company.The blossom out of serviceFacilitating elements(services)Information Customers often require information well-nigh 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, warning and insurance, terms and condition of services.Order taking Many goods and services must be ordered or reserved in advance. Customer needs to know what available and may want to secure commitment to delivery bursting chargeH ow much do I owe you? .Customers merit clear, accurate and intelligible bills and statements.Payment Customer may pay faster and more cheerfully if Virgin makes transactions simple and convenient for them.2) Enhancing servicesConsultation Value can be added to goods and services by offering advice and consultation.Safe keeping Customers prefer not to worry about looking after the personal possessions that they bring with them to a service site.Exceptions Customers appreciate some flexibility in a business when they make special request. They expect it when not everything goes according to plan.Hospitality Customers who invest time and effort in visiting a business and using its services deserve to be treated as welcome guests.User PreparationWhen implementing new system, it is important that personnel, employees, managers and others in the organization are prepared for it. This fulfil is also called litigate of readying the decision makers, managers, employees, and stakeholders f or 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 provider currently has almost 60,000 SME and worldly concern sector broadband clients, but has announced that it is looking to grow this significantly.Virgin Media has unveiled plans to manoeuver the small and medium business customers of its rival broadband giant BT.The tend comes soon after BTs commitment to undercut Virgin Medias residential super-fast broadband prices, with its new fibre-optic broadband service which BT is rolling 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 broadban d customers and this is forecast to rise to about 1bn pa in three to five years.Virgin Media chief operating officer Andrew Barron give tongue to This is another step forwards. Weve been working in the business division for 18 months on getting the business processes to the right level. Weve improved it dramatically. We can use the fibre-optic network 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 rear end market (Melewar. T.C., Saunders.J, 2000)Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade, and remindconsumers countly or indirectly about the products and brands that they sell. A company s totalmarketing communication mix also called promotion mix (Kotler, 2005) consists of specific blending of denote, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing tools that are usedby company to p ursue 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 extended marketing mix marketing mix. hatful 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. gum olibanum virgin media nowadays are involved into specially getting their staff trained in interpersonal expertnesss and customer service with a focus towards customer satisfaction. In fact many companies have to undergo accreditation to show that their staffs are better than the rest. Definitely a USP in case of services.Process Service process is 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 level best 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.Physical 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 Group was aware of the difficulties so they had to think about the Virgin brand name. They have never entered in a business 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 behind new entrance.AdvertisingVirgin Media launched to much fanfare in February 2007, with a public relations event and an expensive advertising motion which covered major UK television channels, newspapers and billboards. In an effort to increase awareness of the group and its services, Virgin Medias campaign used bright red colours to portray its brand image. Recentupdate television advertising featured actress Uma Thurman and comedienne Ruby Wax, and currentlyupdate features actor Samuel L Jackson, whilst the print advertising features bold typography. Virgin Media also sponsored the Channel 4 reality TV show Big Brother until the end of the ninth series.Virgin Media Business/On Thursday 11 February 2010, Virgin Media announced that its business division would be rebranded as Virgin Media Business 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 Next Generation Network. Organisations working with Virgin Media Business include 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 upcoming music offering and, should they become law, the Governments legislative proposals will also require measuring of the level of copyright infringement on ISPs networks. 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 memberWe face intense competition from a variety of entertainment and communications serviceprovi ders, which offer comparable broadband internet, television, fixed line telephony and smoothtelephony 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 insecurity Factors-We operate in highly competitivemarkets. However, we believe that we have a competitive advantage in the U.K. residential marketdue to the superior proficient capabilities of our crinkle 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 developments.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 include market dodging target markets positioning market segmentation 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 develop segments. To be useful, segments should beMeasurableAccessible (can you reach them)ProfitableDistinct from one anotherthe objective of segmentation is to sire attractive markets. Strategies includeBreak market into componentsRegroup into market segmentsSelect which segment to targetTargetingVirgin Media is currently number two in the home broadband mar ket in the UK, but it obviously doesnt want to be left 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 fiver 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 Theory 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 LevelCorporate LevelIndustry LevelThe STP ProcessThe growing use of the STP process has occurred as a direct result of the prevalenceof mature markets, the greater diversity in customer needs, and the ability toreach specialized or niche segments. As such marketers are increasingly segmentingmarkets and identifying attractive segments (i.e. who to focus on and why?),in order to identify new product opportunities, develop suitable positioning andcommunications strategies (i.e. what pass to communicate), and effectivelyallocate resources to key m arketing 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 atregular 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 job update, April 2008.3. Domestic Competitive Market Review, 2004, Ofgem.