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Virgin Uses Brand Equity to Promote New Acquisition Northern Rock

2012-02-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

In November we discussed Virgin Group purchasing British bank Northern Rock. We asked if Virgin would retain the Northern Rock name or rebrand the acquisition as Virgin Money. Recent television adverts aired in the UK suggest that the new business will be rebranded as Virgin Money. In fact Sir Richard Branson visited the first newly rebranded branch of Northern Rock, in Northumberland Street Newcastle, on the 9th of January. There are 75 Northern Rock branches to be rebranded.

Virgin Money TV adverts are centred on the Virgin brand and its history. This is an example of a business using its Brand Equity http://www.learnmarketing.net/branding.htm to launch a new business. Virgin is an established international brand which began life in 1970. They now own more than 300 companies around the world. Use of the Virgin name for a new business is designed to reassure consumers that they are dealing with a company they already know and trust. It also sends out a message that they are versatile enough to make a new business stream successful. The attached article provides more information on branding including brand equity and branding strategies http://www.learnmarketing.net/branding.htm .

We hope you enjoyed this blog and see you again soon

Has Nokia lost the smartphone battle?

2012-01-31T05:02:00.000-08:00

Nokia’s smartphone operating system Symbian has failed to impress consumers who have chosen Apple and Google’s Android system as market leader. This has contributed towards a 9% drop in sales for 2011, including a 21% drop in sales (or a €950 million operating loss) in the last quarter of 2011.

A report by the Boston Consultancy Group (the group behind the popular Boston Consultancy Group Matrix) predicts that the economy generated by the internet will be double its present size by 2016. The report states that the main driver behind the increase will be the use of smartphones. Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) asserts that by 2016 eighty percent of global internet usage will be through smartphones.

If correct, BCG’s predictions render Nokia’s need to conquer the smartphone market even more critical. In October 2011 Nokia launched Lumia handsets which use Microsoft Windows software (the replacement for Symbian). The Lumia range includes models capable of running the latest super fast broadband 4G. Nokia have also reduced handset prices to compete with cheaper smartphones such as Android.

Only time will tell whether a change in software and a reduction in prices will lure consumers back to Nokia. Through the touch screen iPhone, Apple was the first to successfully capitalise on the opportunity presented by the merging of computers and mobile phones. Nokia’s predicament highlights the importance of responding to the changing needs and demands of consumers. As P.Tailor of ww.learnmarketing.net asserts 'Marketing is not about providing products or services it is essentially about providing changing benefits to the changing needs and demands of the customer (P.Tailor 7/00)'

Electronics Industry Part 3

2012-01-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

Hello There

Welcome to the final blog on how to overcome the challenges of an industry in a downward spiral. If you have followed the advice in our previous blogs you will have:

Strategy:

a) To Minimise the impact of factors that affect your business adversely i.e. decrease sales, make it difficult to trade

b) To maximise all opportunities that increase business and help your business grow.

Objectives:

a) About what you would like to do with your products

b) About what you would like to achieve through your plan

If you are still unsure about your objectives and strategy the following article may help you http://www.learnmarketing.net/marketingplan.htm. This article defines a marketing plan and includes advice on strategy and evaluating your progress. Whilst http://www.learnmarketing.net/smart.htm will help you ensure that your objectives are

are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timescaled).

Write Your Plan

Now it’s time to write your plan. A typical plan will have the following headings

- What (Objective)

- How (Strategy)

- Where

- Who

- By when/Deadline

What

It may take several actions to achieve one objective. Decide whether it will be useful to list each objective or if they need to be summarised as one objective. It may also be useful to group similar objectives together

How

This is the section that you list the actions that make up your strategy. Do not confuse this with objectives; those need to be listed under what.

Where

This is self explanatory i.e. where you are going to carry out the actions for example at a particular office or nationwide. Alternatively you may decide that the plan does not need to specify where, as the tasks are not location specific; they can be completed anywhere.

Who

For each task decide the best person to complete it. List their name and job title in this section. It is worth including a job title just in case the person listed needs to be replaced. Review your list and make sure that the tasks are spread fairly across your team. When allocating tasks you may also need to consider each employee’s other commitments as well.

By When

Decide when each task needs to be completed by. Build in some contingency (extra) time just in case something unexpected comes up. Will the amount of time it takes to complete a task depend on a third party e.g. an external supplier? Head office approval? If so build the amount of time you will need to wait for the third party (to complete something) into your deadline? Ensure that the tasks will be completed in the correct order for example; do some tasks need to be completed before others? Can some tasks be completed at the same time? Once you’ve filled in all of the dates. Review each one, is it realistic? Is there enough time to complete the job? Amend your dates based on the results of your review.

Formalise Your Plan and Give Your Plan Clout

Now that you have a plan it’s time to decide how you will make sure that it achieves its objectives. There are a number of things you need to consider when deciding how to do this.

- Do you need a project manager? A project manager is responsible for implementing the plan. They need to review progress on the plan and let everybody know what is going on. A project manager needs to have excellent interpersonal skills as they need to motivate and persuade people.

- Who will the project manager or team report progress to? If progress is regularly monitored by another person (usually a senior employee) it is more likely to stay on track.

- Do you need a project sponsor to give you clout? A project sponsor is usually a senior manager or director so that their status/position can be used to persuade “reluctant” people within and outside the firm

- Communication – Who does the plan need to be communicated to? If people are aware of the plan, it will help when you need them to complete a task for you. If the plan involves a situation that is important to the firm communicating the plan will reassure and motivate people. For example carrying out business in an industry that is struggling in the current economic climate. Communicating the plan to the firm’s employees is also a good opportunity to gain feedback about your plan and revise it if necessary.

We hope you enjoyed the final edition in this series of blogs. Good luck with your plans and remember to tell others who might find the blog useful. Please visit again soon.

2011-11-24T01:43:00.000-08:00

Hello There

Last Tuesday (15 November 2011) we discussed the first steps in overcoming, the challenges of an industry, in a downward spiral. We used the electronics industry as an example of an industry struggling in the current economic conditions. The following analysis was suggested

Porter's Five Forces model http://www.learnmarketing.net/porters.htm to review the five forces that impact on your business
PEST analysis to manipulate factors in your external environment http://www.learnmarketing.net/pestanalysis.htm.
A stakeholder analysis will reveal micro environmental factors that are holding your business back. http://www.learnmarketing.net/microenvironment.htm. And
A detailed competitor analysis to help you analyse what your competitors are up to http://www.learnmarketing.net/competitoranalysis.htm.

Once you have completed the suggested analysis, you will have a list of items within (internal factors) and outside (external factors) your organisation that impact on your business. The next stage is to think about the things that will be included in your plan to turn the business around.

To increase the effectiveness of your plan you need to ensure that you adopt a strategic management approach. If you do not have a clear strategy, you will end up with lots of objectives, which do not work together and lead you in lots of different (or competing) directions. The attached article will talk you through strategy and how it is different from objectives http://www.learnmanagement2.com/strategicmanagement.html

You may also like to refer to Michael Porter’s generic strategies article. http://www.learnmarketing.net/generic.htm. Porter’s Generic Strategies provide guidance on common strategies and warns against the danger of trying to do everything for everybody. Ultimately your strategy should:

1) Minimise the impact of factors that affect your business adversely i.e. decrease sales, make it difficult to trade And

2) Maximise all opportunities that increase business and help your business grow.

Once you have decided on your strategy (or strategies) it is time to focus on your product. Based on your analysis decide what you would like to do with your product. It is useful to take your products through a BCG matrix http://www.learnmarketing.net/bcg.htm before deciding what to do with them. A BCG Matrix will help you identify which products are generating money and which products are “dogs”. Do you stick with your existing product offering or is it time to stretch the line? The following article on product objectives will help you consider your options http://www.learnmarketing.net/productobjectives.htm.

Next time we will discuss how to turn your strategies and objectives into an effective plan which will help you start to tackle the challenges posed by the current economic conditions.

Thank you for reading this blog, we hope you enjoyed it. We look forward to your next visit.

Northern Rock sold to Virgin Money

2011-11-18T04:38:00.000-08:00

Hello Everybody

We will continue with our theme about marketing helping to deal with a struggling business on Wednesday. In the meantime at LearnMarketing we felt it was useful to blog about the Northern Rock sale to Virgin Money. The bank Northern Rock PLC was nationalised by the UK government in 2008 to prevent it from collapsing and its customers losing their savings. Yesterday it was announced that Virgin Money will purchase Northern Rock by January 2012. It is reported that the bank will be rebranded as Virgin Money.

When a business is bought by another business http://www.learnmanagement2.com/Businessintegration.htm they need to make a decision regarding branding. Do they keep the name of the business they have bought or do they brand it using the company's own brand? Ultimately the branding decision will depend on the value (or equity) of the brand they have bought http://www.learnmarketing.net/branding.htm and the reason why they have bought the other business http://www.learnmarketing.net/branding.htm.

If you had bought Northern Rock what would you do with the brand?

Thank You

Electronics Retailers Struggling - How does your marketing department turn it around?

2011-11-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hello There

Comet sold for £2, Best Buy to close all UK stores by the end of the year and Argos operating profit dropped to £3.4 million from £54.4 million (a large percentage of Argos' profits come from electronics sales). As a member of an electronics marketing department how do you deal with the electronics downward spiral?

A good starting point is to review the environment you are working in. Porter's Five Forces model will help you review the five things that impact on you as an electronics industry retailer http://www.learnmarketing.net/porters.htm

And a PEST analysis will help you work out how to manipulate factors in your external environment http://www.learnmarketing.net/pestanalysis.htm. A PEST analysis is important because the current economic conditions have reduced consumer spending and significantly affected electronics sales. Electronics aren't essential buys, so they will be at the bottom of shopping lists of consumers struggling with money.

There will also be things that you do in your organisation which need to be improved. A stakeholder analysis will reveal micro environmental factors http://www.learnmarketing.net/microenvironment.htm. (such as relationships with suppliers and the competence of employees) that are holding your business back.

Finally the impact of supermarkets and online retailers on profit margins (in the "traditional" electronics retail industry) continues to increase . Tesco now even have TV adverts promoting their technical support teams and consumers have been using electronics goods shops as a "test and view" stop before purchasing the goods they like from online retailers. Online retailers can undercut high street shops as they don't have the costs, rents and rates of a high street shop. A detailed competitor analysis will help you analyse what your competitors are up to http://www.learnmarketing.net/competitoranalysis.htm.

In the our next blog we will discuss how to turn your analysis into a strategic plan that will help your business overcome the challenges, it is currently facing.

Thank You

Welcome to learn marketing .net's new blog

2011-11-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hello, Welcome to http://www.learnmarketing.net/ new blog.

We've set up this blog to keep you up to date with developments related to the marketing world. If you would like to learn marketing, visit our main website http://www.learnmarketing.net/. Learn marketing .net covers marketing theory and practice. It will also provide you with powerpoint presentations, lessons and quizzes. If you would like us to cover a topic let us know and we'll see what we can do. We hope you enjoy this blog.

Thank you