A SWOT and marketing analysis of Virgin Media

A SWOT and selling abstract of pure MediaServices commercialiseing be a form of grocerying which focuses on selling gos. Services trick be tricky to sell and the merchandise approach for them is more(prenominal) different than the approach for products. Some companies offer 2 products and operates and must use a mix inture of styles for example, a storage which sells phone as well t destinations to offer serve much(prenominal) as fate people select phone as pick out and providing wideband service and phone repair. Such a store must trade some(prenominal) its products and the supporting go it offers to appeal to guests.When people food market services, the goal is not to get clients to buy a product, but to get people to do agate disceptation with a particular guild, often in a specialized location. For example, virgin media offers wideband and internet service It provides phone, internet and TV service for the nodes, both on-site and in to-go form in many some other(prenominal) cases. When the gild markets itself, it must convince people that it is optable to other wideband and that its quick-wittedness is worth the trip. stark(a) Media is an innovative radical media accompany that was formed as a result of a merger between NTL and Telewest and then a re-branding as thoroughgoing(a) Media. Its main strength lies in the branding and the first appearance that the name virginal offers. Internally, pure(a) Media is the wholly company in the joined Kingdom that offers all four of the main media services, i.e. digital tv, wideband, fixed blood telephone and energetic phone boxs. The ability to offer these products all unneurotic in one bundle is the unique selling point of everlasting(a) Media and clearly sets the company apart from its competitors. pulverisation analysisSwot analysis is the most central and first stage of planning. It is a feedback mechanism to carry bran-new strategies for any organisation. Stren gths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats ar the four components of a swot analysis. Weaknesses and Strengths argon correlated and examine the internal part of the bank line analysis whereas Opportunities and Threats trade wind with the external environment of business operation. Weaknesses and strengths refer to aspect of merchandising, finance, manufacturing or organisational structure. Swot analysis helps clarifies the objectives of the organisationStrengthsIn fling these combined services, the company has warm economies of scale as it is able to combine many of its generic roles much(prenominal) as administration and finance, thus ceaseing the company to price more free-enterprise(a)ly for the benefit of its customers. Due to its perceived leading brand name in the media, gross(a) Media has managed to secure an ongoing contract with Sky, ext oddmenting further still its inclusive offering to its customers. Technical ability and infrastructure are 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 contract to be managed. The merger between NTL and Telewest is still relatively new and thither are cultural clashes between the two styles and the emerging Virgin style. In recent years, in that location have been several redundancies and outsourcing of customer services, in an blast to carry down costs. This has resulted in a degree of unsettled doings 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 cladding Virgin Media are ever changing. The media sector is developing an exceptionally fast-flying pace, resulting in both opportunities and threats for com panies such as Virgin Media. Opportunities are wide unattached 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 done offers to date 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, oddly now that it has signed an agreement with Sky.Threats to Virgin Media come from other sympathetic media companies such as Orange or BT who remain as crowing 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 whitethorn fai l to keep pace, thus losing its customer base to another(prenominal) more innovative company.The flower of serviceFacilitating elements(services)Information Customers often desire information 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, warning and insurance, terms and peculiar(prenominal)ation of services.Order taking Many goods and services must be request or reserved in advance. Customer needs to know what available and may command to secure commitment to deliveryBillingHow much do I owe you? .Customers deserve clear, accurate and intelligible bills and statements. hire Customer may pay faster and more cheerfully if Virgin come upons 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. cordial reception Customers who invest time and effort in visiting a business and using its services deserve to be treated as agreeable guests.User PreparationWhen implementing new dodging, it is important that personnel, employees, managers and others in the organization are prepared for it. This process is also called process of readying 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 planned and executed repair and snarly a lot of arrangement, and consideration (Stair Reynolds, 2008).Virgin Media, the UKs leading fibreoptic broadband provider soon has almost 60,000 SME and public sector broadband clients, but has announced that it is looking to grow this significantly.Virgin Media has unveiled plans to butt joint the teeny and medium business customers of its rival broadband giant BT.The gesture 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. on that point is a very big market up for grabs, as small and medium-sized enterp uprisings (SMEs) spend about 18bn a year on IT and telecoms.Virgin Media soon have revenues of about 600m pa from business broadband customers and this is forecast to rise to about 1bn pa in three to five years.Virgin Media headland operating(a) officer Andrew Barron said This is another step forwards. Weve been working in the business division for 18 months on getting the business processes to the right train. Weve improved it dramatically. We can use the fibre-opti c entanglement to differentiate ourselves.merchandising communication MixThe trade mix is the set of controllable tacticle selling tools that the firm blends to produce theResponse it wants in the target market (Melewar. T.C., Saunders.J, 2000) trade communication theory are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade, and remindconsumers immediately or in verbatimly about the products and brands that they sell. A company s heart and soul trade communication mix also called promotion mix (Kotler, 2005) consists of specific blending ofadvertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing tools that are useby company to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives.The marketing communication activities which contribute to themarketing of any new or lively product by creating awareness of the brand linking the rightassociations to the products image in the consumers memory, facilitating stronger consumer-productconnection etc.Curren t extended marketing mix marketing mix.People People is one of the elements of service marketing mix. People jell a service.. In case of service marketing, people can make or break an organization. Thus virgin media nowadays 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 better than the rest. Definitely a USP in case of services. do 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 utmost importance. It is also a critical component in the service blue instill, 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 el ement. 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 mixPosition situation in different areas is not always casual (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 assay to look from customers eyes. They were aware of the trade-offs they had to think before entering a new business venture and they have never underestimated the risks behind new entrance. advertisementVirgin Media launched to much fanfare in February 2007, with a public relations event and an expensive advertising reason which covered major UK picture channels, newspa pers 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 before longupdate features actor Samuel L Jackson, whilst the print advertising features bold typography. Virgin Media also sponsored the Channel 4 mankind 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, Ar qiva, Hampshire and Isle of beast Partnership and South West Water.Consumer behavioursUnderstanding how consumer behaviour is changing impart be an important requirement of Virgin Medias upcoming music offering and, should they become law, the Governments legislative proposals will also require measurement of the level of copyright infringement on ISPs networks. Deticas CView technology potentially offers a non-intrusive source which enhances our understanding of aggregate customer behaviour without identifying or storing individual customers data.Consumer fragmentWe memorial tablet intense competition from a variety of entertainment and communications serviceproviders, which offer comparable broadband internet, television, fixed line telephone 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 co mpetitive environment. See Risk Factors-We operate in highly competitivemarkets. However, we swear that we have a competitive advantage in the U.K. residential marketdue to the superior technical capabilities of our production line 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 dictated 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, arrangement (STP)Before start think about marketing (4P), you mu st understand what is STP. Terms of STP include market system target markets fix market partition and target markets market segmentation and demographicsSegmentationSegmentation Identifying all segments for the product/service. Many of the resources listed in staff 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 find attractive markets. Strategies includeBreak 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 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 type 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 efficacious 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 example output 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 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 look to co nduct 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, twenty-five percent quarter 2007 results presentation, February 2008.2. Carphone Warehouse Plc fourth quarter trading update, April 2008.3. Domestic hawkish Market Review, 2004, Ofgem.