Marketing Mix (p's)

Marketing Mix was first introduced by Jerome Mc-Cathy in 1960.

The marketing mix is the combination of marketing activities that an organisation engages in so as to best meet the needs of its targeted market. Traditionally the marketing mix consisted of just 7 P's. which are products, price, promotion, production, people, process, physical evidence, for example First Direct uses these techniques to be able to have a successful business

Product-Must provide value to a customer but does not have to be tangible at the same time. Basically, it involves introducing new products or improvising the existing products. By making sure theses points are included below.
Product is a important P in a business because without product business can not proceed to the next step for example first direct products would be the credit/debit cards which they are given to the customers.
Physical goods-Making sure the appearance attracts the customer. they don't have views fo this
Quality- Making sure the product up to great standard which full fill customer needs.
Style- The products should be modern and unique so different to others to attract the customers. they have style of banking and adverts
Packaging-Making sure the packaging is attractive and safe for the product so it doesn't get damaged. they don't have views for good because they provide services.
Durability-The product should continuously be long lasting. they also don't have view for that because they provide services.
Installation-Is when it should have a clear instruction how to put a products together for example a T.V. they views about this also.
After sales- looking for feedback to upgrade. First Direct uses this when customers have problems with service so they can improve.
Branding- well known products name with a appealing Logo so its becomes popular. First Direct have their own logo so customers are aware of it.
Warranty- If the product is damaged it can be changed first use this mostly for customers who switch banking to bank with them they offer the customer £100 when they don't like the service provided. 
Features -Has many feature included in the products. First Direct adverts and only advertising strictly online.
First direct main product is the service they provide to customers as this is important for them to gain more customers,As First Direct is an online banking business they there aim it to create bank accounts for as much people as possible, by creating account customers will receive a credit card. To gives customers a good impression of the business once they have created an account they will receive £100, this a a good offer t attract customers in to becoming part of First Direct. the typed of Cards First Direct will offer is first direct gold card which offers a minimum credit limit of £3,000. It comes with standard rate typical 16.9 % APR variable. First Direct have chosen a specific technique by choosing a credit card to be simple but black in order to match the company brand which give more impact of professional look. it is very important for First Direct to keep customer satisfied and have trust with them therefore its very important for them to both cards protected against fraud so customers are not worried about anything affecting their account.

(Image attached at the back)

Mortgage: First Direct also offer mortgage deals to customers. They offer two types, the first direct offset mortgage, and the first direct repayment mortgage. There are also many deals for customers on these offers

Loans: ‘apply for a Personal Loan with a term of 60 months or less, before 31 August 2010 and receive 10% Cash back on the interest paid.’ This is a part of First Directs’ loan offers, aimed to attract customers. This is just one of the services First Direct offers. This is displayed on the loans page on the First Direct website.

(Image attached at the back)

Insurance: First Direct also offer many types of insurance packages.

These include Life insurance (the persons agreement to who their money will go to if they die), Car insurance (if anything should happen to their car), and home insurance (if anything should happen to a person’s home without any fault).

saving account is another great service first direct provide customers. Along with their regular savings account, they have many other types of saving account, saving account is when the person can put money into the account but cannot take it out until a certain date. This enables customers to save the money rather than spend it.

(image is attached at the back to show the different saving account)

As First direct does not sell product only provides service, as mentioned about Will not apply to First Direct. First Direct have brand with the their caption " banking is better in black and white" this suggest the image they are trying ti create is simple and understanding their website is in black and white, as well as the credit cards, this Willl give customers positive look and make it recognisable.

Price- Pricing decisions affect profits through their impact on revenue rather than on costs , pricing has an important role in creating an overall image for a product. Pricing is a standard procedure that all firms think about. This also sets out what type of customers a firm wants to attract such as expensive products would attract the richer whilst the cheaper would attract the average or poor.

Looking at First direct they don't have a product but it sell service through special offers like less interest bank than any other banking business they also give out loans.
the pricing strategy can comprise

Discounts- Discounts are a specific type of marketing promotion in which you invite shoppers to save money on specific products or product groups, You can use discounts to introduce new products, retain existing customers, or drive revenue growth.
Basic price- Standard price of the product. First direct usually costs £10 a month but its free when you pay in at least £1,500 or hold a selected first direct additional product.   

Pricing policy- standard procedures used by a firm to set wholesale and retail for its producers or service,  they also charge interest if over draft.
Price variation- Selling the product to different buyers at different pricing depending on order-size.
Price discrimination-Is when a business savatages another business which is illegal by lowing price by competing with other business to sell a product.
Payment terms-condition which are made when a seller will make a sale by giving a period of time to the buyer the amount due this may include demand cash in advance, cash on delivery or differed payments it could have a period of 30 days or more.
Credit terms- Paying for a product my credit which then you can pay off over a few years.

“Switch your bank account now and we'll give you £100. Just transfer your salary/income of at least £1,500 per month within three months and we will add £100 to your account.” Quoted from the first direct website.

First Direct bank doesn't sell service for money, therefore the price they only need to think about is the cost of advertising and keeping there website and telephone maintained by using different techniques to gain more customers. Moreover they need to worry about the cost of employing people, providing them with reasonable wages and salary.

Promotion- Has a key role of informing the customers where to buy products. Promotion includes the various ways of communicating to the customers of what the company has to offer. It is about communicating about the benefits of using a particular product or service rather than just talking about its features.
First Direct promotes in different ways as promotion is an important factor in business such as first direct wants more customer coming into their business, they do this by advertising in public places where more people can get a view of what they are like and can convince themselves into the business.

The places where they can advertise themselves could be through their website and Internet. First direct can do sales promotion by convincing customer to come into their business by offering more special offer such as giving them £100 pound free if they join their business, as well as this they advertise in black and white on their website which will be recognisable for many customers. There brand is displayed on all their promotion campaign. advertise on billboards at railway stations where people can look at it whilst waiting for a train. And they have put up posters going up escalators, where they can be easily noticed, and on screens at London's Westfield shopping centre, which attracts many people everyday. All these advertisements contain positive factors about the response they've received from customers.

Below are the time of techniques used to promote.

image attached showing First  Direct live. Also image showing First Direct Billboard with their black and white branding so its recognisable to customers.

Advertising -Getting customers aware of your products through media so it can reach a large numbers of people. First direct advertise through Internet, television, underground and malls. First direct advertise their bank on the internet, television, underground, and malls too. They are awarding and alerting people of what they have to offer
personal selling- When you sell your personal products to a buyer face to face, which first direct don't they will not see anyone except speaking to the customer through telephone. 
sales promotion-is process of persuading a potential customer to buy the product. It can be part of the personal selling process. it can be achieved through contests , free gifts, discounts or special offers etc..
public relation/publicity- Maintain a good impression of the product it can be reviewed through magazines for free. First direct has a good publicity because of the awards they have won and their unique advert all in black and white.
sponsorship-Supporting an event, activity or organisation by providing money or other resources that is of value to the sponsored event. This is usually in return for advertising space at the event or as part of the publicity for the event. However first direct has no involvement in sponsorship.This may be because they do not have enough money to expand or invest.

Direct marketing-Is done through face to face with product or service. First direct is a internet ad telephone based  this is what they do. 

The chosen combination of promotional activities is known as the promotional mix.

Place-Involves ensuring that products are available where a customer will expect to buy them and product reaches out to the customers through promotion which is important promote in places depending on target market so customer as aware.

As for first direct they are the only organisation to come across doing online banking which everything from selling to service is done through Internet or telephone. they have two main telephone centres located in Leeds and Hamilton. First Direct have clearly displayed their contact number on the website.

First direct do not have a place like an customer office building in order to reach them but they made availability easier for their customer by setting up phone lines, therefore consumers can contact them from the comfort of their own homes, work place, on the road or from a totally different nation.

choice of channels and outlets-This a product is advertised through Pacific channels depending on the age group aimed at for example first direct don't have a lot of channels to their customers but once a customer is access a computer online or telephone they will be able to help with the transaction.

channel of distribution -Is all about getting your product/service to the right people at the right time with special consideration for profit and effectiveness, this is simple for first direct as it the can easily help the customers through Internet and telephone which will be done instantly.

Market coverage- Its the number of active retail and / or wholesale outlets that sell a specific firms brand in a given market. first direct dot have a retail or wholesale outlets they provide their service.

channels variety-  Is about using different places to sell a product to get to its customers. First Direct don't have any places to sell but its about using different places to sell products so first direct is Internet and telephone based as they made it easier for customer to call them or going on the Internet which saves time travelling.

dealer support - When a dealer supports customer by providing good deals at suitable price. first direct don't need dealer support because they have a direct way of getting to its customers.

Long and short channels- The time a product gets to customers for example first direct has a short channel of how its service gets to customers.
Physical distribution/logistic- Physical distribution is the set of activities concerned with efficient movement of finished goods from the end of the production operation to the consumer.

People- All people who directly or indirectly influence the perceived value of the product or service, including knowledge workers, employees, management and consumers, people are very important to a business as it keeps the business flowing by delivering excellent service,

However for first direct people play an important role as they have to manage everything through telephone which they have to pick up within 20 seconds and Internet keeping everything secured, they receive complaints, problems which they have to deal effectively as they don't want to lose customers so in the future they will stick to the business and might recommend friends and family to be apart if they stay happy.

Process- Associated with customer service are a number of processes involved in making marketing effective in an organisation e.g. processes for handling customer complaints, processes for identifying customer needs and requirements, processes for handling order, booking, payments etc.              

Process is important for first direct as it makes the business more effective in order to get customer feedback if they are delivering good service if customers are satisfied and if needed any improvements. They would carry banking procedure by  phoning the bank, the customer will have to provide details of their current account, so they can transfer their savings to a First Direct account. Then the employee will talk through the process with the customers over the phone, providing them with every detail and any questions they have about the banking. To cash in a cheque, First Direct may have sent self-addressed letters to the customer so they can post cheques to the company, or it can be done online. Money can be taken out of many cash machines.

Physical Evidence- This aspect of the service mix which allows the customer to make opinions on the product or service. the customer will judge based on what they see and service which will have a huge impact on organisation good or bad, for example First Direct organisation this p doesn't affect so much because they don't have place like other banks such as Natwest. First Direct only delivers their service to UK residents only. However main physical appearance is their website which is very important to be attractive and appealing making customer feel comfortable and simple to use i, as well employees being polite and friendly so customers like their service and will return.

It is very Vital for First Direct website to attract customers as they made it very simple also easy to navigate around the black and white website, it is important for customer to enjoy searching around the website as every detail is included. Therefore they have to give good impression through website as well as through website.

Branding is when a name and image is created in order to have influence customers on highly recognised brands. Brands have the most influence when it comes to buying to make decision on customer choices which can increase demand for products considerably, for example first direct has there own company brand so its recognisable to customers.
Brand Building and Positioning is a brand name, term, sign and symbol or design; this is when products are put in market and bring awareness so people are aware of it. First Direct is there company name and have a logo.
Brand Extensions a marketing strategy when a well known product with a well developed image uses the same brand name for different products which increases awareness of the brand name by having more then one product which also increases profitability. First Direct don't have Bank extension because it only provides online service

First Direct brand is blank and white, their quote is "banking is better in black and white" this will make the website look simple but attractive as it shows its easy to use. First Direct uses another branding method which is shown on their TV adverts, they have used techniques in order to attract customers by portraying an image of being friendly and providing service to help every situation, customers will be concerned due to being provided with safe savings also being treated well which customers want to be put first and providing them with service they want.

Relationship Marketing 

Relationship Marketing involves using methods and strategy to develop long term relationship with customers in order to retain them. to retain the customers the organisation has to exceed customers satisfaction in quality products which are affordable prices.
The concept of marketing is to be able to analyse the needs of the customers and being able to make decision which will suit those needs through their life-cycle.

First Direct hope to retain customers as well as gaining more, they do this by promoting their business based on the service they provide, we can see even on their Tv advert that they show how they like happy customers and want to keep that bond between them so by developing a positive relationship customers are satisfied with them and wont changes banks. Even though First Direct is online banking therefore customers and employees don't see each other face to face so they only communicate through telephone, post or online, this puts customers in a difficult situation because they don't meet face to face, some customers might see this as not being reliable enough or difficult to bank with as you can't speak face to face. 

image attached showing how first direct like to keep relationship with their customers, when flights were stopped due to volcano as in iceland, first direct concerned about customers then sent volcano ash message to customers and displayed on the website informing customers details on how they can claim about their travel insurance deal.

another way first direct tries to keep good relationship is by communicating through the videos on their website showing how they handle their customers and always providing extra service. Moreover they keep in contact by text messaging customers informing them about whats happening in the business as well as any great deals they have got to offer this technique is good for the business because it shows customers they they are still safe with them due to them taking care of customers and the business is serious about customers, making sure they are happy.

Emarketing

E-marketing is another term for internet marketing. This is the selling of products online, advantage E-marketing is people can globally research as more products will be sold, low cost easier for customers as they don't have to go and purchase product also cheaper for the company to advertise, trackable, measurable result, 24 hour marketing, personalisation, better conversation rate about opinions on products.

First direct is internet based which comes under Emarketing therefore first direct is only operates online which customers can only use there service through,although first direct have no location which customers can go to, this is not loss to the business due to the rate of internet access growing therefore advantage for the bank could be that the of the internet use will attract more customers. Also online advertising is cheaper than any other advertising such as magazine. 

First direct uses their website to promote their company as they are online based they do this by putting up videos special offers they do this because so existing customer stay interested with them so they know they will keep updating with new offers which they can find out what is available for them. Most business have a website as they benefit from being known nationally and internationally which they make huge amount of profit as this is every business aim.

overall all P's are important in marketing mix are equally in order to be successful in marketing success

Comments

[ebitnow.com]

The theory is wonderful! Can I suggest you put bold headings in place so that each section is clearly identifiable. Also, you have not connected each point to FD.