Digital Marketing: The Case of Barclays

DIGITAL MARKETING– THE CASE OF BARCLAYS
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Introduction
The internet era has usurped people and businesses’ normal interactions. Noteworthy, it has streamlined processes and created businesses opportunities. United Kingdom (UK) is among the countries that lead internet penetration rates at 62.87 million monthly users in 2021 (Johnson, 2021, n.p.). This highest internet penetration rate creates an opportunity for businesses to network with potential customers. Effective exploitation of internet users is a big win to companies in terms of marketing, sales, and guaranteeing business continuity. Perhaps this is why digital marketing is the most sought-after profession in the UK and the world. Digital marketing applies to both established and upcoming companies. This report is focused on illustrating the significance of digital marketing in leveraging companies’ competitive edge in dynamic business markets by concentrating on Barclays bank. Barclays offers financial services, including savings accounts, general insurance, and current accounts in its basic form. It has different market segments, and therefore to ensure that the digital marketing strategy achieves its intention, it would be essential to focus on one of the segments– particularly student customers. The report includes target audience, channel selection and content plan, sample creative content, and measurement and data.
Analysis and Objectives
-669925345440Business Overview
Barclays is a multinational bank serving more than 56 markets (Craft. Co. 2021). It offers retail banking services to individuals and businesses. Its services are diverse, with the main ones including savings account, general insurance, and current accounts. With the dynamics witnessed in the banking industry, Barclays is also keen on being a key player in business banking services. Most importantly, it is eyeing millennials and young people to be its regular customers. It has different customers representing distinct markets. However, it has been facing stiff competition from personal banking services. Customers have diverse demands. Some customers seek bank services to help them secure credit to expand their businesses or further education. In light of this reality, Barclays has been focused on tapping on the young generation market and, most precisely, students to compete favorably with its competitors.
Competitive Position
The banking industry is transforming, shifting from having a physical presence to having an online presence. The greater competition that banking companies experience relates to payment and advisory services (OECD. 2020, pg. 7). Barclays, too, has found itself in this puzzle. Its main competitors are Banco Santander, Metro Bank, Citibank, and NatWest Group (Craft.Co., 2021, n.p.). To leverage competitively in this dynamic business market, Barclays has to be unique. In particular, the focus shifts on approaches that best win more customers, which translates to an increase in sales and profits. This assertion coincides with organizational economics theory that contends a competitive edge is achievable by a firm implementing a transparent corporate strategy and creating more value with the asset than any substitute governance structure (Bel, 2018, pg. 1683). In this light, it must change its tactics of identifying with customers in an online environment. The change can include communicating with the client to convince and persuade clients to have their source for their services over their competitors.
Objectives
As noted earlier, Barclays experiences stiff competition from personal banking services. Other companies have more personal banking clients that help them record colossal profit margins and sales. In this light, the digital marketing campaign will be tailored to the below goal and objectives to guarantee Barclays competes favorably.
* To increase more youths as its customers,
* To ensure that customers have access to quality service in a friendlier manner,
* To be the banking brand of choice for customers in the United Kingdom and across borders,
* To prioritize transparency and safety of our customers by providing quality services respecting the cultural diversity that the UK boasts of,
* To create a premier experience for our UK student customers through unique products,
Target Audience
Background
The banking industry segment has been expanding considerably in the United Kingdom, occasioned by the capitalistic doctrine that compels people to save and own properties as much as they can. For many years, banking has largely been perceived by wealthy persons. However, this narrative is slowly changing as today's banking sector does more than being safe to people’s money because it can be used as a source of credit. Therefore, all persons of ages six and above can own a bank account and start financial discipline to see a person grow into greater heights in the future. Millennials (aged 22-37) and generation Z (aged 18-21) are noticeably among the leading persons who are interested in opening bank accounts (Gausden, 2019. para, 2). This revelation points to an untapped market that, when rightly exploited, Barclays can realize significant benefits. Our target market is UK College students’ customers aged between eighteen and thirty years. A Higher Education Statistics Agency report reveals that the UK is a multiracial country having both whites and non-whites students. For example, in the 2018/2019 report, the UK had an average of 485,645 international students pursuing their degrees in the region (Studying in the UK, 2020, para, 2). On an overall scale, in the fiscal year 2018/2019, the UK recorded an estimate of 2,383,970 students pursuing their degrees, increasing from the 2017/2018 fiscal year. Therefore, this shows that this vast number of students, if rightly communicated Barclays bank, is poised to reap big.
Market Segments
Its fundamental market segment is derived from the entire target group with specific characteristics (Camilleri, 2018, pg, 70). The shared traits can include age, life, geography, or occupation. Within the market of personal banking, student customers can be categorized into different segments. The segments categories can include graduate students, mature students, ‘new to work students,’ and students with families. Each of these groups has a distinct craving as far as banking services are concerned. For example, a student with a family is more likely to seek bank services to get a loan to finance studies. A ‘new to work’ student on another end may seek banking services to save. Identifying different segments of the targeted group is ideal because it will help Barclays offer products and services tailored to meet customers’ needs and demands. Also, proper target group market segmentation helps develop appropriate promotional techniques to reach people in diverse segments (Camilleri, 2018). In a broader sense, segmentation will help Barclays improve its market control of students’ accounts market. Imperatively, exploring this diverse market segmentation will help Barclays attract more student customers and make them their permanent customers in the future.
Customer Persona and Journey Map
The campaign is focused on UK students who are aged between 18 and 30. The majority of these students are tech-savvy and engage with social media most. This group has significant numbers, and retaining them will be advantageous for Barclays to record huge sales. Students are known to have a relatively high purchase power, especially those supported by their parents. Students also like luxury items such as phones and fashion. On the flip side, in this economy dictated by inflations compounded by the covid-19 pandemic, most students are experiencing challenges when it comes to paying tuition fees. In this light, some students are left out of the education matrix and have bright minds. It is worth noting that students' needs vary when seeking banking services and therefore developing a plan that meets all students’ needs is vital in propelling Barclays to greater heights in the future. The map below details the customer journey when sourcing Barclays banking services.
Figure 1 Customer Journey Map
Channel Selection and Content Plan
Channel Selection
The targeted group is university students that perhaps are still in their youth. These revelations mean that majority of this population use the phone more frequently as well as most are obsessed with social media sites such as Facebook. Sutherland et al.’s (2018, pg, 14) study fortify this assertion by noting that 85 percent of UK students use social media networking platform. In this vein, actualizing a digital marketing campaign using social media sites such as Facebook will help Barclays to have more clients in its favor that, in the long run, will be converted to an increase in profits and sales. But before utilizing digital media in advancing a company’s objective, it is imperative to understand how digital media channels can support business goals and objectives. In particular, there is a need to understand the Reach, Act, Convert, and Engage (RACE) framework. RACE is an evolution of the REAN (Reach, Engage, Activate, and Nurture). RACE framework is focused on ensuring that simplified approaches are taken when reviewing the performance of online marketing and striving to ensure effectiveness is maintained (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). The below figure details the RACE framework in f...