Discuss about the Study of Freeserve Marketing Mix.
The aim of the report is to understand the concept of marketing mix and its importance for a product or a service. Traditionally 4 Ps of marketing mix were used to determine the suitability of a product for a particular target group of people and at times for a particular region or place (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). In addition to this, the marketing mix helps to understand the service by grasping the nuances of the four Ps. However, it has to be said that there has been inclusion of more 4Ps that has ultimately resulted in 8Ps of marketing mix. This report will focus on the 8Ps of marketing mix of Freeserve, the British Internet Service Provider.
Freeserve, the British Internet Service Provider merged into the Wanadoo group in 2000, a subsidiary group of France Telecom. The Service Provider has not been running in profit and therefore, there is a great need of developing its marketing mix in order to improve its marketing technique (Freeserve.co.uk, 2017). The aim of this report is to understand the various elements of the marketing mix and how well these elements can be used by Freeserve that might help the Company to improve its business.
Reading Owomoyela, Ola and Oyeniyi, (2013), it has been found that in the marketing theory, the marketing mix has been defined by the 8Ps. These are Product, Place, Price, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence, Process and Partnership. A detailed theoretical description of the mentioned marketing nix elements can be done here.
Product is the physical product that the particular Company sells or offer to the people. As stated by, product can have a specific version as well. There are various types of product categories as well. Major categories of product include, consumer or the business product like FMCG goods, and the other category are the convenience products (Helm & Gritsch, 2014). A service can also be considered as a product for the consumers. Moreover, the concept of Product Life Cycle (PLC) also falls under this element of the marketing mix. The PLC defines the particular stage where the product lays. These stages are the Growth, Maturity and Decline (Liu et al., 2017).
If Freeserve is classified as a product, it can be conveniently said that it is the internet service and not a physical product. Thus, there is no concept of the durability of the product. However, from the recent market analysis, it can be said that Freeserve is at a stage of decline because the Company, independently is not at good market position.
Place of the marketing mix element is the location where it is determined where the particular product will be located. This place also includes the distribution outlets where the particular product can be made available for the consumers to purchase (Al-Dmour, Al-Zu’bi & Kakeesh, 2013). For instance, a retail store or a particular outlet of the product is also considered as the Place of the marketing mix element.
In case of Freeserve, there are no outlets or shops to provide internet services but the same is comprehended from their end by the means of a service. However, it has to be mentioned that contacting them by the means of phone calls or by directly visiting their website always remained in the option (Freeserve.co.uk, 2017).
Price emphasizes the value for exchange of the product that the consumers have to pay in order to use the particular product or the service. In the view point of Raj, Sasikumar and Sriram, (2013), price of a product is set by keeping a profit margin for the particular Company. Further, Raj, Sasikumar and Sriram, (2013) commented that it becomes very crucial for a particular Company to engage in a competitive pricing that should help the Company to differentiate its product from other products in the market. In this respect, Datta, Ailawadi and van Heerde, (2016) pointed out that in case of a well recognized brand, there remains a chance where high pricing of the product shall be accepted by the consumers as well.
Freeserve provide its service by the means of monthly subscription charges for the internet access. In fact, it was one of the first Companies in UK to dispense the usual monthly subscription fee instead of collecting a proportionate standard telephone line charges. One of the intense competitors of Freeserve is Oftel. Apart from pricing strategy, the two Companies are also engaged in some kind of ethical controversies as well.
The marketing mix element, people, defines those who actually enjoys the service or utilizes the product. As pointed out by Khan, (2014), it falls under the major responsibilities of the particular Company to think of the best possible ways to satisfy the needs and demands of the people. In fact, many Companies form a group of special team who are responsible for checking the market demand and then adopting major changes in the particular product (Owomoyela, Ola & Oyeniyi, 2013).
In case of Freeserve, People are the users of the Internet. It is expected that the Company should understand the demand of the people in the areas where the Company provides its service.
Promotion is the most critical factor in the marketing mix elements. As pointed out by Goi, (2015), services and products are easy to duplicate and thus the market can easily gets saturated with different types of products and services, might be of same type. However, what actually differentiates them in the market is the way the particular product is promoted. Promotions are done by the means of advertising and by building a relationship with the consumers. The main aim of the promotional element is to communicate about the product to the target group of people. Davari and Strutton, (2014) revealed the main channels of the promotion. These are advertising, public relations, sales promotion, sponsorship and any other publicity means. The message delivered by the means of promotional technique should be appealing to the consumers that would ultimately result in demand simulation.
No such promotional evidences have been found in case of Freeserve. The service provider does not focus of promotional techniques. Therefore, there is a great need of promotional practice to be involved by the Company.
Physical evidence or the packaging of the marketing element is the way a product is made attractive among the consumers. It is all about the layout and the packaging that is done on a particular product (Barrett & Weinstein, 2015). For example, the shape, color and the design of the packaging element are the physical evidence of a product. However, as pointed out by Harrington et al., (2017), that for a service, there are no physical evidences and that the element is only meant for physical product.
In case of Freeserve, being an internet service provider, there is no means of improving the physical evidence of the product.
Process identifies the delivering means of a product or a service. In case of a tangible physical product, a number of steps are involved before the product is sent to the particular store or outlet for selling purpose (Fitzgerald, Cavanaugh & Bhiro, 2014). For instance, a product is primarily manufactured at the factory or the industry, the same is then sent to the whole seller, and then the product is sent to the retailers or the shops, from where the products are directly sold to the consumers. This complete distribution method is known as the process of the marketing mix.
Freeserve, being a service and an intangible product do not follow any process of the delivering method. However, the service is provided to the consumers by the means of cables and wire. There are no questions of transmitting the service from one stage to the other.
Partnership defines the means by which one or more Companies tie up together for the purpose of carrying out their promotional activities and achieve their marketing goals. This practice is used by many Companies like a mobile and a telecom connectivity provider (Sinapuelas, Wang & Bohlmann, 2015). This way both the companies get benefitted and at the same time, the promotional expenses get reduced to certain extent as well.
There are certain evidences that revealed that Freeserve had partnered with Littlewoods for the ISP promotion. Likewise, a partnership promotion was also evident with the Dixon as well.
Based on the theoretical analysis of the 8Ps of marketing mix, certain recommendations can be made that shall improve the present condition of the promotional and marketing perspective of the organization.
As evident that Freeserve is the Internet Service Provider and thus, it provides service and it is not a tangible product. In terms of its recommendation, it can be said that the quality of the product needs to be improved. It has been found that Freeserve has been providing internet service to the people of UK. The quality of the service can be calculated on the basis of the internet speed. It has to be understood in the era of globalization, there are great chances that any company could enter the market and dominate the market (Hamid, Ab Talib & Mohamad, 2014). Therefore, it can be recommended that Freeserve should increase its speed and the service charges should be made on the basis of different plans or schemes availed by a customer. Improving the service quality will definitely help the Company to fight against the intense competition and the advent of globalization in the market of its operation.
Freeserve operates in the regions of UK. There is no such evidence of the fact that the Company is planning for expansion. Therefore, it is expected that the marketing should be concentrated in the regions of UK. It is recommended that whole England including London, Scotland, Wales and others should be the targeted regions for operation.
It has been evident that there are not many competitors of Freeserve in the market, it is expected there is no such need for coming up with a competitive pricing strategy. However, it is recommended that the price of the service should be reasonable enough that the consumers do not hesitate to use it (Fitzgerald, Cavanaugh & Bhiro, 2014). Moreover, depending upon the speed of the internet and the amount of data required, the price chart can be made.
The target consumers of Freeserve are all the internet users. Therefore, people residing in UK are the target groups of people. In order to target them, it is expected that digital promotional techniques by using the social media sites or by directly communication by the means of sending direct mails are the most effective means of targeting this group of people.
As mentioned by Barrett and Weinstein, (2015), a service or a product can be brought back to its maturity stage if proper promotional activities are carried on. Therefore, it is the most important marketing element for a service provider like Freeserve. A number of promotional activities can be mentioned here.
i) Electronic, digital and print advertisements: Advertisement is the best possible means of marketing for Freeserve. It is highly recommended that the Company should come up with an innovative design of the promotional advertisement and that the advertisements are telecasted using various media like TV commercials, internet advertising and even for print advertisement in Newspaper Dailies and major Magazines as well (Owomoyela, Ola & Oyeniyi, 2013). Designing a good story board and promoting the same at a regular frequency is very effective for this ISP. Almost every company use this means of marketing and promotional techniques.
ii) CSR activities: One of the most effective means of promotion is by carrying out CSR activities. Many companies like KFC, Wal-Mart, TESCO and other undertake this particular means to create a positive image of their organization in the market. Therefore, carrying out CSR activities by the means of certain campaigns that would support environmental sustainability or any other ways of doing something better for the society might help Freeserve to fetch better response from the target consumers (Al-Dmour, Al-Zu’bi & Kakeesh, 2013). In this respect, it can be said that Freeserve also faces certain ethical issues that could be easily diluted by the means of carrying out CSR activities.
iii) Promotional campaigns: The ISP can come up with an innovative promotional campaign as well. For instance, a campaign that shows the importance of staying connected with people and that internet is helping us to stay connected with our near and dear ones. In order to make this promotional campaign to reach larger masses, the social media networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and the YouTube can be used easily. It has to be understood that the main target groups of people are the ones who use internet. Smart phones are run with the help of internet. Therefore, these people can be easily targeted by the means of creating a promotional campaign where people shall be asked to participate (Hamid, Ab Talib & Mohamad, 2014). This could be another effective means of reaching out the people at the right time. Companies like Apple, Samsung have been found to use this marketing strategy at a regular interval.
The process of providing the internet service is by the means of cables and wire. There is no scope for a various level of transmitting the service from one place to the other. However, it can be said that the Company might increase their region of operation within UK and Europe. This might fetch them better market opportunity and might help them to prosper in the market.
Promotion by the means of partnership is also another productive idea that Freeserve might use in order to promote their service among the people. For example, Freeserve might make partnership with a number of TV channels and promote their advertisements by in their channels. Same kind of approach has been found with Apple and Airtel, where Airtel offered free connection with the mobile sets of Apple (Liu et al., 2017). Therefore, partnership promotional activities are common and can be used easily.
Conclusion:
A detailed analysis has been conducted on the marketing mix elements. Primarily, a theoretical approach has been made on the 8Ps of marketing. On the basis of the understanding, promotional recommendations have been made. As it has been evident that Freeserve as a service provider cannot use all the marketing mix elements for its marketing technique. However, apart from the quality of the service that the Company provides, it is expected that Freeserve should also involve in better promotional techniques as well. Carrying out any kind of corporate social responsibility activity or by the means of partnership can be the most effective means of promoting their service among its users. On the other hand, developing an advertisement is the foremost requirement for Freeserve’s marketing strategy.
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