Barclays Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Published in Services category by MBA Skool Team

Marketing Strategy of Barclays analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Barclays marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Barclays Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Product:

The product strategy and mix in Barclays marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Barclays is one of the leading global financial institutions and banks. Barclays offers variety of banking services as a part of its marketing mix product strategy. It's current operations cater to 3 broad businesses:

1 Barclays Products For Individuals 

• Personal Banking- Mortgage Insurance, Individual Savings A/C, Loans, Bank A/C, Investments

• Premier Banking- offers priority service and a debit card (black premier) for qualifying individuals.

• International Banking- allows offshore banking through multi-currency accounts

• Barclaycard- offers a range of leading balance transfer, purchase and reward credit cards

• Wealth Management- offers wealth management, trust & fiduciary services, brokerage, international & private banking and research


2.Barclays Products For small & medium businesses

• Business Banking -Business Bank A/C, Cards & Payment, Business Loans.

• Barclay Card- Offers Barclaycard Business

• Corporate Banking- Provides corporate banking solutions to large businesses, financial institutions and multinationals globally.


3.Barclays Products For Corporates and Institutions

• Corporate Banking- UK Based Multinationals and smaller local business institutions are provided Online Banking, Financial Risk Solutions, Trade Solutions etc. this constitutes to an annual turnover of over £5 million

• Investment Banking- Investment banking and risk management services are provided to the government and other global business and financial institutions.

• Barclay Card- Credit card services for business expenses.


Barclays has expanded its credit card portfolio with the introduction of two prepaid cards: Barclays Financial Manager and Barclays Budget Manager.

These get activated when the clients pay the fee and can then be used but these have an annual load limit of £15,000. The real time balance alert is sent to the client post any purchase.



Image: flickr-photos/126066997@N07/


Barclays Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Barclays marketing strategy:

Barclays pricing strategy in its marketing mix is dependent upon competition offering, regulatory body influence and customer demand for those services. 

• Barclays offers its customers various payment flexibility options, with 25% discount on its mobile broadband scheme, interest free overdrafts, monthly fee waiver and discounted rates for loans.

• Barclays has also decided to cut down its annual expenses to $ 24.5 billion i.e. a 25% reduction in operating costs to manage its expenses.

This is done primarily to keep a check on the revenues and operating costs, in lieu of freeing up major portions of its capital.

Barclays Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Barclays marketing mix:

Barclays has been expanding its foreign businesses over the years, with presence in over 50 countries. A total of 4750 branches have been setup to serve the expanding customer base. It is the 1st bank that started online banking to manage the financial resources of customers which enables customers to access bank’s website and follow standing orders so as to carry out their business activities and ensure availability of funds in their accounts.

Barclays has over 4.5 million registered online bankers in the UK and also offers Mobile Banking.


Promotion:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Barclays marketing strategy is as follows:

Barclays focuses on 360 branding and marketing. The promotional strategy in the marketing mix of Barclays aims at a comprehensive marketing plan reaching to all its customers. It persuade the clients to use its products or services for their financial assistance using the following measures:

• Word-of-mouth Campaign, Press Releases, Posters and Brochures

• Advertising on websites, Television, Magazines, Newspapers, Billboards and Direct mail

• Sales Promotion to help stimulate customer purchase

• Call / visit to prospective customers at their residence / place of business

• Sponsors various programs for increasing its brand value like- Barclays Football Premiership League and in the past, has sponsored Football League from 1987-1993, English Premier League from 2001-2016 and the Dubai Tennis Championship in 2008

• Barclays has appointed Indian Cricket Sensation ‘M.S. Dhoni’ as its brand ambassador for the Barclays Premier League in India.

• Apart from Football events, Barclays has also been associated with the Cycling event ‘Barclays Cycle Hire’ from 2010-15.


Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Barclays.


People:

Barclays bank is one of the leaders in employee retention and satisfaction. Barclays offers a unique flexible benefits scheme, where employees are allowed to decide their most suitable benefit. The scheme varies for different designations. Some of the benefits include pensions, incentives and performance related bonuses. Apart from this, medical benefits and insurance are provided to employees and their family members. These schemes are aimed at improving the work environment at the bank. Also, employees are given the freedom to decide on their work timings and locations. ‘Work from Home’ policy, maternity break and education waiver are also provided to concerned employees of Barclays.


Process:

The overall banking process at Barclays is quite straight forward and easy to use. Barclays has taken a transition from the physical platform to the virtual platform effortlessly. Customers are given the ease of carrying out variety of transactions through their personal accounts. Apart from this, relationship managers ensure that customers visiting the bank are taken care of and the process it smooth. Services like money transfer, payments and loans have been introduced in the online platform to assist customers.


Physical Evidence:

Barclays has taken the mobile banking facility to a much broader and effective level. Barclays has introduced the ‘Barclay’s Mobile’ App for its global customers to carry out transactions. Apart from this, it has also introduced country/region specific apps for essential services e.g. Barclay’s Ghana, Barclay’s Namibia etc. These efforts have seen a tremendous increase in online banking customers for the bank. This completes the marketing mix of Barclays bank.


About Barclays:

Barclays is a leading multinational bank listed on the London and New York stock exchange, which provides financial and banking assistance to clients in different countries. Barclays aims to help their customers by offering the kind of services and products that they expect and will result in fulfilment of their requirement. Barclays Bank is growing to be one of the largest financial service provider of the UK, with over 1500 branches spread to serve over 10 million customers across the globe. Other providers like Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC Holdings and The Royal Bank of Scotland have been stiff competitors.

Barclays is involved in retail, wholesale & investment banking in addition to wealth management, credit cards and mortgage lending. It has seven sub-units & operates in 850 international branches in more than 50 countries.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse marketing strategy and 4Ps analysis of more brands similar to Barclays. The Marketing Strategy & Mix section covers 4Ps and 7Ps of more than 800 brands in 2 categories.

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The names and other brand information used in the Marketing Strategy & Mix section are properties of their respective companies. The companies are not associated with MBA Skool in any way.

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