Self Reflective Report

Bharat Chopra MSc Strategic Marketing, 2014-15

Cardiff University Self – Reflective Report

GROUP NUMBER- 14 STUDENT ID - 1470066

MODULE NIMBER – BST249 GROUP NAME – CNE CONSULTANCY

SUPERVISOR – DR. SHUMAILA YOUSAFZAI CLIENT ORGANISATION – V12 RETAIL FINANCE

C1470066 DISSERTATION BST 249

1

Cardiff Business School

COURSEWORK COVER SHEET 2014/2015

Student Name: BHARAT CHOPRA

Student Number: 1470066

Module Code: BST249

Module Title: PROJECT (DISSERTATION)

Coursework Title: TRANSITION OF V12 RETAIL FINANCE INTO SECURE TRUST BANK

RETAIL FINANCE

Submission

date: (Due by 1600 hrs

on due date)

11/09/2015

Date

document last

saved/printed:

16.09.2015

(Updated

automatically)

Supervisor: Dr. SHUMAILA

YOUSAFZAITW

Section 2 MARK AWARDED:

COMMENTS:

---

Number of words: <1999 >


2

Table of Contents

SELF – REFLECTIVE .................................................... 3

1.0 INTRODUCTION ................................................ 3

2.0 GROUP ROLES AND EXPERIENCE ....................... 4

3.0 ACTION PLAN PROCESS .................................... 6

3.1 LEASDERSHIP STYLES ...................................... 7

3.2 CLIENT ORGANISATION .................................. 9

3.3 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ................................. 10

3.4 STRATEGIC EVALUATION ............................... 10

3.5 GROWTH ....................................................... 13

4.0 CONCLUSION ................................................... 14

5.0 REFERENCE ...................................................... 15


3

SELF – REFLECTIVE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

“What is needed is not well balanced individuals, but individuals who balance well

with each other (Belbin, 2004). In this marketing project my team “CNE

CONSULTANCY” represents V12 Retail Finance ‘UK specialist retail finance provider’.

The marketing team was formed with the help of Belbin test. (Belbin, 1981) described

the “ideal team as a group of individuals who could fulfil the eight”, and later (Belbin,

1993) “nine team roles which he had identified”. The project looks into various

marketing activities adding up to form a major plan all together to counter the issues

brought forward by our client company. This marketing project has five objectives,

that once successfully met will ensure the successful rebranding transition of V12 into

Secure Trust Bank Retail Finance (STB RF). In order to achieve these objectives, a

marketing strategy has been devised which will consist of the following three

marketing programs; Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), Internal

Marketing (IM) and Digital Marketing (DM). In order to evaluate the success of the

marketing programs, a series of marketing metrics and analysis tools will be used in

the end.


4

2.0 GROUP ROLES AND EXPERIENCE

(Belbin (1981), Belbin (1993)) defined different team roles that were essential for a

team to be successful. These roles are mentioned in Figure 1.

Figure 1: different team roles

Belbin theorises that “optimal team is one in which least one person scores highly in

any of the proposed roles” (Jackson Chris. J, 2002). Similarly in this project we all had

our own individual areas to specialise in, although our plans and hypothesis kept on

changing considering the pressure to do well with time constraints. In this test my

role was identified to be of a resource investigator, complete-finisher and

investigator.


5

Personally I like critically analysing things and situations inside out, and providing

solutions to situations. Hence I feel this role suited me more. My major part in the

project was to identify and conduct INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

strategies and an INTERNAL MARKETING strategy that would give validity to our

proposal and its solutions. I had to conduct primary research on our proposed

industry and conduct competitor analysis to understand the market completely. I

proposed the ‘MORNING BREAKFAST’ and ‘GROWTH WITH BOTH’ activities for the

purpose of this project. It was highly satisfying for me personally as I felt the tagline

‘GROWTH WITH BOTH’ framed by me for our PR plan was a little difficult for our

audience to avoid.

Apart from this we even planned to offer a differential price tier mechanism

proposal, which was decided to be dumped later as it was already considered by the

client in the past and even due to the budget constraints that our marketing project

faced.

Differentiating an activity that would cater the B2B client and not just B2C was quite

a baffling task. At times we had quite intense discussions within the group about the

feasibility and practicality of our project. We also tried discussing the same with

other batch mates and realised that our team was determined on a particular

activity and didn’t notice that there would be other prospects too that can be

followed. Eventually we came up with an idea of a Software/WAP along with

discounted tablets for acquiring new customers.


6

I was highly satisfied with the way my group mate (ASHTON EVANS) supported my

ideas and contributed to this project. His role in this project was of a shaper, planter

and monitor evaluator. A shaper mainly focuses on challenging pressure and

overcoming obstacles (Fisher, S.G et al. 2001). Without his contributions and efforts

our team could have strived for success. Whereas on the other side, the third team

member (Himanshu Nandwani) couldn’t really contribute much. He was more of a

team worker, obeying instructions but couldn’t give in anything useful from his side.

But he did a satisfactory work in the presentation. We had few missing roles in our

team, considering the size of the team; hence the combination of me and Ashton

alongside a little help from our client and supervisor made it possible for us to cover

up on these missing spots.

3.0 ACTION PLAN PROCESS

The project was segmented into four different stages as shown in figure 2 below.

Figure 2: stages of marketing project


7

(Katzenbach and Smith, 1993) asserted that "the primary unit of performance in a

high-performance organizations is mostly the teams". Each member in our team had

their specific duties(Figure 3).

FIGURE 3: WHO DID WHAT IN THE PROJECT

3.1 LEASDERSHIP STYLES

(Burns, 1978) identified two leadership styles ‘transformational and transactional’

that managers might exhibit. We had a well-planned layout for each individual’s

role in this project and hence apart from few minor issues in execution, we didn’t


8

really have any major hurdles. Transformational leadership is highly effective for

driving change (Du et al., 2012) and transactional on the other hand is effective

on the existing system. Hence, a combination of both was required to succeed

and implement the transition smoothly. In order to “have an effective business

environment it is imperative to have mastered least four leadership styles,

especially the authoritative, democratic and laissez-faire style.” (Goleman, 2000),

as the ones in the figure 4.

FIGURE 4: LEADERSHIP STYLES (Mullins, 2013)

In our team I was more of a democratic leader with a bit of transactional style traits,

whereas I would say Ashton was more of a laissez-faire and authoritarian.

• Focuses on management taks

•Examines the causes

•Uses trade - offs to meet the goals

•Leader lets th members do as they wish with limitations

•Little direction from the leader

•Fairly useful for highly skilled workforce.

•Directive attitude

•Takes decisions alone without seeking advice from team members

• Leader likes to tell the members under him what to do

•Encourages participation by employees

•Shares informaion with team members

•provides opportunities for the team to influence

DEMOCRATIC AUTHORITARIAN

TRANSACTIONAL LAISSEZ-FAIRE


9

3.2 CLIENT ORGANISATION

Our client V12 Retail Finance (V12) is a specialist Retail Finance provider which

provides finance at the point of sale, through mail order and online and is owned by

Secure Trust Bank. Both V12 and Secure Trust Bank have experienced impressive

growth since the takeover in 2013 and therefore the decision has now been

undertaken for V12 Retail Finance to be rebranded under the (STBRF) brand name to

strengthen and offer consistency across the group. The main focus of this project is

on smooth transition from V12 to STBRF that would include objectives like

generating awareness and offering reassurance among its stakeholders and new

customers, identifying potential stakeholders and positively communicating the

benefits of the brand transition to all the stakeholders. But the main aim would be to

ensure that existing customers of both the companies are retained and at the same

time acquire new customers after the transition to expand their coverage.

For the entire project time span Mr. Nick Davies (CEO) of the company was kind

enough to be co-ordinating with us. Apart from Mr. Nick, even Mr. Mathew (sales

head) was also quite cooperating. Both the gentlemen offered us a lot of valuable

insights about their business style and their operations, which was quite helpful in

the end in formulating our action plan and understanding the market. Working with

them and alongside my team I have undergone various challenges in the project and

widened my knowledge by a large extent. This project gave me an opportunity to


10

build on the skills and knowledge I gained throughout the year in the form of a final

group work activity.

3.3 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

One of the major lessons learned for me would be to always consider your staff as

pivotal as the customers. Effectively communicating internally as well as externally is

highly important for the campaign to succeed. We had days during the project when

our brains used to freeze and we used to argue with each other as to what is it that

we doing wrong. Also there were days when we used to cover a lot in a brisk and not

realise how fast we covered the topic. Hence, it’s important not to lose your calm

and have self-belief. Putting together the year’s tactics and theories in this project

made me feel quite competitive and equipped with the strategies that would

definitely help us in the near future in the years to come. Despite of holding some

work experience previously, I still feel my capabilities have grown immensely since

my inception in this master’s course.

3.4 STRATEGIC EVALUATION

Conducting primary research and an in-depth analysis for our client company made

us use various strategies that are of extreme importance in the marketing industry.

The strategies are discussed in Figure 5 below.


11

Figure 5: different marketing strategies used

Though being a marketing student we were familiar with these terms since quite a

long time but practically how to use them and where to use them becomes quite

imperative for the success of the project. Porter’s five forces “model propelled

strategic management to the very heart of the management agenda” (Grundy,

2006). Working in the retail finance industry, my knowledge about the working in

sales and finance departments has also brushed a lot. While planning the IMC and

MARKETING THEORIES

PORTER'S FIVE FORCES / PESTLE

ANALYSIS

ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE

PR PLAN

INTERNAL MARKETING

COMMUNICATION

SOSTAC FRAMEWROK / SWOT ANALYSIS

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION


12

PR plan, we realized the importance of all crucial aspects to cover while

implementing a campaign. A lot of research goes into it before deciding what

method is to be used for advertising/promoting. At the same time it was really

helpful to use various market research metrics along with some digital media

sources to understand the competition and the target customers. One thing that has

changed in me from the beginning to the end of the project would be the tactical

approach to a campaign alongside the understanding of customers’ decision making

process.

While conducting the action plan for this project we utilized not only theoretical data

but also used some analytical and practical data. The online questionnaire directed

us towards a new factor that we didn’t think was of much importance for our

campaign. Whilst is has been claimed by (Philiastides and Ratcliff, 2013) that

“branding has become one of the most important determinants of consumer

choices”, in our primary research it was analyzed that it is not the same case in retail

finance industry. Out of the 6 factors suggested by the questionnaire, branding, only

ranked as the fifth most important factor. Also, for our PR plan it was a bit tricky for

us to plan a campaign as in our case the campaign is not be designed for the end-

user, but the retailer providing services to the end-users. As far as the digital media

channels are concerned, we framed a software facility that would ease out the

burden of both the client and the end user in completing the documentation

required before finance is provided. Hence it not only saved time but also was quite

hassle free for the staff members using it. Such online and offline platforms and


13

different methodologies in distinct areas was a good learning experience for me as a

marketing graduate.

3.5 GROWTH

Working in the group and under the guidance of my supervisor and client I did learn

a lot. Single handedly resolving critical situations in the project and coming up with

innovative ideas for the plan boosted my morale. Consequently my group members

are highly satisfied with my contribution to the project. I feel skilled and competent

as an individual and am ready for working in the real corporate world again, but this

time more accomplished, equipped with a vast knowledge base of marketing

strategies and with a better portfolio. I feel as a student of MSc Strategic Marketing

my chances of leaving a notable mark in the marketing industry are high.

These activities and entire year’s research and assignments have prepared me for a

competitive job market ahead. The learning phase is over now and hence the testing

phase for all of us begins.


14

4.0 CONCLUSION

To conclude I would just say that working on this marketing project and alongside

such a skilled professionals I am extremely honored and thankful to Cardiff

University. I can see my growth not only as a marketer but also as an individual.

Giving presentations and facing real world corporate people has given me a lot of

self-confidence and developed my personality too. The cooperation I got from

everyone including my class mates is beyond words. I thank everyone and wish good

luck to all and wish that sometime later in future we all would reach to some heights

in the concerned careers.


15

5.0 REFERENCE

1. Katzenbach J.R. and Smith, K. (1993), "The discipline of teams", Harvard Business

Review, March-April, pp. 111-20.

2. Belbin, R.M., 1981. Management Teams. Why They Succeed or Fail. Wiley, New York

3. Belbin, M., 1993. Team Roles at Work. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford

4. Chris J. Jackson, (2002) "Predicting team performance from a learning process

model", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 17 Iss: 1, pp.6 – 13

5. Grundy, T. (2006). Rethinking and reinventing Michael Porter's five forces model.

Strat. Change, 15(5), pp.213-229.

6. Belbin, D. (2004). THE BELBIN TEAM ROLES. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at:

http://lore.ua.ac.be/Teaching/SE3BAC/practicum/projectMgmt/BelbinRoles.pdf

[Accessed 2 Sep. 2015].

7. Burns, J. M. G. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row

8. Du, S., Swaen, V., Lindgreen, A. and Sen, S. (2012). The Roles of Leadership Styles in

Corporate Social Responsibility. J Bus Ethics, 114(1), pp.155-169.

9. Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, [Online]

78(2), pp 78-90.

10. Abib-Pech, M. (2013): Leadership- How to lead effectively and get results. Financial

Times Guides. 1st Edition. Financial Times publishing.

11. Philiastides, Marios. And Ratcliff, Roger. 2013. ‘Influence of Branding on Preference-

Based Decision Making’. Psychological Science 24 (7), p.1208-1215.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/action/doSearch?ContribStored=Jackson%2C+C+J


16

12. Fisher, S.G et al. 2001. Validation study of Belbin's team roles. Journal of Work &

Organizational Psychology 10(2), pp.121-144.

Documents

Self Reflective Report