The Times 100 Business Case StudiesEdition 15

Discovering customer needs through research

Barclays

Introduction

Barclays provides services for different markets Personal customers Business banking

The personal customer market has segments, e.g. Families Mature people Students

Market research helps Barclays to identify what each segment needs and wants.

Purpose of market research

To ensure assumptions are correct Barclays discovered students were an important segment

To understand what customers think of existing products Barclays found its existing student account could be

improved To identify what new and existing customers want

Students gave their views directly To help develop existing/create new products to

meet the needs of target market Insights helped to increase market share

Barclays research findings

Students wanted separate accounts to manage borrowing and spending Often needed to own high-tech equipment, e.g

laptops They relied heavily on credit whilst at

university E.g. an overdraft

Incentives were expected Would not alone persuade students

to choose a particular banking product An incentive based on mobile phone or broadband

had most appeal

Implementation of new student proposition Barclays set up working group

Insight from research established key features and benefits

Partnership with Orange to develop new incentive Providing discounted mobile broadband

Marketing campaign Word of mouth – www.100voices.co.uk Literature in branches Online promotion through www.barclays.co.uk Direct mail to prospective students during summer

Evaluation of research

Examination of internal data proved students were a valuable market

Secondary research showed the size of the potential student market

Primary research identified what students wanted from an account

The new proposition increased the overall number of student accounts by 34% (target 25%)

Barclays moved from 3rd to 2nd in terms

of market share

Types of market research

Primary – finding new information for a specific purpose Qualitative – opinions,

feelings - taken from e.g. interviews, opinion panel or focus group

Quantitative – numerical data – from e.g questionnaire

May be expensive/time consuming to carry out

Secondary – focuses on existing information from published sources Research reports,

competitor literature or government publications, e.g. national statistics

May be quicker/less expensive but results less specific to company or question