Ernst and Young - Marketing for financial services - Research Paper Example

Ernst and Young - Marketing for financial services ‘Ernst and Young’ is recognized as the topmost organization in the field of financial service consulting worldwide. It is recognized for ‘Corporate Governance’, prevention of financial crimes, conducting practices on based on ‘operational risks’ and catering widely for the customers. Ernst and Young through its 35,000 financial advisors located on a worldwide basis provide a host of financial services to its diversified client base. (Ernst and Young named top consulting organization for financial services, 2010). Ernst and Young’s Internet Presence Here you have to mention the company’s internet presence in OTHER WEBSITES. ‘Ernst and Young’ has a very strong Internet presence. The company through its website has helped the external stakeholders get a view of the different activities that the firm undertakes in the field of Financial Services Consulting. Moreover, the different industries which the consulting firms cater on a worldwide basis are also listed in the website. Further, the philosophy and core values of the company are also listed in the company website of Ernst and Young. The website is created to generate information about its liaison activities through publishing information of events during international conferences and press meets (Ernst & Young, 2010). Ernst and Young through the use of Internet have endeavored to go for a brand extension (Rigopoulou, n.d.) It has helped the company in finding out newer markets which in turn has helped in greatly reducing the sales and operational cost of the company. Through the advent of electronic commerce, terms like Business to Business Commerce and Business to Consumer Commerce have come into existence where the activities of business has crossed the boundaries of regions and nations. The company through the development of networking activities can participate on an international scale in trade fairs and exhibitions where they can generate a mass appeal and get consumers’ response (Dransfield, Richards & Dooley, 2004; Neild & Carysforth, 2004, p. 377). Kiva a global player in the field of microfinance gains a global partnership with many firms like Ernst and Young to carry out its lending operations. Thus, Ernst and Young have attained an internet presence in the company’s website. (loans that change lives, 2010). Furthermore, the website of the global consulting firm, Capgemini also bears the presence of Ernst and Young in its acquisition activities of the latter’s consulting arm during 2004 (Capgemini, 2010). Ernst and Young-Internet Marketing Activities Ernst and Young through the use of Internet have been able to create a rapid online presence in the field of financial advisory and consulting services. The company has developed its Internet based service, ‘Ernie’ through which it helps its client base in providing answers to their queries based on real estate activities on the commercial sphere. This has helped in acquiring faster access in deriving solutions to real estate queries. The Ernie website operates in a fashion wherein the subscribers can relate their queries through posting such on the Internet. Solutions to such queries are rendered to the subscribers in a matter of two days from the posting of their queries. The users get further assistance through unlimited Internet access wherein they can place additional queries. ‘Ernie’ is being continually updated to provide large based advisory services on tax and financial consulting. Moreover, the website is being continually developed to provide additional features like obtaining feedback from the large group of viewers and also in designing an interactive multimedia tour (“Ernie -- Ernst & Youngs Internet-based online consulting service now answers real estate”, 1996; “Ernie Ernst and Young’s Internet-based online consulting service now answers real estate queries”, 1996). The development of web based consulting services by Ernst and Young can be observed as a serious breakthrough in distributing its tax advisory and real estate consulting services on a global sphere. Through the development of Ernie, Ernst and Young successfully started tapping the emerging market base in the global sphere to widely market its financial and advisory services (Dunn, 2001). Further, marketing activities of Ernst and Young consist of publishing online newsletters like “Hedge Funds Update”. These focus on news issues on investment and hedge fund initiatives taken on a worldwide basis (Ernst and Young Online, 2010). In the comparison & shortfalls you have to mention specifically about Ernst and Young and not in general. Internet vs. Direct Marketing-A Comparison Other than conducting marketing activities through Internet the financial service organizations like banks and insurance companies can conduct direct marketing activities through a wide network base. The other direct marketing activities that can be taken by the financial service organizations can contain of direct mailing, marketing through communication networks like telephones or through the distribution of printed brochures by a direct visit of company staffs to the client’s homes. However, it is observed that a large amount of costs are incurred by the companies in depending on the direct channels to distribute their products and services. Moreover, the process is also time consuming and fails to generate immediate response from the final beneficiaries of such services. The insurance companies take resort to large scale advertising and conducting trade presentations for the marketing of their services (Winston, 1986. pp. 60, 62, 64-66; marketing and advertising tips, n.d.; Marketing Support Services, 2010). In the modern era the rapid use of Internet has helped in diversifying the scale of marketing activities. It is observed that the direct marketing activities like direct mailing, telemarketing, distribution of brochures and leaflets and organizing press meets involved huge amount of manpower and business costs and also much greater time. Internet marketing is observed to be a faster medium wherein the manpower and business costs are comparatively lesser. In the context of Ernst and Young the development of the website, Ernie has helped in reaching to a greater customer base to render online financial support. Estimates reveal that the launch of Ernie has helped the firm to make huge savings of around $75,000 to $100,000 and has helped in developing a diversified global workforce. (Ernie, 1999). Shortfalls The internet marketing activity suffers from many shortfalls. The business suffers from additional costs of installing the right software and hardware to support the said activity. Large number of customers is still unaware of shopping activities which they can easily perform through internet. The telephone numbers published on the internet sites by the companies often turn out to be redundant for the customers to rightly earn solutions for their queries. Thus, the companies depending fully on internet marketing activities tend to earn the reputation of “poor customer support”. Further the modern day internet communication has become more prone to attacks by hackers who tend to retrieve the information from customer’s credit cards. Thus, many customers do not happen to rely on internet purchases for they fear that potential information of their credit cards would be stolen. (Smith, 2010). A survey conducted by Ernst and Young reveals that micropayment information websites have become the potential areas for music companies to advertise their products and services. However, owing to increased costs the media companies are failing to gain a stand in the internet websites. Except the developed countries consumers of other countries have less access to internet music. The music companies can be revitalized through microfinance but that also fails for increasing “processing costs”. Hence, lower the processing costs can make way for a better market for Microfinance through internet (Guillame, 2010). Recommendations The use of internet marketing activities helps a company to gain access to a large number of customers in a very short span of time which helps them conduct mass marketing activities. This helps the company to earn huge revenue. The companies, for earning success in the field of internet marketing must adapt to the competitive environment in the true spirit. The companies must render reliable telephone numbers and have an active customer support team who would rightly take care of customer queries in a much lesser time span. Further, the companies can provide some free services to the customers for an initial time period who tend to conduct purchases through their websites. This would help the customers to get attracted to the company website through which they can make more amounts of purchases. Regarding the security question the companies tending to rely on internet marketing activities must set up a support team who would continually render security support to the customers. This support team composed of information technology experts can provide advanced security support to the customers and thereby can help safeguard their credit card information from being hacked. Customers on the other hand must be made aware of the changes made in the internet service sphere through direct marketing channels like leaflet distribution which in turn would help in boosting up customer loyalty. References 1. Dunn, H. (2001). Ernst & Young Case Study, UNC, Retrieved on December 25, 2010 from: http://www.unc.edu/~dunnh/inls237ernst&young:index.html 2. Dransfield, R., Richards, C. & D. Dooley, (2004), Btec National Business, London: Heinemann 3. “Ernst and Young Online”, (2010), eyonline.nl. Retrieved on December 25, 2010 from: http://enms.eyonline.nl/index.php?mode=newsletter&nid=722c204c779d9c1b677464dc0ded3df974f1bed4&abonnee_id=1706097&abonnee_hash=093bc3f4830c229d2cb9fa61c07629cf 4. “Ernst and Young named top consulting organization for financial services”, (2010), ey.com. Retrieved on December 24, 2010 from: http://www.ey.com/US/en/Newsroom/News-releases/Ernst-and-Young-named-top-consulting-organization-for-financial-services 5. “Ernst & Young”, (2010), ey.com. Retrieved on December 24, 2010 from: http://www.ey.com/IN/en/Home 6. “Ernie -- Ernst & Youngs Internet-based online consulting service now answers real estate”, (1996), Business Wire, Retrieved on December 25, 2010 from: http://www.allbusiness.com/energy-utilities/utilities-industry-electric-power/7298102-1.html 7. “Ernie Ernst and Young’s Internet-based online consulting service now answers real estate queries”, (1996), Bnet. Retrieved on December 25, 2010 from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1996_Dec_17/ai_18957580/?tag=content;col1 8. “Marketing and advertising tips” (n.d.), businessballs.com. Retrieved on December 25, 2010 from: http://www.businessballs.com/market.htm 9. “Marketing Support Services”, (2010), lifesupportteam.com. Retrieved on December 25, 2010 from: http://www.lifesupportteam.com/life-insurance-marketing-advertising-advanced-marketing.html 10. Neild, C. & C. Carysforth, (2004), BTEC First Business Student Book. Heinemann. 11. “loans that change lives”, kiva.org. (2010). Retrieved on December 28, 2010 from: http://www.kiva.org/about/supporters 12. “Capgemini”, capgemini.com. (2010). Retrieved on December 28, 2010 from: http://www.capgemini.com/search/?q=ernst+and+young 13. Rigopoulou, I. (n.d.), Brand eExtensions: A modern source of Competitive Advantage. Retrieved on December 24, 2010 from: http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/jim/IRigopoulou011202.htm 14. Winston, J. W. (1986). Marketing for financial services. Routledge. 15. “Ernie”, cs.trinity.edu. (1999). Retrieved on December 28, 2010 from: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000aaa/ernie.htm 16. Smith, C. (2010). Internet Marketing - Advantages and Disadvantages. Retrieved on December 24, 2010 from: http://ezinearticles.com/?Internet-Marketing---Advantages-and-Disadvantages&id=65052 17. Guillame, K. (2010). Ernst & Young News Details. Retrieved on December 28, 2010 from: http://www.big4.com/news/ernst-young-micropayments-could-provide-growth-for-media-firms-costs-need-to-fall-2031 Read More