This document is a self-reflective report submitted by Bharat Chopra, a student at Cardiff University, for a group marketing project. The report summarizes the group's roles and experience working together on developing a marketing plan to help with the rebranding transition of their client organization, V12 Retail Finance, to Secure Trust Bank Retail Finance. It describes the group's leadership styles, strategies used in their action plan like Porter's Five Forces analysis, and Bharat's personal growth experiences working on the project.

1. 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

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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 >

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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(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

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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
TRANSACTIONALLAISSEZ-FAIRE

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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12. Fisher, S.G et al. 2001. Validation study of Belbin's team roles. Journal of Work &
Organizational Psychology 10(2), pp.121-144.