The Adoption of a Retail-Oriented Marketing Mix for Bank Branch Operations

This article considers the major emphasis currently being placed by the retail banks on the distribution element of the marketing mix. In particular, it demonstrates that the retail banks within the UK have recognised the importance of the branch network in achieving a competitive advantage and are currently active to a greater or lesser degree in adopting a retail-oriented marketing mix for bank branch operations. The article goes on to argue that the mix has not yet been successfully co-ordinated as a result of the limited remit of marketing personnel within the banking sector.     

Customer Satisfaction with Retail Banking Services in Ghana

Recent studies indicate high competitiveness of the Ghanaian banking industry, making it difficult for banks to satisfy and retain customers. However, little empirical knowledge exists on the determinants of customer satisfaction toward the services delivered by the banks. This article reports a study of the determinants of customer satisfaction of retail bank services in Ghana. An extensive review of the extant literature was used to identify the theoretical determinants of customer satisfaction in retail banking and their measurement scales. These were adapted to build a conceptual framework for the empirical investigation conducted. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered through personal interviews to 650 customers of retail banks, and the results were factor analyzed and regressed. The empirical results indicated that relational, core, and tangible dimensions of service were positively associated with customer satisfaction in retail banks in Ghana. The study discusses the strategic implications of the findings for the management of customer satisfaction for retail banks operating in Ghana. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Banks,grocers and the changing retailing of financial services in Britain

The entry of the three largest grocery retailers into retail financial services marks an escalation of competition in financial services retailing in Britain. This paper explores the increasingly porous boundaries between banking and retailing, focusing on changes in the economics of information gathering, shifts in the production, marketing and consumption of retail financial services, and a series of changes in the competitive and regulatory environment of grocery retailing. The paper argues that grocery retailers’ moves into financial services raise important issues concerning both the management of strategic alliances and their impact on social inclusion and exclusion. The paper elaborates on this argument by examining four potentially problematic issues arising from the alliances between banks and retailers: the shifting geographies of financial services provision, the development and maintenance of brand leadership, the production and use of management knowledge and consumers’ access to financial services.     

Towards a framework for innovation in retailing through social media

Retail firms are increasingly using social media for purposes other than traditional marketing, such as innovation. Yet, while the innovation literature has established the benefits of involving customers in the development of products/services through open innovation, the role of social media in innovation is not well understood. Accordingly, we investigate how social media drives innovation in retail businesses. Using data from 414 firms, we find that social media positively relates to radical and incremental innovation, mediated by multiple digital channels and moderated by digital capabilities. Consequently, we propose a social media dynamic capabilities framework to guide future research and innovation in retail business.     

Determinants of retail bank choice in Nigeria: a focus on gender-based choice decisions

As the Nigerian retail banks customers become more sophisticated, it is now very important that retail banks determine the factors that are important and relevant to the customers’ retail bank choice decisions. By using a survey of retail bank customers, this study evaluates the relative importance attached to retail banks’ choice criteria used by male and female customers in Nigeria. The results show that there are some differences in choice factors used by male and female customers in selecting a retail bank for patronage. The recommendation is that bank managers should take both female and male market segments into consideration when making retail bank strategic planning in order to become competitive. The findings can assist retail bank managers in refining their marketing strategies as a means of overcoming the intense competition that exists in the Nigerian banking system.     

Retail bank selection in developed and developing countries: A cross‐national study of students' bank‐selection criteria

This exploratory research article is concerned with students' selection of retail banks in the United States and Ghana. It is a comparative cross‐national study aimed at revealing the factors determining retail bank selection among students in different environmental settings. The key objective is to establish if there are any significant differences and/or similarities in students' selection of retail banks in developed and developing economies. A similar data‐collection method was employed in the United States and Ghana to facilitate constructive comparison. The results identified four key factors—convenience, competence, recommendation by parents, and free banking and/or no bank charges—to be consistent across the two economies. The recommendation of the study is that in the context of an open and liberalized market environment, retail bank marketing strategies should be standardized irrespective of the national development stage. It concludes that retail bank managers particularly in developing countries should learn to provide consistent and good customer care. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Bank presence in firm equity: A diversification based approach

This study analyses the possible reasons for banks deciding to invest in firm equity, based on the fundamentals of the strategic diversification literature. Those fundamentals suggest that it may be in response to the negative evolution of other aspects of banking business, namely, credit business, fixed interest business and services, as well as the bank's level of efficiency. The results confirm the hypotheses that the decision to hold equity in other firms is related to the evolution of the bank's other businesses. However, the results for savings banks differed from those for banks.     

An Evaluation of Marketing Practices in Banks in Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study ascertains the extent to which the marketing concept has been adopted and implemented by banks in Ghana. It addresses a gap in an area that is currently under researched and provides insight into the banking services industry in a developing country. All sixteen licensed banks in Ghana were included in this study. The data was collected through in-depth interviews and self completed questionnaires. The results suggest that marketing departments in the banks are organised mainly within headquarters and headed by marketing and advertising/public relations managers. The marketing activities in the banks are associated with the stage where marketing orientation is perceived as advertising and public relations. There is a partial lack of marketing culture in the banks. The total and formal acceptance and understanding of the marketing concept is at an embryonic stage in the evolutionary process.     

An integrative approach to relationship marketing,customer value,and customer outcomes in the retail banking industry: a customer-based perspective from Turkey

Given how important it is to provide superior value to customers and to maintain customer loyalty for a sustainable competitive advantage, the aim of this paper is to examine the relationships among relationship marketing components of – trust, competency, commitment, communication, and conflict handling, – relationship investment, relationship quality, perceived customer value, satisfaction and loyalty in an integrated framework in the Turkish retail banking industry. Unlike previous studies, this research extends the literature by analysing affective as well as cognitive dimensions in the same model with a holistic view by simultaneously examining the direct and indirect effects of the related concepts. The distinctive nature of this study is its evaluation of customer satisfaction and loyalty from the perspective of actual consumers. The research model was tested using data collected from 685 retail banking customers by applying structural equation modelling. The findings show that relationship marketing induces loyalty through relationship quality, customer value, and satisfaction, which are mainly provided by trust, communication, and relationship investment. Furthermore, relationship investment and relationship quality are the most important factors in the development of customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty. The emotional value dimension, which captures the affective aspects of perceived value, has the strongest effect on both satisfaction and loyalty.     

A Strategic Perspective on Delivery Systems in UK Retail Banking

The pre-eminence of the bank branch as an effective delivery system arose from the difficulties associated with marketing financial services. The branch provides a highly efficient mechanism for administering, collecting and delivering cash as well as a wide range of lending and ancillary services. Historically, branch networks arose to attract cheap retail deposits through the convenience of the branch location itself, and through branch-based payment systems. Indeed, the relationship between the customer and the branch underpins the whole banking process. However, the branch's exclusive function is tenable only so long as the assumptions and conditions that determined its historical position hold good. These assumptions are that the market will continue to respond to it, that it will remain the basis for patterns of competitive behaviour, and that more effective and economic delivery systems will not emerge. This article presents the view that these assumptions are in fact being undermined, particularly by innovations in technology, which will necessitate a complete rethink of future strategy in retail branch banking.     

全能银行范围经济的实证分析

从实证角度分析全能银行范围经济的存在。通过收入增长模型实证并回归检验了全能银行的范围经济特性,并计量出其范围经济系数,得到全能银行存在范围经济的有力证据。实践中对全球著名五家全能银行进行回归分析,并拟合中国自己的全能银行进行回归验证,得到拟合程度非常高的回归检验结果。由此得出结论:中国是可以发展自己的全能银行的,不仅具有现实基础且可产生显著的范围经济。     

Dimensions of customer orientation: An empirical investigation of the UK financial services sector

The UK financial services industry has experienced a number of sharp discontinuities in its marketing environment in recent years. These have ranged from changing demand patterns to wholesale deregulation and market liberalization. International competition and new entrants exploiting technological innovations have also added to the turbulence in what has been a traditionally parochial and stable sector. Under these conditions, it is to be expected that companies would develop a much sharper customer focus and, if they are to survive and prosper, that they would adopt the core principles of the marketing concept. In this paper, the findings of research which tests this assumption amongst merchant banks, retail banks, insurance companies and building societies are presented. Conclusions are drawn which indicate that there is a growing awareness of the need for a marketing orientation and that some sectors appear to be more customer‐orientated than others at this point in time. Despite this, there is also evidence that in some sectors marketing myopia may be masquerading as marketing orientation and that much work needs to be done to more fully realize the ideals of the marketing concept.     

The behavioural sequence of the financial services industry in Taiwan: Service quality,relationship quality and behavioural loyalty

This study develops and empirically tests a model for examination of the relations among service quality scales, relationship bonding tactics, customer satisfaction, trust and commitment, and customer behavioural loyalty in a relationship marketing system. This paper aims to test the relationship between perceived service quality satisfaction and relationship intentions, or, in other words, whether or not consumers will consider building long-term relationships with service providers on the basis of a single instance of perceived service quality. Based on three groups of samples from XYZ bank, one of the most famous banks providing merchant banking services in Taiwan, the findings suggest that financial products with different product attributes need different kinds and levels of service and relationship investment. The findings also suggest that there does exist a positive relationship between service quality satisfaction and perceived relationship investment.     

商业银行市场营销的国际比较及对策建议

随着我国金融全球化进程加快和金融开放的扩大 ,我国商业银行面临日益激烈的市场竞争。银行业竞争已悄然步入客户经济时代 ,营销观念在很大程度上决定了最终竞争格局。近年来 ,中国的银行业逐渐认识到营销的重要性 ,并进行了积极的探索。借鉴发达国家商业银行市场营销的成功经验 ,找出中外银行营销差距 ,并就如何提高我国银行的营销竞争力提出相应的对策建议。     

Close to the customer: But is it really a relationship?

Everyone is developing relationships. Customers are being invited to have relationships with telephone companies, banks, auto dealers, airlines, and other suppliers of products and services. Relationship marketing is being touted as an effective strategy to guide companies into the next millennium. Recently there has been widespread reference to relationship marketing in the popular literature, and the concept has been embraced by many companies and organizations. There is little consensus, however, on what the concept means and even less consistency in how it is practised. What is relationship marketing? Practising marketers and articles in the trade press use the term in one way, while authors in academic journals seem often to be referring to something quite different. This paper reviews how the concept has been viewed by marketing authors and draws from social psychology to shed light on the characteristics of relationships. Some insights are drawn from a preliminary analysis of the results of focus group interviews that suggest how consumers describe their relationships with businesses.     

Why Do Japanese Non-Local Regional Banks Enter Other Prefectures Under the Region-Based Relationship Banking Policy?

In this study, we investigate the market characteristics of prefectures in which non-local regional banks of other prefectures choose to enter and their motivations for doing so, considering the Japanese government’s requirements for regional financial institutions to actively stimulate their local economies. In particular, by pooling prefecture-level data, the market characteristics of prefectures that experience more entrances by non-local regional banks compared with other prefectures are examined. It was found that entrance by non-local regional banks is more common in prefectures containing active high-performing companies. Hence, it can be considered that non-local regional banks that are not satisfied with lending opportunities in their home prefectures enter other prefectures to increase their lending opportunities to high-performing companies. This study contributes to the clarification of why many regional banks do not concentrate on businesses within their local regions and intentionally enter other prefectures, which is in contrast with the intent of the region-based relationship banking policy.     

Towards a Successful CRM Implementation in Banks: An Integrated Model

In recent years, customer relationship management (CRM) has been the favoured theme for numerous studies and reports. Yet, there is a lack of systematic empirical evidence regarding the critical success factors (CSFs) for the CRM implementation, the activities that are affected by the use of the CRM programmes, and their consequent performance outcomes. In this article, we document the role of the CRM programmes in the banking sector and identify marketing activities that are affected by CRM usage. Taking a sample of 159 banks that utilise a CRM system, we found a substantial positive effect of the CRM usage on relationships effectiveness and marketing objectives. The results of this study have major implications for marketing people, as they suggest the notion that the CRM critical success factors should be implemented holistically rather than piecemeal to achieve the full potential of the CRM. The findings also stress the central role of customer services in the successful implementation of CRM programmes within banks.     

European Union policies and practice

Abstract: Early attempts to build a harmonized legal system for banking and financial services throughout the EU met insurmountable difficulties. The shift towards the single market approach in the mid-1980s has been much more successful in terms of removing the obstacles preventing banks and other financial services organizations from establishing themselves and selling their services wherever they choose throughout the EU. The theory has been that consumers would benefit in terms of wider choice and lower prices, but consumer protection needs have been relatively neglected until recently. The emphasis is now changing, and there is widespread recognition that consumer protection aspects of the marketing of banking and financial services need special consideration. However, there is still an unfinished agenda of consumer issues, including distance selling of financial services, overindebtedness, mortgage credit, better consumer information and improved systems of providing redress.     

Retailers and their relationships with their financial services suppliers: the case of debit card charges in the United Kingdom

The mid 1990s has seen a very rapid growth in both the holding and use of debit cards in the UK. There are now just over 27 million debit cards issued in the UK under the marques Switch and Visa Delta. Debit card transactions immediately debit the account of the card holder. These transactions are acquired by a financial institution (the acquirer), who reimburses the retailer of the purchase sum minus a negotiated fee, the merchant service charge (MSC). In the UK the MSC is a fixed fee per transaction as opposed to credit card transactions that are levied as a percentage of the transaction value. The level of the fixed fee payments vary enormously from just a few pence for large corporate clients to anything up to 80 p for some small independent retailers. The authors of this paper were commissioned to undertake a research programme into retailer attitudes to card payment systems. This paper will outline the main implication of the research in terms of marketing the acquiring service to retailers and consequent relationship between acquirer and retailer. Relationship marketing can be seen as a return to a more traditional method of bank management, in terms of close relationships between banks and businesses. With the development of specialist sections and departments such as card services there may have been a more transactional marketing approach by the banks. Merchant acquirers should focus more attention on retention rather than recruitment and treat each customer as an individual. Factors other than price and technology, for example quality and customer service, should be emphasized to protect themselves from competition and to encourage long term customer loyalty.     

Rapport-Building Behaviors Used by Retail Employees

The rapport between employees and customers represents a particularly salient issue in retail businesses characterized by significant interpersonal interactions. Although rapport relates significantly to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and word-of-mouth communication, the behaviors employees use to develop rapport receive minimal attention in marketing and management literature. Using research on rapport-building behaviors identified in other literature as a basis for investigation, this study investigates the extent to which such behaviors are relevant in commercial settings. With the critical incident technique, the authors identify rapport-building behaviors commonly used by retail employees in 388 service encounters. Analysis of 824 rapport-building behaviors described in these encounters confirms three categories suggested by previous research - uncommonly attentive, common grounding, and courteous behavior - and identifies two additional categories that have not been linked to rapport in retail settings, namely, connecting and information sharing behavior. The authors conclude with a discussion of managerial and research implications.