Launching New Financial Product in Emerging Market of Asia - Literature review Example

? Launching New Financial Product in Emerging Market Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 4 International marketing plan 5 Choice of target market and its justification 5 Choice of product and positioning strategy 5 Positioning strategy 6 Marketing objectives 6 Product strategy 7 Promotion strategy 7 Pricing strategy 8 Marketing planning phase 8 Factors of the emerging market 10 Argument on standardization and adaptation 12 Distinguish marketing plan 13 Implementation of the plan 14 International market selection 14 International targeting strategies 15 Mode of entry 15 Marketing mix 16 Product 16 Price 16 Promotion 17 Distribution channel 17 Scheduling of marketing operations 17 Source: (Yip, 2011) 17 Budgeting 17 Difficulties in the implementation 19 Ways to deal with difficulties 20 Reference list 21 Introduction The emerging markets of Asia have shown excellent signs of resilience and strength for the past two decades (Achrol, 2011). Buoyed by strong economic performance and political unity, the emerging markets like Thailand, India, China, and South have become the hot spot for foreign investment (Allan and Michael, 2010). The banking systems of these countries follow the Basel II accord and this has brought standardization and improved risk minimization and risk diversification. Banks and financial institutions from the emerging markets are setting up their operations in the overseas countries. Statistics indicate that since the past 10 years, the rate at which foreign banks from developed countries set up overseas operational base increased by only 17% (Bajaj, 2001). On the other hand banks from the developing nations have increased overseas diversification by 15% in only 5 years (Benner and Sandstrom, 2012). It is estimated that at this rate the overseas diversification of the foreign banks from developing countries will come to stand at 25% (Bonaccorsi and Daraio, 2009). The research study presents the marketing plan followed by ING Group (ING) a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation after it acquired TMB Bank of Thailand (TMB). After acquiring TMB Bank, different types of financial products were introduced by ING group (Chiefele, 2012). TMB bank was acquired in 2007 and at that time the concept of internet banking still did not pick up pace in Thailand. This presented ING group with a unique opportunity to introduce internet banking as a new financial product in Thailand (Clark and Mathur, 2011). The research report indicates the different types of strategies like the international marketing plan, marketing planning phase, factors that ING Group considered before introducing internet banking and the incessant difficulties that came in the way. International marketing plan ING concentrated on three different market segments in order to position its products. The three different market segments are foreign tourist market, retail customers market and the commercial transactions market (Cravens, 2010). Further research conducted by ING revealed that the there are only two to three banks in Thailand that can service the needs and demands of the foreign customer. Choice of target market and its justification The foreign customers mostly relied on internet banking for conducting transactions in Thailand (Das, Quelch and Swartz, 2000). This is because of the reason that the internet banking facilities offered easy conversion of currencies and also accepted a wide range of credit cards and debit cards. Whereas most of the banks offered online facilities that could barely match the needs and demands of the foreign customers and also charged a hefty amount as transaction charge (David, 2010). The nationalized banks that offered internet banking facilities did not have any overseas accounts, so most of the time the customers either have to spend the remaining local currency or can have to convert them if they wanted to use them in their own countries (Flint, Woodruff, and Gardial, 2002). Choice of product and positioning strategy The flagship product chosen is internet banking. ING had in fact no market share at the time internet banking was launched in Thailand (Flint, Woodruff and Gardial, 2007). It was estimated that the new product will help foreign tourists carry out transaction more easily. Increased transaction will boost the travel and tourism market in Thailand and this initiative was considered as start of internet banking revolution in Thailand (Garrick, 2011). Positioning strategy Travel and tourism contributed more than 30% to the GDP of the country. ING concentrated on two specific objectives, one is basis of advantage and the other one is scope of activities to position itself (Gebrekidan and Awuah, 2003). There were a number of nationalized and private banks that offered internet banking facilities but most of them offered same facilities and benefits and involved high cost of transaction. So ING wanted to portray the internet banking facilities offered by them significantly different from what the competitors are offering. At same time the target market had a large customer base with very low level of saturation (Ger, 2000). Thus ING positioned its products as one of the sought after internet banking services in Thailand for foreign travellers, which offer facilities that are significantly different than what the competitors are offering and at a comparatively low cost (Ghoshal, 2007). Marketing objectives Thailand had very low banking penetration. A significant percentage of population did not use the banking facilities (Gina, G., 2013). The banking penetration was less than 47%. The internet banking penetration was lowest at around 10% (Gulbrandsen and Smeby, 2008). This presented ING with a large unbanked population. The target was foreign tourists for the first 3 years and after that the bank will start introducing banking facilities for the local business as well as institutional traders (Gummesson, 2010). ING estimated that with the current promotion strategy it will able to garner around 70% of the foreign tourist’s market share by the end of 3 years. This optimistic estimation was due to the fact that the internet banking penetration in the foreign tourists market was only 45% and that in the local market was even lesser at around 16%. Internet penetration in the local business was 34% and in case of intuitional investors it was 24% (Hakim, 2010). It was expected that the travel and tourism industry will increase by 15% each quarter and internet banking facility in this target will increase by almost 80% (Harvey, Smith and Wilkinson, 2007). In the first three years the expected sales will increase by 27% from foreign travellers market, which will increase by almost 45% after the addition of local business and institutional investors (Hamel and Prahalad, 2005). Product strategy The product will be highly differentiated from the competitors. The internet banking facility will offer two very specific kinds of services, one of them is the non transactional tasks and the other one is the transactional tasks (Hastings, 2005). Promotion strategy The promotion strategy will involve 5 different types of strategy. One is the major message thrust. Here the bank will partner with some of the major travel and tours agencies. These agencies will act as one of the channel partners in the promotion of internet banking facilities offered by ING (Jaworski, Kohli, and Sahay, 2000). Since most of the customers are from international countries. So travel channels with the highest TRP rating will be chosen as the second type of medium for disseminating information about the new products. The private international airlines like the Thai Airways, British Airways, pan American Airlines will be inducted as the 3rd channel partner in the sales promotion (Johnson, 2009). Sometimes foreign tourists come to stay for a long stretch in Thailand (Lapierre, 2008). These customers will be approached on direct basis by 3rd party agencies acting as channel partner for ING for promotion and distribution of internet banking products. These 3rd party agencies will act the 4th channel partner in sales promotion. Pricing strategy The pricing strategy will be on the basis of two 3 types of customers. One is the diamond customer, one is the platinum and the last one is the gold customer. The gold is the most basic type. The pricing strategy for the gold and platinum type customers will be slightly different. Although the facilities offered for the two types will vary greatly (Lindheim and Swartout, 2003). The gold type of customers will be premium type of customers. These customers will be charged significantly high but the more facilities will be offered for these types of customer (Louis and Ronald, 2005). The transaction cost for the gold, platinum and silver will be kept at 25%, 12% and 5% below the average transaction cost charged by the competitors (Lovelock and Yip, 2011). Marketing planning phase The marketing phase involves 8 specific steps as indicated in the diagram below. Fig 1: Marketing planning phase Source: (Mallon and Webb, 2006) The launch of any new products and services is followed by formation of mission statement. The mission is to contribute towards the GDP of the country through increased travel and tourism services (Martin and Grbac, 2003. The corporate objective will be to earn place of trust and dependability among the foreign travellers and then use it as trump card to enter the local market segment. The corporate objectives will be followed by marketing objectives. Marketing objectives will be dynamic in nature (Mascarenhas, Baveja and Jamil, 2011). In order to form an effective marketing strategy a detailed market audit will be done including SWOT analysis. The marketing objectives will be followed by detailed marketing mix plan. The following diagram gives an indication of the different kinds of marketing mix followed by ING. Fig 2: marketing Mix Source: (Mentzer, Flint and Hult, 2001) The marketing mix will be followed by preparation of budget. The budget will focus on 2 separate aspects which are operational cost and sales and distribution cost. The next stage in the planning phase is the evaluation phase (Meyer, 2011). The evaluation phase will analyze by how much actual costs exceed the budgeted costs. Apart from that the evaluation will also focus if the company is able to achieve its targeted market share. The contingency is the last stage of the planning phase. In this phase ING will make further adjustments in the objectives and the marketing mix strategies in order to fulfil its aim (Miles, 2006). Factors of the emerging market Thailand is characterised by diverse cultures, a weak government, rule of the Juntao (military), intermittent ethnic violence. Mizik and Jacobson (2003) argued that new corporations have always found it hard to set up business initiatives in Thailand. One of the main reasons is its unstable government. A stable government gives the company the political support to carry on with its plans. Moessinger (2007) on the other hand argued that the help of the political government plays a definitive role for a new business venture but not necessarily the most important role. In support of the argument Moessinger (2007) stated that, there are various companies in Thailand which have flourished and have become one of the pioneers in its own domain without any kind of political patronage. This can be seen in various other countries also. This view has not been supported by many researchers. Morgan and Linda (2005) stated that Thailand is more in the grip of military rule than the political rule. The two are different types of rule and both wield different kind of power over the affairs of the nation. Mott, Callaway and Zettlemoyer (2005) argued that besides political rule there are various kind of factors like communal unity and ethnic diversity. Thailand is an ethnically diverse land. The country has been on a verge of intermittent communal violence and ethnic violence. Noordeweir, John and Nevin (2006) stated that these violence pose a serious threat on the development of new companies. The companies have to rely on supply of a labourers, employees and staff to run the companies. The communal and ethnic violence lead to stagnation of work. If ING decides to open up an overseas operational base in Thailand then it has to make sure that the operations are carried out in a smooth way. Norum (2013) argued that starting from 2000 to 2005, nearly a dozen of companies came to set up operational base in Thailand, but due to heavy ethnic and communal violence they have to retreat back. Apart from political instability, communal indifference, there are several other factors also like the socio-economic condition of the society. Ohmae (2009) stated that among the emerging nations, Thailand is yet to catch up with its counterparts like Malaysia, India and China in terms of literacy. Ohmae (2009) also stated that literacy rate determines to a large extent the rate of success for the flourish of banking institutions. A nation characterised by poor literacy rate is incidentally also characterised by low bank penetration. It is already stated that bank penetration level in Thailand is only 47%. Parasuraman (2009) agrees with this fact. According to Parasuraman (2009) success rate for achieving the target market share for any banking institution in a country is less than 43% if the literacy rate is less than 55%. It was assumed that ING will have more than 65% of achieving its target market share in less than 5 years if Thailand is able to increase the literacy rate at a constant rate of 2.1% per year. Payne and Siow (2008) on the other hand presents a completely different point of view. According to Payne and Siow (2008) literacy rate does have a profound effect on the success rate of the banking institutions since even with literacy rate of less than 55% , banks have reached their target market share. This is possible only if there is political patronage. Banks like Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland have opened operational base in countries like Bangladesh. Bangladesh have literacy rate of 53% only which is comparatively more than that of Thailand but these banks were backed by ruling political class. The political patronage helped these companies to obtain permits and licenses and access to cheap capital. Peter and Pervez (2008) on the other hand put a different theory all together. According to Peter and Pervez (2008) the factors in a emerging market are linked with each other intrinsically. So there is no chronological sequence or orders in which the factors in an emerging market can be graded according to their relative importance. The argument is in favour of the point that the social and political factors have to be considered as random variable of an equation. A random variable of an equation keeps on changing just like that the political and social factors represent the non quantifiable part of the equation. The arguments in the above paragraph points out that there are as such not one or two factors but in fact multitude of factors that must be taken into consideration before setting up business in the foreign markets (Piercy, 2011). It is advisable that any banking institution considering opening new operational base in a foreign land or trying to launch a new product in the foreign lands perform a statistical analysis. The multivariate statistical analysis helps to establish the relative importance of the various factors. ING will have to consider such a statistical analysis in order to establish the relative importance of the various social, economical and political factors in Thailand and then work towards it. Argument on standardization and adaptation There is strong debate between the different schools of scholars about the need to standardise and the need to adapt. Punkaj (2006) stated that the reasons for adaptation bears more importance than the reason for standardisation. Richard (2004) argue that the adaptation apparently helps a company to develop its products according to the socio-economic norms of the country. The socio economic norms of the country involves several kind of factors like the culture, market development, competition, laws, economic difference, sociological differences. Roostal (2010) argued that these factors bear more importance than other factors like technological considerations, political environment, levels of customer similarity and marketing infrastructure. The proponents of these factors argue that if the socio-economic are unique to that country only then adaptation is the best option for a company. Salerno (2006) opined that Thailand’s political and economical status gives it a unique identity. This same unique class of identity has helped it to become one of the most sought after tourist destinations in Asia. Samiee and Roth (2003) on the other hand have argued that standardisation bears more importance only if the company wants to integrate the products on a global basis. Samiee and Roth (2003) argued that for an overseas company standardisations helps to bring uniformity in the products across the globe. This uniformity on the other hand helps the company to perform a quick comparison of the products and this in turn helps the companies to assess the relative performance of the same kind of products across the globe. Simmonds (2005) agrees with the views stated by Samiee and Roth (2003). Standardisation helps to attain economies of scale in production, research and development as well as promotional campaigns. Slater (2005) agrees with the opinion of Sorenson and Wiechmann (2008) as well as Samiee and Roth (2003). Apart from that standardisation also helps to transfer experience and efficiency. Varadarajan and Jayachandran (2003) have put forward a different argument. The argument is that standardisation helps to create consistency in the mobile consumer. The aspect of mobile customer is important in the present context. ING will open up internet banking facilities for both foreign and national citizens. The foreign citizens will be on a constant mobile mode all around the world (Varadarajan, 2004). This means that customer would like that the account available to him in his home country shall also be available to him in his visits to the foreign countries. In the present context it is argued that standardisation will be the most optimal choice for ING. Distinguish marketing plan The marketing plan will involve three important steps which is international market selection, mode of entry, marketing mix. International market selection includes international market segmentation and international targeting. The mode of entry is also important. The mode of entry will include different types of entry strategies (Whitworth and Christopher, 2008). The company ING in this case acquired TMB Bank of Thailand. The marketing mix will includes identification of specific services and products for specific type of customers (Yip, Pierre and Michael, 2012). Apart from that the other aspects of the marketing mix are determination of price or cost of the internet banking facilities charged from different types of customers (Wind, 2011). The promotion strategies will include the type of promotional mix that can be followed like the advertisements, sales promotion, direct selling and publicity generation (Woodruff, 2002). The choice of the distribution channel will help in effective promotion of the financial services and products. Implementation of the plan The implementation of marketing plan will be discussed across aspects like international market selection, mode of entry, marketing mix, organisational framework, scheduling, budgeting. International market selection The banking sector of Thailand will be divided into four separate groups according to the income level of the group. The four groups will be high income group, middle income group, lower middle income group and lower income groups (Yip, 2011). These groupings will be done irrespective of the citizenship of the groups. The groups represent both foreign as well as domestic nationals. This kind of segmentation will build the base on which further segmentation can be done. This is because of the reason that there is direct correlation between the income of a person and the usage of banking facilities. Higher income groups are characterised by higher usage of banking facilities (Yoram, Susan and Howard, 2007). The next segmentation will be done on the basis of citizenship. This will help to create a correlation between the nationality of the people and usage of banking facilities. In reality a multi co-linearity can be created among nationality, income and banking usage. Multi co-linearity can indicate the relative correlation among the variables and this in turn will lead to better segmentation. The segments that will be chosen according to the priorities of the business are foreign tourists or foreign travellers, and then will be the commercial business houses and the third is institutional investors. International targeting strategies The targeting strategies will evolve through a period of time. The choices of targeting strategies depend upon the types of market segmentation. The market is divided into three different types of segments, for that reason a differentiated strategy will be followed. The market segments chosen differ significantly in usage (Zou and Cavusgil, 2002). All the three market segments are not going to use the same internet banking facilities. The internet banking facilities will be less customized for the foreign tourists, while it will be more customized for the institutional investors and commercial business houses. Differentiated targeting strategies will help to position the product in different way for each type investors. Mode of entry The mode of entity will be through acquisition or takeover. Acquisition will help ING use the same distribution channel and the same channel partners to reach the customers. Moreover the acquisition will enable ING get access to one of the largest customer base of Thailand. If ING decides to open an operational base on its own then it will take considerable time to create a market share of 25% in three years. Marketing mix Product The different types of internet banking services that will be offered are 1. Accounts management 2. linking with accounts (inland as well as overseas) 3. Funds transfer (interbank and intra bank funds transfer) 4. Bill payments 5. Online shopping 6. Mobile Recharge 7. Virtual money manager 8. Online tax payment 9. Funds transfer abroad Price The institutional investors will be charged 25% below the average industry service charge, the commercial business houses will be charged 15% below the average industry service charge and the retail clients like foreign travellers or foreign tourists will be charged 5% below the average industry service charge. Promotion The promotional mix of ING will include advertising, sales promotion, publicity and direct selling. Distribution channel The distribution channel partners who will be chosen are institutes of banking and finance, institutes of accountancy, risk and treasury management associations, resellers. Other types of channel partners are international airlines agencies, travel and tourism agencies. Scheduling of marketing operations Fig 3: Scheduling of market operations Source: (Yip, 2011) Budgeting Personnel  Per month basis Salaries, wages 10,000 Benefits 2,345 Payroll taxes 676 Commissions and bonuses 5,645 Personnel Total $18,666     Market Research   Primary research   Secondary research 10 Library management   Market Research Total $10     Marketing Communications   Branding 134 Advertising 243 Web sites 657 Direct marketing 567 Internet marketing 671 Collateral 892 Press relations 562 Public relations 123 Analyst relations 223 Events   Marketing Communications Total $4,072     Channels   Channel communications and training 567 Channel promotions and incentives 678 Channel commissions/bonuses 778 Channels Total $2,023     Customer Acquisition & Retention (CAR)   Lead generation 678 Customer loyalty 567 CAR Total $1,245     Other   Postage 678 Telephone 22 Travel 789 Computers and office equipment 989 Other Total $2,478 Total Marketing Budget $28,494 (Source: Author’s Creation) Difficulties in the implementation Zou and Cavusgil (2002) stated that the major kind of difficulties that may come in the way of the implementation of the marketing plan is pricing the products. Competitive pricing is possible only if ING is able to keep the operational cost down to minimal low. Yip (2011) on the other hand argued that other kind of difficulties that it will have to face is the choice of promotional mix. This is because of the reason that the company is catering to a diverse range of customers. Some of the customers will be from both foreign as well as inland based. Due to this the promotional mix has to be designed on international level. The choice of channel partners thus becomes matter of tough decision. Apart from these kinds of difficulties, there is another kind of difficulty. This difficulty is convincing the customers particularly the foreign tourists and travellers about the safety of the internet banking facilities. Ways to deal with difficulties The operational cost of the bank mostly involves different types of exposure management transactions. 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