Marketing Planning - Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation - Essay Example

?Marketing Planning Introduction Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is one of the biggest financial s in the world in termsof asset possession. It has a wide network of branches in the interior regions of different cities around the globe (Euromonitor, 2012). Therefore, this bank is highly influential and occupies an important position in international financial decision making process. At present, the bank serves approximately 58 million customers through its operations in more than 81 countries in all the continents. HSBC has a network of 6,600 offices in all these regions. It is a public limited company headquartered in England (HSBC, 2013a). This bank was originally established with the aim of facilitating trade between two most important trade partners in the world during the mid 19th century; China and the countries in Europe. The Chinese economy had been progressing for all these 150 years, due to which, since the 19th century the bank has occupied a good position to reap real benefits from the rapid GDP growth of the Chinese economy. However, the financial break down that occurred in the last decade, increased regulatory activities and led to higher scrutiny of the financial transactions taking place all over the world. In 2012, the HSBC bank faced strong regulation by the international organizations. Public scrutiny can potentially cost the bank many billion dollars. This paper presents a marketing plan for the bank framed according to the SOSTAC structure. Organizational structure Organizational structure refers to the relationships that are established in any firm. It refers to the hierarchical structure within the organization. Hierarchy is created with the organization by way of the rules set down for the functionalities and responsibilities at different levels of the organization and also the way in which the relationships are maintained among the employees at different levels. Communications among the employees depends on the channels of communication that are developed through organizational hierarchy (Vos and Schoemaker, 2005). Figure: Organizational structure (Source: HSBC Insurance, 2013) HSBC has a clear hierarchical structure as described in the figure presented above. It has all the characteristics of horizontal organizational structure. This structure describes the level of communication among the employees working at the same level within the organization (Vos and Schoemaker, 2005). High level of transparency in communication among the employees creates a number of benefits; easier flow of communication among employees, minimal bureaucracy and most importantly a pleasant working atmosphere. Increased transparency allows the employees to work with a relaxed mood. Furthermore, HSBC promotes a very informal work culture within the company. This culture allows employees to solve any kind of discrepancy to be solved informally. It also motivates employees and reduces job related stress. In turn it helps the organization to improve overall employee performance. Mission, vision and values HSBC bank has the vision of becoming “the leading international Bank” (HSBC, 2013b) in the world. The organization has certain missions that it follows in order to achieve their vision. The mission of the bank is to set up a network among all its customers by offering them top ranked service. The bank is growth oriented and all activities of the bank follow the growth objective of the organization. Precisely, the mission of the bank is “connecting customers to opportunities” (HSBC, 2013b). The bank wants to play a fulfilling role in helping people realize their dreams and achieve their ambition. By successfully following this mission the organization can enable its clients to make more profitable business. It helps economies to thrive and make prosperous economic activities. This is the purpose with which the bank operates. Organizational values The company holds high value regarding its own principles and also about the values of the clients that engage in business with the organization. Their values guide the manner in which the employees interact with one another within the organization and also how they interact with other stakeholders, such as customers, regulators of the national government of the place in which the company operates as well as the regulators of the international bodies. Organizational values also explain the company’s interaction with the community. These values are reflected on the business principles of the organization that help decision makers in the company to make strategies or other commercial decisions. All employees of the organization are strongly encouraged to set up a courageous integrity through all the actions that they make. This regime implies that the employees are not intimidated while they make any decision and do not ever compromise the ethical standard laid down by the organizational principles acting as key stones for the development of the organization. The principle values of the company are “to be dependable and do the right”, to be “open to different ideas and cultures”, to stay “connected to customers, communities, regulators and each other” (HSBC, 2013b). Products of the company The functions of HSBC bank is governed by the principle objective of providing “satisfactory return on shareholders’ capital” (Padmalatha, 2011). The bank offers various competitive services and multiple products to its customers. Some of these products are customized according to the needs of the clients in the different geographical boundaries in which they operate. The company offers a number of retail products like account schemes and services, such as savings accounts, fixed deposit, certificate of deposit, Demat account, Smart Money account, current account, GenNext account, Financial planning services (FPS), mutual funds and insurance plans. It also offers special offers to customers, such as holiday deals, shopping and dining offer and lifestyle offer (Padmalatha, 2011). Analysis of the current situation HSBC bank has a good communication system. Yet it faces problems in the process of communication that the company maintains within the organization and also with the external stakeholders. Communication strategy is an important part of an organization that helps it to reach its objectives and meets its goals. Since the company operates in a large number of cities it has diversified its activities in these economies. While the company makes efforts to adapt to the social and cultural conditions of these places, so as to be able to serve the customers better, all these activities are not centrally monitored. Therefore, there are communicational gaps between the objectives of the organization and the activities made by the branches of HSBC bank in different countries. As a result of this gap confusion is created between the management and the employees working at different ranks. Confusion among the personnel regarding goals and objectives of the organization provides space for discretionary actions by regional organizational leaders. However, the organization has the opportunity to exploit the high value of its brand name and the wide base of networking among clients. This allows the company to improve its communication and marketing strategy. This would help the bank to address the problems and solve them through better communication. Communication tools are the best tools that have to be utilised by the company to promote its services and products. This would help the organization to improve sales as well as enhance the company’s recognition among the target group. Understanding of this phenomenon requires analysis of the external environment of the bank. The next section presents an analysis of the external situation in which the bank operates. Analysis of strengths and weaknesses Strengths of HSBC bank The HSBC bank is has good capital. This is strength for the bank and it enables the organization to perform comparatively better than the other banks of similar category. HSBC bank has been able to stage better performance than other banks in the period of economic downturn. Consistency in performance has ensured customer faith and loyalty. Customer loyalty acts as a very big asset for financial organizations. Good capitalization assures that the bank is not in a position to become bankrupt in near future. This implies that the organization would not require bailout from the government. In other words, the company would be able to retain higher level of autonomy. HSBC bank has presence in both developed and developing countries. This puts the company in a position to exploit the developing nature of the economies and ascertain its future growth. The level at which the bank operates allows it to enjoy wide economies of scale. It reduces cost for the company and permits it to offer its services more efficiently and at a lower cost. HSBC is a well established bank in the financial industry and it is considered valuable in the industry. Weaknesses of HSBC bank The current economic downturn has hurt both large and small businesses. HSBC strongly advocates investment in the small business sector. These enterprises pose a vast demand for loans and capturing this market would allow the company to reap good profits. However, the current economic condition of the global economy creates significant risk in lending to the small businesses. Thus, the business orientation of the organization contradicts its external situation. The current economic and financial downturn has forced the company to adopt a redundancy program. This might hurt morale of the employees and also affect their sense of job security. The bank has strong links in the subprime markets in the United States. This market has not yet recovered fully from the post crisis effects; this puts the financial activities of the bank in significant risk. The bank lends large amounts to high risk borrowers. Homogeneity of brand name of the HSBC bank has a negative effect on the company image. The customers in many places are of the view that since the bank operates internationally the services and offers are standardised according to a given paradigm followed in all the countries. This reduces personalization and loses out on the loyalty of these customers. While the bank tries to implement a homogenous and international standard of functioning, implication of homogeneity leads to the creation of notion of lack of personalization. Analysis of opportunities and threats Opportunities High level of capitalization strengthens the company’s foothold in the financial market. It might acquire new asset by capturing those companies that are being unable to trade in the current economic condition. HSBC might also purchase banks that are in strong financial condition, like the Bank Economic in Indonesia, due to the adequate capital possession by HSBC. In many of these banks HSBC has a good stake that allows the company to make better business negotiations and expand to new places that are emerged in economic crisis. The strong financial position of HSBC bank presents the organization with the opportunity to make better performance and outperform its competitors during the period of economic downturn. This would help in strengthening the position (of) the bank in terms of reputation. Also, it would enhance customer loyalty and increase business opportunity. Another advantage associated with good reputation is that high levels of public scrutiny reveal the real status of the banks. This implies that the existing and potential customers would be able to make informed choice about the bank that they would make business with. Threats The financial crisis of the 2008-2009 has taken a heavy toll on the financial institutions around the world. HSBC bank is one of the most influential banks in the world. Yet, it has suffered financial losses during the post crisis period, which has put a significant impact on the trust of its clients and other potential customers. Customers are therefore choosing other banks for making investments. Financial losses also have another adverse effect. It has led to reduction in availability of credit to customers on a global scale. This has adversely affected both the bank and the borrowers. For the bank, their scale of business has been lowered due to low ability to give out loans. This has in turn affected customers since now they are not being able to get loans to the extent that all their current expenditures or entrepreneurial activities might be sustained. Therefore, amount of savings in the economy has decreased. After the asset bubble crashed, many people that have bought property, particularly households, have fallen into huge amount of debt that they cannot repay. The bank runs the risk of losing out on the amount of money given as loans since, in case the worth of a property is less than the money borrowed for funding the purchase of the property, there is scarce probability that the bank would be able to recoup the entire loss in case of default by the borrower. Public scrutiny reveals that HSBC was one of the banks that have understated the losses incurred due to the US sub-prime crisis. This undermines the customers’ confidence on the bank. Communications strategy Various communication and promotional tools are available for use by HSBC bank. These tools are used by the bank for communicating with its customers (i.e., the target group). This section of this paper is devoted to evaluating the promotional tools currently employed by the bank. On the basis of this study, gaps in the marketing plan of the bank would be identified and new trends in promotional methods would be presented. This would help in finding out the tools that would suit the company the most given its current financial status and also the present economic environment. Promotional tools Every organization needs to develop a lucid and unambiguous strategy that would act as a guideline for promoting the brand or its products. Promotion is a part of marketing mix and this element itself is composed of a mixture of a number of communication tools. The different instruments of communication available to HSBC bank are advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, personal selling, packaging, internet marketing and point of sale, sponsorships, word of mouth and corporate identity (Smith, 1998). These communication tools are generally used by banks and other financial organizations to make promotions of its brand name, its service offerings and its products. However, organizations differ from one another in terms of their target groups, annual budgets and their business objectives. Therefore, all the tools mentioned above are not suitable for adoption by every bank. HSBC bank integrates different tools for communication so as to create a combined effect on its target group with which it communicates. For example, the bank combines advertising with public relations and sales promotion with point of sale. This manifests the message that the bank tries to convey to the customer since it reinforces its importance in the minds of the customers (Smith, 1998). This pattern of promotional strategy is also known as ‘Integrated Marketing Communications’. For HSBC bank this process effectively increases profit levels by increasing effectiveness of its promotional campaign. Marketing planning process: SOSTAC Model There are few models that are used by organizations in the corporate business world for planning marketing strategies. The SOSTAC model, developed in the 1990s by P. R. Smith has become one of the most successful and widely accepted models. The SOSTAC planning system is proved to increase effectiveness of the marketing (communication) strategy adopted by the company. This approach to building marketing strategy has been described by the figure illustrated below: Figure: Marketing planning process (SOSTAC structure) The section preceding this section presented a detailed analysis of the current internal and external situation of HSBC bank. Situation analysis is the first step towards building a marketing plan using SOSTAC structure. Situation analysis helps in identifying the strengths and the lags in the situation in which the bank is operating. This knowledge would help in framing the appropriate strategies that would be followed by the institution for improving its performance. After situation analysis, the next task is that of designing new communication objectives and marketing plan for the company. The existing communication objectives of the bank are related to creation of awareness and positive attitude towards the company among the target audience. HSBC’s marketing objectives have been developed with the aim of increasing market share or sales and preparing the ground for the launch of an innovative product. These are not normal objectives, but they comply with a specific desirable standard. These objectives are known as SMART objectives, since these are “specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time/cost limited” (Richman, 2011, p. 65). A marketing plan for HSBC has been developed according to the SOSTAC structure. The SOS stands for “situation analysis, objectives, strategy” (Smith, 2003). TAC stands for “tactics, action and control” (Smith, 2003). Since situation analysis has already been done, objectives of the firm have been reframed according to SOSTAC. Organizational objectives can be of two types; marketing objectives and communications objectives. These objectives have been framed following the long term goals of the organization. It strictly adheres to the capabilities of the organization and the final destination that the organization desires to reach in the long run. The situations have been designed in terms of the audience targeted by the company and the information available to the company in a particular time period (Vos, Otte and Linders, 2003). Table: HSBC’s objectives MARKETING OBJECTIVES 1. The current market share of the company is 8.9 per cent. It aims at boosting up the market share for HSBC’s current account by 1.5 per cent (that sums up to 960,000 current accounts). 2. HSBC has developed a prepaid card that would be offered to current accounts holders in the bank. It would increase profitability of the bank by encouraging customers to make more savings. This increases availability of cash to the bank, using which it might extend more loans. 3. The bank has developed a new package of current account. This package is designed to be in line with the needs of the consumers, given the economic condition of the country that they belong to. It would develop the image of the bank as a socially responsible financial institution. It is designed to rebuild confidence of consumers towards the bank. 4. This new package also helps in boosting the bank’s corporate image. It re-establishes the bank in the international market by virtue of the launch of the new product for the target customers. The bank would polish its image of being a global bank possessing local knowledge about the places in which they operate. COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES Knowledge 1. Create knowledge and educate potential customers about HSBC’s new products and service facilities. It would impart knowledge regarding the extensive range of products such as, Smart Money account, GenNext account and insurance plans. It would also increase awareness about the services, like, Financial planning services (FPS). Additionally the bank has recently started to proffer special offer to customers, such as shopping and dining offers, holiday deals, and other lifestyle offers. It would spread knowledge about these benefits within the target group in the next six months. 2. To identify particular customer segments so as to ensure that these goods are desired by the customers and to ensure better impact of these benefits on the potential clients. Attitude 1. To develop positive attitude in minds of the target customers towards the brand name HSBC and its products among the clients of the company as well as among its ex-clients in the upcoming year. 2. To increase interest about new products among the existing customer base and ensure selling of more products in the next year. 3. Impart satisfying banking experience among the customers of the bank through improvement of overall performance of the bank. Behavior 1. To regain loyalty of the customers regarding the products and services of the company. 2. To attract new customers by offering better customer services while sale of products or building relationships with new clients within a period of 6 months. Strategy The objectives of the company have been identified to help the managers in framing the appropriate strategy that would help in realizing these objectives. The strategic framework covers the long run and sets a flexible course for the organization to solve the question of “how we get there” (Smith, 2003). This framework includes one or more selected target markets, information regarding market positioning of the company as well as an array of communication tools that would be the best option for the organization to choose considering its current business status. The company has to choose from the one-way dialogue or two-way dialogue method of communication with its target customers (Vos, Otte and Linders, 2003). Using the one-way model the company might only send messages to the potential customers. The two-way model provides an opportunity to the company to set up dialogues between HSBC and the customers that it serves. Through this process customers can provide their feedback and deliver their own suggestions to improve performance of the company. The company should make a firm decision regarding whether it would act in a pro-active manner or in a re-active manner. Pro-active activities would allow the company to adopt emerging trends and make exemplary actions in the industry (Wittmann and Reuter, 2008). Re-active activities would, however, make the company observe the activities of the competitor and make its own moves in response to the competitors’ actions. The company has to decide the strategy to adopt after considering its product lifecycle as well as its competitive positioning (Luthans, Youssef and Avolio, 2006). In this highly competitive financial industry, the company has to put considerable effort to attract new customers and increase sales revenue. There is ease of access to information and customers are well informed about the performance of companies. Considering the fact that HSBC is one of the largest banking institutions in the world and it puts huge influence on the global financial market, it is recommended that the company should choose proactive decision making model. It should take initiatives to make research on the new trends and stay ahead of the companies that are competing with it. The company should also use the two-way dialogue communication model. This is because in the post crisis period regular conversation with clients ensures that the company stays aware of the economic situation and investment attitude of the customers. It would help the company to respond quickly to the changing needs of the consumers. Tactics Proper tactics help an organization to implement its strategy successfully. Tactics help to make segmentation of the strategy structure and determine the responsibilities of different departments in the organization. Therefore, choosing appropriate tactics is an important part of SOSTAC structure. The recommended communication tools to be used by HSBC bank are: Public relations: Public relations help in developing and maintaining good relationship with the general public. The bank might adopt public relation building policy with the aim of building positive image for the company and increase customer loyalty (Vasquez and Heath, 2001). The local media is one of the most powerful public media that generates free publicity. The company might sponsor events or distribute t-shirts bearing company logo. Brand identity: One visual process of building recognition for the bank is its brand identity. Since the bank is a well established organization, it has a strong brand image. Brand identity refers to the communication tools, such as, brand logo or tagline. Currently HSBC has a famous tagline; “The world's local bank” (HSBC, 2002). Brand identity helps target customers to relate to the company easily, which helps in increasing sales revenue, goodwill of the company and its profitability. This helps to expand its market size. Tools and action Internet advertising: Advertising is one of the most viable and alluring marketing tool available to the organization. It creates knowledge as well as spreads knowledge among the customers of the target group. Advertisement increases awareness about the company’s existence and deepens interest about the company among its clients (Schumann and Thorson, 2007). Advertisement also helps in attracting the attention of potential clients that are currently not the clients of HSBC bank. It is relatively a low cost option for marketing and is simultaneously the most effective channel (it is cheap compared to the medium of sources of published advertisement) (Varey, 2002). Online advertising not only reaches the target audiences very fast and is accessible at a low cost, but it also covers a huge target audience. It is, therefore, recommended that HSBC should continue to use this tool to promote its image and its products. Some websites provides space on their sites for companies to place advertisements for free. There are also some other sites that charge the companies for this service. HSBC should make use of both these channels by taking into consideration the target group and the search engine optimization ratio of the particular websites. Search engine marketing (paid placement): This is another tool to advertise on the internet. This is a new trend in the field of marketing communications that aims at creating and increasing consumer’s interest regarding the most recent activities of a company and the products it offers. Paid placement (also known as pay per click) is a process of placing advertisements on search engines, like Google or Yahoo (Thomas and Wasmund, 2010). This tool has an advantage. The company makes payment to the search engine company only each time a visitor clicks the advertisement (Egan, 2007). This tool has been proved efficient in gaining customer attention in the context of many companies (Bidgoli, 2010). It is therefore, advised that HSBC should invest in search engine marketing and make use of this tool since it is cost efficient besides being highly effective. Database marketing: This is a tool for direct marketing. The technique of marketing involves mailing the customer directly or making promotion calls for tele-marketing (Kitchen and Pelsmacker, 2004). The database can be generated from the names and contact details of the current customers of the bank, the ex customers as well as by collecting customers’ contact details in various promotional events made by the bank. This also increases the chance of getting connected to potential customers that are not currently associated with the bank (Koekemoer, 2004). The bank’s marketing team might use this tool to approach the customers regularly and develop a relationship with them. Database marketing leads to the creation of a long term commitment which is created through interactive dialogues with the consumers, which in turn helps the organization to meet the desired level of satisfaction and improve the banks’ performance according to the preferences of customers. Collectively these activities result in generation of significant word of mouth (Dahlen, Lange and Smith, 2010). Word of mouth: This tool of marketing is considered one of the most important tools that requires almost no direct cost but casts significant impact on the image of the company and affects its sales. In simple terms this tool refers to the act of verbally communication among people about the company. It is important for the company to recognize the significance of this instrument, since an encouraging or downbeat opinion received from family members and friends is expected to be more influential for a prospective customer than flamboyant advertisements. However, the bank needs to make sincere investment for building up positive image for itself in order to produce positive word of mouth among its target market segment (Rohrbeck, 2010). Control The SOSTAC not only provides companies with a new structure to follow while making marketing activities, but also presents a plan by which they would be able to monitor these activities. It helps them to measure the outcomes of these changes made to the marketing plan. It therefore, has a provision of controlling the promotional system so as to meet the desirable marketing goals of the company. Therefore, recommendations have been made according to the SOSTAC structure to monitor performance of the promotional activities of the company. HSBC should: Maintain a tracker in which all promotional activities made by the company would be registered. For sales analysis a booking sheet should be monitored that would show the pattern of change in sales after the changes have been implemented in promotional campaigns. Evaluation forms should be administered on customers that walk into the branches. The forms would be designed to collect information from customers about their opinions about the services offered and the overall performance of the branch. After-event evaluation should be made in cases of promotional event that the organization conducts at some particular place. Keep the results of ‘paid placement’ advertisements under constant vigilance to study the frequency at which HSBC’s advertisement is clicked by visitors to the website, so as to assess the performance of this advertisement. Conduct survey among the present clients of the bank and also its ex-clients at regular intervals. It would be aimed at collecting information about the activities of the bank and the level of satisfaction reached. Results from these surveys have to be compared from time to time to analyze improvements in the company’s performance. Among various other things, the survey questionnaire should include questions that particularly cater to the company website, its accessibility and ease of access and also questions pertaining to awareness regarding the advertisements placed using paid placement. Conclusion The discussion presented above shows that HSBC is in a healthy position in the banking industry despite the turbulent waves that have passed over the financial and banking industry worldwide. The institution has a wide network of branches all over the world is currently aiming at expanding its international network. The company covers both well developed markets of the western world as well as the fast emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Europe, North Africa and Latin America (HSBC, 2013a). HSBC also focuses on North America to a lesser extent. The SOSTAC marketing planning process has been presented in this paper to recommend ways in which the company might modify its marketing plans and improve its performance. This structure also presents the ways to execute control over the new marketing plans and also assess performance of the new measures at regular intervals. This is helpful in improving overall performance of the company. Reference List Bidgoli, H., 2010. The handbook of technology management: Supply chain management, marketing and advertising, and global management. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Dahlen, M., Lange, F. and Smith, T., 2010. Marketing communications: A brand narrative approach. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Egan, J., 2007. 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