Promotion Strategies for Banking Services

[Pages:73]2004:152 SHU

BACHELOR'S THESIS

Promotion Strategies for Banking Services

Case Study of Nordea in Estonia

ANNA GRANKVIST CAROLINA KOLLBERG

ANNA PERSSON

Social Science and Business Administration Programmes

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS PROGRAMME Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences Division of Industrial Marketing and e-Commerce Supervisor: Manucher Farhang

2004:152 SHU ? ISSN: 1404 ? 5508 ? ISRN: LTU - SHU - EX - - 04/152 - - SE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This Bachelor's thesis was written as a part of the program for International Business and Economics at Lule? University of Technology in the spring of 2004.

We would like to thank our supervisor Manucher Farhang at the division of Industrial Marketing for his help and guidance during the process of writing this thesis. We would also like to thank our respondent Mr. Christer Rosentr?m, country manager of Nordea Bank Finland plc Estonia branch, for taking time of to answer our questions. Without him we would not have been able to complete this thesis.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to all the people that have supported us during the process.

Lule?, May 2004

Anna Grankvist

Carolina Kollberg

Anna Persson

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

The issues of promotion are becoming more and more complicated as internationalization of financial services continues to increase. In the latter years, the Baltic States have emerged as attractive markets for many western countries, and several banks have initiated operations there. The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of international banks' promotion strategies in the Baltic States. In order to reach our purpose we have conducted a case study of a Nordic retail bank's promotion strategy in Estonia. For our data collection we have used interviews and documentations. Our study shows that the most important promotion tools for financial services are personal selling and advertising, in order to create awareness of the brand and establish personal relationships. The external factors influencing the choice of promotion strategy are technology orientation of the industry, cultural aspects, competitiveness of the market, and economic factors. Adaptation of the promotion strategy is performed to a great extent, due to customers' different preferences and expectations, as well as local conditions of the host country. However, banks attempt to standardize their promotion as much as possible in order to reduce costs and reach economies of scale.

SAMMANFATTNING

SAMMANFATTNING

Fr?gor g?llande marknadsf?ring blir alltmer komplicerade i takt med att internationaliseringen av finansiella tj?nster ?kar. Under de senaste ?ren har de Baltiska staterna utvecklats till attraktiva marknader f?r m?nga l?nder i v?stv?rlden, och ett flertal banker har initierat verksamhet d?r. Syftet med denna uppsats ?r att ?ka f?rst?elsen f?r internationella bankers marknadsf?ringsstrategier i de Baltiska staterna. F?r att n? syftet har en n?rmare studie av marknadsf?ringsstrategier hos en Nordisk bank, aktiv i Estland, genomf?rts. F?r insamling av data har vi anv?nt oss av intervjuer samt dokumentationer. V?r studie visar att de viktigaste marknadsf?ringsverktygen f?r finansiella tj?nster ?r personlig f?rs?ljning samt reklam. Detta f?r att skapa medvetenhet om varum?rket och f?r att etablera personliga relationer. De viktigaste externa faktorerna som p?verkar valet av marknadsf?ringsstrategi ?r teknikintensitet inom industrin, kulturella aspekter, konkurrens p? marknaden samt ekonomiska faktorer. Adaptering av marknadsf?ringsstrategin genomf?rs i mycket stor utstr?ckning, fr?mst p? grund av kundernas varierande preferenser och f?rv?ntningar, men ?ven p? grund av lokala betingelser. Emellertid f?rs?ker banker att standardisera sin marknadsf?ringsstrategi i s? stor utstr?ckning som m?jligt, f?r att minska kostnaderna samt uppn? skalekonomi.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 1.1 Background ...........................................................................................................1 1.1.1 Internationalization of the Banking Industry....................................................1 1.1.2 Promotion of Financial Services......................................................................2 1.1.3 Financial Services in the Baltic States .............................................................3 1.2 Problem Discussion ...............................................................................................3 1.3 Purpose & Research Questions ..............................................................................4 1.4 Demarcations.........................................................................................................5

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.............................................................................6 2.1 The Promotion Mix for Banking Services ..............................................................6 2.2 External Factors Influencing the Choice of Promotion Strategy .............................9 2.3 Adaptation and Standardization of the Promotion Strategy...................................15

3 FRAME OF REFERENCE......................................................................................18 3.1 The Promotion Mix for Banking Services ............................................................18 3.2 External Factors Influencing the Choice of Promotion Strategy ...........................19 3.3 Adaptation and Standardization of the Promotion Strategy...................................21 3.4 A Conceptual Frame of Reference .......................................................................22

4 METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................24 4.1 Research Purpose.................................................................................................24 4.2 Research Approach ..............................................................................................25 4.3 Research Strategy ................................................................................................25 4.4 Data Collection ....................................................................................................27 4.5 Sample Selection .................................................................................................29 4.6 Data Analysis ......................................................................................................30 4.7 Quality Standards ................................................................................................31 4.8 A Visual Design of Methodology.........................................................................32

5 EMPIRICAL DATA.................................................................................................33 5.1 The Nordea Group ...............................................................................................33 5.2 The Promotion Mix for Nordea's Banking Services .............................................35 5.3 External Factors Influencing the Choice of Promotion Strategy ...........................38 5.4 Adaptation and Standardization of the Promotion Strategy...................................40

6 DATA ANALYSIS....................................................................................................42 6.1 The Promotion Mix for Banking Services ............................................................42 6.2 External Factors Influencing the Choice of Promotion Strategy ...........................44 6.3 Adaptation and Standardization of the Promotion Strategy...................................47

7 CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................52 7.1 How can the promotion mix for banking services in the Baltic States be described? .................................................................................................................................. 52

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download