Introduction
The marketing concepts are the concepts that are made by the management of the organizations to ensure that the good marketing decisions are undertaken. The factors that should be taken into consideration when choosing the best marketing concept for an organization are: the consumers’ wants, the company’s requirements and the society’s long term interests. The organizations can achieve their goals by carrying out extensive research into the marketing techniques that ensure the goals and the objective of an organization are achieved (Kotler, Philip 2000).
The marketing strategies that are chosen should ensure that the customers are given the best services so as to maintain them and to improve on their well being and that of the society’s at large. Marketing refers to the steps that are followed by the management of an organization to ensure that the goals and objectives of a company are achieved such as having high sales volume and also means the processes of planning ,executing prices, promotions and distribution so as to satisfy the individual and the organizational needs of the company.The reasons why the companies fail in their activities is that they do not carry out extensive research about what the market place requires hence they fail to meet the needs of their customers, who determine the success of the company (Kotler, Philip 2000).
Two banks in the banking industry that will be used for analysis are: SunTrust Bank and the Bank of America.
The differences between the two banks in terms of the marketing mix and the role of advertising agency in developing the promotional plan
The banks refer to the financial institutions that act as agents for the customers so that they can borrow, lend and also create money for them. The banks offer services such as conducting the current accounts for their customers, paying cheques that are drawn from them and then collecting cheques for their customers.
The SunTrust Bank
It’s a bank that has its headquarters in Atlanta and is one of the largest banking organizations that serve a broad range of customers, commercial, corporate and the institutional client. The primary businesses that are carried by the bank are: depositing, crediting, and offering trust and the investment services to their customers. The bank together with its subsidiaries offers other services such as credit cards, mortgage banking, insurance, brokerage and capital market services. The SunTrust Bank is one of the largest commercial banking organizations in that country. It has a total of $164.8 billion asset and total deposits of $107.5 billion.
Bank of America
It is one of the largest commercial banks in the United States, that provides a wide range of banking and the non-banking financial services and products through its three business segments such as the Global consumers and small business banking, Global corporate and investment Banking and the Global Wealth and the Investment management
Marketing mix
Marketing mix of a product refers to the products, the price that is charged to the product, the place where the product will be sold and the types of advertising techniques that are used to promote the product. The products of different industries can be differentiated through using techniques such as: branding and brand management, product development, packaging, product features and their benefits and finally the design of the product.
The modern view of states that marketing mix is that it can be defined as the costs, customers, convenience and communication.The costs refers to the amount of moneys that are incurred as a result of carrying out the activities of an organization, the customers refers to the persons who purchase and use the services of an organization and communication refers to the techniques that are used to transmit information from one person to another.
Product prices
The prices of a product are determined by considering the costs such as the fixed costs, variable costs and the semi-variable costs that are associated with the product. The profit margin of the product is calculated by using the gross profit of the product as a percentage of the selling price to the customer, wholesale price to the wholesaler and the pricing strategy such as competition pricing, price skimming and the penetration pricing.
Bank of America
The management of Bank of America suggested that the implementation of price optimization would lead to the compression of the profit margin. Price optimization refers to a method that is used to find the right price for a particular customers channel, segment, geography, market or product. It is differentiated from other key strategies because of having customer elasticity that shows the extent in which demand falls as the prices increases.
SunTrust Bank
According to Gail Casalaspi he stated that there were three options that could be used to charge the products of the company. These were options I and II. The option I had no fees that would be attached to the Assistive Technology Loan Fund Authority (ATLPA) while option III would be favorable for the loan holders that would have $400 administrative fee that would be paid to Assistive Technology Loan Fund Authority (ATLFA). The interest rates charged to the customers would depend on the types of loans requested and the repayment term would be selected for the customers that took up the loans.
The management of SunTrust Bank issued a Request for proposal (RFP) for the banking services that recommended the use of two methods for paying for the bank to service the country’s account such as deposits, disbursements and on-call information. The non-compensating balance method involved the country’s issuance of a monthly cheque for the specific services rendered and the other methods that consisted of using the actual bank service charges that formed the basis of determining the level of balances that would be left by the bank. The bank was allowed to invest this balance while the revenue from this investment was used to pay for the services that were received by the country.
Products of both companies
Product in the marketing mix refers to the tangible, physical products as well as the services that are offered by a company to its customers. The product decisions are made on the basis of the products:brandname,functionality,styling,quality,safety,packaging,repairs,support,war,and accessories of the company’s products.
SunTrust bank
The SunTrust bank offers to the customer’s products such as banking and trust products, trust services, mortgage banking, credit cards, mutual funds, insurance, equipment leasing, asset management securities underwriting and dealing services for its customers. The credit cards were established in the year 2006 and it was managed by the Inficorp Holdings of Atlanta so as to manage the consumer credit and portfolio (Commonwealth Of Virginia Assistive Technology Loan Fund Authority 2008).
Bank of America
The bank of America provides products such as the asset credit facilities of $5 million or more to the United States or Canada. The bank underwrites, arranges, distributes and to the trade senior-level floating rate debt to the investment and non-investment grade issuers.
The bank also offers products such as deposit products for the government services. The public fund fully analyzed business checking, that is a non-interest bearing checking accounting that has unlimited activities that can be used for the basic operating account and it’s grouped with other analyzed accounts. The public fund interest checking is an interest bearing checking account that is unlimited that is designed to the operating account.
The negotiated areas can be either tied to the fed funds or the treasury bills. The bank also offers products and services such as global consumer and small business banking segment that offers savings accounts, money market, savings account, certificate of deposits, individual retirement accounts, regular and interest-checking accounts and the debit cards.
Place or distribution
In the marketing mix it refers to the way the management deals with the movement and the storage of products in an efficient manner. It also deals with how the customers are served by the retailer, the role of the wholesalers, the distributors who have the rights to distribute goods. It also deals with how the services are distributed from one place to another to the customers and the trenching for the body shop so as to increase the sales volume of the products of a company.
Bank of America
The management of the company stated that it would run its business in an integrated way. The distribution channels that would be used by the management of the company would be: the banking centers, online services, call centers, mortgage salesforceas the employees of the company would work in groups in an integrated fashion with the customers at the center so that the company’s products would be distributed to various customers in the world. It was noted that the competitors of the bank run its business as silos and mortgage businesses and this lead to increased market share of the company’s products. The use of the integrated model would enable the company to priotize on the most important issues for the customers and for their teammates so that the activities of the company would be carried out effectively.
SunTrust bank
The channel marketing manager was charged with the responsibility of creating and of transferring messages to the firms’ distribution channels. He works with the Product Marketing Manager (PMM) to determine the appropriate product-specific deliverables for the Financial Intermediaries, Consultant and the direct channels. He developed the packaging and communication campaigns, programs and sales tools for the company.
He also keeps track of the asset flow in each of the funds by channels or by using the major intermediary and provides monthly summaries of funds that have the largest inflows and outflows. The channel marketing manager works closely with the larger marketing team or the outside vendors so as to create and to execute the initiatives that are required for carrying out the activities of an organization.
Promotion
In the marketing mix, promotion refers to the techniques that are used to advertise a product to the public, it uses techniques such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations sales management and direct marketing.
SunTrust bank
The management of the company offered its customers with free anti-identity theft software.It collaborated with the Helsinki-based F-Secure that recommended that the sales volume of the company’s products would increase through e-mailing its customers so as to increase the customers’ base of the company hence the growth and higher returns for the company (M. IQBAL, F.I.A., A.S.A. 1988).
Bank of America
The bank promoted the use of its cards through using the personalization method that involved allowing the customers the chance to put a picture of their pets on the new credit cards. The card would gather reward points of the pets’ related expenses and donations for participating in the animal shelters. The customers would customize their pets by sending their pictures in the mails. The cardholders would get reward points for every dollar that would be spent for participating in the event.The cardholders would also receive 500 bonus points for purchasing the cards and would earn up to 100,000 points annually so as to increase sales volume of the cards of the company (Bank of America Corporation BAC: NYSE; Financials/Banks 1996).
The role of the advertising agency in developing promotional plan
The advertising agents are the agents that are used to plan and to organize the advertising activities of an organization. The full services agencies provide a full range of services such as media research, media buying and creative work for an organization. The larger agencies may use methods such as the public relations methods, sales promotion or direct marketing field to carry out their duties and responsibilities. The advertising agency is a firm that is involved in the creation, production and the placement of the community’s messages of a company.
The companies use the sales promotion agencies to administer their sales promotional programs. The companies use the clients advertising or the direct response agencies to coordinate their efforts with advertising and direct marketing programs. The role of advertising is used to sell of goods and services and to create brands and corporate images through the media. The advertising agency creates these messages and images, purchase and use the media to communicate the product message brand story and the corporate image (Walker… L., P. 1998).
SunTrust Bank
The marketing specialist of SunTrust Bank carries out the following activities in the company: he executes plans and evaluates the annual marketing plan, leverage sponsorship of assets so as to implement the consumer promotional methods of the company. He also uses the advertising and the media plan so as to determine the market share and volume of its company’s products. He also drives the cross functional team to build and to deliver the retail programs, manages the relationship that exists between the internal teams and the outside vendors and agencies to implement promotions in 250 retail outlets.
The marketing specialist also develops the strategies that maximize the opportunities that are under the strict budget so as to conduct marketing program that can reach the target market. He also directs the creative development and media planning with the agency so as to solicit and to negotiate for proposals with the online marketing agency. The analyzed web tracking data translated campaign status so as to carry out the activities of an organization.
The segmentation theory is relevant to them and their customers
Segmentation refers to the process of dividing the customers into specific groups or segments so as to satisfy their needs and wants. The benefits of using segmentation in an organization are to determine the trends that exists in the changing environment so as to the design truly meets the demand of the target consumers, to determine the most effective communication appeals and the most appropriate communication mediums such as brand positioning that can be used to determine the kind of products that should be provided for the specific groups of people in a community (Art. W.1994).
The SunTrust Bank selects its customers by using the third-party-owned commercial paper conduct. It creates a relationship with the Three Pillars Funding Corporation that provides financing for or the direct purchases for the financial assets that originate and those that are serviced by the company’s financial assets that originate and that are serviced by the company’s customers. The pillars are used by the management of the company to finance the activity by using the AY/P-1 related commercial paper that gives a favorable funding arrangement for the customers of the bank (Art, W. 1994).
Positioning in marketing concept refers to the process where, the marketers create an image or identity in the minds of their target market product and or its organization. It also refers to the competitive comparison between the target markets a product that occurs in a market as well as how the products are perceived by the target market.
The SunTrust Bank positioning within the sector
The company’s market position was reported to be its general penetration in terms of how the clients responded to their questions such as what the financial institution do with their business. The company’s general penetration was about half of the market leaders. The primary penetration represented the client’s response to questions such as what the primary financial institutions are. The company was ranked as the third in terms of the primary penetration. The management of the company also learnt that it would be skewed towards the high end of the share of the wallets ranges in most of its product that it offered its customers. The company also enjoyed a leading market positions in some of its highest growth markets in the United States and it also gave services to the clients that were selected in markets in various parts of the country (The New Strategic Selling 1998).
Market trends within the banking industry
Market trends
The market trend refers to the movements of the market prices over a given period of time. They are classified into two methods primary and the secondary trends. The primary market trends are further classified into bull and bear markets. The bull markets are the markets that are associated with increasing the investor confidence, motivating the investors to buy in the anticipation that the company will generate future capital gains. The bear market is a market that is associated with the investors anticipating further losses that motivates them to sell their shares since they would not receive ay capital gains.
The secondary trend refers to the temporary change in prices of goods and services within the primary trend. The temporary decrease during a bull market is called correlation while the temporary increases during the year are referred to as the bear market is the bear market rally. Where there are market trends there is usually correlation or a rally or a new bull or bear market although the correlation foreshadows the bear market. Correlation is usually a drop on the intraday trading over short period.
The trend of banks has been that they offer a wide variety of services to the international market and it controls billions of dollars in cash and assets. The major trends that affect the banking industry are branch banking booms, while the total number of the banking companies declines or the start up banks rise within a certain period of time. The banks adoption of the sophisticated technology and the Retail perks to attract the customers; banks vie for the previously underserved market and their focus in the Hispanics, mergers and acquisition implementation are used to indicate the banks market trends.
After the SunTrust bank reviewed its market growth, segment growth, segment primary penetration and the segment profitability it established that it could not meet its overall corporate growth goals in the consumer market place by simply extending its current trends. It was noted that the future of the company did not depend on its growth, but by capitalizing on the growth of the key market segments where the significant opportunities existed.
How the SunTrust Bank reacts to market trends
The SunTrust Bank stock have been experiencing a down trend with S and P bank index falling by 3.2% to set another eleven year intraday low.The management of the company stated that it would manage and assess its corporate bonds so that it could issue to its customers the bonds though carrying out in-depth research and assessment of the corporate bonds was considered to be necessary so that those transactions would be carried out effectively (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2001)
Conclusion
The management of banks should design appropriate marketing mix strategies so as to increase the sales volume of the company. They should carry out extensive research of the market trends so that they can be in a position to determine the right procedures to be followed so as maintain and sustain the growth of the company and be in a position to compete effectively with its competitors.
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