Overview Of Commonwealth Bank Essay: Services, Business Models, And Target Market.

In your report on the website you will:

• Identify the purpose of the site and its web business model

• Decide the target market for the site and any consumer behaviour issues of that target market

• Consider the dynamic forces of the industry in which the organization operates,

• Carefully analyse the site and critically evaluate it using 7Cs of customer interface, WebQual, ease of navigation and attractiveness of the site, how it builds traffic/ develops e-CRM, and the effectiveness of its online branding. 

Business Models of Commonwealth Bank

The main purpose of this website of Commonwealth Bank of Australia or CBA is to provide an overview of the banking services and products to the customers. Details of the application for house loan and other loans are also demonstrated here (CommBank. 2018). The other purpose of this report is to provide the contact details and appropriate location of the various branches of this bank in Australia and other parts.

The web business models of the CBA are brokerage and merchant. As they comprise of the business model of brokerage, they are termed as market makers. This eventually refers to the fact they bring buyers as well as sellers together for the purpose of facilitating the various transactions (Schlagwein, Thorogood & Willcocks, 2014). Being a popular bank, this particular web business model is extremely vital and significant for the CBA. With the help of the web business model of brokerage, they are able to facilitate the transactions easily and promptly. The next web business model of this CBA is merchant. This bank is even considered as the wholesalers as well as the retailers of various goods and services. The specific sales are made on the basis of the listed prices and even through auctions. The usual business models of the CBA are B2C and B2B (Ryan, 2016). The B2C or business to consumer business model is responsible for providing various services directly to the respective customers.

The target market of Commonwealth Bank of Australia is checked by looking at the customer value segments as well as program with the customer relationship life cycle (Chaffey & Smith, 2013). There are five market segments of CBA, which are non customers, low value customers, medium value customers, high value customers and ex customers. The non customers are mainly from other banks; the low value customers are those customers, who have limited income and financial needs. The medium value customers are those customers, who are loyal and doing business for longer period of time with CBA. The high value customers are those customers, who have high income and are extremely loyal and regular in CBA. Finally, the ex customers are those customers, who are inactive and have closed respective accounts (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). The organization of CBA is not undergoing any consumer behavioural issues with their target market and they are extremely popular and progressive in respective to other banks in Australia. The digital marketing of this bank has brought them better competitive advantages.

There are five forces of finance and banking industry that enhance the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s progression. These are as follows:

1. i) New Customers: The first and the foremost force of this CBA is the new customers. They focus on their new customers and make sure that the social and technological factors are maintained while fragmenting the customers’ needs (Royle & Laing, 2014). This helps them in gaining more customers.
2. ii) Supply: The next force is supply of their money. They ensure that the supply of their money is equal to the demand of their customers. This particular force helps them in fulfilling the demands of the customers and hence not facing any issue regarding financial crisis.
3. iii) New Banks: They also undertake and manage the new banks and provide them with loans (Stephen, 2016). This helps them in retaining a healthy relationship with other banks.
4. iv) Technology and Infrastructure: CBA ensures that the infrastructure and technology are upgraded accordingly to get maximum profit from the banking operations.
5. v) Performance: The final force is the performance. Thorough audits are organized every month for checking the performance and identifying the flaws from them.

The analysis of the website as per 7Cs of customer interface as follows:

1. i) Context: The layout as well as the design of the website is extremely attractive for any customer (Stone & Woodcock, 2014).
2. ii) Commerce: The commercial transactions are easily enabled with this website of CBA and customers can buy anything with the services.
3. iii) Connection: CBA is strongly connected with various other banks and companies and hence it is quite popular.
4. iv) Communication: They have various types of communications like site to user and 2 way communications with customers (Järvinen & Karjaluoto, 2015).
5. v) Customization: CBA eventually allows the users for personalizing the sites like Facebook, Twitter and many more.
6. vi) Community: CBA also allows interactions between user to user and it is extremely important for the customer interfaces.
7. viii) Content: The visual part of the website like colour, sound and video are quite appealing for the customers and hence marketing is easily done by them.

The 12 dimensions of WebQual for analyzing the CBA website are as follows:

1. i) Informational fit-to-task: The CBA website provides an informational fit to task for the clients and they are quite attracted to this bank.
2. ii) Tailored information: The information that this website is providing is tailored and hence this information is customized as per the specified features of the bank (Kannan, 2017).
3. iii) Trust: The website provides an assurance of the data and services and thus trust factor is enhanced.
4. iv) Response Time: The response time is extremely less and thus the customers are quite happy with the services.
5. v) Ease of Understanding: This website provides data that could be easily understood by all levels of customers.
6. vi) Intuitive operations: The operations of this bank are intuitive in nature (CommBank. 2018).
7. vii) Visual Appeal: The over visual appeal of the website is quite attractive and thus is widely used by the customers.
8. viii) Innovativeness: The website also provided innovativeness in comparison to any other banking website.
9. ix) Emotional Appeal: Pictures of families and friends are shared for marketing and thus an emotional appeal is enhanced.
10. x) Consistent image: There is a consistent image of the organizational logo that is present in all the pages (Schlagwein, Thorogood & Willcocks, 2014).
11. xi) Online Completeness: This website provides an online completeness for the customers and hence is extremely vital for the customers.
12. xii) Relative Advantages: Various relative advantages and details are also shared in the website of CBA.

The navigation of this website is not at all confusing and hence is extremely user friendly in nature for the users (Ryan, 2016). They are providing several services like bank accounts, credit cards, personal loans, home loans, insurance, financial planning, superannuation, travel products, business products and many others. Thus, navigation is mandatory here. Moreover, the website is quite attractive in respect to colours and videos.

They have build traffic by implementing proper digital marketing schemes and also by protecting their brands. They have used methods like email marketing and social media advertising for attracting and driving the visitors and developing an e-CRM. They have become market leaders by implementing the two above mentioned methods.

For the purpose of effectiveness of the online branding, CBA has engaged several digital marketers and has added value in the content. Moreover, they regularly monitor the feedbacks gained from their customers. The digital marketing is also enhanced by the CBA with their website (Chaffey & Smith, 2013). Moreover, another important method of online branding is by identifying the target market, contacting with the clients and finding the respective flaws of their services. When they get some complaints from the customers, they take serious and quick actions as the customer support is always present for their clients.

References:

Chaffey, D., & Smith, P. R. (2013). eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your digital marketing. Routledge.

CommBank. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.commbank.com.au/ 

Järvinen, J., & Karjaluoto, H. (2015). The use of Web analytics for digital marketing performance measurement. Industrial Marketing Management, 50, 117-127.

Kannan, P. K. (2017). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), 22-45.

Royle, J., & Laing, A. (2014). The digital marketing skills gap: Developing a Digital Marketer Model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information Management, 34(2), 65-73.

Ryan, D. (2016). Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Kogan Page Publishers.

Schlagwein, D., Thorogood, A., & Willcocks, L. P. (2014). How Commonwealth Bank of Australia Gained Benefits Using a Standards-Based, Multi-Provider Cloud Model. MIS Quarterly Executive, 13(4).

Stephen, A. T. (2016). The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, 17-21.

Stone, M. D., & Woodcock, N. D. (2014). Interactive, direct and digital marketing: A future that depends on better use of business intelligence. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 8(1), 4-17.

Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.