Essay: Overview Of Commonwealth Bank Of Australia." (49 Characters)

You will provide an overview of this organisation, as well as detail the type of orientation towards marketing it takes. You are also required to examine and analyse the context and environments in which this organisation operates (its industry and the macro-environmental forces impacting on the industry).

Provide a brief description of this organisation and the industry to which it belongs. You may also want to include in this description any mission statements, value statements or ‘slogans’ that this organisation utilizes to  communicate its  purpose.  In  describing this organisation,  please  also  identify  its  orientation  towards marketing and  provide  relevant,  detailed  and  factual  supporting evidence to  substantiate why  you  have identified this specific orientation. Finally, include a brief description of the product(s) this organisation offers the market. And comment on what role the brand has in this organisation’s marketing strategy.

1. Company – what are the strengths and key resources, what are some of the weaknesses? What are the opportunities and threats?
2. Customers – who is the company serving and what type of behaviour is ‘typical’ from them?
3. Collaborators – describe their suppliers, distributors or other partners that help the company to deliver their products to the market? If company doesn’t have any – explain why it is not necessary.
4. Competitors – who are the current main competitors, are there any potential new threats or new entrants to the marketplace?
5. Context – what other factors affect this organisation?

Description of Commonwealth Bank of Australia

The Common Wealth Bank situated in Australia and serves many western countries having establishments all over. It is exists under the banking industry and offers many money-related services to its clients. They include management of resources, giving loans to innovators to get their businesses up and running, safe keeping of savings and giving insurance covers to the applicants (Lane, & Milesi-Ferretti, 2001, pp 286). In August 2015, Common Wealth Bank was ranked among the most successful banks in Australia and it has been recognized as the biggest financial institution in the South (Herd, 2005, pp 16). It was established in 1911 by the government of Australia with an aim to acquiring a lot of profits from the people who traded in shares (Otchere, & Chan, 2003, pp 949; Cashdm, 1995, pp 133).

The Common Wealth Bank uses a few statements such as “Which bank?” and “Determined to be different” to capture the people and show them what they are all about. Lately, they are using the “Commbank can” a phrase brought to existence this week during the operation to give Commonwealth a new image. Andy Lark the officer in charge of marketing stated that the bank’s main objective is to work with the Australians and ensure their movement forward. Having in mind that with Commbank everything is possible, the customers feel satisfied. When serving their clients, Commonwealth Bankk has a strict rule to uphold honesty and do the best they can to ensure the results are satisfactory.

Every employee is accountable for his or her actions, and if their actions compromise the companies set a moral code and end up delivering outcomes that are not desirable, tough action is taken on them. Their first priority each time is the client’s satisfaction. The Commonwealth Bank has been using very smart marketing plans hence, their great success (Peter, Olson, and Grunert, 1999, pp 123). The officials in the marketing department take a lot of the credit. Their first strategy is mobilization operations. 28 years down the line Commonwealth Bank, has been in partnership with Cricket Australia stretching their wings to large areas by supporting both the male and female’s teams (Cravens, & Piercy, 2006, pp 45). It is estimated that 25.72% of all the media attention between November 1^st, 2014 and January 31^st, 2015 was brought by this operation.

Also, The “Can Your Bank Give You Extra Security When You Need It,” And “Who Can Help To Keep Your Business Moving” campaigns brought by 20.17% and 18.13% of the media attention respectively (Cravens, & Piercy, 2006, pp 43). Comprehensively, that is 64% successful marketing plan by the media. Their second work was to create awareness verbally, making up a mean of 7.56%. Commbank keeps on increasing their campaign to ensure their message gets to the people. Paying television stations to show their advertisements has also enhanced their image to the public (Jain, & Haley, 2009, pp 76). Creation and maintenance of prosperous associations with other organizations have also an added advantage to the bank. Strengthens the people’s faith in the institution and rids the bank of the unnecessary competition (Rust, Lemon,& Zeithaml, 2004, pp 110).  

Commonwealth Bank of Australia's orientation towards marketing

The plan Commbank has in place gives it an advantage over its competitors. Following the past successes, it has been observed that advertisements that air between 5 am and 10 am and between 6 am and 10 pm get the most attention. Also, including parents and children in the adverts educating them on saving mobilized the people to open savings accounts. Offering credit to the people in the form of loans for settlement with interest rates of as low as 4.69% per year and a constant 3 years 5.42% yearly, is also a plan that is underway and apparently tells those in competition what to expect (Headey, Marks, & Wooden, 2005, pp 160). This definitely places Commbank in a better position. Procrastination from BigDatr showed that there would be a rise in the number of people borrowing money from the bank from the month of February and April year 2015.

BigDatr also predicted the bank would also encourage the use of the cards they issued on credit basis from the 5^th month to August 2015. The wide range of services offered by Commbank is the reason for its leading position among the other banks in Australia. It provides its customers with the chance to plan their movement and settlement in any place within Australian with their exceptional loan rates (Dvornak, & Kohler, 2007, pp 117). The customers are also able to acquire loans to invest and secure their futures. Among other products they offer, is an opportunity for individuals to choose whether they want to invest in groups or not. Also included, there is the pension plan that ensures financial stability during the years a person will be unemployed due to old age. The study has shown that the institution has the largest number of covers on life insurances. It also offers services such as financial advice, and management of finances to the investors from other countries. The insurance policies offered by Commbank also stretch to business owners not only to individuals.

An organization’s identity is its brand (Rao, Agarwal, & Dahlhoff, 2004, pp 126). The customers are able to relate to the business since they know what it is all about. The people in the leadership position in Commbank know that the worth of an organization is in its image hence, they’ve invested a lot of their time, and resources in ensuring the people both in Australia and the rest of the world have a clear picture of what the bank entails in their campaigns and ads. Due to the success brought by image creation strategy, Commbank has become very popular among many states some of them including, New Zealand and Indonesia (Moon, & Sharman, 2003, pp 43). Branding builds trust and faith in an organization since a customer knows what to expect from an organization. Good customer-seller relations are created as a result of a clear image and this increases the demand for the product in question.

Marketing strategies utilized by Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Where there is trust, loyalty follows. A large number of the Commbank clients are loyal since the services they get are exceptional. These relationships built on trust are also an added advantage to the Commbank as their loans are paid back as agreed. The involvement of Commbank in community development in activities such as giving funds to the youths so they can grow is a noble act. Giving back to society motivates the younger generations to be selfless when they grow up.  

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia was intended to offer the general services offered by a bank as well as the as the saving services. It is recognized as the first bank that received the Federal guarantee from the Australian government. The bank seemed to be serving the Australians very well since it extended its services and set a branch in Melbourne Australia. The bank conducted its trading through the agencies of the post office and it also merged with other banks such as the Tismania. It also merged with several banks to extend the trading activities such as the Queensland. Gradually, the bank seems to be doing well though the chairman called Robert Gibson did not agree to increase the bank’s credit during the time of the Great Depression. The conflict began due to this issue hence the bank encountered challenges to meet the demands of the customers. This gave the government more power to control the bank’s monetary policy.

After a while, it is evident that the Commonwealth Bank demonstrated control over the other banks in Australia. It also worked towards expanding the programs on immigration. This caused the bank to develop a service for the information migrants. It also opened the agencies for savings to ensure that the customers were satisfied with the services that they received. The bank diversified its services pin other areas such as the travel as well as insurance. It founded a company that was to provide the finance services to the Australians. After a while, the bank also offered the Master cards as well as the visa cards to ensure that the clients accessed the bank’s services like withdrawing money without having to queue in the bank.

Key resources and strengths are essential if an organization is to perform well.  Hence, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia utilizes the resources and strengths for its success. For instance, the bank has a number of brands which include the ASB Bank, Commonwealth Insurance, Bankwest, and the Commonwealth Securities. These brands have been responsible for the tremendous growth of the bank. Moreover, the bank does not only serve in Australia but has also extended its services to other nations such as New Zealand, USA, the United Kingdom and Fiji (Brailsford, Handley and Maheswaran, 2008, pp75). The large number of customers, association with a number of brands and serving in five great nations are all indicators that the bank’s performance is excellent. The excellent performance by the company had led to recognition from various sectors. For instance, the bank was listed as one of the leading Australian corporations; this is according to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Products offered by Commonwealth Bank of Australia

In the banking sector, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is also regarded as one of the leading banks in Australia. The other leading banks include the Westpac, ANZ and the National Australian Bank. Mainly, the Bank is dedicated to serving its customers. For this reason, the bank has gained appreciation and loyalty from its customers. In an effort to cater for the customers’ needs, the bank offers a variety of services which include corporate banking, Global wealth management, credit cards, insurance services, consumer banking, investment banking and much more. Moreover, the services offered by the bank are increasing day by day. In fact, a large proportion of the revenues and income earned by the bank come from the quality and unique services offered by the bank. Another key strength the bank possesses is the number and skills of the employees. To start with, the bank hires top notch and highly qualified employees who give the bank a competitive advantage. Also, the number of employees working in the bank is large. According to a recent research, the bank has over 44,000 employees working in the various departments. The report also indicated that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia falls in the list of the twenty most preferred employers. Moreover, the bank is the only institution offering financial services in Australia.

On the other hand, the bank also has some weaknesses. These weaknesses have affected the bank’s performance both locally and internationally. Some of the weaknesses include controversies which were reported regarding the bank. For instance, a website named ‘Unhappy Banking’ was created by an action group to discredit the services offered by the bank (Marcolin and Abraham, 2006, pp 61). This move by the action group affected the customers’ loyalty in the bank. In fact, the bank lost some of its customers to the rival banks such as the Westpac, ANZ and the National Australian Bank. The Moody’s financial strength rating also gives an average rating to the bank.

One major factor that determines the success of an institution is its ability to utilize the available opportunities. To start with, the bank is technologically empowered. This means that the bank can use the banking technologies at its disposal to deal with the aggressive competition. Moreover, the bank should make use of the social platforms to educate people on the importance of banking. By doing so, the bank will be able to bring more customers on board. Finally, the bank should also consider expanding its operations to other big economies. For instance, the bank should consider expanding its operations in the Asian economy.

Role of branding in Commonwealth Bank of Australia's marketing strategy

There are some threats that face the banking sector. To start with, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia may face the threat of reduced profits. Despite all the opinions people have about banks making huge profits, banks still face problems making good returns on their investments. Moreover, if the bank fails to meet the customers’ expectations, the profits may be greatly reduced. Competition is also another factor that can negatively affect the bank. For instance, the Financial Technology Companies (FinTech) specialize in providing customers with financial services by using a software (Weill and Woerner,  2013, pp 19). Actually, the FinTech companies have greatly affected the traditional banking system. Therefore, competition from these financial sectors may affect the bank’s performance. Finally, the threat of regulatory pressure also faces banks. For example, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has to spend a lot of money in order to keep up with the growing requirements.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has a large number of customers. Most of the customers are located in the five nations the bank serves. The bank has the largest number of customers compared to any other bank in Australia. The key services offered to the customers by the bank include corporate banking, Global wealth management, credit cards, insurance services, consumer banking, and investment banking. Also, other institutions such as manufacturing companies seek for loans from the bank. Hence, on a broader perspective, the bank’s customers are both corporations and individuals.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has some key collaborators. To start with, the bank partners with Barclay Bank. Together, these banks simplify and streamline money transfer between the United Kingdom and Australia (Weill and Woerner, 2013, pp 19). For instance, the two banks link-up their customers through apps. The CommBank app together with the Pingit from Barclays enables customers to transact securely and efficiently for over ten thousand miles (Heaney, 2007, pp 196). Also, the Commonwealth Bank has partnered with Alipay to deliver payment services to their customers in Australia and China (Cuganesan, 2006, pp 165). Recently, the two corporations signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Through the beneficial collaborations, the Commonwealth Bank has been able to record tremendous growth (McCauley, 2006, pp 14).

Despite being regarded as one of the leading banks in Australia, the Commonwealth Bank faces fierce competition from other leading banks. The other three leading banks offer the same services as the Commonwealth Bank hence the fierce competition. The competitors of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia include the Westpac Banking Corporation, the National Australia Bank, and the New Zealand Banking Group (Mundt, Dawes and Sharp, 2006, pp 465). However, the competition makes the bank do better.

Community involvement initiatives of Commonwealth Bank of Australia

For more than twenty-five years, Australia has seen economic advancements, good governance, and an effective legal system (Kim, 2008, pp 379). Hence, the Commonwealth Bank has been able to perform remarkably well under these favorable factors. Moreover, Australia has an independent bureaucracy and great support for the entrepreneurial sector. Hence, the banking sector has also grown due to the improved economy and the political goodwill.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is clear that the Commonwealth Bank has a great impact on the Australian economy. In the review of the financial statements of the Commonwealth Bank which are operated by the directors, it is evident that the bank acquires improvement day by day. Clearly, the bank’s slogans allow the bank to move forward to meet its goals and objectives. Also, the Commonwealth Bank is one of the largest banks in Australia and collaborates with other banks such as Barclays to offer its customers quality and digital services. However, the bank also faces competition from other banks. Various political, social, and economic factors also affect the banks operation. For instance, keeping up with the legal requirements demands more money.

References

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