Merchants Bank Online Banking Marketing Strategy Research

While information technologies and network technologies see fast-paced growth and the social economy is experiencing accelerated informatization, online banking becomes an arena where major domestic commercial banks are vying fiercely. People are convinced that online banking can be an important solution to a host of issues, including improving market share, reducing operating cost, shunting pressure from OTC transactions, building core competence, and raising the service benchmark. The paper focuses on the online banking business of China Merchants Bank (CMB). By applying theories of 4Ps, CRM, and brand marketing etc., the author has proposed relatively systematic strategies for enhancing marketing performance, which should be conducive to CMB's robust growth.The paper begins with a review of research findings on online banking, which is followed by a brief summary of related theories. Next, it embarks on an in-depth analysis on CMB's development level by examining the bank's history and status quo and comparing it with other online banks. After that, from a macro-environment prospective, the paper tries to identify the opportunities and threats the bank faces amid cutthroat competitions; and from a micro-environment prospective, it identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the bank. With the help of the STP analytical tool, the author is capable of segmenting market and selecting target market, before finally positioning it in market. Based on what have been achieved, the last part of this paper uses the theories of 4Ps, CRM, and brand marketing and works out some systematic strategies for improving marketing performance. With respect to the marketing mix, these strategies include: implementing financial product innovation policy that conforms to the 4C theory; offering free or low-priced services and following the relation pricing or bundling pricing policy; launching a portal website to enhance the bank's image, setting up an online customer care center to improve customers' satisfaction, and forging partnerships with contracted websites or securities & insurance providers; and intensifying efforts in building a strong marketing team and introducing a mixed promotional strategy that involves personnel marketing, advertisement promotion, PR, and sales promotion. To seek better results from the customer relationship management, efforts in customer identification & analysis, customer care, and providing customized services to meet specific needs should be made. With respect to brand marketing, measures should be taken to consolidate various resources and secure a definite positioning in order to shape uniqueness of CMB's online banking.