Behaylu W.Deneke
Most, if not all, private commercial banks in Ethiopia use almost the same marketing approaches to attract customers. They develop the traditional banking products and open branches everywhere then promote their branch and Products aggressively on the traditional channel. Before going to the detail let me differentiate between bank product and bank services. The bank products are deposit, borrowing or other product like credit card or foreign exchange transaction which are tangible and measurable whereas service can be such products plus the way or manner in which they are offered. Better service is more important than just a good product in the marketing of banking service, so the focus should be on the way of providing these services effectively and efficiently. Marketing creates demand and service creates customers. According to Arthur Frederick Sheldon “he profits most who serves best”. Customers are driven by quality service and products. Therefore providing quality service is the key to survive and make profit among other factors.
In developed countries when a new bank inter the industry, the process follows the following steps
1. Identifying the customer’s financial needs and wants.
2. Develop appropriate banking products and services to meet customer’s needs.
3. Determine the prices for the products/services developed.
4. Advertise and promote the product to existing and potential customer of financial services.
5. Set up suitable distribution channels and bank branches.
6. Forecasting and research of future market needs.
Most of company’s income from two groups: new customers and repeat customers. The research estimate that attracting a new customer can cost five times as much as pleasing an existing one. And it might cost 16 times as much to bring the new customer to the same level of profitability as that of the lost customer. Customer