Brand of Citibank: Citibank has already been in banking operation in Asia Pacific and mainly has good relationships with large business houses. Also, for private customers, Citibank offers the Citi-one accounts with minimum deposit $10,000. In addition, in Hong Kong there are 7,600 Citigold customers who are required to deposit more than $100,000 in their accounts. Consequently, Citibank has been regarded as a prestigious, consumer-oriented international bank.
Clear Positioning: As mentioned above, clear positioning as a high-end bank for upper class and large business firms, Citibank could successfully create brand image in Asia Pacific.
Core Competencies: Citibank has managed properly these intangible resources with tangible resources such as banking by phone, overdraft protection and a designated customer service officer to manage their accounts. These resources have combined to create capabilities and become core competencies.
Competitive Advantages: As a result, Citibank has competitive advantages in the banking industry. By adding new financial products, continuing to improve technologies for providing better services and products, Citibank will strengthen its competitive advantages; they will become sustainable competitive advantages.
Recommendation
I would like to recommend launching credit card business by leveraging Citibank's competitive advantages. In order to successfully launch credit card business, I would recommend to implement the following strategies for Citibank.
Organizational Change: The root cause of country managers' resistance to issue credit cards is in organizational structure. Because