Office Technology Management

Application of the Marketing Concept in the Banking Service

ABSTRACT

Why are banks established? Banks are established to make a profit. Are these profits made at the expense of the customers? Or is it a result of the services provided by these banks?

This research work aims to find out if banks apply the marketing concepts. Is customer satisfaction what these banks attain to achieve. This research work has five chapters.

Chapter one contains a general discussion of the marketing concepts as seen by different people. It went further to skate the problem to be studied and why this study was carried out. The scope and limitation of the study and finally the proposition and definition of terms.

Several past related kinds of literature examine by other studies as it relates to the application of the marketing concept in the banking services are highlighted in chapter two.

Chapter three deals with the design of the study. The method used in collecting relevant data. It also deals with the way the questionnaire was distributed and the treatment of data.
The data gotten from the research survey were analyzed and interpreted. Also, similar questions on both questionnaires were compared.

Finally, the summary of findings, conclusion on the research, and recommendation made by the researcher are all in chapter five.

If banks would put the recommendation made in the study into use, there will not only be satisfied customers with services offered, but a continuous increase in profit made, thereby making the problem of the banks a thing of the past.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Title Page
Approval Page
Dedication
Acknowledgment
Abstract

Chapter One

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background Of The Study
1.2 Statement Of Problem
1.3 Need For The Study
1.4 Scope And Limitation Of Study’
1.5 Significance Of The Study
1.6 Definition Of Terms

Chapter Two

2.0 Review Of Related Literature

Chapter Three

3.1 Design Of The Study
3.2 Selection Of Population
3.3 Development Of Research Material
3.4 Research Procedure
3.5 Treatment Of Data

Chapter Four

4.0 Presentation, Analysis, And Interpretation Of Data

Chapter Five

5.0 Summary Of Finding
5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Recommendation
References
Appendix

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

As competition between business geared up it became imperative to turn attention to customers’ needs and wants which are naturally insatiable. The marketing concept arose to challenge all other previous concepts. The marketing concepts hold that the key to achieving organizational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of the target market and delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors. The marketing concept is a frame of mind that the marketer works with. It is based on a market focus, customer orientation, coordinated marketing, and profitability.

The marketing concept starts with a well-defined market. The organization determines who its market will be, and who it hopes to satisfy, even after the market has been defined, a company can still fail at customer orientation. By customer orientation, the customer need is defined from the customer’s viewpoint and not from that of the company. The customer orientation seeks to crown the customer as “kind” recognizing that he is the lifeblood of the organization and aims at satisfying the desires of the consumer. A Japanese businessman once said that ‘our aim goes beyond satisfying the customer; we aim to delight the customer”. This is a higher standard and a deeper quest and maybe the secret of great marketers. Co-ordinated marketing answers that all the various marketing functions like advertising, marketing research, sales force, and so on are properly integrated and must be well-coordinated with other departments in the company. The major goal of most profit-oriented companies is to make a profit. A company will make more money if it satisfies its customer’s needs better than competitors. Therefore in applying the market concept, companies would produce, what the customer wand and by so doing, they maximize profit.

Several authors have stated the need for all business entities to adopt the marketing concept in their various activities. Most companies do not grasp or embrace the marketing concept until they are driven to it by circumstances like; sales decline, slow growth, changes in buying patterns by customers, increasing competition, and increase in market expenditure.

These companies have not arrived at full marketing maturity but think that because they have a market manager, and product manager, they are implementing the market concept. From what is been seen and read today in society, not all business organizations adopt the marketing concept. For example, in the modest of security, the consumer is not the king, rather it is the seller that is the king.

An interesting and entirely logical result of the marketing concept relates to the central purpose of business which is to obtain and serve customers. Since profit is a vital requirement of business it is conventional to regard it as the first central purpose. For all we know, it is possible to run a business without profit for a time. A business can’t survive for one day without customers. Customers are the nerve of any business. Without a total commitment to them on the part of the company as a whole, the application of advanced marketing techniques can only have limited and brief effects.

The emergence of banking services in Nigeria can be traced back more than 100 years ago. The activities of eh transnational corporation, the financial transaction of the colonial government, the decline of the barter system of trade, and the increasing acceptance of British silver currency all required an institution in the form of a commercial bank for the safety and transmission of fund the importation and distribution of British silver coins and provision of credit to government and trading company who need them. These banks were out to make a profit from interest got from the deposits made by customers without actually satisfying the customers, they never really thought of the customer as the lifeblood of the organization.

In the past, banks were operating in a seller’s market which made marketing possible but the environment is dynamic, such that if banks are to continue to prosper they must adopt the change that is taking place in industry and commerce so only the bank that is efficient and effective can satisfy customers. Thus in scarce and abundant economics alike, the red problem is not production, but marketing if only we accept the truth that mass marketing is a pre-requisite for successful mass production. Marketing considerations then become the most critical factor in any business planning.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Banking is in the services industry. The quality of services rendered by our banks has been attracting criticism from people in all works of life the government functionaries, businessmen, the media and the general public are all very critical of banking services. The complaints range from those of inefficiency favoritism, a long delay in cashing cheques or making with drawls, tardiness in granting loans and or credits, to the unfriendly attitude of bank workers. Even the government that owns a sizeable proportion of the shares in most banks is known to have constantly accused the bank of not identifying enough with the nation’s aspirations. The chief of general staff had a cause to appeal to bankers to leave armchair banking and adopt the marketing concept in carrying out banking activities. As early as 1943, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe said that “I was frustrated because of the shoddy way and manner the manger of the marina Branch of the bank of British West Africa Limited treated me with rebuff not only did he keep me standing in his offices for some minutes, he was curt and condescending as if I was seeking for a favor. Naturally, my pride was hurt and it was down on me that the struggle for Nigeria’s freedom has many fronts and that political freedom was not enough economic freedom must be won also” most banks don’t put their customer in the prime place as they are supposed to be. There is now keen competition and to compete means to apply the marketing concepts. Are there criticisms justified or are they just a mere rundown of the banking industry because they are making a profit in an era of an economic slump?

NEED FOR THE STUDY

There has been criticism about the banking industry in the way they render services to their customers. They do not see the customer as king. The researcher wants to carry out research on what banks do and find out if they adopt the marketing concept in their condition of services. The researcher also wants to have an empirical base either to support all the sources about the poor impression people have of the banks or to advise the bank on how to improve their services by adopting the marketing concepts. The magic formula is the adoption of Marketing as a way of life. A business must learn to think of itself not as producing goods or services but as buying customers and doing the things which make people want to deal with it. Does the bank know their customer and are they wooing them as men woo girls they fancy and love? If my finding is not valid, I would say there is no base for the criticism, but that they arise because the bank is doing well. If their services are poor, why should they make so much profit? Are they doing this to the detriment of their customers?

From all that has been written above, it is the aim of this study to take a segment of the banking industry and study the approach of the bank to their customers.

– whether or not banks apply the marketing services as a base for rendering services to their customer.

– If customers are satisfied with the services rendered by the bank.

– To formulate marketing strategies and make recommendations that would be more effective in the marketing of banking services.

1.3 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF STUDY

The scope of this study is very wide if it has to be carried out in all commercial banks in Nigeria. The study is limited, based on the fact that there is no time and material resources to see to the whole nation. This study is limited to Owerri and the finding may not reflect the situation in the whole banks in Nigeria, but by and large, what happens in Banks in Owerri can be said to apply to other banks.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is the objective of the study to know if

1. The amount of time spent by customers in various banks during a normal banking transaction.

2. the reaction of customers as to the rendering of bank services.

3. how bank staff and customers relate to one another.

4. if banks staff and customers enjoy enough services and infrastructure facilities and amenities.

5. if banks apply the marketing concept by satisfying their customers in the way they render their services.

1.5 DEFINITION OF TERMS

The following terms used in this study should be taken to mean the following.

MARKETING

Marketing is a human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through the exchange process.

BANKING

Banking is defined in the 1969 Act as “the business of receiving money from an outside source as deposit irrespective of the payment of interest, and the granting of money loans and acceptance of credits or the purchase of bills and cheques or the purchase and sale of securities for the account of other or the incurring of the obligation to acquire claims in respect of loans before their maturity or the assumption of quarantines and other warranties for others or the effecting of transfers and clearings and such other transaction as the commissioner may, on the recommendation of the central bank, by order published in the Federal Gazette designate as banking business.

The marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of the target market and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors.

PRODUCT

A product is something that is viewed as being capable of satisfying needs or wants.

SERVICES

These are separately identifiable intangible activities that provide want satisfaction when marketed to customers and or industry users and which are not necessarily tied to the sale of a product or another service.



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