Government regulations make it mandatory for all companies to publish their financial data on a periodic basis. Again presentation of the financial data have to conform to certain accounting standards and be approved by the certified public accountants. Preparation and presentation of financial data is necessary not only to satisfy the Government regulations but also serves as a valuable document for the Management and share-holders. While many companies do have an automated or semi-automated financial consolidation system, we observe that there are many companies still carrying out such exercise manually.
This paper outlines how the European Market Research Department of the American Express Card Division has used market research to help its individual marketing teams (based in the various European countries) develop segmented marketing and advertising programmes. The paper broadly describes the problems of designing and executing an appropriate pan-European research programme and the issues of analysis which had to be addressed to meet local and European-wide marketing needs. It covers discussion of the value of multi-country omnibus, ad-hoc, postal, panel and other research techniques.
This paper describes the experimental application to the identification of bank images of a technique previously used to differentiate between consumer goods such as lagers and perfumes where differences were subtle. The approach is based on the use of a battery of adjectives and adjectival phrases which the respondent uses to describe the "personality" of the institution. The initial step is the development of the battery of words and phrases. This is divided into two phases, the 'trigger' sessions, which are used to generate a comprehensive (and too long) list, and the 'charade* sessions which are used to reduce the list to manageable proportions by determining those words or phrases which are the best identifiers of the institutions. The analysis is also critical in order to distill the essential discriminators from the mass of data. A range of multi-variate techniques were used to discriminate between the banks and describe their personalities.
Socio-cultural change- is having a very powerful impact on European societies today, in 1981-1982. Comparison of the nine European observatories (carried out by the RISC network in 1981) shows that out of the 30-40 socio-cultural trends, 22 are present in every country in Europe. Which indicates that socio-cultural change in Europe is relatively homogeneous, and that the different socio- cultures of Europe are tending to draw closer to each other. After a somewhat psychological and statistical analysis of their clienteles, they ought to turn to a more sociological and anticipatory approach. The challenge facing the banks today is surely to adjust their products, the nature of their services and their communications to an increasingly complex, splintered and evolving universe of clienteles. Financial institutions ought to conceive their public image in terms of a strategy taking into account all the factors contained in the system concerned, and as a policy of the utmost importance, aimed at reintegrating these institutions in the eyes of the public, by drawing attention to those aspects of banking which demonstrate the solidarity of the world of banking with the community at large, and by pointing to the links between the institutional functions of the bank and the local services directly rendered to the client.
Socio-cultural change- is having a very powerful impact on European societies today, in 1981-1982. Comparison of the nine European observatories (carried out by the RISC network in 1981) shows that out of the 30-40 socio-cultural trends, 22 are present in every country in Europe. Which indicates that socio-cultural change in Europe is relatively homogeneous, and that the different socio- cultures of Europe are tending to draw closer to each other. After a somewhat psychological and statistical analysis of their clienteles, they ought to turn to a more sociological and anticipatory approach. The challenge facing the banks today is surely to adjust their products, the nature of their services and their communications to an increasingly complex, splintered and evolving universe of clienteles. Financial institutions ought to conceive their public image in terms of a strategy taking into account all the factors contained in the system concerned, and as a policy of the utmost importance, aimed at reintegrating these institutions in the eyes of the public, by drawing attention to those aspects of banking which demonstrate the solidarity of the world of banking with the community at large, and by pointing to the links between the institutional functions of the bank and the local services directly rendered to the client.
In response to the far-reaching changes that have occurred in the banking industry since the early 1960s, we were led to resort to sophisticated research, constantly broadening the field of factors brought in to explain our customers' behaviour In these surroundings we shall be here discussing, the contribution of the psycho-sociological and socio-cultural approaches the the strategic decisions that have reshaped the marketing policies of the Credit Lyonnais over the last 15 years or so.
In response to the far-reaching changes that have occurred in the banking industry since the early 1960s, we were led to resort to sophisticated research, constantly broadening the field of factors brought in to explain our customers' behaviour In these surroundings we shall be here discussing, the contribution of the psycho-sociological and socio-cultural approaches the the strategic decisions that have reshaped the marketing policies of the Credit Lyonnais over the last 15 years or so.
Closing remarks to the EFMA/ESOMAR Seminar 1982.
Closing remarks to the EFMA/ESOMAR Seminar 1982.
As in any large company, whether it be a financial institution or a firm in another sector altogether, a number of questions and therefore sometimes subjective, preconceived ideas exist regarding the efficiency of the sales network. The sales force is in fact an important factor in the success of an institution like ours : the particular qualities of a product in fact constitute a sales argument only if they are backed up by a high-quality competent sales force. And growing importance must be accorded to technical competence, customer reception and the friendliness of the sales personnel.
As in any large company, whether it be a financial institution or a firm in another sector altogether, a number of questions and therefore sometimes subjective, preconceived ideas exist regarding the efficiency of the sales network. The sales force is in fact an important factor in the success of an institution like ours : the particular qualities of a product in fact constitute a sales argument only if they are backed up by a high-quality competent sales force. And growing importance must be accorded to technical competence, customer reception and the friendliness of the sales personnel.
On the Belgian market, private and public (or para-public) financial institutions are competing with each other and proposing certainly and at least to the public at large and to the small and middle sized companies products or services of which the actual technical characteristics tend to undifferentiated themselves more and more. The financial conditions, the interests paid, the criteria used for giving loans do not differ much ... or not at all ... and the ranges of services are progressively completed as well in the public savings banks as in the private retail banks. As a consequence, the battle is more and more evidently on the ground of the CORPORATE IMAGE. And most of the financial institutions spend an increasing part of their resources in the conception and the execution of global communication policies, ensuring a global positioning which is in full agreement with the changing socio-political environment.