This paper discusses a large research project conducted to investigate factors impacting on the relationship between banks and their business clients in Australia. A survey was conducted during February - March 1999 with 276 executives and financial managers on their firms relationship with banks. Factor and regression analyses were used to identify the underlying factors of close and long-lasting relationships between banks and their business customers. The insight gained through the data analysis guided the process of model building using a structural equation modelling techniques. The model shows that the measure of trust is crucial to understanding bank-business customer relationship.
In coming years, the global asset management market will be affected by changes in the business, investment and legislative environment. In particular, changes to the way in which companies organise the provision of retirement benefits to their staff, and the need for governments to review and restructure pensions provision are likely to result in the growth of global asset managers, and the increasing importance of branding and distribution. Research among employers, their advisers and staff will be an important element in the success of financial institutions in meeting the future challenge.
The spectacular growth in financial marketing research over the last twenty five years has pushed it into a prominent place among the types of marketing research undertaken worldwide. After a relatively late start in the early 1970s, it began to take off, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. By the mid-1990s it had spread to most parts of the world and could be described as the fourth largest category of research after fast moving consumer goods, public services or utilities, and media. As such, it is really a mainstream marketing research activity and most leading research suppliers claim to do it, and to know how it should be done.
A company in the financial area had developed a special conception of a sales organisation. One main target of this research was to find the correct way of addressing (advertising, head hunting or other methods) for possible candidates for such a sales organisation.
A group of Volksbanks and Raiffeisen banks in Friesland, which cooperate under the name of Friesland's Bank and are situated in the north-west of the Federal Republic of Germany to the north-west of Bremen, have together with the author of this article developed a concept of customer service which covers the above-mentioned banks fields of interests in the target group. The concept is based on statistical analyses of and empirical research into the attending needs of the target group and its environment.
This paper takes a detailed look at the financial services industry in Europe, with particular reference to the position in the U.K. First we set the scene with a description of where the industry has come from, where it is now and the opportunities and pitfalls that the single market is likely to bring. We look in detail at the current activity of financial service organisations in Europe and explain how the use of specialist services such as marketing and market research can help companies with their plans and strategies. We then take a detailed look at a case study of an international project conducted by Research International, to emphasise how the selective use of expert advice and consultancy can better prepare organisations for the opportunities offered by markets overseas and the single market in particular.
The financial service industry is moving towards a more consumer, rather than product-led, orientation, with the philosophy of good service now becoming increasingly important. However, in this expanding area of market research the facilitator and representative of good service is often not considered. The authors contend that involvement with and evaluation of staff should be a prerequisite of any consumer research in the financial services marketplace. In an attempt to demonstrate the importance of staff research, this paper examines the issue from a number of viewpoints. It deals with the consumer perspective on the importance of staff in the financial service industry. It also describes the benefits of staff research in achieving a deeper understanding of the complex interrelationships in the financial service industry and in more fully meeting research objectives. Finally, the paper deals with the political arena in which research is required to operate and its implications.
The paper describes the development, the structure and the possible contributions of a Data Bank identifying and and characterising in a lot of details numerous Local/Micromarkets. More than 200 autonomous polarisation markets have been defined qualified in terms of Population (size and structure), Professionals, Businesses (size and sector of activity), Housing, attractiveness (popular moves), Income. The resulting data bank is constantly enriched by generating/calculating new variables and/or by acquiring and merging supplementary files (sales of new cars, list of car dealers, banks branches). And it can be used for measuring local market potentials, comparing them to local performance/local clientele, confronting the geographical distributions of demand and offer. Two case stories both related to the markets for financial services are commented, showing which objectives were actually archived.
LWT's interest has been to encourage greater use of television advertising by financial institutions. To provide a link between ourselves and potential advertisers, we launched a Financial Marketing Review in December 1985 to bring to wider attention the potential of television advertising for promoting awareness and understanding of financial products and services that have traditionally been the preserve of the press. As an input to the Review, we commissioned NOP Market Research Ltd to conduct a series of surveys. The first concentrated on Stocks and Shares and related issues such as privatisations and takeovers, and the second concentrated on unit trusts and personal equity plans. A third study is now in the offing to assess the impact of Black Monday when the bottom fell out of the equity market last October. Many new investors saw their holdings plummet in value even faster than they had soared in previous months. For most, the loss of assets was on paper and did not materially affect their income or lifestyle, but the psychological impact may well have been far reaching.
The opening of the European market in 1992 induces a lot of companies to wonder about the opportunities it would imply for them. Yet, in the assumption that these opportunities actually exist, they would be really available not only for them but also for others, for national but chiefly international competitors. In the financial sector and more particularly in the private individuaIs' market, one of the first segment to consider is the "up-scale" one ... because it is, globally speaking, more open to changes, innovations and as a result it is likely to be more open to foreign cultures. By conducting various surveys in different European countries (in the INRA-framework) , we tried to give an outline of the upscale. Who are they? What are their characteristics? How are they now reacting to the idea of a broader presence of financial institutions at European level?
This paper illustrates the creation of a monitoring system for the insurance market in Italy, which in recent years is undergoing rapid development. This continuous research programme, called SIMTASS, has as objective the supply of a detailed picture of the local market. The implementation of the SIMTASS methodology is based on a typological analysis of the Italian communes which , as been created using the large amounts of information in existence at commune level on the structure of the population, the economic structure and income. On the basis of this typological analysis 21 clusters of communes have been identified, internally homogeneous as communes but different from one another as clusters.
The last two decades, European Banks have learned to face change in their corporate markets from increasing competition, the growing internationalisation of business and the altered economic and industrial climate. The paper shows how research can play a key role in marketing and management decisions, service development and enhancement and provides evidence for a number of interesting conclusions including: 1. how electronic banking systems should be positioned and marketed to overcome their limited penetration of the corporate middle market; 2. how banks should develop their services and structures to meet changing corporate priorities in choice of bank and use of banking services; 3. implications for bank marketing and service policies of increasing volatility in corporate banking markets; 4. the likely effect of changing characteristics of financial decision-makers. Findings and conclusions are based on a range of recent UK corporate market studies which demonstrate the role of research in monitoring change and providing information and guidance to banks and other financial institutions operating in these changing markets.