If there is one industry in our economy which would easily serve as a case study of the merits (and demerits) of intense competition, it would be the banking industry. Ever since the floodgates where opened for the “foreign invasion”, banking has ceased to be the same. Gone, and gone forever, are the days when banking halls were congested with unsightly adding machines and archaic ‘Pentium 2s’. Those were the days when cashiers, mostly elderly folk nearing retirement, were not to be messed with. Woe besides any customer who forgot his or her number after the cashier has called for a number of times without any response.
In those days time wasting was normal with every banking transaction. In fact it was expected. Frontline staff could leave you standing in a queue whilst they either engaged in animated conversation or went out for lunch and woe unto anyone who dares question them. Corporate customers were also not left out of the ‘good’ service of those days gone by. Accountants and managers got their monthly account statements and were faced with deductions from their accounts with sums they had not been advised on.
Those were the days when customers were made to feel like the banks were doing them a favour by keeping their monies for them instead of the other way round. Banking in those days was a reserve of a privileged few. It was said to be a noble profession then and the bank manager was held in so high an esteem that he or she was an automatic choice for the chairman of almost every occasion he or she attended. The banks were not many then and so there was no need for them to engage in any form of marketing to attract any customers. All the banks had to do was to open their doors and in came the customers. In actual fact the banking laws under banker-customer relationship even stipulated that the customer was to approach the bank and not vice versa. Customers went to the banks with their money and other valuables for safekeeping, and the banks had the choice to take the deposit or reject them. The banks also had very narrow product portfolios; savings accounts, current (cheque) accounts, fixed deposits, call deposits and credit facilities such as loans and overdrafts.
Then “out of the blues” competition was introduced into the industry and “all hell broke lose.” Banks from our sister countries in the sub-region started trickling in with the arrival of United Bank for Africa (UBA) then trading as Standard Trust Bank, followed by Zenith and Intercontinental. Guaranty Trust also followed while Meeky Investments, majority shareholder in Oceanic Bank acquired a large stake in Amalbank. More banks have joined the bandwagon since.
Readers might be wondering where I am going with this entire journey into the very immediate past of the banking industry. All I have been trying to do is to lay a foundation on which I intend to build my case. With the influx of these banks will be an accompanying entry of different styles of operations, management, etc. We should also realise that intense competition will also usher in intense sales and marketing strategies as banks would seek to outdo each other for the “little” deposits in this economy. As it is said desperate times calls for desperate measures, and from the way the competition is becoming more intense I believe in no time some banks will be nearing the point of desperation, that is if they are already not there. With the hearsays of more banks coming into the system, the tendency for banks to adopt more measures to boost their deposits is sure to increase. This is where my concern comes in.
Watching events on the banking scene triggers a bewildering experience of déjà vu. In August 2003 I chanced on a magazine called ‘BRANDfaces’, published in Nigeria by Brand Support Services. (Be reminded that the first entrant, Standard Trust, started operations in 2004). The cover story captioned ‘Today’s Banking: Product of Skirt Marketing’ caught my attention. That very good piece of journalistic excellence delved into the use of sex appeal in marketing financial services in our sister country. The writer asserted that the drive for more deposits had led to the recruitment of beautiful ladies who engaged in the phenomenon of “skirt marketing”. By skirt marketing the writer meant the use of beautiful ladies to entice big shots to make deposits in their banks. Skirt marketing, as a technique, involves using attraction as a lure and is a known marketing or selling strategy.
The import of this piece, therefore, is to find out whether this phenomenon would begin to creep, or has already crept, into our banking industry as it did in our sister economy. Will sex appeal be used to promote marketing services as it had been used in the marketing of cosmetics, lingerie or alcoholic beverages? Will the drive for deposits bring any unethical sales and marketing strategies? Would there be an increase in beautiful young ladies being recruited into marketing of banking services at the expense of their male counterparts? These are the questions this writer believes need answering.
The debate on whether ‘sex’ sells has been on going for some time now. There are those who believe it is perfectly alright to use any enticing means to sell whilst opponents believe using these provocatively-attired ladies purposely for selling is tantamount to pornography. According to one proponent of skirt marketing, the fact of the matter is that a business’s main goal is to make sales. Therefore there is nothing wrong if business people do their homework and find ways to push the boundaries that draws people to their products.
It would not be too strange to adopt these ‘financial angels’ as agents of marketing in the banking sector but the question is how far they will be pushed by their “bosses” to net in huge deposits. The Internet Non-profit Centre (1999) defined ‘Marketing’ simply as “the art of making someone want something you have”. For someone to want what you have there is a need to entice the one and who better to entice than these new breed of “sales executives”. I am in no way attempting to accuse any of our new foreign banks of engaging in this act. All I intend to do is to bring this issue up for discussion. I am of the opinion that it is by pre-emptive discussions and actions that such issues can be handled well. Remember, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
I could go on with this write up but that will not serve any further purpose. My intentions were just to draw readers’ attention to the possibility of skirt marketing in the banking industry. Readers should continue the debates in the homes and offices. I also have to end here because, as always, my articles have to pass the Mini-Skirt Test: “They must be long enough to cover the subject, yet short enough to be interesting.
In those days time wasting was normal with every banking transaction. In fact it was expected. Frontline staff could leave you standing in a queue whilst they either engaged in animated conversation or went out for lunch and woe unto anyone who dares question them. Corporate customers were also not left out of the ‘good’ service of those days gone by. Accountants and managers got their monthly account statements and were faced with deductions from their accounts with sums they had not been advised on.
Those were the days when customers were made to feel like the banks were doing them a favour by keeping their monies for them instead of the other way round. Banking in those days was a reserve of a privileged few. It was said to be a noble profession then and the bank manager was held in so high an esteem that he or she was an automatic choice for the chairman of almost every occasion he or she attended. The banks were not many then and so there was no need for them to engage in any form of marketing to attract any customers. All the banks had to do was to open their doors and in came the customers. In actual fact the banking laws under banker-customer relationship even stipulated that the customer was to approach the bank and not vice versa. Customers went to the banks with their money and other valuables for safekeeping, and the banks had the choice to take the deposit or reject them. The banks also had very narrow product portfolios; savings accounts, current (cheque) accounts, fixed deposits, call deposits and credit facilities such as loans and overdrafts.
Then “out of the blues” competition was introduced into the industry and “all hell broke lose.” Banks from our sister countries in the sub-region started trickling in with the arrival of United Bank for Africa (UBA) then trading as Standard Trust Bank, followed by Zenith and Intercontinental. Guaranty Trust also followed while Meeky Investments, majority shareholder in Oceanic Bank acquired a large stake in Amalbank. More banks have joined the bandwagon since.
Readers might be wondering where I am going with this entire journey into the very immediate past of the banking industry. All I have been trying to do is to lay a foundation on which I intend to build my case. With the influx of these banks will be an accompanying entry of different styles of operations, management, etc. We should also realise that intense competition will also usher in intense sales and marketing strategies as banks would seek to outdo each other for the “little” deposits in this economy. As it is said desperate times calls for desperate measures, and from the way the competition is becoming more intense I believe in no time some banks will be nearing the point of desperation, that is if they are already not there. With the hearsays of more banks coming into the system, the tendency for banks to adopt more measures to boost their deposits is sure to increase. This is where my concern comes in.
Watching events on the banking scene triggers a bewildering experience of déjà vu. In August 2003 I chanced on a magazine called ‘BRANDfaces’, published in Nigeria by Brand Support Services. (Be reminded that the first entrant, Standard Trust, started operations in 2004). The cover story captioned ‘Today’s Banking: Product of Skirt Marketing’ caught my attention. That very good piece of journalistic excellence delved into the use of sex appeal in marketing financial services in our sister country. The writer asserted that the drive for more deposits had led to the recruitment of beautiful ladies who engaged in the phenomenon of “skirt marketing”. By skirt marketing the writer meant the use of beautiful ladies to entice big shots to make deposits in their banks. Skirt marketing, as a technique, involves using attraction as a lure and is a known marketing or selling strategy.
The import of this piece, therefore, is to find out whether this phenomenon would begin to creep, or has already crept, into our banking industry as it did in our sister economy. Will sex appeal be used to promote marketing services as it had been used in the marketing of cosmetics, lingerie or alcoholic beverages? Will the drive for deposits bring any unethical sales and marketing strategies? Would there be an increase in beautiful young ladies being recruited into marketing of banking services at the expense of their male counterparts? These are the questions this writer believes need answering.
The debate on whether ‘sex’ sells has been on going for some time now. There are those who believe it is perfectly alright to use any enticing means to sell whilst opponents believe using these provocatively-attired ladies purposely for selling is tantamount to pornography. According to one proponent of skirt marketing, the fact of the matter is that a business’s main goal is to make sales. Therefore there is nothing wrong if business people do their homework and find ways to push the boundaries that draws people to their products.
It would not be too strange to adopt these ‘financial angels’ as agents of marketing in the banking sector but the question is how far they will be pushed by their “bosses” to net in huge deposits. The Internet Non-profit Centre (1999) defined ‘Marketing’ simply as “the art of making someone want something you have”. For someone to want what you have there is a need to entice the one and who better to entice than these new breed of “sales executives”. I am in no way attempting to accuse any of our new foreign banks of engaging in this act. All I intend to do is to bring this issue up for discussion. I am of the opinion that it is by pre-emptive discussions and actions that such issues can be handled well. Remember, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
I could go on with this write up but that will not serve any further purpose. My intentions were just to draw readers’ attention to the possibility of skirt marketing in the banking industry. Readers should continue the debates in the homes and offices. I also have to end here because, as always, my articles have to pass the Mini-Skirt Test: “They must be long enough to cover the subject, yet short enough to be interesting.
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