Bank Dhofar Marketing Management Report

This report analyzes Bank Dhofar's marketing management strategies, including its market value, brand value, segmentation, targeting, and positioning. It examines the bank's marketing mix strategy and provides recommendations for improvement. The report also discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the banking sector.

Executive Summary
This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the current marketing management of Bank
Dhofar. Objectives are defined by the SMART method. A reflection on the market value and the
brand value showed a very optimistic proof. Results showed that Bank Dhofar is the second
leading bank in Oman. The Segmentation showed that corporate and business segment grew 53%
over the past 5 years and retail banking reduced by one percent 31% now, targeting, and
positioning played a vital role in the Bank’s profile by introducing Islamic Banking and targeting
the SME`s was very promising. The increase in Interest rate has affected the Net profit with a
minor change due to the COVID-19. The GDP was expected to increase in 2020 by 3.0 % but it
showed 2.8% where the net profit showed a drop to 23 USD Million as compared to last year's
79 USD Million in 2019. The evaluation of marketing and control based on the objective
showed a positive result. Changes such as cost reduction were noticed and recommended during
the pandemic. The number of Customers is increased to 304,000 in 2020 which means the bank
is attaining the market value and brand name. There is also an increase of 648 customers in
wholesale banking as compared to 2019.
Introduction and Objectives
The shifting situation of marketing is causing challenges to the banking divisions despite their
economic place in the market. Marketing strategy is the reviving step that will give a new
direction to the company’s business. The selected organization is Bank Dhofar for the marketing
plan and Bank Dhofar is the second largest bank in market value and is one of the fastest-
growing financial services in the Sultanate of Oman. The bank was started in 1990 and to date,
with an asset worth of 4.21 Billion, and with their consistent strong commitment and growth, the
Bank has made itself in the second position in Oman. As I am the Bank marketing
representative; my Job is to market the banking products to the customers, also responsible for
understanding the strategic plan for marketing the various products and implementing them.
(Anon., 2020)
The objectives of the marketing plans are as follow:
a) Target new customers 5%

b) Increase product and services sales for the existing customer 3%
c) Increase in customer satisfaction 5%
d) Incoming growth 7%
Reflection on market and brand
This section is a reflection of my personal experience of critically evaluating the multichannel
Bank. The market value of Bank Dhofar is high as it is the second leading Bank in Oman with an
asset of 4.21 billion even at the time of COVID 19 situation the Bank was stable enough to
support the Ministry of Health. Bank Dhofar’s key strength of customer relationship
management was phenomenal. The brand Bank Dhofar has attained its name due to many
reasons 1. The support to the locals in the region of Dhofar and Wusta became the Highlight of
the brand name 2. The SMEs target has given a boost to the locals in Oman. Weakness is still
manageable as there is a force Omanization on higher management is issued and Bank is
reluctant to some extent by managing 93% Omanization. Politically the Bank Dhofar is stable as
Oman has very low-risk political, where economically the GDP growth is slow due to pandemic.
Socially, Customers' acceptance of digital is high in Muscat So the Bank still requires more
Physical branches around Oman. Technological aspect, the bank is upgrading the banking
solution which helps the bank to maintain its position .the customer satisfaction with technology
has given them a market and brand value. Legal aspect vise the Bank is under CBO so interest
rate variation is seen over the past few years which lead to NPLs. The environmental factor is
affecting the performance as Oman is a mix of Expats and Nationals and the Bank Sector faces
more Pressure from the CBO to implement Omanization.
Segmentation, targeting, and positioning
In this section, I will highlight the bank Dhofar’s market segmentation, targeting, and
positioning. As the market is not so huge of Sultanate of Oman so Bank Dhofar covers a portion
of the market by targeting its customer group.
Segmentation:

The bank is an extremely complex body, working in a cut-throat industry. Competitiveness in
this industry is indisputable. All the segments cannot be covered due to the market, so, the
market is divided into four major variables for segmentation such as demographic psychological
behavioral, and geographical.
Income segmentation is a concept of dividing the market into various income groups. Treasury
and investment are 17% and retail banking 30 % and corporate banking is 53%.
The Retail banking segment is having 292,000 customers according to the statistics of Bank
Dhofar in December 2019, where wholesale banking has 17,000 corporate and SME
customer’s .the treasury and investment segment is having 150 correspondent banks. (Bank
Dhofar, 2020)
Targeting:
A target market is a cluster of people that will be most needed or desire the product or services
that are provided by the company. The bank was already having a focus on large enterprises and
rich individual investors but Bank Dhofar has renewed the business and Corporate banking
strategy by targeting the Medium and small enterprises (SMEs) for maintaining the stronghold
and position in the market. The Bank Dhofar gave value to the customers who want to start up a
new business. There are 7 centers across Oman Serving SMEs. (Bank Dhofar, 2020)
Positioning:
In the business dictionary, the term market positioning is an effort to influence the customer
perception of a brand or product relative to occupy a clear unique, and advantageous position in
the consumers' mind. however the bank Dhofar is striving to capture the attention of local and
international customers by making a strong position and holding a second-most place in the
Oman market for such a long period through delivering what is promised according to the
together 2020 target. Bank Dhofar has extended the operations by introducing Islamic banking
(Masirah) and this targeting strategy gave a remarkable boost to the Bank Dhofar and got the
award of best Islamic bank in Oman based on sharia-compliant financial services and products
(Bank Dhofar, 2020).

Marketing Mix strategy and recommendation
The marketing mix strategy is about 4Ps product, price, plan, and promotion. The marketing mix
strategy used by the bank Dhofar is explained as follow:
Bank product strategy:
Bank Dhofar is the second largest bank in the Sultanate of Oman. Bank Dhofar is providing
various financial services and provides a wide variety of banking services to their customers such
as personal banking, ladies banking, youth, and student banking, priority banking, business, and
corporate banking, Islamic banking, and treasury. Apart from credit card and retail banking they
also have strong corporate and business banking services as a part of the marketing mix strategy.
Financial analysis and private equity are also dealt with by the bank. The firm is a complete
economic institution, the bank is having 70 branches and 1 corporate center of which 61
branches of bank Dhofar and 10 branches for the Masirah Islamic banking services.
Price strategy
Bank Dhofar has focused on small and medium business in the Sultanate of Oman .the Pricing
and the interest rate is set by the regulatory bodies (The central bank of Oman)even after that the
Bank Dhofar has a scheme of saving the more customer hold the money in the bank the more it
helps the customer to grow money over time. The interest rate of the saving account is 3.5% and
on long term deposit is having an interest of 5.5 %with benefits for the customers during the
COVID 19. The policy varies depending upon the internal and external factors. Change in the
Finance market during the COVID-19 2020 has forced them to higher the interest rates but they
have introduced Value-added services for the consumers.

Plan and promotion strategy
The distribution channels are already discussed in the product strategy. Promotions are one of the
key marketing mix strategies which help in increase in sales and profit., this strategy is widely
used by organizations to ensure their customers are aware of their products and services offers.
Bank Dhofar has used all the digital portals for the promotions of the offers. The increase in cost
to income ratio is due to bank investment programming by opening the new, modern branches
and technological investments to support digitalization. Bank Dhofar also sponsors the events for
the companies and institutions which has given the brand reputation
Since this is a services marketing Brand here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing
Mix of Bank Dhofar.
People:
People Involved in the banking sectors are the primary source of revenue generation because the
bank staff is the service provider to their customers, over here bank Dhofar has maintained the
standards to provide world-class service. They hire staff based on the experience and knowledge
and mold them according to the Bank guidelines. Training, seminars, and workshops are
conducted timely.
Process:

For banking solutions Bank Dhofar has business processes. As almost all the services are moved
online, so the customers can access the offer from anywhere at any point in time. The one that is
most accessible used is M-banking as all the customers want a handy approach.
Physical evidence:
Bank Dhofar branch offices are its main physical evidence, documentation, logo, website are the
part of the evidence. Through the website, you can find the nearest branch, ATMs, CDM s
machines.
Recommendation
During this pandemic, COVID 19 all the markets faced a huge shock around the globe. This also
affects the banking sectors as many of the people lost their jobs and returned to their countries
and for the sector survival the management has to take any action to remove the staffs which lead
to loss of jobs but this also gave a new theme to the sectors to target on Online availability of the
services for their existing customers. The existing customer is mainly focused by the bank and
the offers are only for the existing customers, for targeting new customers in near future, the
bank has to come up with the strategy for the new clients by introducing the offers. Such as
joining Bank Dhofar the first year of interest rate will be low or no minimum amount to open a
saving account etc. the net profit of the bank Dhofar has decreased to the NPLs (Non-performing
Loans) in 2020. To reduce the NPLs the bank has to take measures such as Client profiling,
redefining retail strategy, and Optimizing legal services. (Bank Dhofar, 2020)

Evaluation and control
The Bank Dhofar has created a well-organized structure and strategies to gain new customers
and maintain loyal customers. The managing team is well experienced and none of them is
having experience less than 15 years, who are working closely with all the regional offices which
are implementing all the services possible. They have well-trained employees and also trained
more than 500 Omani talents which also helped in the cost reduction of 2.5 Million during the
year 2018-2019 as a result of 422 employees were given yellow belts and 16 employees achieved
green Belt.
The KPIs of the employees is one of the best strategies to attain the objectives as mentioned
above, the employee's performance reflects on the customer's satisfaction and Bank Dhofar has
already stated that our customers are our guest so they are treated equally. Customer satisfaction
will be increased by the online services (M-Banking features), 24/7 availability to the customer
touch points to digital channels. The call center also plays a key role in customer satisfaction,
and drive-thru service is also introduced.

References
Anon., 2020. Bank Dhofar. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bankdhofar.com/en-GB/AboutUs.aspx
Bank Dhofar, 2020. Bank Dhofar. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bankdhofar.com/en-GB/News/2/1169.aspx
[Accessed 19 12 2020].
Bank Dhofar, 2020. INVESTOR PRESENTATION, muscat: BAnk Dhofar .