Marketing Management

This report provides an insight into the marketing management of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It covers their mission, vision, value statement, marketing strategy, and analysis of 5Cs.

Running head: MARKETING
Marketing Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary:
The report aims at providing an insight into the marketing management of the Common
Wealth Bank of Australia. It is a multinational bank of Australia having business across Asia,
New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States. It provided various financial services that
included business and institutional banking, retail and fund management, insurance,
superannuation, broking and investment services. It is one of the largest Australian Bank to be
listed in the Australian Securities Exchange. The bank was found in the year 1911 by Australian
government which was completely privatized in the year 1996. The initial global headquarters of
the Commonwealth Bank were located in Commonwealth Trading Bank Building in corner of
the Pitt Street and the Martin Place which later shifted to the Tower 1, Sussex Street located in
the western side of the city centre of Sydney. The report commences with an insight into the
mission, vision, value statement, orientation to marketing and description of products. The report
also provides a discussion on the analysis of 5Cs of the organization which includes company,
customers, collaborators, competitors and context. There is also discussion about the ways the
firm collected information in reference to the customer want, competitors posing threat, change
of business context and the role of the collaborators in the play process. The report also describes
the marketing strategy of the organization along with a discussion of the marketing techniques.

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Introduction:
The aim of the report is to provide an overview of the marketing management of
Common Wealth Bank of Australia which is one of the largest amongst the four banks existing
in Australia (commbank.com.au 2019).
Discussion:
Description of the Organization:
Commonwealth Bank of Australia represents a multinational Australian bank that also
has business across United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Asia. It is considered one
of the largest Australian Bank with listings on the Australian Securities Exchange. The bank
commenced in the year 1911 by the Australian government and remained completely privatized
in 1996. The mission of the bank lies in enhancing the wealth and fulfilling the life of the
customers while the vision lies in being a significant and respected business partner providing
financial service in Australia (commbank.com.au 2019). The value statement of the institution
lies in being confident, comfortable, elegant and prestigious (commbank.com.au 2019). Common
Wealth Bank of Australia helps in getting more out of the life. In order to ensure this, the bank
believes in following innovation, forward thinking and a reliable strategy thereby adhering to the
principles of the good banking that included stronger capitalization, liquidity, diversification of
risk, conservative policies of lending, investment within the service delivery channels and
orientation of the customer experience.
As far as orientation towards marketing is concerned, it plays a key role in defining the
business at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. This is because marketing helps in driving insight
and value across the business border (Kane et al. 2014). The chief marketing director at the

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Common Wealth Bank of Australia connects the brand strategy with the business strategy
thereby pulling the marketing rights into business.
The chief marketing director further mentioned that the role of marketing lies in adding
value to the business. This does not necessarily mean rebranding but how the marketing team
harness the changes in the new tools especially the digital and the data (Lovelock and Patterson
2015). This also provides insight to the business and helps them in driving the business value.
Marketing also help Common Wealth of Bank of Australia in meeting the increasing customer
expectations by focusing on the innovation through the usage of technology thereby
communicating with the customers as and when it worked for them.
Marketing also optimized adoption of the initiatives of the various product innovations in
the market launched in the past twelve months. A key example in this regard has been the
success of the cardless cash that saw an extraordinary adoption in the three weeks. This
convinced the bank in knowing that they got the messages clear, right and delivered through
right tools for helping the bankers in explaining it to the customers. Thus, the contribution of
marketing remains increasingly valued and the bank has separate team of marketers at the
different business levels who deal with the products at the various levels via the digital channels.
The products of the bank include, bank accounts, credit cards, insurance, home loan,
personal loan, superannuation, insurance, travel and the business products (commbank.com.au,
2019). The bank accounts mostly include the savings bank account that includes the savings
bank account and term deposits and the everyday accounts. The credit cards are available in
four varieties, low rate credit cards, low fee credit cards, business credit cards and award credit
card for the purpose of day to day shopping. The bank also allows personal loan that includes

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fixed rate loan, secured car loan and the variable rate loan. The home loan facilities of the bank
are flexible suiting the needs of the customers. The superannuation facilities of the bank help
customers in taking control of their future through allocated pensions, investment growth bonds
and guaranteed annuities. The travel products of the bank include the travel money card, travel
insurance and the foreign cash. As far as the business products are concerned, the bank provides
insight, expertise, financial and technology solutions in helping the business.
The marketing strategy plays a key role in increasing the sales of the company both in the
short term and the long term (Baker 2014). In other words, marketing strategy plays a key role in
preparing the product for the purpose of sale and the role of sustaining the sales of the product.
From the traditional perspective, marketing strategy is defined by taking cue from the product
policy, placement policy, pricing policy and the promotional policy. From the particular
perspective, the marketing effort is thus a long term investment that brings the company and the
client together for the benefit of both. The marketing value represents sum of the present and the
future profits.
As far as the role of the brand in marketing strategy is concerned, it can be said that
brand represent those features of product like pride, fame and affiliation passed on the client the
moment they make a purchase. Branding is however vital for marketing activities of the bank as
it delivers a clear message, leads to creation of user loyalty, helps in emotionally connecting the
target prospects with the product, motivates buyer in buying and confirms the credibility (Buil,
De Chernatony and Martínez 2013).
Analysis of 5Cs of the Organization

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As far as the company is concerned, Commonwealth Bank is Australia's leading
provider of integrated financial services including retail, premium, business and institutional
banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, investment and share-broking products
and services. The bank was found under Commonwealth Bank Act of 1911 commencing
operations in the year 1912 that empowered it in conducting both the savings and the general
business of banking. The bank has grown to become a business that served closer to 15.9 million
clients, employed 48,900 people and had over 800,000 shareholders (commbank.com.au 2019).
The bank offers complete range of the financial services for securing and enhancing financial
well being of the communities and the business. The bank has international branches across Asia,
Europe, New Zealand and North America.
The customers of the banks include the people and the business holding an account with
the bank. These might include the resident and the non-resident individuals, partnership firms,
joint stock companies, clubs, associations, societies and trust accounts (commbank.com.au
2019).
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has signed a collaboration agreement for
supporting flow of the fintech innovation between United Kingdom (UK) and Australia. The
collaboration agreement would be used for attracting and targeting fintech investment in
Australia and assist the fintech companies of Australia in accessing UK market (austrade.gov.au ,
2019). The agreement would be used for targeting and attracting the fintech investment to
Australia and assisting these companies in accessing the UK market. The collaboration will help
in supporting introduction of the Australian and the fintech companies of UK looking for
establishment in the either market. It supports trade missions from Australia and UK. The
collaboration allowed provision of the temporary space in the innovation lab with access to the

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UK and the European networks. In other words, these collaborations benefited not only the
Australian but the fintech firms of UK. The collaboration gave the Australian firm the
opportunity of accessing latest fintech in the Commonwealth Bank’s innovation lab thereby
immersing them in the one of the largest fintech market of the world while the UK companies
might tap into the expertise of Australia through the networking sessions.
The key competitors of Commonwealth Bank competitors which include ANZ, AMP,
Westpac, NAB, Suncorp, Tuxedo Money Solutions , Reed Expositions France and Accountrex
(Mccauley 2015).
However, the factors affecting the organization include the political, economic, social
and technological. The political factors that impact the organization are the resource allocation
of the government and the time scale, taxation policies, influence of the local governments,
governance system and the changing policies of the newer government (Rickards, Wiseman and
Kashima 2014). The economic factors include conditions of the labor market, interest, exchange
and taxation rate, inflation rate, consumer disposable income and the economic performance
(Ngo and O'cass 2013). The social factors that impacts the operation of the organization include
norms, societal rules and culture, safety and health attitudes, acceptance of the entrepreneurial
spirit, gender roles, traditions, demographics and the attitude towards the specific products,
services and the leisure interest(Adapa and Cooksey 2013). The technological factors however
includes innovation in the customer services, disruption of the supply chain due to the presence
of technology, having access to greater information, innovation in the product offerings, rate of
change driven by technology, population access to the technology, access to the empowerment
driven by mobile phones(Sila 2013). Nevertheless, there also exist legal factors that influence
the working of the organization. Some of the legal factors that the bank needs to consider for

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entering into the international market include the protection of intellectual property rights, laws
of data protection, system of the justice, biasedness towards the home players, copyright law,
discrimination law and the time taken for delivery of justice (Cavusgil et al. 2014).
Collection of Information:
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has a research team that undertakes collection of
information related to market intelligence and market research. They primarily provide
information on commentaries, forecasts, analysis, updates, strategy and analysis on the foreign
exchange and the market. They also put forward views, market calls and recommendations of
trade on the global currency markets.
Commonwealth Bank derives information related to the customer want either through
survey, trials run on the bank software, online monitoring through social media or survey
conducted through the mobile app. Nothing compares to the traditional way of survey where the
bank is able to gets a closer insight about the likes and dislikes of the client. Social media
platforms like the Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and LinkedIn offers distinctive
channels for the bank for gathering the consumer insights into the real time (Sarstedt and Mooi
2014).
Banks like that of Commonwealth Bank of Australia finds themselves competing for the
customers. There are myriad of options that remain available to the customers to derive
information about everything from the standard banking services to the investment management
and therefore, the financial institutions should be informed about the competition along with an
in depth understanding of what attracted the customers and made them stick to it happily. It is
just not sufficient in gathering the raw data but banks also needs to understand connection

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between the various data points in order to generate baselines along with the patterns and trends
to be remain proactive in the responses and know the actions that would result in the desired
outcomes. In other words, insights to the valuable customers act as a vital aspect for the modern
financial institutions.
Intelligent market research will provide information about the competitors that poses
as the threat. Some of the key competitors of Commonwealth Bank are Westpac, ANZ and AMP.
Westpac has been one of the key competitors of the bank and generates close to $18.4 billion
revenue more than the Commonwealth Bank. ANZ is also another competitor of Commonwealth
Bank but has fewer employees compared to the Commonwealth Bank. AMP is another rival to
the Commonwealth Bank but it generates $ 13.4 billion less revenue compared to the
Commonwealth Bank (ibisworld.com.au 2019).
Information about the context of changing business of the Commonwealth Bank
depends on the wide range of the quantitative survey of close to 2,195 decision makers, business
owners and managers conducted on the behalf of Commonwealth Bank by the DBM consultants
between August and September in the year 2016 (commbank.com.au, 2019). The participants
have been drawn from various businesses across Australia having annual turnover of about $
500,000 and minimum of two employees. The survey have been designed for benchmarking the
performance innovation of each of the business, identification of the key motivations and the
drivers influencing the performance along with highlighting the best practice. The bank also
interviewed number of customers for providing qualitative perspective on the innovation.
It has been a pivotal moment for the Australian business in harnessing power of the
innovation as the nation transitioned away from the mining and the resource led economy to

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service and knowledge led economy (commbank.com.au 2019). The unprecedented
advancements in technology and science and digital revolution across the globe in the recent
years brought about a change in the business landscape. These disruptive forces are able to
deliver social and economic benefits to the business that claims to be at the forefront of such
changes. The reality lies in managers and leaders still remaining in the stage of deriving an
understanding of the innovation pathway that remains relevant to sustainability and growth. This
includes practical means of leveraging the innovation for benefit of the business and the
customers.
The information on the role of the collaborators can be derived through effective market
research by undertaking a survey. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s new collaboration
with Austrade has supported flow of the fintech innovation between the UK and the Australia.
The role of the collaborators showed how Australia immensely dynamic markets for the fintech.
In a matter of close to five years, Australian saw creation of active and healthy fintech sector
from extremely lower base of close to US $51 million of the fintech investment in the year 2012
to about US$600 million in the year 2016. The agreement with Austrade assists innovators, start
ups, entrepreneurs and scale ups for accessing the range of the overseas innovation
(commbank.com.au 2019).
Development of Marketing Strategy
The target market of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been professionals,
executives, managers and the business people who remain accomplished in the fields. The target
market also involves people from upper middle and the upper class, native Australians and
various businesses (commbank.com.au, 2019).

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The value proposition for the target market has been the enhanced rewards and the
loyalty program for the existing and the new customers (commbank.com.au 2019). The bank
puts across two key award program, the first remains in the ability of accruing and redeeming the
flyer points for the travel while the other enables the clients in earning points for redeeming of
gifts such as the home appliance, departmental and supermarket store petrol vouchers and the
gift cards. Besides, corporate clients can opt for the enrolment in the award schemes due to the
fringe benefits of the tax implications for the employees.
The positioning statement of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is concerned, the
bank portrays itself as one of the socially responsible provider of financial service with passion
towards the community (21). It is a bank that is able to realize the bigger picture. It is also the
bank that remains dedicated towards offering the business and the retail customers an avenue or
an alternative for giving back to the community group or the elected cause.
Development of the marketing Tactics
The marketing mix of the Commonwealth Bank would comprise of the 7 Ps (product,
price, place, promotion, process, people and the physical evidence that support the bank’s
marketing strategy.
The product of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia would include offering the
customers huge variety of products and services that included credit cards, loans, transactions
and the savings account. Having one of the biggest ATM network the bank can also offer
services to the people who plans in moving outside Australia. The bank might also provide the
retail banking service, wealth management along with premium business service.

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As far as the price is concerned, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia can step up the
discount along with reinstating them in a clear manner for demonstrating the aggressive policy
for pricing. The bank could capture the market for the home loan through pressurizing the net
margins of the interest by putting forward bigger packages of discounts. In this regard, the
company could become increasingly competitive the home loans through the adoption of the
barbell strategy of pricing. This would also enable them in having cheapest Effective Annual
Rate (EAR) thereby directing an indication towards both the bigger and the smaller loans.
In regard to the price, it can be said that the Commonwealth Bank might have a
worldwide presence for catering to the financial needs of the customers. The is because, the bank
have retail banks in New Zealand, Indonesia and China but also have branches in the New York
City, Singapore, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Auckland and India. The bank’s initiation of the
state fund management business have been mostly in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji,
China, Indonesia and London with representative offices in Shanghai, Hanoi, India and Beijing.
As far as the promotions are concerned, the advertisements and the presence in social
media of the Commonwealth Bank would act as the basic promotional strategies. This is because
the partnership of the bank with Cricket Australia has the ability of reaching the broader
demographic by sponsoring both the Women and the Men Australian teams and the test series.
The campaign put across by Commonwealth Bank Cricket Club is one of the biggest campaigns
that differentiate the bank with accessible and positive message from rest of the market. Besides,
the bank also focuses on the content strategy through using the social media platform like
Facebook.
As far as the people are concerned, the bank is able to ensure successful relationship with
the partners of the external merchandize, other premium service and the loyalty program thereby

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helping the customers in anchoring the brand. The bank might also undertake leadership and
talent programs for having excellent professionals in the team.
The process followed by the Commonwealth Bank implies that the service team does not
stick to branch interactions or traditional phone instead it put forward services mostly driven by
innovation thereby catering to the customer needs through the multi-channel network for
distribution. The bank also respond to the real time enquires of the banking through means of the
Facebook wall. Commonwealth Bank of Australia allowed the customers in paying one another
in Facebook through the use of the iphone applications.
To portray its physical evidence, the Commonwealth Bank launched the Tap and the Pay
app that claims in changing the manner in which the Australian made payment. The bank also
introduced wealth management tools and had branches across all the length and the breadth of
Australia. Besides, the bank also has a user friendly website that provides access to the banking
service.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, one can say that Commonwealth Bank is not only the largest and
the most renowned Australian bank but it also remains committed towards efficiency of the
services to the customers. In fact, it is quite visible from the report that CBA provides smoother
and efficient service to the customers that help in establishing a better relationship with the
customers. The bank also implemented completely functional technology that helped on
sustaining the achievement of the company.

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