BUS104 Marketing Report: Strategic SWOT Analysis of Commonwealth Bank

This marketing report presents a SWOT analysis of the Commonwealth Bank, examining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The analysis identifies the bank's strong market presence across multiple countries, its diverse service offerings, and significant wealth accumulation as key strengths, while recent controversies and potential economic downturns are highlighted as weaknesses and threats. Opportunities include leveraging advanced technologies, expanding service offerings, and penetrating new markets. The report recommends targeting the retail sector with new products and services, focusing on non-customers and young consumers through direct marketing. It also suggests implementing a marketing mix strategy encompassing product development, competitive pricing, strategic placement, and effective promotion to enhance the bank's market position and revenue generation. This report is available for students on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources.

Running head: REPORT WRITING
MARKETING REPORT OF COMMONWEALTH BANK
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

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Executive Summary:
The purpose of this Marketing Report is to analyse the present marketing condition of the
Commonwealth Bank. A SWOT analysis analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats of the bank and identifies the key aspects of the bank. The SWOT analysis is done
in order to understand the variety of internal and external objectives before launching a new
service. This helps the bank to cater to the variety of economic markets and the needs of a
diverse population spread across the different continents. The marketing analyses the viability
of the new product and its ability to survive in the market and its potentiality to increase the
profits of the Commonwealth Bank.

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Table of Contents
Section 1: Introduction and Background....................................................................................4
1.1 Purpose of SWOT analysis:.............................................................................................4
1.2 Organization Background:...............................................................................................4
Section 2: SWOT analysis.........................................................................................................6
Strengths:............................................................................................................................6
Weaknesses:.......................................................................................................................7
Opportunities:.....................................................................................................................7
Threats:...............................................................................................................................8
Section 3: Recommendation......................................................................................................9
3.1 Target Market:..................................................................................................................9
3.2 New Product/ Services:..................................................................................................10
3.2 Marketing Mix:..............................................................................................................11
Product:............................................................................................................................11
Price:................................................................................................................................11
Place:................................................................................................................................12
Promotion:........................................................................................................................12
Section 4: Conclusion and Recommendation..........................................................................12
Reference:................................................................................................................................14

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Section 1: Introduction and Background
1.1 Purpose of SWOT analysis:
SWOT analysis is essential for the understanding of the strengths, weakness,
opportunity and threats of a company. The analysis is done in a framework, which
determines the internal aspects of an organization and categorizes them accordingly into
the strengths and weaknesses of a business (Kajanus et al. 2012). The second part of the
analysis involves the understanding of the external aspects of the business, which are
influenced by the internal aspects. These external aspects are categorised into the
opportunities and threats of the business accordingly. These categorizations help the
managers of the firm to understand the potentiality and the impact of a new product or
service that the organization wants to launch. It can also help the management understand
the level of success that can be gained from the new product or services. The failure to
properly identify the external and internal aspects of the business can lead to failure of the
business operations in the future (Braemer and Gischer 2012). In this discussion, the
company to be discussed is Commonwealth Bank, which is one of the largest banks to be
listed in the Australian Stock Exchange. The Commonwealth Bank operates in different
countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Asia, USA and UK. Being spread across such a
huge market it is essential for the bank to perform a SWOT analysis in order to
understand the variety of internal and external objectives before launching a new service.
This will help the bank to cater to the variety of economic markets and the needs of a
diverse population spread across the different continents.
1.2 Organization Background:
The Commonwealth Bank is an Australian bank which operates as a multinational
organization and is spread across the different continents having significant presence in

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the markets of Australia, New Zealand, Asia, USA and the UK. The bank was established
by the Australian government in 1911 and has since then become one of the largest banks
in Australia. The Commonwealth Bank has its headquarters in Darling Harbour, Sydney
and was privatised in 1996.
The Commonwealth provides a number of services for its customers and looks after
various financial needs of the customer. The Retail sector of the Commonwealth Bank
looks after the different financial services that are specific for the personal customers or
for customers who operate small businesses (Shamsuddin and Xiang 2012). The bank has
Premium Business Services, which specifically looks after the financial requirements of
two types of customers, who are primarily institutional customers in the global market
and the business customers who are involved in private banking. The Commonwealth
bank provides a wealth management service to the customers, which is an assortment of a
variety of services such as group financial management, master funds, insurance advises
and advanced financial support for business management.
The Commonwealth Bank has the largest accumulation of wealth among its main
competitors and has a successful presence in several countries directly through its
branches or through banking investments and tie-ups with local banks (Sheridan and Jang
2012).
Section 2: SWOT analysis
Strengths Weakness
 The bank operates in different
countries such as New Zealand,
Australia, Asian countries, USA and
UK.
 The bank is the largest bank to be
listed in the Australian Stock
Exchange.
 The bank provides a variety of
services such as consumer banking,
 The bank has been involved in a
number of controversies in the
recent past.

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insurance service, corporate
banking, wealth management
services and investment banking.
 The bank has the largest wealth
accumulation and has large revenues
to support its profit
 The bank has a strong army of a
large number of employees.
Opportunities Threats
 The bank can implement the use of
advanced technologies in its banking
services.
 The bank can develop new services,
which can help to interact more with
the customers and mend the
relationships.
 The bank should expand in more
markets to increase their operations
in different countries.
 The investors can affect the
activities of the bank and it can harm
the profits.
 The global economic crises can
affect the banks growth as it can lead
to the decline in the revenues.
 The bank can be affected due to
global events such as the fall in the
foreign exchange rates.
 The bank can face financial crisis
due to the non-payment of loans by
the defaulters.
Strengths:
The Commonwealth bank has its operations in different countries such as Australia,
New Zealand, several Asian countries, USA and UK (Commbank.com.au 2018). This large
market has provided the bank with a large customer base and helped the bank to generate a
large amount of revenue. Investments from different sectors and markets has helped the bank
to profit more and become one of the largest banks in Australia.
The Commonwealth bank has a strong brand value, as it is the largest banking
organization to be enlisted in the Australian Stock Exchange. Moreover, the Commonwealth
Bank has been operating in the banking sector for more than a century, which has made it a
first preference for the customers.
Another strength of the bank lies in the fact that it provides a large number of services
for the customers. The services, which range from retail banking to commercial banking,
wealth accumulation, investment assistance and insurance advice helps the bank to cater to a

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variety of customers. This also helps the bank to have a large market share (Abubakar and
Tasmin 2012).
The bank has the largest wealth accumulation among its competitors and is the largest
among the other banks in Australia. According to Statista, in 2017, Commonwealth Bank
reported to have wealth amounting to 978 billion Australian dollars, which is almost 100
billion more than its nearest competitor ANZ Banking.
Figure 1: Wealth accumulation of Australian banks (Source: Statista)
Weaknesses:
The Commonwealth Bank has been involved in several controversies in the recent
past regarding financial issues such as frauds and defaulters. These controversies have dealt a
severe blow to the bank’s image and reputation. These controversies had been reported
worldwide in different global and local newspapers, which dealt a huge blow to the
company’s image.
Opportunities:
The bank has the opportunity of implementing advanced technology for better
customer operations. The customers can have more user-friendly services and can have more

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satisfying experiences, which can be favourable for the building of the bank’s reputation
(Schlagwein, Thorogood and Willcocks 2014). Moreover, the use of technologies can make
the banking operations swifter and help to do more work in a shorter period.
The bank already has a large number of services for the benefits of the customers.
However, to survive in the highly competitive market, the bank has to introduce newer
services in order to gain an upper hand over the competitors (Baptista and Oliveira 2015).
Moreover, these new services can draw more customers, which is favourable for the bank’s
revenue generation and accumulation of more wealth.
The Commonwealth Bank has an active presence in some of the major countries in
the world, which lets it to get a significant number of customers. However, in order to
increase and develop itself, the bank has the opportunity to establish itself in other countries
and capture newer markets (Joshi et al. 2013). The bank already has a good reputation due to
its long tenure in the market. This aspect can help the bank to gain a significant number of
customers in the new market and increase the market shares. This can help to increase the
bank’s revenues and increase the profits.
Threats:
The Commonwealth Bank has its operations in several countries, which enables it to
deal with several economies. This aspect also poses a threat to the bank as the economic
conditions of those countries can directly influence the bank. The financial crisis of certain
economies can influence its investors to draw back from the system (Ayub et al. 2013). This
aspect can negatively affect the bank and harm its revenues.
The bank can be directly harmed by the foreign exchanges of the different economies.
The fall in the exchange rates can cause the depreciation of the bank’s revenue generation
and cause a decline in the profits.

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The bank’s primary business depends upon the loans to the customers. However, the
major threat the bank faces from the loan structure is the defaulters. The defaulters may go
bankrupt due to financial crisis and this can lead to the inability to repay the loan. This
system can bring down immense loss upon the bank’s wealth accumulation and directly harm
the bank’s profits (Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills 2016).
Section 3: Recommendation
3.1 Target Market:
The Commonwealth Bank can target the retail sector as a new area to invest upon.
The banks are already known for producing huge loans to business organizations to help them
grow and develop. The huge amount of money involved in these lending system helps the
banks to gain larger amounts of profits from the interests gained. These has always been a
successful market for the bank and has helped them to significantly develop over the years.
However, the business sector is a saturated market and every other banks focus on that sector
to focus on its growth and development (Yan et al. 2014). However, in order to gain an
additional success, the Commonwealth bank has to target a new market. This new market can
be the retail sector of the personal banking, which comprises of the single customers who use
the banking services for their day to day use.
There are certain market segments in this sector, which the Commonwealth Bank can
target in order, achieve their target. The bank can involve in direct marketing activities in
order to draw the attention of the new customers. The bank has a large prospect as it can
directly reach out to a large number of customers at the same time.
The target market can involve a number of sectors for the launch of their new
products. The primary target can be the non-customers. The non-customers include the
customers of the other banks. Luring these customers can be very beneficial for the bank’s

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growth as it will lead to the enhancement of the bank’s market share. The direct banking
customers can bring in their large investments from the other banks to the Commonwealth
Bank, which will significantly affect the bank’s growth in terms of wealth accumulation. The
second type of customers that the bank can target are the young consumers who have been
involved in the banking sector but will soon be involved. Direct marketing and popularising
the new products can help the young consumers to be directly attracted to the new offers that
are provided by the Commonwealth Bank.
3.2 New Product/ Services:
In the modern competitive market, it is essential for the Commonwealth Bank to
devise some new products for the targeted market, which can help the bank to draw more
customers. The targeted segment, which includes the customers of other banks and the young
customers need access to some product, which can be available at a very low price.
One of the prime product that the Commonwealth Bank can launch for the benefit of
the targeted market is an instant car loan service, which can be named ‘Car at your Wish’.
The product can involve a direct customer experience and engagement scheme, which can
help the bank to involve more number of customers in a very short period of time. The car
loan scheme can use advanced mobile technology to provide unique experience to the
customers regarding car loans. This service involves the customer directly from the time the
customer books the car to the time the car is delivered to the customer. The service is an
amalgamated operation of the various processes involved during a car purchase. These
involves the registration for the car loan, the insurance for the car, obtaining of the license
and assistance for breakdown.
This process can help in the proper payment of the car loans in a very easy manner
and reduce the fraud cases involving the non-payment by defaulters. The mobile technology
that can be used in this process is the block-chain technology, which provides more security

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analysis at every step of the process (Yli-Huumo et al. 2016). The process becomes faster and
tighter which becomes helpful for both the customer and the seller. The bank profits from
every step of the service and the reduction in the frauds helps in the sustainability of the
resources of both the bank and the government.
Moreover, in normal car loans, the customers faces a series of checks and security
procedures. However, in this process, as the system checks at every step, the customer
experience becomes more hassle-free. An additional achievement of this product is the lower
interest rates, which can draw a large number of customers to engage in with this system to
buy a car.
3.2 Marketing Mix:
The Marketing Mix of the Commonwealth Bank analyses the marketing strategy of
the bank in the concept of the 7Ps, which involves the Product, Price, Place, Promotion,
People, Processes and Physical evidence (Khan 2014). The discussion highlights the
usefulness of the product, the affordability of the prices involved and the different marketing
and advertising strategies used by the bank.
Product:
Commonwealth Bank offers the new car loan service ‘Car at your Wish’ that is an
integrated service and can help the customer with a number of services that are involved
during the purchase of a car. The service allows the customer assistance in booking the car,
purchasing, registration and licensing (Chikweche and Fletcher 2012).
Price:
The Commonwealth Bank keeps the charges required for the services at a very low
rate, which makes it very affordable for the customers who are not ready to pay large

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amounts for the services. Moreover, the interest rate for the car loans should be kept at a very
low rate, which encourages a lot of young customers to purchase cars using this car loan
service. At the same time, the lower rates can also draw a large number of customers of other
banks to the Commonwealth Bank to avail the service of the new car loan system.
Place:
Commonwealth bank has a global presence in many major cities of the world.
Moreover, the high value of the market shares and the dominant presence of the
Commonwealth Bank in its respective markets make the bank’s services available to a large
number of customers (Hanssens et al. 2014). The presence of the bank at strategic places will
also help them for proper marketing. The scheme will be available at all the bank branches
and it will be also available online.
Promotion:
The Commonwealth Bank can use the different physical and online media to promote
its new product to the different target customer segments (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang
2012). Promotion along the social networking sites and the online websites can help the bank
to reach out to a large number of young customers who are the primary targets of the bank for
the promotion of the new product.
People:
The Commonwealth Bank has a large number of employees who can help the
customers to make the right choice while choosing the right plan for the car loan (Chikweche
and Fletcher 2012).
Processes:

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The process of the car loan is a hassle free method, where the customer can easily
access the loan. Moreover, the payment system is also flexible which allows easy processing
for the customer (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang 2012).
Physical Evidence:
The bank has prepared brochures and online templates to explain the plan in detail, so
that the customers become aware of the primary aspects of the plan and can opt without any
doubt (Hanssens et al. 2014).
Section 4: Conclusion and Recommendation
The above discussion highlights some of the key aspects regarding the business
analysis of the Commonwealth Bank. The SWOT analysis highlights the key aspects of the
bank, which includes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis helps
in the identification of the present market standing of the Commonwealth Bank. The Bank
has been operating for more than a century and has a reputation of being the largest
Australian Bank. Moreover, its global presence across some of the major cities in the world
has helped the bank to gain prominence in the global market. This aspect helps the bank to
reach out to a large number of customers and provide them new products, which can help
them with financial assistance. The marketing analyses the viability of the new product and
its ability to survive in the market and its potentiality to increase the profits of the
Commonwealth Bank.

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