Digital Marketing Strategies of HSBC: A Case Study Analysis

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DIGITAL MARKETING
DIGITAL MARKETING
(A case study of HSBC)
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DIGITAL MARKETING
Executive Summary
Digital marketing ensures to provide the customers with the products and services via online
channels. In the past few decades, the concept has changed to large extents, and the people prefer
to shop online rather than offline means. The summary of the discussions made in this report is
to determine the benchmark up to which HSBC has applied digital marketing trend in their
business process. From the discussions, it can be found that digital landscapes such as AI and
Chatbots can be included in the digital marketing trend. Moreover, it can also be noticed that the
digital campaign has increased customer attraction to a large extent. From the discussions made
in the later section of the report, it has been found that the company has successfully managed to
improve the digital customer services using bricks and mortar and Neiman Marcus. Moreover,
the various phases in which the company has developed the e-commerce channel and
omnichannel marketing platforms have been precisely discussed.
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DIGITAL MARKETING
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Company background......................................................................................................................5
Task 1: Opportunities, challenges and impact of the digital environment......................................6
P1: Digital marketing landscape..................................................................................................6
Comparison of online and offline marketing concepts................................................................7
P2: The key consumer trends.......................................................................................................8
Insights that are fuelling the growth of digital marketing...........................................................9
Task 2: Key digital tools, platforms and channels.........................................................................11
P3: The key digital tools and hardware in contrast to ‘bricks and mortar’ and other physical
channels.....................................................................................................................................11
P4: Development of e-commerce and digital marketing platforms and channels in comparison
to physical channels...................................................................................................................12
Task 3: Organizing digital marketing activities and building multi-channel................................15
P5: Digital marketing plan and strategy to build multi-channel capabilities.............................15
P6: Evolution of omnichannel marketing..................................................................................17
Task 4: Methods of monitoring and measuring digital marketing effectively..............................18
P7: Measurement techniques and performance metrics in digital marketing............................18
P8: Actions to improve performance in digital marketing........................................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................23
Appendices....................................................................................................................................27
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DIGITAL MARKETING
Introduction
In the globalizing era where the involvement of social media platforms and social advertisement
is increasing, the competition among the firms and enterprises are also developing considerably.
This is due to the fact that people are being engaged in social media platforms to a large extent.
In regards to digital marketing, the concept is also increasing day-by-day.
The digital marketing platforms are not limited to the social media advertisement rather the
social blogs, websites and online publication of annual reports, books and journals are also
included within it. The concept of display advertisement and involving people by means of
exclusive offers and discounts also has been seen as one of the greatest wands to gain the
attraction of the customers.
There are several tools such as search engine optimization, search engine marketing and content
marketing that enhances the digital marketing process in a very effective manner. In this report,
discussions have been maxes based on four major tasks that completely highlight the various
norms of digital marketing. In the first two tasks, a precise discussion has been made on the
opportunities, challenges and digital marketing tools that could be used in practicing digital
marketing.
In the latter two tasks, discussions provide a clear understanding of the various ways that can
influence the multichannel capabilities of digital marketing and the ways in which the digital
marketing process can be measured. The main aim of this reports us to relate the digital
marketing trend with the business culture of HSBC. Relating the digital marketing trend with the
working culture of the financial .industry will help the leaders to understand the ways in which
digital marketing can be used in these sectors. How social media platforms and digital marketing
tools can be used in the company will also be assessed by the end of this research report.
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Company background
HSBC is the seventh largest economic and financial service providing company, with its
headquarter in Canary Wharf, London. As per the recent records of the company, it has gained
US$2.558T asset in the last financial year.
The company holds around 3,900 offices in around 67 companies that share its border in around
all the continents including Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.
There are four main business groups that are recently being practiced in the company which are,
commercial banking, retail banking, global banking and marketing and global private banking
(Armstrong et al. 2015).
The company has been working very well in terms of digital marketing. Appointing new talented
and skillful individuals, provide them a new platform for sustain innovation and it leads the
company to a new globalizing era, which are being highly brush up with the digital marketing
trend (Buchanan et al. 2017).
In the following sections, the digital marketing trends, that the company is following and the
ways in which it can improve its digital marketing criteria, has been discussed precisely. This
assessment also leads the readers to understand the challenges, opportunities and impact that the
firm may face due to the social media marketing practices (Baltes 2015).
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DIGITAL MARKETING
Task 1: Opportunities, challenges and impact of the digital environment
P1: Digital marketing landscape
The digital marketing landscape is the constantly developing the stage of digital platforms to
increase the business profit. In the current financial year, the latest marketing landscape includes
social media marketing, pay-per-click advertisement, influencer marketing, artificial intelligence,
chatbots and live videos (Buchanan et al. 2018). All these means help the business culture to
reach the audience easily and effectively. Following are some of the main digital marketing
landscapes that could enhance the digital marketing practices of HSBC:
 Artificial Intelligence: Software such as AlphaGo, Cyc and Libratus can be used by the
firm, which would enhance the calculation and financial decision-making process easier.
The work distribution process shall also get easier by the use of Libratus, as the
information would be segregated according to the resources and capabilities among
various departments (Chaffey and Smith 2017).
 Chatbots: With the help of artificial intelligence and NLP, HSBC can include
conversation assistance to the customers. This would increase the convenience of the
people to use the application. Until now, no such services have been implemented by any
financial and economical service providing companies round the globe (Crittenden and
Crittenden 2015).
 Local Influencer Marketing: In order to penetrate new target markets, the firm can
include this digital marketing landscape as their tool. With the help of local influencer
marketing, the company would be able to determine the percentage of the population
using a bank account, loans and other financial services in a particular area. The local
market trends, the country’s GDP, and finance fluctuation can also be determined
(Crittenden and Crittenden 2015).
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Comparison of online and offline marketing concepts
The various aspects of online and offline digital marketing and their noticeable differences are
provided below:
Measures Online marketing Offline marketing
Cost Online marketing involves the
development of websites with
search engine optimization or
search engines. Therefore, for
online marketing, the
companies need to share less
amount of money as compared
to offline trends (Refer to
Appendix 1)
For offline marketing, the
expenses are needed to be
boring via several means such
as newspapers, radio and
televisions. Therefore, the cost
would be comparatively much
higher than online marketing.
Moreover, rents, salaries and
stock maintenance shall also be
included within it.
Exposure In the online digital marketing,
one can sell products even
without having a huge stock or
godown. Even without
organizing local outlets, the
products can be sold
internationally with the help of
online digital marketing.
Offline marketing has its own
limitations, stocks, godowns are
needed to present. Moreover, it
also does not promise to give
optimum exposure (Dodson
2016).
Convenience In online business marketing,
people can buy products or visit
the website anytime, anywhere.
Whereas, for offline business
marketing, customers can buy
goods only when the store is
open.
Personalization With the help of online digital
marketing, the purchase history
of the customers can be tracked
easily, and a specific category
For offline physical shops, it
seems to be impossible to retain
customers and track their
purchase trend. It is possible
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of product can be offered to
specific customers.
only in small business firms.
Table 1: Comparison of online and offline marketing concepts
(Source: Heinze et al. 2017)
P2: The key consumer trends
Based on the cultural differences and community preferences, the needs and demands of the
customers vary to a large extent in the global market. However, there are still some common
marketing trends, those customers of all community and classes seek from their retailers
(Järvinen and Karjaluoto 2015). In regards to the finance and banking industry, the recent trends
of the customer preferences from 2018 for HSBC have been discussed below:
 Expansion in the use of data and analysis: As per the records of Forbes for the
financial industry, the development in the data and analysis enhanced to 68% from last
decade. In the UK market, the technical stability of the people can be a great opportunity
for HSBC to include AI and real-time intelligent data integration. This would make the
customers to analyses the cognitive computing in the firm, effectively (Järvinen and
Taiminen 2016).
 Prefer updated legacy in the operation system: Company transparency and legacy are
the greatest operating systems trend, which has increased to a huge extent in the last few
years. People prefer to opt for the companies that have clear terms and conditions, better
market records and better competitive advantages. In regard to HSBC, the firm can
involve their terms and conditions and mail their customers about the updated legacy and
term. This would make the customers rely upon the company's policy, readily (Kannan,
2017).
 Integrated multichannel delivery: It has been seen that customers prefer to opt for the
companies, which have précised delivery channel. In regards to the financial industry, the
banks that have easier loan generation process or a huge amount of money can be
credited at a time, are preferred by the customers. Though these facilities are practiced in
HSBC very well, still, the number of active accounts is 34% lower than UBS. This is due
to the fact that UBS has launched API and open banking in its recent digital marketing
trend (Karjaluoto et al. 2015).
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DIGITAL MARKETING
Insights that are fuelling the growth of digital marketing
The concept of digital marketing has changed since the last decades. Online shopping and trends
are being mostly preferred by consumers than the offline physical store shopping. HSBC has
been working considerably to keep a track upon the changing digital marketing trends very well
(Kingsnorth 2016). Below stated are some of the main growth fuels that have changed the
concept of digital marketing in the present global era:
 Changing customer demands: The needs and demands of the customers for the
financial industry are changing to a rapid pace. People prefer easier and advanced
processes technically to carry out the transactions. In regards to this, simTRE, TDSMAN
and Mimo banking software are most preferred as per the records of 2018. For this
purpose, HSBC can involve customer ID verification Software and HRIS that will help
the management to keep track upon the payroll system and customer ID verification
before opening an account or applying for a loan from the bank (Kotler and Armstrong
2015).
 Developing technology: Prior to the present digital era, the conventional modes of
promotional techniques involved televisions, radio and newspaper. However, with the
current changed in the digital technology, the preferences of people also have changed
from televisions, newspapers to social media platforms, blogs, websites and search
engines. HSBC has successfully managed to maintain its digital media practice in the
globalizing trend. The firm organized a digital campaign that supported climate
partnership and Gold partnership to the last ICC World Cup. The entire budget of the
program cost $100m, which was much less than the cost that would have needed to
organize an offline campaign in such a huge platform (Kotler et al. 2015).
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Figure 1: Fuel of growing digital marketing
(Source: Yasmin et al. 2015)
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Fuel of
digital
marketing
AI &
Chatbots
Mobile
Digital
Marketing
Reviews
Interactive
Content
Growth
Hacking

DIGITAL MARKETING
Task 2: Key digital tools, platforms and channels
P3: The key digital tools and hardware in contrast to ‘bricks and mortar’ and other
physical channels
Bricks and mortar share the idea about the physical presence of a firm or organization. Various
tools and measures are suggested by the Bricks and Mortar principle. In this section, precise
discussions about the digital tools that are available to HSBC to increase their digital marketing
trends have been discussed (Kotler et al. 2016).
 Sensor data: Sensor data provides the user to locate the various departments within the
single branch. As an example beacon is the most used sensor data that is used in the
multinational companies. It provides the retailers to check how much time the customers
are spending in the firm and what products they are choosing. Once the central hub of the
branch is connected with the Bluetooth devices of the customers, they would be able to
navigate various sections with a single office. Almost all the branches of HSBC covers
large acres of area. Instead of providing physical services to the customers, Bluetooth
services can be provided to them (Lamberton and Stephen 2016).
 Cloud service: Cloud computing makes the computer system store and compute the
power directly for users without the participation of the direct active management. In
regards to HSBC, cloud-computing facilities are available to the customers. Involving
cloud computing services such as Google Drive or Microsoft Azure shall make the
customers use financial services more easily (Leite and Azevedo 2017).
 A quick change in the prices: The rapid and real-time change in the prices has the
companies to change the prices of the products rapidly depending upon the gross price
and competitive strategies. As an example, Walmart changes the prices of the products
around 50,000 times per month. This has been possible due to the availability of digital
signage software in Brick and Mortar (Levin 2017).
For a financial service providing company like HSBC, the use of price intelligence
software or dynamic pricing software would be most apt and appropriate. This would
provide the company to change its loan packages or interest rate as per the changing
valuation in the stock market or company’s GDP rate. By this, people would be able to
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get the latest loan services or maximum interest in the fixed deposit accounts (Levy and
Gvili 2015).
 Improving customer services: This service provides the customers to chat directly with
the company representatives check the online status, rates and reviews of the blogs and
visit the FAQ section. HSBC has successfully managed to make a partnership with
Neiman Marcus for this purpose (Oates et al. 2016). With the help of these services, the
customers are able to chat with the representatives in the nearest location and check the
current status of the stock market to relate it with the financial services of the company.
Figure 2: Key digital tools
(Source: Yadav et al. 2015)
P4: Development of e-commerce and digital marketing platforms and channels in
comparison to physical channels
Prior to digital development, the physical channels used to practice in the business cultures. It
used to involve televisions, radio and newspaper. People used to more stuck with a single
company because the availability of the substitutes was less and the trust issue was also there
(Patrutiu-Baltes 2016).
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Digital marketing tools
Omnichannel retail
Sensor data Cloud
Services
Artificial
intelligence
Facial
recognition