Marketing Strategies of Public Bank Berhad: A Corporate Banking Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the marketing strategies employed by Public Bank Berhad, with a specific focus on its corporate banking division. The report begins with an introduction to marketing and corporate banking, followed by an overview of Public Bank Berhad's organizational background, including its history, services, and competitors. The core of the report examines the bank's marketing approach, including STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) analysis, product orientation, value proposition, and differentiation strategies. The report also explores customer needs, purchasing behavior, and the competitive landscape, including Porter's Five Forces. The study reveals the bank's successful implementation of business strategies within the Malaysian market, highlighting the effectiveness of its corporate banking unit. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations.

Running head: MARKETING OF PUBLIC BANK BERHAD
Marketing of Public Bank Berhad
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1MARKETING OF PUBLIC BANK BERHAD
Executive Summary
Marketing is one of the significant parts of the business process that builds relationship between
the organisation, product and the customers. The process of marketing needs the understanding
of the value of the needs of each stakeholder involved. Marketing as considered by many is the
heart of the success of a business. Business banking, popularly known as Corporate banking is
the unit under a banking service that deals with the corporate customers. The service provided in
corporate banking is limited to the business organisation. Banking organisations under corporate
banking serves a diversified range of clients that ranges from small to medium local business to
large business organisations with billions of sales. Implementation of proper marketing strategy
becomes necessary for the success of the organisation. The study conducted on Public Bank
Berhad reflects that the bank has successfully implemented their business strategy that is serving
them well in the Malaysia market.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Corporate Banking...........................................................................................................................3
Organisational Background.............................................................................................................4
STP..................................................................................................................................................5
Segmentation................................................................................................................................5
Targeting......................................................................................................................................6
Positioning...................................................................................................................................7
Product Orientation..........................................................................................................................7
Value Proposition and Differentiation.............................................................................................8
Customer’s Need.............................................................................................................................9
Purchasing Behaviour....................................................................................................................10
Nature and level of Competition....................................................................................................11
Porter’s Five Forces...................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

3MARKETING OF PUBLIC BANK BERHAD
Introduction
Marketing is one of the significant parts of the business process that builds relationship
between the organisation, product and the customers. The process of marketing needs the
understanding of the value of the needs of each stakeholder involved. Marketing as considered
by many is the heart of the success of a business. Business in every industry has to work on their
marketing strategy for attracting greater number of customers. The overall business operation is
dependable and determined by the marketing strategy integrated in a business organisation. The
purpose of integrating marketing in a business is to spread the word out. In other words, the
importance of marketing lies in communicating the products and services offered by a business
organisation to the customers. Lack of effective marketing strategy may become the determinant
in sales crash even with great product line. Promotion of the products and service offered by an
organisation is often confused with marketing. However, advertising, public relation, promotion
and sales in only a part of the overall marketing process. The overall process of marketing in a
business involves market analysis, selecting target customers and promoting and value
proposition of the products. This can also include the evaluation that is again a type of market
and business analysis that identifies the efficiency of the marketing strategy implemented in the
business. This report identifies the marketing of the Public Bank Berhad situated in Malaysia.
Moreover, this report specifically focuses on the segment of corporate banking of the selected
organisation.
Corporate Banking
Business banking, popularly known as Corporate banking as defined by Grubel (2014) is
the unit under a banking service that deals with the corporate customers. The service provided in
corporate banking is limited to the business organisation. Banking organisations under corporate

4MARKETING OF PUBLIC BANK BERHAD
banking serves a diversified range of clients that ranges from small to medium local business to
large business organisations with billions of sales. The products and services offered under
corporate banking also differ from personal banking. Profit generated through corporate banking
is considered as the of primary importance and the figures reflected in the corporate banking is
much greater than that of personal banking, which makes it important for the banking
organisations to focus on the marketing of its corporate unit.
Organisational Background
The organisation selected for the report is Public bank Berhad, headquartered in Kuala
Lumpur of Malaysia. The organisation offers financial services to both within the boundaries of
Malaysia and Asia Pacific as well. Public Bank Berhad was established by Teh Hing Piow in the
year 1966 and got listed in Malaysian Stock Exchange in 1967. This is the largest operating
organisation in the banking sector of Malaysia and one of the largest banks in the Southeast Asia.
The organisation is currently offering a diversified products and services to its target population
that includes personal banking, commercial or corporate banking, Islamic banking, investment
banking, share banking, trustee services, nominee services, sales and management of unit trust
funds and general insurance products. The major competitors of the organisation within the
boundaries of Malaysia are Maybank, CIMB, RHB Bank and HSBC bank Malaysia.
The corporate banking unit of Public Bank Berhad offers its customers a wide range
benefits in their products and services that is different from personal banking scheme. Some of
the attractive banking facilities provided to its customers is the online security to their customers.
Mission set by the organisation is to hold the top position of being efficient, profitable and
respected premier financial organisation of Malaysia. The process of achieving the position as

5MARKETING OF PUBLIC BANK BERHAD
considered by the organisation is by providing high quality products and services to their
customers through innovation.
STP
This section of the report is considered as one of the significant step in the marketing plan
as it helps the organisation identifying and targeting the potential customers of their products and
services (Hollensen, 2015). The positioning part helps in identifying the process of promoting
the product to gain maximum customer attraction.
Figure 1: STP
Segmentation
Public Bank Berhad in their corporate banking focuses on the domestic market, which is
why this part will be focusing on the market segmentation within the boundaries of Malaysia.
Some of the potential segments that can be identified for the organisation are geographic region,
population segment and size of the business (Gbadamosi, 2013).

6MARKETING OF PUBLIC BANK BERHAD
The existing small to medium enterprises and the large organisations that are the potential
customers for the chosen bank are mainly urban oriented that limits the operations of the bank
within the urban boundaries.
The corporate unit of Public Bank Berhad focuses on the business organisation and
extend their products and services to the same that limits the customer segmentation to both the
existing and star-up business organisation.
Lastly, the wide range of the products and services offered by the company enables them
to attract the complete range of potential customer towards their business. They offer different
products and services to various customers depending on the business size and their need.
Targeting
The segmentation of the market enables the organisation in targeting the potential
customers in within the market. The corporate banking unit of the company targets the customer
segment according to the size of the organisation and the financial assistance they need to grow
in the industry (Septiani, Dewi & Siregar, 2013). Depending on the market segmentation, the
potential customers can be divided into a number of target groups.
New Entrepreneurs – These are the future generation of the business organisation with the need
of financial assistance to grow in the market. This segment of the target market has the potential
to introduce new and innovative products in the market and compete with the large-scale
established companies.
Small to Medium size Enterprise – This is considered as an active part of the economy that are
dynamic in nature, as well as effective in the industrial production. The small to medium size of

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the companies enables them to be more flexible with the market demand and modify their
product line accordingly to compete with the large-scale organisation.
Large Organisations – These established enterprises assure the profit in the market. This
section can be considered as the stable source of revenue generation of Public bank Berhad.
Positioning
The identification of the potential target market leaves the company with positioning their
product accordingly to attract the right group for the right product. Competitor evaluation helped
them in differentiating their products and in bringing uniqueness in their products
(Schlegelmilch, 2016). SWTIF Plan, SMILAX Plan, Fund for Small, Medium Size Industries 2,
and New Entrepreneurs Fund are some of the product the organisation offers to their corporate
clients depending on the need (pbebank.com, 2018). Every product offered in the target market is
designed to address each of the target segment identified in the market.
Product Orientation
Product orientation is the line of products offered by the company to their prospective
customers. Public Bank Barhad has a wide range of products that they offered to their customers.
The range of products addresses and covers the complete target population regardless of the size
of the organisation. This enables their customers to choose between the products that are best
suited for their business (Calmès & Théoret, 2015). The business organisations ranging from a
new entrepreneur to full grown business can receive financial in their operational process. The
popular products offered by Public Bank are SWTIF Plan, SMILAX Plan, Fund for Small and
Medium Size Industries 2 and New Entrepreneurs Fund. Mentioned products offered by the
organisation have different specifications and address the need of different organisations

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(pbebank.com, 2018). The SWIFT Plan for example provides the maximum benefits to their
customers, which is made accessible for the existing medium sized business organisations. These
packages further provide different level of services benefits to the purchaser.
Public bank further assists their customers retaining their beneficial employees by
offering a range of health benefits (pbebank.com, 2018). Some of the other services offered to
the customers are card facilities, secured internet transaction etc. that helps the company in
retaining their loyal customers in corporate banking.
Value Proposition and Differentiation
The value proposition and differentiation of the company can be determined by the use of
the generic strategy proposed by Michel Porter in 1980s (Tanwar, 2013). This is useful for the
business organisation to determine the process of establishing the company in the market. The
generic strategy offers three option that an organisation can adopt for attaining sustainability,
which are cost leadership, differentiation and focus.
Figure 2: Porter’s Generic Strategy

9MARKETING OF PUBLIC BANK BERHAD
Cost Leadership – The cost leadership helps identifying the value proposed by the organisation
to their customers. The theory proposes low cost product to be the leader in the market. This
increases the profit margin of a company. Public Bank Berhad enables the customers with the
facility of highly secured internet banking facility (Kinyuira, 2014). Internet enabled facility
offers the corporate customers the opportunity conduct all the operation over internet ranging
from loan application to daily transaction, which considerably reduces the cost incurred by the
bank. The card facility provided also supplements in the same by minimising the need for
visiting the bank.
Differentiation – Differentiation on the other hand is the process of providing unique products
to the customers. However, the banking sector has little opportunity to offer unique products and
services to their customers. However, moderate innovative thinking can differentiate the services
for generating value (Brenes, Montoya & Ciravegna, 2014). Public Bank Berhad offers range of
products to their all-level corporate clients satisfying their needs, which is uncommon in the
banking. Moreover, the bank also provides facility to their clients for retaining their employees
by providing low rate of health insurance. The company further offers their clients a cash
management service for helping them achieving faster growth in the industry.
Focus – Focus on the other hand helps the company in determining the process of attaining
growth by focusing on either cost or differentiation. The bank attains to focus on the both for
placing themselves differently in the market while maintaining the cost of operation.
Customer’s Need
Increased globalisation is causing the business for expanding in the international markets.
However, the business organisations often encounter monitory issues international expansion as

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it requires the business organisation to invest a lump sum in the international market for creating
the necessary infrastructure required. A new entrepreneur on the other hand with brilliant
business plans often faces challenges in accumulating money in setting up their business in the
selected market (Karim & Chowdhury, 2014). Hence, viewing the issue from the clients’
perspective, monitory issue can be considered as the primary need of different business
organisation regardless of the stage it belongs to. Hence, the primary need that is possible to
identify in the corporate banking is the loan.
Moreover, technological advancement and adaptation in the daily life enables the
individuals to access various needs using the technology. This situation creates the need of
technological advancement in the banking sector that will enable the clients to operate their
account or even apply for business loan using the technology in hand (Peppers & Rogers, 2016).
Public Bank Berhad enables their customers to enjoy the technological benefits in their banking
service incorporating online banking, online loan application, use of credit card for maintaining
their accounts.
Purchasing Behaviour
Customers’ purchasing behaviour depends on various factors related to the product and
the purposes fulfilled by the particular product or service. Engel-Kollat-Blackwell model narrates
five different stages in the identification process that includes problem identification, information
search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase behaviour (Orji, 2013).
The technologically advanced business organisations in Malaysia seeks for the best banking
service available to them with the maximum benefits. The considerations accounted by the
business organisation for availing corporate banking services are the loan and interest benefits
and diversified services provided by the business organisation. Hence, satisfying these benefits

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better than the competitors can provide opportunity for penetrating the market and increase
customer loyalty.
Nature and level of Competition
Competition in business organisations over industries is a common factor. The external
competition is considered as the primary threat for any company. The competitive nature of the
market can be understood using the porter’s five-force model (E. Dobbs, 2014).
Porter’s Five Forces
Porter’s five forces model helps in identifying five threats an organisation can face in the
market.
Figure 3: Porter’s Five Forces
Power of the Customers Bargaining power of the customers is high due to the number of
available options they have in the market (Indiatsy et al, 2014).
However, the products and services in offered by the organisation is
comparatively profitable in the market and address the complete
segment of the target population that reduces the power of the