2.2.2 ROLES OF PROMOTIONAL MIX TO BANKING SERVICES
The promotional mix variables are said to be different from the tangible product and for financial service product place on important district roles to the marketing of financial product in the financial organization (banking sector). Some of these roles are specific to each element of the promotional mix for financial services, but here we shall consider the general importance or roes of these variables to financial (banking) services products. Some of these roles are:
a. Awareness building: promotional mix variables for financials services product such as advertising helps to create awareness, especially for the prospects that are not aware of the company or it product. This will reduce the work of sales reprehensive in the time to describe the company and it product will be drastically will be reduced.
b. Modify behavior: This is another role played by the promotional mix variables to the marketing of financial services as they help to change opinion and modify behaviour so as to stimulate reduced
c. Product education: the promotional mix variables helps to educate the financial services product consumers on the use, advantage and benefit of the product to their life style and activities e.g. savings helps to keep your money yielding additional interest and other.
d. Comprehensive Building: If at all the financial services products embodies new factures, some of the problem or burden of explaining them van be effectively undertaken by me of those promotional mix variable such as advertising or sales promotion.
e. Efficiency reminding: if this prospective buyers for financial services products known about your product and are not ready to buy, reminder promotional effort (advertising) would be more economical than the sales cell.
f. New product lauching: The promotional mix variables also help to introduce new product of the financial organization (bank) to the market i.e. the customers of financial products services.
g. Image building: This is another role of the promotional mix variables for the financial services products, which through the effort of an effective public relation strategy helps to build and maintain good image for the organization.
h. Counteract competition: The banking sector specifically has been said to become highly competive nowadays that they will need to embark on aggressive promotional activities in order to position themselves in the mind of customers. The promotional mix variables here serve as an instrument used by the firm to withstand, counteract and suave off competition in the market place so as to gain grater proportion of the market.
2.2.3 DETERMINANTS OF CHOICE OF PROMOTIONAL MIX FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES
It must be stressed that management has to determine what combination of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, word of mouth, direct meil, and other promotional tools will make the most promotional program for a company. This is a tough job because executives promotional tools will help active the goals of their sales program.
The following factors should be considered and taken into account in deciding on the promotional elements for financial services products these are:
2. Market characteristics: this involves the consumer characteristics; the behavior of the consumers for financial services products has a lot of influence in determining the promotional mix. The mix depends on the promotional media to the consumers. The ones to which he is exposed particularly those which he likes.
3. Product characteristics: consumers characteristics alone are not enough product characteristics such as type, nature, size, use and availability of financial services products determine the promotional mix. If a product is scare, there is no need for promotion because the consumers will search for it, for technical products like A.T.M, the debit card use and so on, in Nigeria, the marketers (financial service provider) might find word of mouth or persona selling more effective than any other tool.
4. Company characteristics: clearly the size of a company and its available marketing resources will be to some extent define how mucy it will spend on promotional activities which determined the choice of promotional mix based on his financial strength. Some banks will need spend more than others depending, for example on competition. But no bank can afford to say. “we can not afford to promote our services even if it is in the short term supplying a product which demand exceed supply.
5. Marketing characteristics: the concentration of prospective buyers as well as how large the market is also influences the promotional tools to use. If the prospective buyers are widely dispersed, advertising is likely to be effective than personal selling.
6. Competition: In the final analysis, the action of the marketer (the financial service provider) will depend on the state of competition. If the service provider is competing in a vigorously competitive market, then the company may expect to invent relatively heavily in the promoting mix if the company faces relatively heavily little competition, then the marketer (service provider) may have much freedom to decide how much to spend.
