Evaluation of Marketing Mix Strategy in Pubali Bank

Bank is an organization chartered by a state or federal government, which provides the following services such as receiving payment, credit, savings, insurance, security brokerage, investment banking, merchant banking, cash management, real estate and community development. It plays an essential role in the growth of an economy of a country. Due to the banking, countries become more industrialized and developed, because banks collect money from the depositor and provides loan to others at fixed interest rate. By getting required loan from bank people are able to do business and earn lot of profit which is facilitating them to become more independent.

Subsequently, people can do international trade like export and import and earn lot of foreign currency which helps the country’s economic condition to grow even more. In order to do banking properly, bank marketing is very essential thus Kumar (2013) states that bank marketing is the aggregate of functions directed at providing services to satisfy customer’s financial and other related needs and wants more effectively and efficiently.

Objective of the Study

The study has been undertaken with the following objectives:

To complete the internship program of BBA degree
To attain a clear understanding of the practical banking activities and relate them with theoretical knowledge that I gained through the theoretical learning in the university and from various documents of the bank.
To have an overall idea about Pubali Bank Limited.
To determine the critical evaluation of the marketing mix strategy in the organization
To emphasize those areas in the organization where improvement is necessary

Methodology

Both primary data and secondary data were used in order to make the report.

Primary Source

Interviewing customers at Pubali Bank L (Mehedibagh Branch)
Face to face conversations with the employees and manager
Observing different organizational procedures and structures.

Secondary Source

From prior research report
Journals and articles related to banking industry
Bank’s Annual Report 2013-2014
Website information

Data Collection

Data were collected through in-depth interviews that were conducted with the employees, manager and customers of the bank. A structured questionnaire was designed in order to gain more information and it was considered as one of the major tool in order to make the report.

Organizational Overview:

Pubali Bank Limited is the largest commercial bank in Bangladesh. It has 435 branches along with the largest real time centralized online banking network. Under Bank Companies Act 1913 in the year of 1959, the bank was developed in the name of Eastern Mercantile Bank Limited in the period of East Pakistan for providing credit to the Bangalee entrepreneurs who had limited access to the credit in those days from other financial institutions. After independence of Bangladesh in 1972 this Bank was nationalized as per policy of the Government and renamed as Pubali Bank. In year 1983, due to changed circumstances this bank was denationalized in the as a private bank and renamed as Pubali Bank Limited.

It provides mass banking services to the customers, and through its huge network of branches it is providing in the socio-economic sector in the country. Through PBL activities like deposit mobilization, different types of banking services, foreign exchange business, giving loans in various industry or individuals are done. The bank had a deposit of Tk. 767.98 million in the year 1972 and which later increased to Tk. 5409.11 million in the end of 1984.

Along with these deposits came the loans and advances which totaled into Tk 471.64 million and Tk 4,333.46 million respectively, in those two periods. Total liabilities (assets) of bank were valued at Tk 7,233.64 million on 31 December 1984. Compared to these, the value of total deposits, total loans and advances, and total liabilities (assets) on 31 December 2000 was Tk 29,590.1 million, Tk 21,572.2 million and Tk 33,436.9 million respectively. The deposits comprised savings deposits Tk 11,608.6 million, fixed deposits Tk 5,557.3 million, current deposits Tk 3,933.1 million, and other deposits Tk 8491.1 million. Since the bank was created it has been playing a important role in socioeconomic, industrial and agricultural development as well as in the overall economic development of the country through savings mobilization and investment of funds. Thus it has achieved constantly about 20% growth for the last 6 (six) years starting from year 2009 to 2014.

Mission:

To be the most respected and preferred brand among all financial service providers in the nation.
Providing a superior value proposition to the customers by fulfilling their financial needs in the fastest and the most appropriate way.
To provide world-class finance, capital and risk management product bundled with diversity and differentiation, delivered economically through the client’s choice of distribution channel recognizing the unique lifetime financial needs of clients.
To build an empowering organization with the structure, career development, training and rewards to ensure the vision is achieved.
Using flexible technology, scale and risk management to ensure our services are of superior value.

Vision:

Providing customer centric lifelong banking services.

Goals and Objectives:

Providing appropriate long term returns to our shareholders and to become the number one bank of all private commercial banks.

Serve institutions, corporate, businesses and individuals through Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Develop Innovative and new products recognizing the unique lifetime financial needs of customers.

Delivery of services through all delivery channels like internet banking, IVR and telephone banking, ATM and POS, mobile banking etc.

Enhancing Corporate Governance for effective interaction between various participants i.e. shareholders, board of directors, bank’s management and taking effective decision to ensure corporate success and economic growth.

Streamlining risk and compliance for shareholders confidence, better operating performance and optimal risk-reward outcomes.

Continuous enrichment of its human assets so that they deliver value to the business.

Strengthening brand image for creating higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Adapting latest technologies and responding quickly in fast changing market scenario for providing uninterrupted MIS and DSS.

Enhancing financial inclusion efforts for sustained high economic growth and development.

Institutionalize CSR.

SWOT Analysis of PBL

Strengths

existing distribution and sales networks
barriers of market entry
high profitability and revenue
monetary assistance provided
experienced business units
domestic market
skilled workforce

Opportunities

new markets
global markets
growth rates and profitability
new products and services
new acquisitions

Threats

increasing rates of interest
unexpected problems
financial capacity
price changes
external business risks
government regulations
global economy

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Pubali Bank Limited takes CSR as very seriously meaning the organization takes CSR activity as core values of the company. Through different CSR activities it wants to show the commitment and responsibility toward the society. Thus the following corporate social responsibilities are conducted by PBL in the year 2014 and those are as follows:

PBL donated Tk. 43 lac to the department of Rheumatology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Shahbagh, Dhaka.
Donated Tk. 16 lac to Dhaka National Medical College, Dhaka.
Donated Tk. 11.35 lac to Syhlet Diabetic Hospital.
Donated notable amount to build a in Sharsing Darussunnat Alia Madrasa, Pirojpur in order to build a computer lab, then to Lakho Konte Shonar Bangla, Police Welfare Trust etc.
It also donated to Research Center of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Morari Chand College in Syhlet, Asia Foundation to buying books, families of martyred army killed in BDR Mutiny, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh for purchasing books.
They sponsor different boat rowing competition, golf tournament and art competition.

Departments of Pubali Bank Limited

Pubali Bank Limited has 435 branches across the nation and its head office is located in Motijheel. All the branches have three departments where the main bank activity is conducted.

The three departments are General Banking Department, Loan and Advances department and h Cash Department. Each of the department has its own task that is conducted every day by the employee in order to fulfill the organization’s objective.

General Banking Department

Bank is a financial institution licensed by government and people either lends their money to the bank or borrows money from the bank. So the first starting point in a bank starts from general banking. It is a department where the day to day services are provided to the customers. This department is expected to maximize customers for the organization. The activities of general banking are given briefly in the below:

Account Opening: The first step in bank is opening of an account. The bank is very cautious when its potential customers come to the bank to open an account. The bank keeps important documents of the client and verifies each of the document just to check whether the information given is it fraud and forgery of all kind. In account opening, the clients give their deposits and meet their demand for cash by honoring cheques. They open different accounts in order to keep a regular transaction relationship with the bank.
Collecting Deposits: The next thing bank does is collecting different deposits given by the customers. Deposit accounts are those accounts that the customers’ deposits money while opening an account to the bank. There are two types of deposits that PBL collects daily in the general banking department and they are the savings account (SB) and the current account (CD). They collect the deposits from the types of client who are engaged in different financial status and are involved in different economic activities.
Cheque Book Issue: Cheque book issue is done after the account is made by the banker for the client. The client has to make an appeal to the banker and that banker will give requisition in order to get that cheque book for that particular customer. After the cheque book is issued by the bank, the banker gives stamp in each of the pages of the cheque book and signs the particular banker’s initial in it. After that, the cheque book is ready to for the customer.
Payment Order: Pay order is basically making payment to the third party for different Whoever does the pay order does not need to be an account holder of any specific bank in order to do such activity.
Clearing House: It is where the customer’s can transact cheques for different purposes to the bank and the banker checks the date, signature, amount of the cheque that has been send in that particular bank. For example, a client can have an account both in BRAC Bank and Pubali Bank Limited. With the help of clearing house, that client can deposit a cheque of PBL to BRAC Bank counter and the money gets transferred from PBL account to BRAC Bank account of the account holder.
Remittance: This is a service where non-resident Bangladeshi pays money from abroad to their closed ones in Bangladesh. These types of service include, Western Union Money Transfer, Probhu and Placid.
Closing Accounts: Accounts can be closed on the request of the customer. First, the customer has to withdraw the money that is left in the account apart from the different charges of the bank. Then, they are requested to give an application to the bank in order to close the account. After the banker receives the application, he or she might check all the information and can be able to destroy the cheque leaves that remain unused. In exceptional cases the banker can also close the account if there has been no transaction for the last one year in that particular account.

Loans & Advance Department

Loan is an amount of money given for a particular period that is going to be paid back with a sum of interest. Loan is on long term basis. Advance is an understanding between two people especially known people of a company to meet his official expenses incurred by him and there is no interest charge. This can be granted for industries for their short term needs. The activity of PBL in the loan and advances department is to provide loans for different type of people such as individual person, big corporate companies and small and medium enterprises (SME) based on different financing scheme in relation to the bank. There are two types of loans that are provided by this department and those are as follows:

Funded Loans: Funded loans include loans like:

Consumer Loan Scheme (CLS)
Lease Finance
House Building Loan
Demand Loan
Overdraft
Cash Credit
Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Financing

Non-Funded Loans: Non-funded loans include loans like:

L/C (Import & Export Letter of Credit)
BG (Bank Guarantee)
LATR (Loan Against True Receipt)
PC (Package Credit)
EDF (Export Development Fund)

Cash Department

The most important department in the bank is the Cash Department. This department begins the day of the bank with cash vault and every day the opening cash balance are transferred to the bankers who deal with the cash department from the cash vault. On the other hand, the opening cash balance is adjusted by cash receipts and payments and it is called closing balance. Next, the balance is added to the vault and at the end of the day, that final cash balance figure is the final figure for that particular day. The cash department keeps some books to maintain few sections in the bank and those are as follows:

Vault Register: It keeps account of cash balance in vault in the bank.
Cash Receipt Register: Cash receipt in whole of the day is recorded here.
Cash Payment Register: Cash payments are made in a day are entered here.
Rough Vault Register: Cash calculation for final entry in vault register is done here as any error and correction here is not acceptable.
Cash Balance Book: Balance here is compared with vault register. If no difference is found, indicates no error.

Functions of Cash Department:

Cash Payment

Cash payment is made only against cheque
This is the unique function of the banking system, which is known as ―payment on demand
It makes payment only against its printed valid cheque.

Cash Receipt

It receives deposits in form of cash
It collects money only its receipts forms.

Other Divisions of PBL

In order to keep the organization arranged in a systematic way different departments are created in the bank. These different departments have individual tasks to keep the system of the bank organized. Such divisions are as follows:

Board Division & MD’s Secretariat
Human Resources Division
Establishment Division
Law Division
International Division
Credit Division
Credit Administration, Monitoring & Recovery Division
Consumers Credit Division
Audit Division
Central Accounts Division
Information Technology Division
Lease Financing Division
Internal Control & Compliance Division
General Services and Development Division
Research and Development Division
Islamic Banking Wing
Card Department

Bank Marketing:

Bank belongs in the category of service industry and marketing has a very essential role in the service industry. Marketing facilitates in achieving the objective of the organization in this case it is the bank. Hence, According to Kumar (2013), “Bank Marketing is the aggregate of functions directed at providing services to satisfy customer’s financial and other related needs and wants more effectively and efficiently. Bank marketing strategy is a very clear definition of target customers, the development of a marketing mix to satisfy customers at a profit for the bank and the planning for each of the source markets and each of the use markets. He also states that bank cannot exist without customers. The purpose of bank is to create, win and keep a customer.”

Marketing Strategy

As the environment is changing and everything is becoming updated, the banking sector is also becoming competitive. Different banks are offering different products and services but there are differences among their terms of structure and performance and at the end of the day, the organization counts on how did they fulfill their objective. In order to do so, the organization adapts the strategy of Marketing. The key of marketing is the understanding of the needs and requirements of a customer and in order to do so, an organization have to view the product or service from the perspective of the customers (Zahid, 2008). Moreover, Zahid (2008) feels that to develop marketing strategy on financial institutions such as commercial banks, the organization needs to understand the difference between the customer and their financial product requirements. Kumar (2013) believes that banks have been thinking in their traditional way which is they only offer what the bank is offering but does not think about the customer’s need.

However, proceeding in traditional way can make a particular bank left behind from the other commercial banks. Therefore, to apply a proper marketing strategy in the bank includes doing research over the potential and existing customer’s need requirement.

After that, as the bank is done conducting research over customer’s need, they need to keep in mind that they cannot target everyone because bank does not only deal with one person but with group of persons and with corporate as well. Therefore, segmentation should be done in order to target the different types of clients. The next step is market targeting in which each segment‘s attractiveness is measured and a target segment is chosen based on its attractiveness. The last step is product positioning or positioning the service and its offer in the target segment chosen.

Marketing Mix

The next step in order to formulate a perfect marketing strategy is Marketing Mix. Jerome McCarthy, an American marketing professor has devised the four basic element of marketing mix, which is also known as traditional marketing mix. The traditional marketing mix includes the following elements such as:

Product
Price
Place
Promotion

Father of modern marketing, Philip Kotler has defined marketing mix as “Marketing Mix is the set of controllable variables that the firm can use to influence the buyer’s response.” He believes that each firm can compete to build a composition of 4 P’s which can meet the customer satisfaction in the highest level and can also attain the company objective at the same time. The elements of 4 P’s were only enough for product marketing, but it was not enough for service marketing, as services had unique characteristics, such as intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perish-ability. Moreover, service marketing outnumbered day by day, it was essential to build a marketing mix for service marketing as well. Hence, in 1981, Extended Marketing Mix was created by Bernard H. Booms and Mary J. Bitner in order to solve the problem for service industry. They proposed that the traditional marketing mix is extended and they added three important factors and those are the following:

People
Process
Physical Evidence

Later, this service marketing mix approach was seen as very valuable. It provided clear perception, as a result of which, it got widespread acceptance in the science of services marketing. Below the elements is explained one by one as follows:

Product/Service: Goods or services of a company made in a huge volume and unit and sold to the customers. Products should be developed keeping in mind the targeted group and their requirements states Kumar (2013). Thus bank industry provides services and it should be designed keeping in mind the customer’s requirement or need. The product in service marketing is intangible, heterogeneous, and perishable and cannot be owned. According to Once (n.d.), banking services are about money in different forms such as lending, depositing, and transferring procedures. Example of services that bank provides are consultancy, different bank accounts, different loans, investment services, demit accounts (dematerialized account), online banking, mobile banking, international banking, and cards such as ATM card, credit cards etc.

Price: The amount of money paid by the customer to buy the product or service. Setting the price is very essential in Marketing Mix Strategy because it determines all the investment that an organization made in order to produce the product. The price of the product or service may fluctuate over time depending on the situation and the market development of products. Once (n.d.) study found that, “traditionally banks use to use methods like cost plus, transaction volume base and challenging leaders. Thus banks have to estimate the prices of their services offered. They should be very careful while determining the price and their policies for it.” The name for price of services that bank offers are called interest, commission, and expenses.

Place: It is the location where the product or service will be available at. Place is also very important because if the availability of the product or service is very high, then it will encourage the customers to take the services quite often. One of the important thing according to Once (n.d.) is in banking location is a very important feature because if the organization can convince its customers that if they take the service available in the particular bank then they will be benefitted. In case of bank it is establishment and functioning of network of branches, ATM booths, telephone banking, video banking, mobile banking etc.

Promotion: It is the activities that communicate the product or service’s features and benefits and encourage the customers to buy the product or service. In service industry, promotion is a very important thing because, services can be easily replicated and it is the unique selling proposition and the brand itself which makes the service stands out from the other ones. Hence, through promotion or proper communication, customers become aware of the services being provided. Such examples of promotion in banking sector are advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity etc.

People: People are one of the main elements of service marketing and it defines service or represents the organization to the customers. Kumar (2013) said that “each individual working in the bank is a marketing person who contributes to the total satisfaction to customers and the bank should ultimately develop customer orientation among all the personnel of the bank.” While once (n.d.) thinks that “all people directly or indirectly involved in the consumption of banking services are an important part of the extended marketing mix.” In fact, employees are the first starting point of internal marketing and the basic objective of internal marketing is to create motivated and customer conscious employee.

Process: It is a way or process in which the service is delivered to the customers. In fact, before developing the product or service, it is determined by the company that how are they going to deliver the service to its customers. It represents the activities, procedures, protocols that are delivered to the customer. It involves a sequence of steps and activities to get there. For example in banking sector the process would be as follows:

Producing of proper documents
Filling up of application form
Paying for the initial down payment

Physical Evidence: It refers to an environment where the employee is in interaction with a customer which is combined with tangible commodity or in other words it is the material part of the service. It is the overall layout of the place and the bank has been designed. It also important to keep in mind when designing the bank, that they should design it according to the convenience for the customer which will not confuse them. For example the placement of customer service executive desk, the location of depositing the cheque, logo of the bank, employee uniform etc, tangibles etc.

Analysis of Marketing Mix Strategy of Pubali Bank Limited

Banking Products/Service

Pubali Bank Limited belongs to a service industry and it provides different types of services to its clients across the nation. It basically follows the traditional marketing mix system hence, it offers customers the services it already have rather than serving the service according to the customer’s need. The bank provides deposit products, consumer loans, SME financing, Islamic Banking, ATM cards, and online banking services as well. The details of the following services are given below:

Deposit Products

Chequing Accounts:

Savings Deposit (SB): To encourage saving habit amongst the general public, banks allow depositors to open savings accounts. As the name indicates, these accounts are opened for the purpose of savings. Interest is awarded on the balance of the account. For opening a savings account minimum Tk. 500 is taken as deposit.

Current Deposit (CD): It is an account where a lot of transactions can be made by the account holder within the funds available in its credit. No interest is paid on these deposits. Current account is mainly suitable for businessmen though nobody is excluded from opening such an account for any purpose. For opening CD account the an individual’s initial deposit that is to be of minimum Tk. 2000 in PBL and for business unit it have to have deposit of Tk. 5000 minimum.

Special Notice Deposit (SND): It is an interest bearing deposit where advance notice is required for withdrawal. SND Account is very much similar to CD Account. Attractive interest rate. Personalized MICR Cheque Book is available. Nominal service charge. Any branch banking facility.

Pubali Pension Scheme (PPS)

3/5/7/10 years duration
Deposit amount Tk. 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000, 2000, 3000,4000, 5000, 7000, 10000, 15000
Loan facilities upto 80% of the total depost amount
Deposit Date-1st to 12th day of each month
Online transaction facilities through largest online network across the country.
Joint account can be opened.
Transaction notification through SMS

Pubali School Banking

It is a scheme for students that will be directed by their parents or guardians and when that account holder will turn to 18 years old the account will be transformed into regular savings account. Deposit amount starts from Tk. 100. Moreover, the transaction can be done through the largest online network the bank provides and it can also be notified through SMS.

Pubali Shanchaya Prokalpa (PSP)

This is another deposit account which has duration of 5/10 years which has loan facilities upto 80%. The deposit amount of the account starts from Tk. 100 and it has to be deposited from 1st to 12th day of each month.

It has loan facilities up to 80% of the total deposit amount. It has online transaction facilities through largest online network across the country and SMS notification is also given for transaction.

Shiksha Shanchaya Prokalpa (SSP)

10 years duration
Deposit amount Tk. 200 to Tk. 10000
Loan facilities up to 80% of the total deposit amount
Deposit Date-12th to 17th day of each month
Online Transaction facilities through largest online network across the country.
Joint account can be opened
Transaction notification through SMS

Fixed Deposit (FDR)

1 month to 36 months duration
Payment on maturity or premature encashment
Automatic renewal facility at maturity
Loan facilities up to 80% of the total deposit amount
Joint account can be opened

Sadhin Sanchay

Minimum 36 months duration
Interest withdrawal- Monthly basis after fulfilling the customer target
Account opening & Deposit amount- Tk. 100 and its multiples thereof
Deposit Date-Any banking day of any month and as much time as the customer wishes.
No fine is applicable in case of failure to deposit money in any month
Loan facilities up to 80% of the total deposit amount
Online transaction facilities
Joint account can be opened

Swapnapuran

Minimum target Tk. 25000 or its multiple
Minimum 6 months duration
Anytime withdrawal facility after fulfill in the target
Account opening and deposit amount Tk. 100 and its multiples there of
Deposit Date- Any banking day of any month and as much times as the customer wishes.
No fine is applicable in case of failure to deposit money in any month.
Loan facilities up to 80% of the total deposit amount.
Online transaction facilities.

Monthly Profit Based Fixed Profit

Interest withdrawal: Monthly basis
Single deposit Tk. 1.00 Lac or its multiple
5 years duration
Payment on maturity or premature encashment
Joint account can be opened

Loan Products: Loan is a sum of money borrowed for certain reason and then is returned back with as per the interest and repayment is through fixed amount of installments in a fixed term. Loan products can me many types such as personal (medical), family (education, vacation), or household (extension, repairs, purchase of air conditioner, computer, refrigerator, etc.) use, as opposed to business or commercial use.

Such loans are either unsecured, or secured by the asset purchased or by guarantor. PBL provides such personal loan services:

Continuous Loan

This Loan helps to meet up day to day working capital requirement of any business or manufacturing concern Under Continuous Financing Pubali Bank provides.

Cash Credit: To meet up day to day operational expenses to the business concerns that need to maintain stock as working capital.
Secured Overdraft (SOD): To meet up day to day operational expenses to service oriented business stock; against FDR; against Wage Earner Development Bond (WEDB).
Pubali Procesta: To meet up working capital requirement for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME).

Features and Benefits:

Loan Tenor is one year but may be renewed/enhanced considering satisfactory transaction.
Easy and fast processing
No processing Fees
Attractive Interest Rate

Short Term Finance

This scheme is to meet different short-term fund requirements of the clients

Features and Benefits:

Loan Tenors is one year or below may be renewed/enhanced considering satisfactory transaction.
No processing Fees
Easy and Fast processing
Attractive Interest Rate

Long Term Finance

For purchasing Machinery, Equipment, Real Estate and other fixed assets.

Features and Benefits:

It is easy and fast processing
No processing Fees
Attractive Interest Rate

Work Order/Construction Business Financing

It is financing against Work Order to contractors. It has features and benefits like:

Easy and Fast processing
No processing fees
Attractive Interest Rate

Personal Loan

A personal Loan facility for any consumers needs and the features and benefits it has are given below:

To meet any personal need/demand
Loan Limit Max Tk. 10 lac or up to 20 times of the net income whichever is lower.
Repayment Method: EMI, Loan Tenor,: 12 months to 60 months.
Easy and Fast Processing
Collateral security is not mandatory up to Tk. 5 lac

Pubali Star

To extend credit facilities to any individual /professionals to meet their personal need/demand for educational expenses, pay for vacations, medical bills, renovation of homes/chambers/offices etc. It has the following features and benefits:

Loan limit Tk. 1.5 Lac or up to 15 times of the net income whichever is lower.
Repayment Method: EMI, Loan Tenor: 6-60 months
Easy and Fast Processing
No collateral or cash securities.

Flat Purchase Loan

It is a loan given to purchase a lat for residential purpose in a residential/ commercial area having all amenities/facilities like water, electricity etc. the features and benefits it provides are:

Owner of the property must be the main borrower.
Loan Size: 70% of the flat value, maximum Tk. 1.20 Crore (which is lower). (Subject to change at Bangladesh Bank’s discretion.)
Repayment Method: EMI, Loan Tenor: (10/12/15/18) Years
Easy and fast processing.

Household Durable Loan

It is a personal loan scheme that supports purchase of various consumers durable such as television, refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine, computers, and value.

Up to 30% of quoted value.
Loan size: Tk. 3 lac excluding down payment 70%
Repayment Method: EMI, Loan Tenor: 24 months to 36 months.
Easy and Fast Processing
No collateral or cash securities.

Medical Equipment Loan

It is a personal loan scheme meant for professionals practicing physician only to support their small-scale purchase of different medical equipment, tools and small machineries for installation at their chamber. It has features and benefits as follows:

Up to 30% of quoted value.
Loan Size: Maximum Tk. 10 Lac, excluding down payment 70%.
Repayment Method: EMI, Max. Loan tenor: 36 months.
Easy and fast processing
No collateral or cash securities

Government Primary School Teacher Loan

Consumer durables for personal/family use. Items like television, refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine, computers, other household furniture etc. It has benefits and features like:

Up to 6 times of monthly gross salary or maximum Tk. 10 lac, whichever is lower.
Repayment Method: EMI, Loan Tenor: 36 months
Easy and fast processing
No collateral or cash securities

Probash Bondhu

It is to meet up short term financial need of any Bangladeshi individual having family members who are working abroad. The features and benefits are as follows:

Limit: Tk. 1 lac but not more than 3 times of monthly remittance inflow.
Repayment Method: 6 equal monthly installment.
Easy and Fast processing
Collateral Security is not required.

PBL Subarna

It is to meet up working capital requirement of Small and medium Enterprises (SME) business. It has features and benefits like:

Loan Size: Tk. 2 lac to Tk.10 lac
Repayment Method: EMI, Loan Tenor: 12/24/36 months
Easy and Fast Processing
Collateral Security is not mandatory.

PBL Karma Uddog

PBL offers a credit facility to meet up short term fund requirement of SME’s and SME’s run by women entrepreneurs under “Pubali Karma Uddog”. It has features and benefits as follows:

Loan Size: Tk. 2 lac to tk. 10 lac
Repayment Method: EMI, Loan Tenor: 12/24/36 months
Easy and Fast Processing
Collateral Security is not mandatory.

PBL Sujon

Pubali Bank Ltd. offers a credit facility to purchase capital Machinery, Office equipment, covered van, pick up van etc. under “Pubali Sujon”. It has features and benefits as follows:

Loan Size: Tk. 2 lac to Tk. 10 lac
Repayment method: EMI, Loan tenor: 12/24/36 months
Easy and fast processing
Collateral Security is not mandatory.

Pubali Procesta

To ensure continuous finance for fulfilling the needs of working capital SME. The features and benefits it has are as follows:

Loan Size: Tk 2 Lac-10 Lac for Small Enterprise

Tk. 5 Lac- 1 Crore for Medium Enterprise

Loan period 1 year (can be renewed/enhanced)
Interest on the funds which actually use
Easy and fast processing
Collateral Security is not mandatory ( up to Tk. 10 lac)

Lease Financing Scheme

PBL provides one of the most convenient long term sources of loans in the industry for acquiring capital machineries and equipments under lease financing.

The lease finance products/items are as follows:

Capital Machinery (imported/local) Tenor-5 years
Medical Equipment/Instrument (Tenor- 7 years)
AC, lift, standby generator, gas generator etc. (Tenor-5 years)
Telecommunication Equipment/Machinery (Tenor- 5 years)
Car/Vehicles (Tenor- 5 years)
Others (Tenor- 5 years)

Trade Financing: It is financing for trade, and it concerns both domestic and international trade transactions. A trade transaction requires a seller of goods and services as well as a buyer. Various intermediaries such as banks and financial institutions can facilitate these transactions by financing the trade.

Import Financing

PBL offers various import services to import raw material, capital machineries and other permissible products/goods from abroad. It has features and benefits such as:

Easy and Fast processing
No processing Fees
Attractive Interest Rate and Commission

Export Financing

PBL offers various export financing facilities to the clients like back t back LC, Packing Credit, IBP/FBP. It also gives benefits like:

Easy and Fast processing
No processing Fees
Attractive Interest Rate and Commission

Pubali Cards

Pubali Debit Card

PBL presents the MasterCard/VISA Debit Card which gives the clients unlimited access to their saving/Current account with simple swipe.

Pubali Credit Card

Lowest interest rate
Up to 50% Cash Withdrawal
Revolving Credit
Instant Transaction Notification through SMS
Free supplementary Card
24-Hour Call Center
Card cheque book
Attractive Discount in hotels, restaurants, and shopping outlets.

Others:

Internet Banking

Checking account balances and transaction history
Outstanding cheques or payments
Statement request
Cheque book requisition
Stopping payment on manually written cheques
Standing instructions
View and print account statements
Fund transfer from a customer’s one account to another within the bank
Paying utility bills like electricity, WASA, GAS, telephone, mobile, ISP etc.
Interest rate inquiry of deposit and advance
Foreign exchange rate inquiry
Balance recharge of mobile phone

Pubali Cash

Pubali Cash transfer system is a web based application that has been designed to facilitate inland Cash Remittance to the non-banked beneficiaries. It has features like:

A service for non-banked people to transfer money though secured banking channel.
Lowest Service Charge
Anywhere in Bangladesh

Place

Place is also an important factor while determining the 7P’s of Marketing for an organization. Keeping that in mind, PBL gave a lot of preference to customer’s convenience and ease of doing banking across the whole country. Therefore they have:

435 branches across the nation
101 ATM booths across the country
Ease of online banking service

Promotion

PBL contains two types of communication in order to do their promotions for the organization.

The two types of communications are:

External Marketing Communications:

Advertising: Only news paper advertisements, mini-boards inside of the ATM Booth.
Sales Promotion: Not much effort given by the Bank in the area of sales promotions in terms of loan and deposit products.
Public Relations: Conducted through newspapers during any new event like ATM booth inauguration or The Annual General Meeting 2014
Direct Marketing: This is done mostly by any officer when needed, but no specific department is there for direct marketing activities.

Internal Marketing:

Personal Selling: It is practiced very much in the bank, they hire agents for specific services like they have loan agents who go across the different part of the city and contact with different people who need loans, they have other agents like other services agents who would go to different potential clients and inform them about the services that PBL is providing.
Customer Service Center: Pubali Bank Limited does not have any official customer service center but in every branch, in the general banking department, the employee provides the service the client is seeking for.

People

Employees are the biggest asset of the company and only employees can fulfill the objective or the organization and make it profitable. PBL has a total of 7,645 employees across the nations.

To elevate its current position in banking sector, the organization provides extensive training program for the employees so that it the performance level and the efficiency level would increase. At present, there are 15 members who belong in the Board of Directors group including the Chairman and two Vice-Chairman of the organization. Next, there are nine members who belong from the group of directors, two members are independent director and one member is managing director. The Board of Directors had delegated the authority of the bank to the management team.

Recommendation

As Pubali Bank Limited follows the traditional marketing mix strategy, they offer the service that the bank has, so they should change this way of thinking and make service schemes according to the customer preferences.
They should do more research regarding the customer’s choice and preferences for the
The online banking system they have, they should improve the system so that the customer does not face any problem while doing online banking.
The bank should apply the 7P’s of Marketing Mix Strategy in the organization.
They should improve their promotional activities like should give more TV advertisement, conduct more direct marketing.
They need a customer service department online or by phone which will be available 24/7 within customer’s need.

Conclusion

Pubali Bank Limited is serving the mass market in the country. It is the biggest commercialized bank in Bangladesh. It is increasing its branches and its services as well for the customer’s convenience. The bank is following the traditional marketing strategy and it is doing very well and gaining profit. The management of the bank always gives effort to uphold the loyalty of the customers toward the bank. From the customer’s side, they are more satisfied than before by the service the bank is providing them now. The customers and the employee of the bank maintain a very good relationship, through which the loyalty of the bank is increasing day by day. The bank should bring new upgraded version of their product in order to compete with its competitor in the industry. The online banking that they have introduced in 2010, they should focus more on the server so that their online banking system would improve and they will gain more market in future. If the bank can improve the system it maintains now, then in near future it will perform even better.