Online Marketing of BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited

Online Marketing of BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited

Capital market can be termed as the chariot of raising capital, which accelerates industrialization as well as the privatization process. In other words, capital market is comprised of the share and stock markets of the country. This is a market for raising long term fund with the emergence of the need for infrastructural development project sand for setting up of new industries for entrepreneurial attempts and as a result, now there are more frequent needs of funds.

Potential of Bangladeshi Capital Market

• Providing valuable initial support for corporate growth
• Focusing on improving governance and developing advanced market products
• Achievement on significant milestones on the social development side

Three Elements of the Capital Market

• Financial Assets/Instruments/Securities
• Financial Intermediaries
• Financial Markets

The tangible asset is one whose value is dependent on its physical properties such as buildings, machines, furniture, and so on.

The individual or entity that offers the future cash flows is called the issuer of the financial “instrument” and the owner of the security is called the investor. The instruments may be:

• Debentures/ Bonds
• Trust indenture
• Debenture Redemption Reserve
• Term Loans

Organization

About BESL

BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited is one of the leading stock brokerages in the country, ranking 2nd in terms of total turnover in 2015. BESL offer services to international institutions, domestic institutions, retail clients as well as non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs).

They are also the pioneer and leader in facilitating foreign portfolio investments in Bangladesh and boast an international award-winning equity research team. In addition, the reputation of BESL goes far beyond the borders of Bangladesh, both through its own efforts, and also through the reputation of its parent company, BRAC Bank.

BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited has membership at both of the country’s stock exchanges; the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE).

Presently there are 7 branches, of which three are located in Dhaka, one in Chittagong, one in Comilla and one in Chowmuhani, and one in Sylhet. At present, BRAC EPL STOCK BROKERAGE LTD.plans to open one branch in Bogra.

History

BESL was previously known as Equity Partners Securities Limited (EPSL), the company was formed in early 2000 as a brokerage house licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Bangladesh. In August 2009, BRAC Bank Limited bought 51% of its equity and EPSL was renamed as BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited.

Mission

We strive to develop a sustainable growth model that will guide us to market leadership through advanced technology and superior client service. We aim to create a highly visible brand by developing a diverse talent pool and synergy within the group.

Vision

To be the trusted broker of choice for all investors by offering unrivalled level of investment and customer service.

Core Values

• Customer Focus
• Innovation
• Integrity
• Team Work

Sales and Brokerage Services

• Brokerage services for Intuitional Clients
• Foreign Fund Managers
• Trust
• Corporation
• Brokerage Service for retail (Individual) Clients
• Provide Margin lone at competitive interest rate
• International and Domestic Placement of Securities
• Brokerage Services
• Trade Execution Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchange Limited
• Pre-IPO private placement opportunities through Merchant Banks
• Appointment of dedicated and skilled sales representative
• Opportunities for trading in different financial instruments

Research and Publications

• Daily price information Market Overview, Daily Fact Sheet
• Monthly report
• Industry/Corporate research report
• Free access to our company research reports through our web-site
• Half yearly political and economic update

Value Added Services

• Daily portfolio services through email
• Daily trade confirmation through SMS service
• Web services for portfolio and report

An Overview of BESL’s SWOT Analysis

Every single business entity has some strength, weakness, opportunity and threat and like all other organizations BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited also has some strength and opportunity and besides these the company has some weakness and threats.

Although, strength and weakness are internal factors, which company can increase and decrease by implementing different strategies. On the other hand, opportunity and threats comes from external environment where organization doing their business.

Though there is no role of company itself for facing these threats, or creating opportunity, but company has the chance to realize the opportunity comes from external factor and can take defensive actions to minimize the threats.

Strength:

• Skilled and knowledgeable employees of BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited.
• Realize the reputation of BRAC Bank as wholly owned subsidiary of BRAC
• Sophisticated tools and financial analysis.
• Highly complained operating system.

Weakness:

• Less number of branches.
• Lacking of manpower.
• Insufficient marketing effort.

Opportunity:

• Increase the volume of trade by attracting foreign investor and remittance earners.
• Having a scope to expanding the market share.
• Investors are began to be sophisticated, now they are locking better service and take calculative judgment about the service of broker house.
• Provide the online trading service.

Threats:

• Low turnover in the capital market of Bangladesh.
• Political and social unrest in Bangladesh.
• Existing and upcoming broker houses in the market with attracting facilities.
• Frequent uncoordinated policy making by different regulatory bodies.

The Project

Objective of the Project

• To understand the overall situation of the online presence of BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Limited
• To present a comparative analysis between the Facebook pages of BESL and Lanka Bangla Securities Ltd.
• To showcase how Facebook presence or online presence provides a competitive edge to gain investors or customers to open accounts at BESL
• To understand the overall communication and business development flaws of BESL
• To portray the gaps between conducting only traditional marketing and conducting both digital and traditional marketing together.

Comparative Analysis on online marketing

“With the presence of highly growing internet users, relative low cost and easy going strategies ‘online marketing’ is also becoming so crucial for every business hub.”

The introduction of Social Media platforms on the internet such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, Google+, etc. have provided the marketing industries of the entire world with a whole new dimension of implementing brand development strategies and reach out to more consumers within a very short period of time. In a developing country, like Bangladesh, the trend has also caught on and the current “Marketing Scenario” in a word is ‘Booming’. According to a recent survey by Business Habit the current number of Facebook users in the country stands at 30 million approximately, with Snapchat users set to increase by 27.2% all over the world by 2016 according to eMarketer.

Therefore, it is evident that the future will provide Bangladeshi marketers with a bunch of opportunity to take brands and their presence online in an innovative and much more efficient and effective way straight to the final consumers’ computer and mobile screens.

Website

A webpage acts as an online portfolio of a company and is crucial for this day and age as tech savvy people depend on websites for gathering their information.

BESL has a website and the address is http://bracepl.com/brokerage/index.php/home/index and the first thing you’ll notice about the website is that it is not visually attractive and the font does not compliment the aesthetics of the webpage template that well.

However, LBSL’s website address is https://lankabangla.com/lbsl/SitePages/Home.aspx and it contains more information on how a new stock market enthusiast can apply and invest in the stock market. Their programs are simple and easy to understand. In addition, the design quality of the website and its optimization is brilliant with quick access tabs.

In addition to all these, BESL and LBSL websites have a major technological difference.

The LBSL site has a web portal which allows customers to have more control over their daily trades and it allows them to trade themselves without having to negotiate with brokers from time to time.

LBSL has targeted convenience for customers and focuses more on customer needs and wants whereas BESL highlights the reputation of their sponsors BRAC Bank Limited.

Social Media Presence

If we talk about BESL’s social media presence, it has to be said that it is almost NIL compared to that of LBSL. BESL’s Facebook page does not carry any sponsored ads or graphical illustrations that will help them engage with their customers. At present BESL has approximately 3000 Facebook followers.

LBSL on the other hand have scrutinized their opportunities thoroughly through the digital sphere and signed up with a digital marketing firm in 2015 and outsourced the entire digital marketing duties to that firm. At present, with the professional help LBSL’s Facebook page has more than 100,000 followers and making them one of the few companies in Bangladesh with such high Facebook following, In addition, according to the source, mentioned earlier, LBSL’s 40% clients come from Social Media promotion.

Therefore, with the statistics in, we can most definitely see why BESL despite being No.1 in foreign trade fails to become the champion in the domestic market.

Findings

• BESL is not keen on expanding their marketing operations digitally.
• BESL is dependent on the reputation of their parent company BRAC Bank Limited.
• BESL is not very accepting towards change.
• On the other hand, LBSL have adapted to new promotional trends in the market that have been providing them to be on top of the ladder consecutively 2 years in a row.
• The research tells us that LBSL has more than 100,000 followers on Facebook and BESL has only 3,000 and according to the follower difference anyone can tell that BESL are lacking in engaging their potential customers.

Recommendations

BESL despite being the 2nd ranking Stock Brokerage in Bangladesh is failing to compete in the domestic market due their lack of online presence. In order to be competitive in the market it is highly recommended that BESL adapt to the following:

• In order to be up to date with current trends in digital marketing such as SEO, Image Optimization and Content Optimization, it is recommended that BESL assign their website redesign and development to a professional IT firm who will help them increase traffic to their website as well as make their content more user friendly.
• They should also sign up with professional digital marketing firms who specialize in giving their brand a unique identity and show their customers that they care.
• They should mix traditional and digital marketing to have a much stronger communication system.

Conclusion

BESL is one of the leading Stock Brokerages in the country and with an international award winning research team they seem to have it all under control, however, their performance in the domestic market is extremely poor compared to that of foreign trade and as well as to that of their major competitor LBSL. In order to fix this and encourage the new generation of the country to invest in stock and avail tax rebate options through investing BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage must have a thorough and aggressive online presence and an online strategy.

Without these BESL will fall under the depths of competitive pressure during this age of technology. They must regroup and join and take advantage of the Internet Revolution.