How to promote the differentiation strategy of financial enterprises

First, the research status of the theory of differentiated competitive strategy of commercial banks

Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, first put forward the concept of differentiation strategy. The so-called differentiation strategy refers to the strategy adopted to gain competitive advantage and make the products, services and corporate image of an enterprise obviously different from those of its competitors. Differentiation strategy is an effective competitive strategy that enables enterprises to obtain higher than the average profit level of the same industry. The focus of this strategy is to create products and services that are regarded as unique by the whole industry and customers. According to Professor Porter's general enterprise competitive strategy principle, we should think about the strategic positioning of China's banking industry. It is not difficult to see that an effective differentiation strategy can help banks get rid of the pressure of homogenization competition, improve profitability, win customers in market segments, and finally win advantages for banks in the competition.

Grunos, a marketing expert, analyzed the differentiated marketing strategy of banks. He first summarized the basic characteristics of service products, and combined with the actual situation of banks, analyzed the characteristics of banking services: banking services are non-entity services. Banking service is an action or a series of actions, not an object. To some extent, the production and consumption of banking services are carried out simultaneously. Bank customers participate in production to a certain extent. Banking service marketing is bipolar marketing. The differentiated marketing of banks should be a bipolar differentiated marketing model.

Regarding the market competition of commercial banks, Ba Shusong, deputy director of the Financial Research Institute of the State Council Development Research Center, pointed out that the competition of commercial banks has changed from the original scale competition to innovation competition, and the differentiation is becoming more and more obvious. In the future, it is expected that commercial banks will make different strategic positioning choices through careful analysis of themselves, including regional competition strategy, product competition strategy and customer competition strategy.

Gong, the president of Zheshang Bank, believes that the strengthening of capital constraints requires joint-stock commercial banks to shift from the extensive growth mode of expanding capital to the intensive growth mode with capital return as the core under the limited capital conditions, so as to achieve the best match between income and risk. The core of intensive growth mode is that banks adjust and upgrade the functions of products and services operated by banks according to the market environment and customer needs, reduce homogenization, provide differentiated services for customers, and thus establish their own comparative competitive advantages.

In recent years, driven by demand, technological progress and intensified competition, China's commercial banks have shown a trend of differentiated competition in some market segments. However, the degree of differentiation between commercial banks in China is indeed lower than that in developed markets: the business philosophy, development strategy, market positioning, business methods and specific products are very similar, and the homogenization problem is quite prominent; The situation of single income structure has not fundamentally changed. The traditional deposit-loan spread income is still the most important source of income and profit for commercial banks, and it has become the "bottleneck" for joint-stock commercial banks to continuously innovate their services and comprehensively improve their service level.

Second, the experience of commercial banks in developed countries in implementing differentiation strategy

Implementation of differentiation strategy of commercial banks in developed countries

1 business strategy: due to the differences in country, scale and business advantages, business development strategies that meet their own development needs and characteristics have been formulated respectively. The first category: comprehensively expand corporate business, retail business and bank card business, represented by Citibank and HSBC; The second category: focusing on the development of corporate business and asset management, such as Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank; The third category: highlighting the development of retail business, such as the Bank of East Asia; The fourth category: expanding the business services of global customers of the parent bank in China, focusing on agency business and international settlement business.

Product and patent strategy: focus on developing high-tech online banking, cash management, syndicated loans, project financing, trade financing and other products to avoid the disadvantage of fewer physical outlets and give full play to their own advantages.

Customer strategy: From the perspective of company business, we will focus on marketing wholly foreign-owned enterprises, Sino-foreign joint ventures, large state-owned enterprises and high-quality listed companies. As far as retail customers are concerned, middle-and high-income people are the main marketing and service targets of foreign banks.

4. Regional strategy: At present, foreign banks are stepping up the layout of the domestic market and focusing on the central cities with developed domestic economy. Many foreign banks have upgraded their representative offices in Shanghai to formal business organizations or branches, which can play a good role in radiating from point to area.

5. Strategic alliance: Foreign banks make extensive use of strategic alliance to develop financial business abroad. Due to geographical and policy restrictions, most foreign banks are temporarily unable to operate RMB business. Even after the implementation of national treatment for foreign banks, foreign banks are still inseparable from cooperation with Chinese banks. For foreign banks, the only way out is cooperation, such as technology transfer, business model sharing and product integration.

(B) Advanced practices of commercial banks in developed countries in implementing differentiated competition strategies

After the war, the third wave of scientific and technological revolution swept the western world, the western economy developed rapidly, the financial market began to change from the seller's market to the buyer's market, and the competition among banks became increasingly fierce. Product innovation and marketing are gradually valued by western bankers and developed rapidly.

1 product marketing market positioning is clear.

The launch of (1) products focuses on targeted preliminary research. These preliminary work mainly includes the investigation, analysis and evaluation of various market segments, determining the market segments that can be entered, and understanding the market size, competition status and target customer needs. It is understood that Standard Chartered Bank has a special market research department, which is responsible for the analysis of the market, customer needs and competitors.

(2) Invest considerable time and energy in market research. Foreign banks are very willing to inject a lot of work into market research, ranging from half a year to several years, and even hire professional and authoritative research companies to do this work for them.

2 products and services focus on differentiation, serialization and matching.

(1) In terms of differentiation, foreign banks are good at decomposing their core services and marketing different products and services to different customers through reorganization and repackaging. For example, the customer stratification implemented by Hang Seng Bank provides different services and different brands to different customer groups: the lowest-end customers are called comprehensive financial management; In addition to enjoying all low-end services, the bank also set up express counter services for mid-range customers; For high-end customers, it is called excellent financial management. These customers have their own wealth management center, which can directly trade with the bank manager by telephone and use all the service channels of the bank for free.

(2) In terms of serialization, the products of foreign banks usually have a clear product line. Taking HSBC as an example, from the product series based on product use, the bank's products can be clearly divided into four product lines: first, settlement products; The second is wealth management products; The third is investment products; The fourth is bank card products.

(3) In terms of matching, foreign banks pre-match all kinds of financial products and services to meet the different situations of customers' life cycle and meet and solve the various needs of customers as a whole. For example, in the opening stage of an enterprise, the bank provides a project start-up loan plan; In the stage of expanding distribution network, provide credit card retailer service and factory equipment rental service; In the stage of production expansion, provide investment loans for factory equipment; In export trade, provide export financing and letter of credit business; Provide financial advisory services and equity financing services when enterprises conduct acquisition activities.

3 scientific and flexible product and marketing management. The reason why foreign banks have great advantages in product management and marketing is that they have a good and effective management mechanism, which can give full play to the overall marketing ability of banks. For example, Citibank adopts a "rectangular organizational management framework", that is, an "elastic" organizational management framework based on customers and products to guide the marketing activities of the whole bank.

Close business relationship with customers and cultivate "relationship" managers. At present, the traditional "customer manager system" of foreign banks is evolving into a deeper "relationship manager system".

The role of "relationship" manager is to cross the boundaries of multi-level functions, business projects, regions and industries, and establish a set of complex interpersonal and emotional relationships with customers on this basis. The "relationship" manager should not only ensure to provide first-class services to customers, but also pay attention to the in-depth study of enterprise management and development strategy, provide consulting services for enterprise development, analyze the potential financial needs of customers according to the development direction of enterprises, and provide corresponding products and services in time.

Third, the inspiration for China's commercial banks to build a differentiated competitive strategy system

(A) the establishment of product innovation-oriented differentiated competitive business philosophy

1 Deepen the understanding of marketing. The establishment of marketing concept is a necessary prerequisite for the construction of modern commercial banks. To establish a perfect product innovation and marketing system that meets the requirements of commercial banks' operation and management, we must first improve the understanding of marketing work in the whole bank. First, marketing is a systematic project that affects the whole body. The whole bank should establish this awareness and realize vertical and horizontal linkage marketing and collaborative marketing between branches and professions. Secondly, marketing is not phased, but permeates every work link and develops with the development of bank operation, changes with the change of economic and financial situation, and its means are constantly improved with the development of science and technology.

2. Pay attention to the linkage between product innovation and marketing. Product innovation is the basis and premise of marketing. Only through marketing can the value of product innovation be reflected, and the two are interactive and complementary. In product innovation and marketing, we should do the following: First, product innovation and marketing activities should be close to the market. Constantly improve and optimize products, improve marketing programs, and achieve "no one has me, no one has me" to take the initiative in market competition. Second, product innovation and marketing should be linked. Only by designing and developing products that can meet the needs of different customers can marketing be successful and marketing can get rich value returns. At the same time, innovative products are inseparable from marketing. Only when marketing is realized can the value of bank products be reflected and products be accepted and recognized by customers.

(B) a clear product strategic positioning

No matter from the development of financial products or the change of market demand, product research and innovation has become an important means to enhance the competitiveness of banks. It is the basic premise of product innovation and marketing to study and determine the product strategic positioning of commercial banks. Under such market positioning, its product strategy should be multifaceted and diversified.

1 Leading product positioning. First, the market is leading. Commercial bank products must have the first-Mover effect, represent the mainstream direction of financial product development, actively innovate bank products and services, and guide customers' consumption. Second, customers are ahead. The launch of products should not only compete for a wide customer base, but also launch layered products for high-quality corporate customers and middle-and high-income individual customers. Third, the benefits are leading. When products are put on the market, we should pursue economic benefits and ensure that the products of commercial banks get the greatest benefits among the same type of products in the market.

2. Expand product positioning. For the positioning of such products, the first is functional expansion. This positioning requires commercial banks to adjust product structure and combination at any time according to the changes of market situation, enrich the depth and breadth of products, upgrade products and create new product effects. The second is application expansion. Such products should cover all areas of the market. Different products can adapt to different regions, different types and different customer markets, and penetrate products into all walks of life.

3 brand product positioning. For branded products, we must first establish a brand. This is a long-term investment, which requires commercial banks to make correct decisions and actions in every link of R&D, sales, publicity and service, and finally transform them into external market forces, so that their products have popularity, reputation, loyalty and brand association. Secondly, we must shape the brand. The process of brand building requires commercial banks to have a strong ability to tailor products and services to customers, and to design special products and services that other banks can't replace, so as to meet the needs of different customers, that is, to give full play to the advantages of core products in assets, liabilities and intermediary business, lock in customers, and make the bank's products stand firm in the market.

(3) Establish the system of matrix product management. The organizational structure of matrix product management consists of two parts: first, front desk management, that is, comprehensive marketing of products; The second is background management, that is, product research and development management. The so-called reconstruction of the comprehensive marketing framework of front-end products refers to the organic combination of product managers and account managers, and customers can handle all the business of banks only by facing one account manager. For customers, he only touches a "point" of the bank, that is, the account manager; For the account manager, there is a "face" behind it, which is the strong support of the whole bank, and the specific implementer of the support function is the product manager.

(D) the construction of product information management system

1 Building the product information system of commercial banks. Product information system mainly includes three aspects, namely, product use, product life cycle and product value return. Specifically, the first is to collect the information of all products of commercial banks, regularly analyze the use of products, market conditions and customer dynamics, and grasp the detailed information of products in time. The second is to analyze the product life cycle. Through the analysis of product life cycle, we can know every time point, so as to carry out effective maintenance, extend its maturity and prevent premature failure. The third is to clarify the return of product value. By understanding the value return of the product, we can further improve the product and improve the corresponding technology to obtain the highest return of the product.

2. Establish the product pricing system of commercial banks. The first is to enhance the information support function of product pricing system. The system takes computer system, financial management ledger system and credit ledger system as basic data sources, and processes the data through the computer system to generate performance value evaluation reports at different levels such as products, customers, institutions and departments, which provides multi-angle and diversified management decision-making basis for the management of commercial banks. The second is to build the product pricing model of commercial banks. It is an inevitable trend of modern commercial banks to establish a technical support platform for product pricing model, and it is also an inevitable requirement for commercial banks to manage products by using high-tech means.

3. Improve the customer asset management system of commercial banks. The first is to implement customer information management. Using data warehouse technology, the customer management information system of commercial banks is constructed, and the information of each customer and relevant market data are integrated to improve the level and quality of customer management and the response speed to customer needs. The second is to implement customer classification management. Market segmentation, through customer demand research and scientific quantity, cost and profit analysis, according to the customer's contribution to commercial banks, customer quality grades are divided. The third is to provide differentiated services. Provide high-level service of senior account manager for high-contribution customers; Improve the profitability of commercial banks through marketing low-contribution customers; For customers who can't bring benefits to commercial banks, they will give up the market through differential pricing.