Absa, one of South Africa’s “big four” retail banks that will soon be 60% owned by United Kingdom banking giant Barclays, has unveiled a major programme to enhance its brand, called My Bank.
Detailing its latest marketing strategy at a launch in Johannesburg on Monday, Absa said the programme will capitalise on the bank’s well-known pay-off line, “Today, tomorrow, together”, through the My Bank positioning, by highlighting Absa’s direct relationship with its customers and other stakeholders.
“Absa has known for some time that it is the bank with the strongest emotional connection to its customers and we decided to capitalise on that strength to differentiate Absa even further and to mobilise all our stakeholders,” said Absa’s group executive: group marketing and communication, Brendan O’Donnell.
“The My Bank programme is an opportunity to reinforce that what Absa is doing today, makes it better tomorrow, so that all its stakeholders will prosper together. My Bank is not just a marketing campaign; it is a holistic and all-embracing programme that will drive every facet of our stakeholder relationships.”
O’Donnell said My Bank has been in development since February this year, and the Barclays announcement provided a great platform from which to launch it.
He explained that the rationale for launching the programme after the Barclays offer was announced took its lead from the Absa business strategy.
Absa’s strategic intent is to be the leading financial services group in South Africa, built on the group’s leading position in the South African retail banking market sector and, ultimately, to be the pre-eminent financial services group in Africa.
“This campaign has been carefully designed and shaped to be ready for the time in which we find ourselves. We want to ensure that Absa increases its competitiveness, rather than becoming internally focused during this time.”
He said the programme has been planned and is being executed in so much detail that it leaves nothing to chance.
“We knew we would have to drive our agenda with customers and consumers during this time, otherwise our competition would try to do it for us. The success of the programme depends on the support of the 31 000 employees within the Absa group.
“For this reason, there has been extensive mobilisation for the launch of My Bank among employees.”
O’Donnell repeated the promise made by Absa group CEO Steve Booysen that decisions about the Absa brand will be customer-driven and did not discount the possibility that the Barclays brand may also in time attach itself to this programme.
“Barclays could also become My Bank when and where customers want it.”
Absa is already a leading financial services player in South Africa with assets of R314-billion (by the end of September last year) and a market capitalisation of R50-billion (April this year).
The group services more than seven million customers (customer growth was 14,4% y/y) and claims a 27% market share in instalment finance, 33% in mortgages, 30% in other loans and
advances, 25% in credit cards and 6,6-million personal banking customers.
To become the primary choice in the corporate and merchant banking arena, My Bank will also be rolled out in the corporate and merchant banking space, as well as in bancassurance, in order to gain clients in this market segment. — I-Net Bridge