Running head: MARKETING

MAR032-2 Interactive Marketing Management

Laura-Daniela Banica

Student number- 1820079

University of Bedfordshire

HSBC Holdings plc report

 MARKETING 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Organizational Overview:..........................................................................................................2
Products:.....................................................................................................................................2
Promotions:................................................................................................................................3
Price:..........................................................................................................................................3
Place:..........................................................................................................................................3
People:........................................................................................................................................4
Process:......................................................................................................................................5
Physical Evidence:.....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................6
 MARKETING 2

INTRODUCTION

The modern trade environment is seen to be associated with considerable number of

changes in various aspects. With the participation of increasing number of new entries, the
market monopoly is seen to be reduced in a significant manner. As a result, the business
competition amongst the organizations has increased in a notable manner and that increases
the urgency amongst the senior management of the established companies towards the
application of different strategies that have the capability to maintain the sustainability and
growth of the organizations in an efficient manner (Bansal and DesJardine 2014). The
increment in the business competition amongst the companies influence the organizations in
putting strong emphasis on their ability in interacting and communicating with the customers
regarding their services and products as that is substantially important for the companies for
tackling the enhanced level of competition. The paper is focused on evaluating one such
aspect of a company named as HSBC Holdings Plc. The paper assesses the marketing mix of
the mentioned organization. In analysing the marketing mix of the organization, the paper
critiques the activities of the company in seven different aspects which are the products,
promotions, prices, places, people, physical evidence and processes.

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

HSBC Holdings plc is one of the largest multinational investment bank and also has
the expertise of functioning as the financial services holding company. In the year 1865, the
company was founded as The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and in 1991, the company was
converted as HSBC Holdings Plc (Hsbc.com 2019). The founder of the organization was Sir
Thomas Sutherland. With headquarter placed in Canada Square, London, the company is
seen to operate across the world. The organization is currently managed by a team of Noel
Quinn, the Interim Group Chief Executive, Jonathan Symonds, the Deputy Group Chairman
of the company along with the Group Chairman of the organization, Mark Tucker (Hsbc.com
2019).

PRODUCTS

One of the important success factor for the company is their diversified product and
service offerings. Being an efficient investment bank, the organization provides variety of
services such as the capital market services, brokerage services and private banking services.
In addition to this, the company has the expertise of delivering the commercial bank services
such as the debit card services, credit card services, automatic teller machines, electronic fund
transfers along with the investment products such as the mutual funds (Hsbc.co.in. 2019).
Apart from this, the company is seen to be efficient in delivering the foreign exchange
services such as the currency exchange services, wire transfer services, along with remittance
services. The diversity of the product offerings of the company also include the custody
services, investment management and hedge funds management. Considering the insurance
management services, the company is observed to put strong emphasis in the efficient
management of the services such as the insurance underwriting, insurance brokerage and
reinsurances.
 MARKETING 3

Apart from these, the excellent ability of company in managing the services such as
retail banking, wealth management, corporate banking, private banking and mortgage loans is
able to place the company is a significant position when it comes to serve the customers in a
professional manner (Hsbc.co.in. 2019).

PROMOTIONS

Considering the ability of the organization in conducting the marking and promotional
activities, it would be justified to comment that the excellence of the organization in
promoting their business amongst the probable and new customers is one of the significant
activities that provide the much required competitive advantage to the organization. The
organization has strong presence in the social media and that is evident with the presence of
the organizations in the social media platforms such as the Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
YouTube and LinkedIn. HSBC has the practice of developing marketing contents for their
customers (Hsbc.com. 2019). The company educates their customers regarding their services
and products through the Twitter, Instagram and their presence in Facebook. With a precise
look back at the product and service offerings of the company, it is understandable that the
company has the necessity to communicate and interact with their customers regarding the
services and products and at the same time, a significant share of the customers of the
organization are observed to have larger preferences towards using the social media
platforms. Under such situation, the company’s efficiency in the social media platforms is
substantial in managing the customer queries in a professional manner. Apart from this, the
company is observed to use the e mail subscriptions in a significant manner for effectively
interacting and communicating with the customers (Hsbc.com. 2019).Apart from this, the
usage of the newsletters from the part of the organization has certainly increased their ability
in educating the customers regarding the offers and new products of the company.

PRICE

With a precise consideration towards the pricing strategy of the company, it is visible
that the main focus of the company is to increase the satisfaction level of the customers. With
the formulation of the interest rates, foreign exchange rates and other services charges, the
company is able to reflect their urge towards applying the low pricing charges for their
products and services (Hsbc.com 2019). In addition to this, the senior management of the
company is observed to be determined in targeting a larger number of customers and that
places them perfectly for the application of low pricing for their services and products. As the
company is able to develop their business in both online and offline forms, it influences the
company towards the development of both online and offline payment methods.

PLACE

The company is able to achieve the status of one of the largest banking organizations
in the world and the main factor that increases the company’s capability towards achieving
the status, is their ability in operating across the globe in an efficient manner. Considering the
business channels of the company, it is evident that the organization has their brick and
mortar presence in four different continental regions in the form of Asia Pacific, Middle East
and North Africa, Americas and Europe. For the Asia Pacific region, the organization is
 MARKETING 4

observed to have its presence in Armenia, Australia, India, Malaysia, Japan, Korea,
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Srilanka, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam
(Hsbc.com 2019). In addition to this the organization is able to establish their principle
subsidiaries in the European nations such as Malta, France and Greece, in American nations
such as Bermuda, Canada, Mexico and USA. Considering the Middle East and South African
region, the company enjoys conducting business with the established subsidiaries in the
regions such as Turkey, Egypt, Jordan along with Saudi (Hsbc.com 2019). As mentioned
earlier, the organization have strong presence in online and the organization have the
tendency of utilizing their online infrastructure for conducting professional business across
the globe. The utilization of the online infrastructure from the part of the organization
enabled the company in increasing their efficiency and the sales of their services.

PEOPLE

HSBC is largely inclined towards developing their services for the specific demands
of the customers and that certainly asks for development of the diversified training
programmes for their employees responsible for formulating the services or the investment
packages that the company sell to their customers. The senior management of the company is
able to put strong emphasis on the efficient management of the developmental needs of the
employees as it becomes important for the value proposition of the company. The higher
authority of the company wants their employees to be sufficiently educated to effectively
communicate the customers regarding the services or the investment packages that will suit
them the best as per their financial condition. Under such situation, the availability of the
diversified training facilities and programmes is seen to be significantly high. The company
provides optimum quality training to the general candidates in both forms as graduate
employees and as interns. The student and graduate development training of the company
provides the graduate employees the much required scope to inherit their job related
information from the senior leaders and at the same time, the supportive global network of
peers provide the candidates sufficient amount of idea regarding the roles that the candidates
will manage and the responsibilities that the employees will be asked to take care of.

With the formation of business rotation, the company is able to manage the career
related development needs of the employees. In addition to this, the activities of the company
in the business rotations aspect, are observed to be significant in enhancing the understanding
level of the employees regarding the products and services of the company and along with
that, the training session provides the much required scope to the employees in bringing out
new ideas that have the capability to improve the quality of the services of the organization.
Apart from this, the business insights section of the training session of the company plays an
important role for the employees of the company in improving their knowledge regarding the
strategic priorities of the company along with the inputs regarding their potential career
journey. With the initiation of the brainstorming sessions, the urge of the senior management
of the company in promoting the innovation and entrepreneurialism, is observed to be pretty
prominent. Apart from this, the graduate network of the company such as the HSBC graduate
alumni is of great significance for the employees in getting help from their senior or retired
employees of the company in the form of the “buddy” programme (Hsbc.com 2019). Apart
from this, the higher authority of the company is notably focused in maintaining a good
corporate culture and that is evident with the formation of the “Employee Resource Groups”
(Hsbc.com 2019). In addition to this, the training sessions of the company provide the desired
 MARKETING 5

scope to the employees of the company for simultaneous learning of the technical business
skills and the soft skills such as the business ethics, leadership and effective communication
which are considerably important for the success of the employees working in the
organization.

PROCESS

With a precise consideration towards the processes implemented by the senior

management of the company for the efficient management of the business actions in the
company, it is evident that the organization is continuously trying to be a customer centric
company where the design of the banking services and the investment packages will be
largely dependent on the insights and demands of the customers. The procedures established
by the company for the sales of their investment packages and the banking services are
observed to be largely linked with the Information Technology and that is evident with the
dependence of the net banking services over the IT infrastructure of the company. The
incorporation of a tech based approach in the design of the services of the company, in the
marketing and promotional activities of the company along with the business management
activities of the company, certainly speaks volume of the IT dependence of the company
(Hsbc.co.in. 2019).

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Considering the physical infrastructure of the company, it is visible that the company
has a lucrative presence in various social media platforms. The application of the modern
technology has certainly played a significant role in improving the attractiveness of the
company’s business actions. The application of the virtual reality and ICT in the development
of an attractive online experience through providing the scope to the customers in interacting
with the executives of the company, is observed to be of great significance in enhancing the
capability of the company in attracting larger number of customers.

CONCLUSION

On an ending note, it is understandable that the company is able to conduct certain

level of restructuring in their marketing strategies and that is evident with the improvement in
the functionality of the company in various aspects such as Product, Promotion, Price, Place,
People, Process and Physical Evidence. The success of the company with the above
mentioned restructuring is pretty prominent with the improvement of the financial condition
of the organization. At the same time, the recognition of the company in the top 100
companies of FTSE is significant in stating the growth that the company is able to achieve
with the above mentioned restructuring.
 MARKETING 6

REFERENCES

Bansal, P. and DesJardine, M.R., 2014. Business sustainability: It is about time. Strategic
Organization, 12(1), pp.70-78.

Hsbc.co.in. 2019. Features | HSBC Premier - HSBC IN. [online] Available at:
https://www.hsbc.co.in/premier/features/ [accessed on 09.11.2019]

Hsbc.co.in. 2019. Multi-Channel Access | HSBC Premier - HSBC IN. [online] Available at:
https://www.hsbc.co.in/premier/features/multi-channel-access/ [accessed on 09.11.2019]

Hsbc.com 2019.All reporting - Subsidiaries | HSBC Holdings plc. [online] HSBC. Available
at: https://www.hsbc.com/investors/results-and-announcements/all reporting/subsidiaries?
page=1&take=20 [accessed on 09.11.2019]

Hsbc.com 2019. Student and graduate development | HSBC Holdings plc. [online] HSBC.
Available at: https://www.hsbc.com/careers/students-and-graduates/student-and-graduate-
development [accessed on 10.11.2019]

Hsbc.com2019. HSBC Group corporate website | HSBC Holdings plc. [online] HSBC.
Available at: https://www.hsbc.com/ [accessed on 10.11.2019]

Hsbc.com2019. Our strategy | HSBC Holdings plc. [online] HSBC. Available at:
https://www.hsbc.com/our-approach/our-strategy [accessed on 10.11.2019]

Hsbc.com. 2019. Media | HSBC Holdings plc. [online] HSBC. Available at:
https://www.hsbc.com/media, [accessed on 10.11.2019]