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Herbert and Susan Kwesi are remarkable husband - and - wife team. Herbert Kwesi had been a
lawyer in Kumasi when he became interested in the savings and loans associations that are his
clients. Susan Kwesi had been a Kumasi securities analyst who evaluated securities in the
savings and loan industry. After they married in 1990, they naturally discussed savings and loan
management and concluded that they couldk successfully manage a savings and loan institution.
With that conviction, they moved to Accra, where prospects looked bright. In 1992, they found
their opportunity and raised 4million Ghana Cedis to buy control of Ghana Financial Corporation,
a publicly held corporation whose stock is treated on Ghana stock exchange market. It's main
office is in spintex road Accra.
Ghana Financial corporation has becaome one of, if not the most well-managed savings and
loans industry in the country. The company has succeeded by focussing on continaual
innovation, emphasising customer service, and using new technology to improve productivity.
Another principle is to simplify their products. Ghana Financial Corporation offers only passbook
savings acounts, appropriate to their chosen market segment. They to not offer checking
accoutns, credit cards, or auto loans.
Their customer consist of any conservative savers. Very little in multiple unit housing and none in
commercial and industrial loans. They had been paying out around 20% of income as dividends,
until losses were suffered inthe 2008 - 2009 recession, and then dividends were held to a mere
3% of income, while cash reserves mounted. Also, they insist on 20% mortgage down payments,
even when marry rivals were requiring just 10%.
However, Ghana Financial Corporation stil enjoy 20% market share deposite the world economic
downturn inthe late 2008 - to the late 2009.
The primary diploma facing Ghana financial Corporation is the economy. In 2008 - 2009, the
nation's economic health was sub.
In an attempt to stimulate the economy, the Government reserves, the nation's central bnak,
which is responsible for monetary policy, encouraged consumers and businesses to borrow to
increase spending on goods and services. The central bank of Ghana exerted downward
pressure on interest rates and caused sharp decline in the rates on many savings and
instructions.
The interest rate atmosphere just described contained both good news and bad news for financial
institutions. The good news was that the decline in short-term yield allowed banks to
aggressively low rates paid in deposit, bringing about a significant decrease in cost of funds for
most institutions while beneficial for financial intermediaries.
In 2008 failing environment resulted in "sticker shock" for many customers who found out that
maturing accounts could only be reinvested as rates significantly lower thatn those that existed
just a few months earlier. In response, some deposits shifted to longer-term, higher yielding, but
often ininsured investments. Consequenlty, the good news for financial institutions with respect
to the cost of funds was tempered by the fact that many institutions experienced a deposit outflow
for the year.
The bad news was that lower interest rates failed to stimulate overall loan demand in a
meaningful way. for those home owners who took advantage of the environment to refinance
their mortgage
The transitional period of Government from the NPP to the NDC was fairly peaceful and
democratic showing that the country will continue to enjoy favourable political climate, which will
entice foreign investors and generate more jobs.
Liberalization of the Ghanaian economies has and will still be condusive for financial institutions
to cover the market with competiting products. A lot of new banks are entrying into the Ghanaian
market such as Access bank, Atlantic Arabic bank. However, are major competitors include:
Standard Chartered bank, Stanbic bank, Ecobank, UBA bank. Ghana commercial bank, UT
bank, Barclays bank and Agricultural development bank. Despite these numerous banks we still
enjoy 20% market share.
For several years, the Ghana Financial Corporation was viewed as a rather tranquil industry, a
gate place for consumers to borrow and invest. After all the industry is closely governed by the
bank of Ghana regulations, enforced by the Government Home Loan Board and insured by the
Ghana savings and loan insurance corporation.
Ghana Financial Corporation is one of, if not the most, well-managed savings and loans in the
country. The company succeeded by focusing on continual product innovation, emphasing
customer-service, and using new technologies to improve productivity.
This strategy has evolved out of the corporation's focus on several well-defined principles that
guide their management. One is to control expenses very tightly for example, their branch offices
are more simply equipped and furnished than is typical.
Another is to taillor tellers' hours closely with customer traffic. No automatic teller machines have
been installed, despite the popularity in the industry and among banks.
Another principle is to simplify their products. The corporation offers only passbook savings
accounts appropriate to their chosen market: conservative savers. They do not offer checking
accounts, credit cards, or auto loans. Their lending concentrates on residential mortgage. Very
little in multiple-unit housing and none in commercial and industrial loans. A related principle is to
be conservative with their cash.
Since Ghana Financial Corporation is a retail business engaged in the marketing of financial
services, the importance of strategically located branch facilities is crucial to their success. From
the beginning, the corporation has steadily expanded its branch network to cover 15quarters in
Accra.
Ghana Financial Corporation does not deserve to be the biggest financial institution in the
country. It is interested in continued expansion in Accra it if is agreable to the company's
bottomline. Ghana Financial Corporation earnings per share have grown at a comprehended
annual rate of 15% over the past 70years.
•The government of Ghana who is responsible for monetary policies in collaboration with the
Bank of Ghana encouraged consumers and businesses to borrow to increase spending
on goods and services deeping our activities alive.
•Decline in short-term yield allowed banks to aggressively low rates paid on deposits which
brought about a significant decrease in cost of funds hence very beneficial for Ghana
Financial Corporation.
•Ghana Financial Corporation also amongst other financial institutions with respect to the cost of
funds experienced a deposti outflow for the year.
•Ghana Financial Corporation is viewed by most Ghanaians as tranquil company a gate place for
consumers to borrow and invest.
•Loans and investment are secured following Government regulations and closely enforced by
Government Home Loan Board and Insured by the Ghana savings and loan insurance
corporation
•One of the most well managed savings and loans company in the country by most consumers.
•It continuous product innovation is quite commendable.
•It emphasize on customer service and using new technologies has improved it's productivity.
•Well-defined principles that guide management
•The Ghana financial corporation has been able to taillor tellers' hours closely with customer
traffic.
•Another reason is the fact that it simplify their products.
•Their branches are strategically located.
There is therefore no doubt such factors as discussed above could not have done much better as
the corporation is doing at the moment.
Subject: A one year marketing plan for Ghana Financial corporation. (1 Jan. 2010 - 31 Dec. 1.0
Intro: 2010)
Planing is an integrative, co-ordinating activities that gives focus on the organisation. Addressing
the annalytical, behavioural and organisational aspects of planning can help overcome the many
barriers of success. Marketing managers plan in order to complete taks on time and without
exceeding pre-set resources limits. The marketing planning process involvese an executive
summary, situational analysis; marketing objectives, marketing strategy, implementation and
budeting and control. Below is one year marketing plan for Ghana Financial Corporation.
Political:
Technnological
Competition:
•High due to of new banks with passbook savings as their product mix.
•New banks with internal coverage e.g. Access bank, standard chartered and Baclays.
Men :
Financial.
Machinery :
Materials :
Markets :
4.1 : Strength :
4.2 : Weaknesses.
4.3 : Opportunities.
4.4 : Threats.
Penetration
-Nungua
-Teshie
-Mallam
-Palas town
Cost Leadership.
•Tight expense control.
•ACI expenses exceeding 100 Ghana cedis must be approved by Managing Director.
•Expand only to areas with agreable bottom lines.
Differentiation
•Conservative savings
•Commercial and industrial loans.
•Residential mortgage loans.
•Segmentation.
•Conservative servers ages between 20. 70.
•middle and low income earners.
•Resident of Accra only.
Targeting
Concentrated : residential mortgage loans.
Positioning.
•Innovative
•Customer focus institution
•Principled instituiton
•Reliable institution
Retention strategies
7.0 : Implementation
•Product:
•Innovative
•Centered around customer needs
•Highly adaptable
Price
Promotion
Sales promotion
•2% discount on all residential mortgage loans
Public relations
Distribution
•Extensive : All shops and supermarkets hold and distribute our coupons to their customers
People
•Interpersonal skills
•Yearly training on customer and service delivery strategies.
•Responsive
•Reliable and dependable
•Empathy
•Polite and considerate
Process
Physical evidence
Budgets.
Total
Control
Task Two
From :
To :
Date:
Subject: Evaluation reports
Marketing and marketing planning contribution to the external marketing environment can not be
over emphasized. The key reasons include:
Consistency : By providing a common base to work from (for example, techniques and
assumptions) the overall decision-making process can be enhanced. Additionally, common
methods and formats should improve internal communication.
Integration : As a strategic process, planning should facilitate the integration and co-
ordination of marketing mix. By providing a strategic focus it should be possible to generate
synergy from individual elements of the marketing mix.
Communication and motivation : The plan should clearly communicate strategic intent
to employees and other stakeholders. Clear objectives and an understanding of the individual or
group, contribution to the process serves to generate 'ownership' and motivation.
Control : All control activities are based on some predetermined plan. The planning process
should set meaningful targets, thus defining the criteria by which success is measured.
An analysis of the external environment can be broken down into three key steps, becoming
pregressively more specific to the organisation. The first step is on analysis of the macro-
environmental influences that the orgnaisation faces. This is followed by an examination of the
competitive (macro environment the orgnaisation operates within. Finally a specific competitive
analysis is undertaken.
The environmental audit is reciant on the monitoring activity that is undertaken by the
orgnaisation. The process is normally referred to as Scanning.
•Undirected viewing. The activity concerns the viewer exploring information in general without
carrying a specific agenda.
•Continual viewing : Again this is not an oranised search but the viewer is sensitive to information
that identifies changes in specific areas of activity.
•Information search: This is an organized but limited search for information to tsuppoet a specific
goal.
•Formal search: This type of search is activity pursued and specifically designed to seek
particular information.
•This information can be gotten from the following areas:
•Market intelligence
•Technical intelligence
•Acquisition intelligence
•Broad issues
•Other intelligence
The micro environment : This looks at the market within which we operate or business
operates. This analysis is often conducted looking at porter's five force model which can help
Ghana Financial Corporation gain an understanding of the work in the environment of the firm.
Some industries are often more attractive than others porter's five force model can be used to
show when the combined forces are weak but could also show where a particular force may be a
concern ad require attention.
Internal appraisal : Marketing audit also looks at organisation's own capabilities. This
shows the firms position in the market. This is known as internal appraisal. This done though the
5m's approach of men, money, machinery, materials and markets.
•The first issue involved in the gathering and analysis of information for marketing and audit is by
determining the source of such information. These sources are often divided into
primary and secondary information which can either be qualitative or quatitative in nature.
•
•The second issue of consideration is to decide whether the information will be gathered internally
or externally by the gatherers. Internal will include customer data house and external
could include competitor records, government statistic and trade journals.
•The third and final issue is understanding marketing code of ethics in gathering and anlaysing
marketing information. A good example is the date protection Act (1998) which stipulates
the following:
•
Data must be fairly and lawfully processed
•Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specific and lawful purpose and shall not
be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose
•Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not in excessive in relation to the purpose for
which they were processed.
•Personal data shall be accurate
•Personal data shall be kept longer than necessary for that purpose or those purpose.
•Data shall be processed in accordance with the right of data subject under this act.
•Personal data shall not be transferred areas without data protection act.
Evaluation Three
How segmentation, targeting and positioning has influenced stratey development of Ghana
Financial Corporation.
There numerous definitions of "strategy" have been developed. However a strategy is concerne
with making major decisions affecting the long-term direction of Ghana Financial Corporation.
Mojor business decisions are by their very nature strategic, and then to focus on:
•Business definition
•Core competences
•Integrative
•Consistency of approach
Segmentation involves dividing the market in groups of people who share common needs and
wants and have common characteristics.
Ghana Financial Corporation has only one segment conservatives savers and residential
mortgage borrowers which focuses on the people within the metropolitan people of Accra.
Ghana Financial Corporation is recognising that people have different needs and wants decided
to select as his only segment conservatives savers and residential mortgage borrowers. This has
influenced Ghana Financial Corporation's strategy to evolve out of the corporations focus on well-
defined principles, tight expenses control, and no automatic teller machines. By so doing Ghana
Financial Corporation has simplified their products.
•Targeting
Targeting means selecting those sements that are profitable to the firm and the serve them. Due
to it conservative sements, Ghana financial Corportaion has decided to target only people within
the vicinity of Accra and therefore concentrates its activities on residential mortgage loans and
neglectng commercial and industrial loans.
•Positioning
This is the image Ghana financial corporation customers hold about the organisation in relation to
competitors and product. Because of Ghana financial corporation conservative nature the
institution has had to position itself as
However other marketing strategies such as Growth strategies, market dorminance strategies,
porters generic strategies and Branding will all combined to influence
GFC strategic decision of its marketing mix.
Four
Clearly, implementation issues must exist to sucessful planning. There are more often to do with
the human aspects of business management. They involve people, politics, skills and culture to a
greater degree than formal systems, methology and data. Such barriers are:
•Culture : The prevailing culture may not e amenable to marketing plans. If the fundamental
principles of marketing are not accepted by the organisation, any mor towards being
market-led and customer oriented could be dismissed as not the way we so it. Often e
see considerate resistance to change and gradual regression back to old work practices.
•
•Power and politics : All organisations are subject to internal politics. The development of
strategic planning becomes a battlefield where vested interests fight each other's
proposals and squabble over status and resources. This process absorbs much
management time and can result in ill-advised compromise and unnecessary delay.
•
•Analysis not action. Much time and energy cna be wasted by the process of analysing data and
developing rationales for action, as opposed to simplify acting. While a rigorous process
is commendable, if should not displace action.
•
•Resource issues. In any planning situation, the potential exist to negotiate over resources.
Indeed, a major aspect of the process is to match resources to planning aims. Managers
must take a realistic view to the resources position and endeavour to ensure that
resources are not over-committed or needlessly with-held.
•
•Skills : In some instances, managers do not have the skills required to make the best use of the
planning process. Here, planning takes on a ritual nature - a meaningless but must do
annual task.
NB : Many of these barriers relate to the implementation of plans rather than the planning
process itself.
•Establishing the concept of marketing plannning and understanding of the analysis, strategies,
programs for implementation process. Much consideration should be made or given to
the influences from company culture and personnel all the stages of the planning
process, the personnel to include and the likely problems and difficulties to be
overcomed.
•Ghan Financial Corporation should have committed personnel especially salespersons who are
highly motivated and understand the underlying concepts of marketing, but also have
good relationship with other departments. Without and understanding of the people and
organisational issues, all marketing initiative have no guarantee of suceess and
implementation.
•The right skills needed to carry Ghana Fiananacial Corporations strategy should be employed.
Also abled people should be hired and trained and put them on the right job
•Another way of addressing these implementation issues of the corporations marketing plan is
that employees should share a common way of thinking and behaving.
•The employees of Ghana Fianancial Corporation should share the same guiding values. All
these elements if appropriately put together will guarantee successful implementation
Conclusion
In the context of marketing the goal will be to achieve and/or maintain a marketing orientation. It
is doubtful if a marketing strategy can be implemented whre this orientation does not exist.
Achieving such a goal is dependent on the quality of mangement and their understanding of
marketing as a business philosophy.