What Does a Retail Product Manager Do?

Retail Banking (Retail Banking) is one of the types of banks, and they serve the general public and SMEs. Retail banking service customers usually transact through bank branches, ATMs and online banking. Corresponding to this is the Wholesale Bank.

Retail bank

(One of the types of banks)

Retail Banking, yes

Banks that typically provide services primarily to consumers and small businesses are called retail banks

Retail banking refers to the comprehensive and integrated financial services provided by commercial banks to individuals, families, and small and medium-sized enterprises, including deposits, loans, and settlements, using modern business concepts and relying on high-tech methods.

Compared with wholesale banking, retail banking has the following characteristics:

1.Customers are mainly personal customers

Sporadic transactions

3.The transaction amount is small

4, the characteristics shown:

(1) Expense costs of retail banks are higher than wholesale banks

(2) Retail bank customers are more liquid than wholesale banks

(3) The loan risk of retail banks is extremely low

The business content and scope are quite extensive. It involves various areas of commercial banks' debt business, asset business, and intermediate business (off-balance sheet business).

• From the perspective of liability business, there are mainly: personal checking accounts-current deposits, time deposits, savings deposits, credit card deposits, financial bonds, large-value transferable time deposit certificates;

• From the perspective of asset business, there are: consumer credit (including car loans, home loans, durable consumer goods loans, etc.), credit card financing or overdrafts;

• From the perspective of intermediate business (more), it mainly includes: personal exchange settlement, personal trust, personal leasing, personal safe deposit box, personal bill collection, agency payment, personal consulting and wealth management business, personal foreign exchange trading and foreign currency exchange business.

The first stage: the market cultivation stage (beginning in 1996)

This stage started with the savings card marketing of each bank, and the domestic retail banking market started. Until the end of online banking marketing in 2001, its characteristics were expressed as "three singles":

"Single marketing product"

Savings card marketing, including card, peony debit card, Great Wall debit card and dragon card debit card, etc., and then from 1999, with the rise of the network technology revolution, the traditional financial industry began to combine with Internet technology, online banking Increasingly has become the theme of bank marketing, and is regarded by small and medium banks as an effective way to make up for the lack of outlets, quickly gain a foothold, and reduce the size gap with state-owned commercial banks.

"Single promotion method"

The form of bank marketing is mainly reflected in "outdoor publicity", and shopping malls, residential quarters and colleges and universities have become the main places for publicity. Especially on weekends, bank employees in suits and leather belts are often seen in the above areas.

"Single Account Manager Functions"

The functions of personal account managers are mainly reflected in being able to master the basic functions of savings cards and online banking and explain clearly to customers. The performance evaluation of account managers is focused on the number of card issuances and the number of online banking accounts.

The second stage: mixed industry sales began to occur (2001-2002)

This change is most fundamentally reflected in two aspects:

The securities market, insurance market, personal consumer credit market, and fund industry have developed rapidly, and various financial products have been put on the bank's retail counters at the same time. The retail banking business has begun to show complexity. Road puzzle.

Intensified competition in the same industry has caused the shortcomings of banks' inadequate marketing capabilities.

Although there is no clear policy signal, mixed sales of financial products have begun to prevail among banks. Through personal financial retail platforms, individuals such as stock trading, treasury investment, insurance sales, fund sales, trust plan issuance, housing mortgages, and automobile mortgages Financial products are everything, and each business category represents a continuously innovative financial industry.

Breakthrough formula of China retail bank

As early as 2001 when China joined the World Trade Organization, the domestic banking industry had formed a basic consensus that with the acceleration of foreign banks' entry into China, the future competition between Chinese and foreign banks will begin in the areas of retail banking and private wealth management.

In the increasingly fierce competition in the industry, some problems that have troubled the development of individual businesses have begun to emerge. It can be said that the rapid development and increasing complexity of the entire financial industry in China have been concentrated in the retail banking market and are affecting future banking reforms. How to gradually resolve this complexity with one's own strength, and take advantage of the financial industry's rapid development, to quickly improve the operating level of the retail banking industry has become a top priority for the banking industry.

Dilemma: Four major bottlenecks

Cramps in competitive areas

Bank competition is mainly concentrated in the product field, and innovations in financial products are often quickly copied. Under different financial management brands, banks provide customers with basically the same services. For example, fund sales, fiduciary management, personal mortgages, and personal foreign exchange trading, no matter what kind of product, less than half a year after the introduction of a bank, other banks followed suit, making it difficult for any bank to achieve superior or lasting product innovation. leading position.

Weak market foundation

Beginning in 2001, "financial wealth management" has become the theme of domestic retail banking marketing, and "financial wealth management supermarkets", "financial management planners", and "wealth management centers" are becoming the most frequently used terms in the financial media. However, since 2003, the hustle and bustle of financial management has gradually come to rest, because the customers' understanding of financial management is extremely limited, the wealth management products that banks can provide are not abundant, and the professional level of personal account managers is limited. The conclusion is: In an emerging and junior market, it is not feasible to directly copy the advanced experience of mature markets, and the foundation of the market needs to be established day by day.

Low marketing ability

Compared with the faster-growing retail banking market, banks' service awareness and marketing capabilities are still insufficient. First, banks generally lack the marketing skills and professional financial management training for client managers, which has caused banks to market funds and develop Bank-Securities Connect business when the stock market is in a downturn, ignoring the client s investment psychology, and not recommending wealth management products in combination with their investment tendencies; The government and business consciousness is strong. Most banks' understanding of marketing is still on the completion of assessment indicators. They have not positioned themselves as business service companies, and have not raised marketing to the height of a company's long-term development strategy. Again, even The best account manager, personally, cannot independently face and adapt to the rapid changes of the entire financial industry. Therefore, he urgently needs a technical support platform, and banks generally lack sufficient consideration and preparation for this.

Contradictions of assessment indicators

The specific manifestation is the contradiction between the savings deposit indicator and the wealth management product sales agency indicator.

Strategies to get out of the four dilemmas

1) Breakout: 1 formula with 4 variables

Facing an ever-changing market, retail banking is an increasingly complex systems engineering. Here through a simple formula, combined with the latest practice and assumptions of the current banking industry, we outline the marketing strategy for the retail banking market in the emerging stage.

Retail Banking Marketing Formula: Account Manager BusinessFinancial Product or ServiceMarketing Channel BusinessCustomer

The retail banking business can be simply described as: account managers pass financial wealth management products or services to individual customers through certain marketing channels. There are four variables involved in this: account managers, financial products, marketing channels, and customers. Starting from these four variables, we will plan the marketing work of branches.

2) Variable 1: Account manager

First of all, each branch must establish a professional team of personal account managers, and it is clear that this team is responsible for the three goals of business scale growth, marketing target completion and intermediate business income. At the same time, we must establish a continuous vocational training mechanism, including training in commercial marketing skills. In the long run, it is necessary to train different product managers for different areas of the financial industry.

3) Variable 2: Financial product or service

First of all, the recommendation of financial products must reflect professionalism. It is not enough for the account manager's own efforts. Two technical support is needed behind it: one is the product manager (mentioned above), and the other is the appropriate introduction of relevant professional institutions, such as Insurance, securities, funds and futures companies. They can work with product managers to deliver more professional consulting information through account managers.

Second, in an immature and unstable market like China, we must always pay attention to the latest changes in the market and pay attention to the phase and relevance of product marketing. For example, in one year, fund marketing may only have a three-month market, and Bank-Securities Connect only has a two-month market (the opportunity for the stock market to soar), and the downturn in the stock market may be good for the bond market. In addition, we must always pay attention to the impact of national industrial control policies on housing mortgages and auto mortgages, and the impact of exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations on retail banking-related businesses in the international market.

Third, personal financial services can go beyond the scope of financial management and expand into all aspects of customer life, thereby connecting banks to customers more closely. In this regard, the following analysis will be combined with customers.

4) Variable 3: Marketing Channel

The most important point is to clarify the marketing channels of retail banks. The most overlooked but most important channel is the business lobby of the bank branch. At the business lobby of any branch, there are hundreds of people and thousands of people in a day, and they are all customers who have already opened accounts in the bank. They should be the first target of financial product marketing. Domestic banks often ignore the environmental construction of business outlets. In fact, the humanized design of the environment, the unified corporate identity, and the lobby manager with relatively high business quality are all areas that need to be improved in the work.

The second focus of the bank's marketing channels is the bank website and the special issue of personal finance. The difference between the design of domestic bank websites and their foreign counterparts is mainly that they are not user-friendly, or are not easy to use, giving a feeling of information accumulation, and the updates are not timely enough. The content of the financial special issue is more fashionable and casual, and it is not closely related to the banking business. Therefore, there is a lot of room for improvement on both the website and the special issue.

The third type of marketing channel, which also represents the direction of future marketing development, is telephone marketing. It is very similar to Dell's marketing model, with all personal account managers centralized, except that Dell can provide personalized products, and banks are most likely to provide standardized financial products.

The bank's personalized wealth management products are provided by the fourth marketing channel, the wealth management center, and the service target is limited to a small number of VIP customers.

5) Variable 4: Customer (or customer relationship management)

First of all, regardless of the industry, customer relationship management is the core content of commercial marketing, but for banks, it lacks corresponding attention, and it lacks effective management of a large number of high-quality personal customer resources.

Secondly, the customer market lacks segmentation. What kind of customers should be maintained by what level of account managers, what products are provided, and there is no standardized operating mode.

Third, conditional banks can try to extend financial services to areas other than wealth management, such as organizing different forms of clubs around some themes within customers, such as "health clubs", "fashion clubs" and "golf clubs" Wait, connect customers more closely through club activities. This service concept can be simply summarized as "your life, our life work".

The above has made an in-depth analysis of the retail banking business at this stage through one formula and four variables, and tried to build an overall framework for the development of retail banking business. It can be found that the competition in the banking retail market is actually launched on a larger level, whether it is the construction of customer manager teams, the organization of marketing channels, or a more professional level of financial management, and customer relationship management, in the process of improvement Both can form the characteristics of the bank's personal business. Banks can solve related problems in a step-by-step manner according to their own business characteristics and capabilities. In the process of delineating and solving problems, the bank's marketing strategy is also coming out.

The above work plan is basically formulated around the traditional definition of marketing, while modern marketing is more infused with human factors, digging for commonality between products and people, such as NOKIA's Connecting People and BENQ's Joy Life. Therefore, we have also tried to put forward the slogan "Your Life, Our Life Work" as a concept for banks to serve customers for a long time.

What is the final result or product from executing the marketing strategy? Is the brand of retail banking. The solution of all problems and the development of work are actually adding quality to this brand. Establishing a brand is the core competitiveness of retail banks.

Overview

In 2006, China's banking industry clearly put retail banking as one of the main strategic directions on the agenda. ICBC proposed to build "China's No. 1 Retail Bank". Agricultural Bank of China put retail as the focus of strategic transformation. BOC joined hands with Scotland Royal Bank focuses on private banking and wealth management. CCB takes the opportunity to strengthen SME loans to strengthen its transformation into retail banking. CITIC will establish a retail banking system within two years, and China Merchants Bank will become the best retail bank in China. Focus on retail banking business ... The strategic position of retail banking is prominent, and it has rapidly grown and sprung up like mushrooms, and its proportion in banking business is growing.

However, behind the rapid development of retail banks, we have seen the hidden dangers of Chinese retail banks emerging from the wholesale business of backward commercial banks, especially in terms of marketing. Many banks give priority to not customers and retail, but credit. And risk. In addition, their contact with customers is often transactional, so banks tend to focus on transaction efficiency rather than service and sales. Based on the research of many domestic and foreign retail banks and the research of the retail industry, Kotler Consulting Group (KMG) has proposed four major problems for retail banks:

Unclear customer segmentation, unable to provide differentiated products and services, and lack of customer management.

You will not buy 10 bags of washing powder from 7-11, and you will not go to Wal-Mart to buy a bottle of Cola at 12pm. This is the role of customer segmentation. Segmenting customer groups by different needs is a prerequisite for retail, and China s Retail banks are still in the stage of mass marketing, which has caused high costs in product marketing. Institutions transformed from commercial banks do not meet the needs of the retail business. According to central bank statistics, as of September 2005, China

International Experience and Chinese Practice of Retail Banking Service Pricing

In the modern economy, retail banking services are one of the basic social services. The price of retail banking services is closely related to each resident. In China, with

China Mainland

ICBC

Agricultural Bank of China

Bank of Communications

China Merchants Bank

Hong Kong

Bank of China (Hong Kong)

Hang Seng Bank

Nanyang commercial bank

HSBC Bank