Australian bank customers have had a very bad perception about the country’s banking sector. For instance, many customers believe that banks are closing branches to cut costs. This is a misconception as the country is ranked well with 25,000 banking access points per one million residents when compared to countries like UK, Singapore and France (Australian Bankers Association 2010, p. 8).
Customers should also know that the sector has real competition among various banks. After deregulation, transaction accounts are now available in 24 banks, 177 credit unions and 14 building societies (Australian Bankers Association 2010, p. 11). It should also be known that competition has reduced interest margins to less than 2% (Australian Bankers Association 2010, p. 13). Most of these customers believe that banking services are not affordable. This is a misconception as transaction fees accounts for only 1% of banks revenues (Australian Bankers Association 2010, p. 17).
Therefore, this will be communicated to different people and customers to do away with these misconceptions. In this case, TV will be effective in reaching a wide mass of people. This is because it is mostly accessible and adverts can be made appealing to different age groups (Westpac 2010, p. 8). Other forms of promotion will also be used to reach individual target groups. Public relations and sales promotion will give individual target groups the attention they deserve and in the process explain all they need to know. Personal selling is very interactive and can be tailor made to suit different interests.
Because there is a good advertising budget, all banks will be covered in this campaign as it’s an all industry affair (Australian Bankers Association 2010, p. 26). This will pull together their efforts in reaching a wide mass of people. Therefore, all banks will be required to input their contributions on the way forward.
Reference List
Australian Bankers Association., 2010. Fact sheets on banking industry. Web.
Westpac., 2010. Australia’s First bank. Web.