The benefits of HSBC’s positioning itself as the “World’s Local Bank” help the bank to maintain its success. Such positioning reflects the value-creating strategy, which helps to achieve strategic competitiveness (Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson 4). One of the biggest benefits of such positioning is related to the correspondence of its specifics to the processes of globalization, which are currently developing worldwide. Stros, Coner, and Bukovinski claim that there are both national and global economies in globalization (426). Both economies want to sell their products and services in their manner.
HSBC’s strategy of being the world bank that function as a part of local economies in many countries of the world presents a perfect example of making effective use of the specifics of globalization. Such strategy is based on the belief that the activity of the company must be directed towards both local and international environments, and it can be considered one of the main keys to its success. Modern managers face the need to search for solutions for multiculturalism of their employees and develop methods that help to “reconcile these differences” (Stros, Coner, and Bukovinski 433). The managers working in HSBC have a huge experience in dealing with cultural and national differences due to the strategy employed by the company, and, therefore, they have more chances to deal with the challenges of globalization successfully.
The risks of HSBC’s positioning itself as the “World’s Local Bank” are mainly related to the difficulties of adjusting the general strategy of the company to the special features of the environment in every country. Ensuring the same characteristics of activities of the banks all over the world and providing a special approach in every country are difficult to be combined. Besides, dealing with governments can also present an obstacle to certain activities of the company (Guedes and Faria 20). Therefore, the possible fails in managing of these processes can result in serious negative outcomes for the company.
HSBC’s recent campaign appears to resonate with its target audience. The campaign attempts to reach the youth, and the company chose appropriate ways of communicating with the target audience, such as sponsoring educating and sporting events, providing no-frills credit cards to the underserved student segment, etc. Graham claims that identifying the best channels used to communicate with the target audience is one of the most important steps on the way to provide the campaign able to resonate with it (par. 15). Therefore, HSBS’s campaign can be considered successful, as it uses appropriate ways of reaching the target audience. Besides, as the target audience includes members of different nationalities and cultures, the ability to promote the company’s individual approach to local communities influences the success of the campaign.
By demonstrating that the company is aware of the specifics of the customers’ needs, it demonstrates its ethical attitudes. The analysis of the existing literature proves that being ethical is one of the keys to improving the company’s performance (Chowdhury 110). Besides, the recent campaign is aimed at demonstrating the audience the competitive advantage of the company in satisfying customers’ needs. Such strategy also seems to be appropriate, as maintaining smooth relations with clients is one of the biggest challenges for business (Venugopalan 114). The analysis of the main features of HSBC’s recent campaign shows that it resonates with its target audience, as it corresponds to the specifics of the categories of the population it aims to reach.
Works Cited
Chowdhury, Maruf Hossan. “Ethical Issues as Competitive Advantage for Bank Management.” Humanomics 27.2 (2011): 109-120. Print.
Graham, Spider. 5 Steps You Must Take to Reach Your Target Customer. 2013. Web.
Guedes, Ana Lucia, and Alexandre Faria. “Globalization and International Management: In Search of an Interdisciplinary Approach.” Brazilian Administration Review 4.2 (2007): 20-39. Print.
Hitt, Michael, Duane Ireland, and Robert Hoskisson. Strategic Management: Competitiveness & Globalization, Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
Stros, Danimir, Maja Coner, and Daniel Bukovinski. “Globalization and Management.” Ekonomski Vjesnik 27.2 (2014): 425-436. Print.
Venugopalan, Sabuidu. “Customer Relationship Management Strategies in Banking Industry.” International Journal of Applied Services Marketing Perspectives 1.2 (2012): 114-115. Print.