Cost leadership strategy
ING DIRECT prides itself in the fact that they provide their customers competitive products & services at a low cost (see Appendix B). This stems from the fact that IND Direct is an online bank that does not have traditional branches and ATM network. As a result of this strategy ING Direct is able to significantly reduce their costs and so are in a good position to offer financial products & services to their customers at very cost effective rates (see Appendix B).
This strategy has yielded positive results for ING Direct because it has helped them to expand into new countries because of the lower costs associated with online banking, when compared with the cost of acquiring physical branches in different countries.
The downside of this strategy is the fact that this strategy would require significant costs to be incurred in setting up the information technology infrastructure for the online financial activities of ING Direct. also in the bid to maintain their current strategy of cost leadership by not having traditional branches, their is the risk of customer dissatisfaction, Which would lead to accounts closure by the unhappy customers and which will ultimately result in loss of revenue for ING direct.
Market Share expansion strategy:
ING direct has over the year used this strategy to gain entries into new countries and as such increase their overall global market share. Since their entry in to Canada in 1997, a further entry has been made in to new countries namely Spain (1999),
Australia (1999), France (2000), united (2000), Italy (2001), Germany (2002), Austria (2004) & United Kingdom in (2003).
The strategy has been a very productive one for ING Direct because they have generated a lot of new revenues and increased their in total income over the years (see Appendix C).
Although the strategy has proved very successful for ING Direct still potential downside to this strategy could result from the cultural or diversity issues related with operations in foreign countries.
Band Promotion/Advertising Strategy:
ING Direct currently embarks on brand promotional and advertising strategies e.g. by offering free gas in Baltimore to 1000 drivers at specific selected shell fuel stations, asking such recipients to put their saving to orange saving accounts. ING Direct has also large billboard advertisement with the brand logo conspicuously displayed.
They also run TV ads, electronic media as well as print media ads. ING Direct also hires sponsors sports competitions such as the world form U.K one motor racing championship. This has helped to further project ING Direct global brand image because their brand logos always on display as these events (see Appendix B).
ING Direct even hires celebrities who promote their brand image. This strategy has been quite successful because prospective customers feel confident to open accounts with ING Direct knowing that some of their respected or idolized celebrities also have account with ING Direct.
Pricing Strategy:
ING Direct offers their customers higher interest rates on saving and certificate deposits than their competitors. This has resulted in the ability of ING Direct to price their financial products and services to reflect their low operational cost (see Appendix A).
The implication of this is that ING Direct is able to attract new customers and increase their market share because these operational cost saving have been passed on TV the customers in the form of higher –than-market interest rates on saving accounts and lower interest rates on mortgage.
Marketing strategy of competitors
First direct has a customer advocacy strategy through the creation of little black book, which is recommendation site for first direct customers to post advice on money-saving tips, people, shops, reliable builders.
This strategy makes new customers to discover first directs customer friendly rather through the recommendation site. This is a bit similar to ING Directs coffee shops which used to introduce customers to what ING Direct is all about.
HSBC which is another competitor of ING Direct has various marketing strategies. They are a global Bank which uses the single brand marketing strategy to position them as the world’s local bank.
Some of their marketing strategy includes advertising or promotions which use local citizens in their branches to promote the bank as a local bank that provides tailor made financial products (see Appendix A).
This strategy has been very successful for HSBC because they have greatly increased their customers based over the years.
Operations of ING DIRECT
The Operation Analysis Outline:
IND Direct have relatively low cost and unique business model due to which they are able to maintain its operation effectively. It elaborates its prevailing features of the companies processes and using exclusive business model, it will help to assist in making recommendation to attain company’s common objectives, brief analysis of ING Direct’s business operation are as follows:
By following the model above helps to measure ING Direct’s business operations efficiently and effectively. ING DirecTV’s operational performance can be determined by focussing direct impact on the five high levels targets which includes total profit, non marketing expenditures, effect on balance sheet, net mortgages, growth rate and all call centre’s service.
ING Operation Covered by Porter Value Chain:-
Using the value chain to illustrate the operations at ING Direct.
Porter developed the value chain to establish activities within a firm that were providing a competitive advantage and activities which were not.
In bound logistics at ING Direct:
- These include the distribution network of coffee supplies to their cafes.
- Cash funding or finances provided by the parent company ING Group.
- The provision of communications/telecommunication facilities at ING Directs call centres.
- The provision and use of IT equipment and various application softwares.
Operations:
- This involves the utilisation of infrastructure and human resources at ING Direct to deliver various financial products and services for their customers.
- E.g. the processing of saving account application, mortgages.
- The use of coffee shops and cafes to introduce ING Direct to new customers.
- The use of trained staff of ING Direct to deliver financial services to customers.
Outbound Logistics:
- The provision of high interest saving account as a final product to ING Direct customers.
- Provision of Insurance, mortgages and investment products.
- The use of advance database applications to store information about customers.
Marketing and Sales:
This includes the various marketing strategies adopted by ING Direct to boost their sales and profitability e.g.:
- The use of sports personalities to promote ING Directs brand and image.
- The use of innovative promotional strategies like offering free movie tickets and encouraging recipients to open saving account.
Services:
- ING Direct provides call centres for customers to make enquiries although they do not encourage constant calls.
- ING Direct also tries to provide customer service satisfaction by giving customers premium service at low operational costs.
Secondary Activities:
Firm Infrastructure:
ING Direct has a centralised IT system that utilizes synergies across the organisation. INGDirect do not provide ATM services, checking and the physical presence of traditional banks.
Technology Development:
- This is the way ING Direct uses its strong technological strength to provide it with competitive advantage.
- This involves the constant research and development of software applications that reduce application time process and increase their profitability.
Human Resources Development:
- This is the way ING Direct uses their skilled manpower to contribute to the competitive advantages.
- ING Direct trains their staff to ensure a high level of professionalism and competence is used to gain competitive advantages.
Procurement:
This involves the way ING Direct conducts their purchasing in other ensure a cost advantage is attained to improve profitability.
Analysis of ING Direct value chain:
The aim of this analysis is to identify areas that are critical to the success of ING Direct and develop products/services based upon them.
From this analysis, ING Direct being an online bank will derive its greatest value by providing customers with user friendly IT interface. Operation at ING Direct is a value-adding segment in the value chain because of an efficient operations management will basically lead to profitability.
Marketing and sales is also a value-adding segment in their value chain because a functional and effective marketing and sales department will surely attract new customers thereby increasing in ING Directs market share and subsequently, profitability.
The service segment is equally an important value-adding segment in ING Direct value chain. This is because ING Direct places a great emphasises in the provision of unrivalled customer service and satisfaction.
Supply Chain Management at ING Direct:
ING Direct has an efficient supply chain management system that ensures their process flow is undisrupted e.g. ING Direct has a direct channel of financing by the parent group ING. This has helped to ensure the availability of funds and finance at ING Direct.
There is an integrated system between them and their suppliers of coffee, I.T equipment.
Operational issues at ING Direct and recommendations for improvement :
Although ING Direct has an effective operational system still there are some operations issues facing the organization.
Staff:
ING Direct has a staffing process which sees them hiring people without previous banking experience, but with the right attitude to work.
Although this can be seen as good strategy to boost the image of ING Direct is a good employer or people friendly, still this strategy could have it’s draw downs because inn terms of operations, ING Direct would have to first train these staff without any previous banking experience, to meet the standard so as to discharge good professional services to ING Direct customers. The staff training will surely push up operational cost and impact negatively on profit growth of ING Direct.
Recommendations:
Staff training cost of these new staff can be reduced if ING Direct can put recruitment policies to be such that suitably qualified staff are hired and well trained.
Offline vs. Online:
This is one of the big problems of ING direct might want to work into. A lot of competition is
currently being felt across ING Direct for market share customers. If they decide to go offline, then they would have to try and establish a more physically approach through the establishment of branch offices. This will have a direct impact on their marketing strategy. At the moment their online marketing strategy is very effective because of their strong state-of-the-art I.T systems. this is evident in the profit growth from 2005 to 2006.
The implication of offering offline banking services is to stem the increasing tied in competition which is having a squeeze on profitability.
Recommendation:
The online banking is ING Direct’s mainstay so improvement can be achieved by opening saving accounts in ten seconds or less rather than five minutes. This is to ensure and promote batter customer service and satisfaction.
Call Centres/ operators:
Currently ING Direct discourages calls to operators as this could lead to higher fees or lower interest rate. This concept could lead to disgruntled customers walking away which switching to other customers.
It also follows that if call centre staff appear rude to customers, that would give their brand a negative image which could negatively impact profits.
Recommendation:
Call centre staff or operators should be properly trained so that they can be very customers friendly and provide customers with required assurance.
I.T infrastructure:
ING Direct currently has a very effective I.T infrastructure which means that they are able to provide customers with various online financial products a result of this they are able to advertise and promote their services on the internet, which is good marketing strategy. Although ING Direct achieving this through cost- effective ways, still the cost of implementing I.T in new countries in which ING Direct has expanded into will be quite high. If the IT is not effective and efficient, then their could be danger of their processes being slowed down, which could result in loss of revenue and profitability.
Recommendation:
I.T engineers should carryout period maintenance checks to keep the systems running.
The I.T systems should always be make user friendly, and always kept simple.
Financial Products:
Currently ING Direct uses the savings account as the main customers acquisition product while the mortgage is the more profitable product. This maybe entirely be as a result of the stiff competitions or could be as a result of declining savings account marketing and operational strategy (see Appendix C).
Currently ING Direct savings takes 5 minutes to open while the mortgage account takes 7 minutes to open.
Recommendation:
ING Direct can consider opening customer savings account in 5- 10 seconds, while the mortgage can be opened within 3 minutes. This is to give customers more confidence increase in the ING Direct brand and an increase in market share which could lead to profit growth.
Recommendation for the improvement of the Operations, Marketing and Profitability of ING Direct.
Market penetration:
Market penetration means the provision of existing products in an existing market but with changes to increase market share and overall profitability. ING Direct can achieve this by providing existing customer easier and quicker access to call centre staff, which should provide the customers with unrestricted access to product relate enquiries.
ING Direct can also offer existing saving customers who have been with ING for up to 6 months a 0.25% increase in interest rate to prevent them from. crossing over to competitors like HSBC, who offering higher interest rates.
The implication of this is that ING Direct will retain their existing customers and so maintain or increase the revenue base in this climate of fierce competition.
Market Development:
To remain competitive ING Direct will have to develop new markets for existing products. Currently ING Direct does not operate in Asia or Africa. These 2 untapped countries continents, represents a great opportunity for ING Direct to extend their market share in their existing products. 2 countries namely China and South Africa can be explored. This is because these countries a rapidly developing and show there is a are significant amount of disposable income.
ING Direct can offer their saving accounts and mortgages to citizens of these new countries. The availability of I.T infrastructure in these countries will help ING Direct to maintain their low-cost operations, while boosting market share, revenue growth and profitability. The critical success factor is the ability of ING Direct to overcome the barrier to the entry these countries.
Product Development:
ING Direct can consider the provision of current account and checking services to their existing customers.
They could consider establishing a few physical branches to retain sceptical customers. ING Direct could offer any customer wishing to open a checking account with a 2.5% interest. Some of their main/offline competitors like Lloyds TSB are offering attractive interest rates on current accounts. They should also consider introducing ATM’s for the overall convenience of the customers. They can offer these new products to their existing customers where existing without losing their competitive advantage. Although their business strategy or model derives from the provision of un conventional banking services, They should also bear in mind that competitors e.g. HSBC(First Direct), ICICI, Alliance Leicester etc. are currently providing stiff and fierce competition. The implication of this strategy is that ING Direct could increase their total income figures. These new products can also be introduces by utilising the current resources of ING Direct, thus giving them cost savings and improved profitability.
Diversification:
ING Direct can introduce a new product for a new market. This can be in the diversification into real estate construction and sales. This will involve ING Direct building new residential and office buildings across the different countries in which they operate in. this can be in the form of developing new buildings scratch or acquiring old buildings and refurbishing them for onward sales. They can as well rent out some of the buildings. This strategy is a high risk investment. The downside to this strategy is that during housing market slumps, ING Direct will suffer significant impairment in assets values across the world. But on the possible note, this could be a means of generating increased profitability of ING Direct bearing in mind that property values appreciate most of the times then they lose value.
Customer relationship Management system.
This is a system which is used to monitor, maintain and improve on the various aspects of customer services. ING Direct should consider developing this system in order to help them provide better customer services where required. This is because there is a high probability of loyalty among satisfied customers.
Risk Analysis of recommended options:
Impact/ consequences:
Analysis:
On the basis of the risk analysis of the proposed options at ING Direct, the strategy of market penetration should be adopted. This because it has the lowest risk. Diversification into real state should be avoided on the basis of being the riskiest strategy.
Conclusion:
ING Direct has performed relatively well with there online banking operations. They have shown market leadership in the face of stiff competition have successfully maintained their customer and even increased it in some countries. This is as a result of functional operations and marketing strategy which has positively impacted on there profitability from 2005 to 2007, although there was a drop in profit in 2007, they remained profitable.
However the areas of concern remain there rise in operational costs should be kept down if ING Direct must continue to grow profitability are remain competitive in the present market.
Also the geographical spread of ING Direct in different countries mean diversity in culture.
ING Direct must continually train staff to maintain good customer relations in other countries.
This is in order to allow ING Direct to maintain their brand image as one of the more customer friendly bank in the world.
REFRENCES
.
http://boards.thisismoney.co.uk/tim/threadInd.jsp?forum=43&message=28186&thread=28169&start=0&msRange=15
BOONE, L and KURTZ, L. 1998. Contemporary Marketing Wired. 9TH EDN. Harcourt College Pub.
McCarthy, J. 1996 “Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. 12th ed. Irwin: Homewood.
T R Crompton ,Michael lewis,(2003), “strategic management and business analysis”.
APPENDIX A
PEST ANALYSIS OF ING DIRECT
POLITICAL FACTORS:
ING Direct is currently operating in more than 9 countries around the world. The fact that the parent company is Dutch owned means it is exposed to political risks in foreign countries. Host government of ING Direct may impose legal restrictions on the operations of ING Direct.
Because it is online bank host government could demand a more physical or direct face-to-face consultation between customers and ING Direct staff. This is a bid protect theses foreign customers.
Although this is not the case in most of countries in which ING Direct operates, still this factors cannot be overlooked.
Economic
ING Direct is currently faced with economic factors such as cost of expansion into new markets and countries. ING Direct
The current sub-prime mortgage induced recession means that INNG Direct may be adversely exposed in a country like U.S.A, which is where this crisis originated.
The implication is that ING Direct has suffered a lot of impairment or loss in value of a lot of their global assets.
This has also resulted in ING Direct shelving their plans to launch operation in Japan.
Social Factors:
ING Direct has strategy of customer’s satisfaction. But it has to be said some of their customer’s service process should be modified to achieve or new customers.
For instance ING Direct does not like it persistently make calls or enquires about their products and services.
In some case customers have been asked to close their accounts because too many calls.
The implication is that ING Direct may be losing potential customers who value customer service operations that include tackling any and all questions and quiries posed by customers.
Technology:
- ING Direct has a strong position in their online banking business because of the
expansion or proliferation of internet globally.
- They also face costs associated with maintaining up-to-date information technology infrastructure throughout their operations.
- Currently they are efficient and effective IT architecture.
- ING Direct has central IT group that develops and maintains their IT policies and standards across their operations.
APPENDIX B
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength:
- Power to retain customer loyalty
- ING Direct is paying high interest rates to get more market share and due to clear, efficient and fast services they are able to retain their customer’s loyalty.
- ING Direct is very cost effective business, Absence of ATM machines and low investment at basic infrastructure enables ING Direct to maintain their low expense asset ratio i.e. 195 points.
- Different business approach
- Replacing traditional banking system by innovative image of unique banking approach.
- Latest technology unique marketing strategies.
- Highly efficient direct approach to customers.
- Unique managing end performing styles.
Weakness:
- ING Direct is a web based business and most of it’s activities take place on internet, in case of network failure it can cost them millions.
- Due to their internet based structure there is a possibility that, customer’s information and all the data can be accessed without any authorisation and it can damage their image in the market.
- ING Direct heavily relay on telecom partners it can be harmful for their security and efficiency.
- It is easy to maintain small scale business but when a company is growing much rapidly as ING Direct, so it becomes more difficult to maintain the large scale of business. As a result more pressure from customers to provide good customer services.
Opportunities:
- Increased focus on emerging market.
- ING Direct has capacity to increase its business in any country of the world where internet is broadly accepted and play critical role in daily life for instance Latin America, Dubai, Japan etc.
- ING Direct can utilise its competitive edge in any emerging market by having unique brands, cost effective structure and efficient services.
- ING Direct focusing its presence to countries having nearly 70% of global savings market like in Japan they obtain their banking licence in 2007.
Threats:
- Declining housing market in U.K, U.S and Europe.
- Huge popularity of online banking system has attracted lot of new comers.
- New competitors e.g. Emmigrant offering highly competitive rate on savings.
- Main stream banks like HSBC stepped in online banking by offering high rates of interest in savings.
- Barclays unique internet banking having unique features in ATM.
- ING Direct had unique innovative approach towards its objectives which conflicts between ING Group PLC objectives.
- Worldwide credit crunch has direct impact on ING Direct performance which results in its decreasing profits.
APPENDIX C
New Entrants
Power of Competitive Power of
Buyers Rivalry Supplier
Substitutes
The application of Porters five forces analysis on ING Direct is to analyse there competitor environment by analysing the five forces that determent the profit potential of the industry.
New entrants:
ING Direct currently facing stiff competition from HSBC, Barclays bank, alliance & Leicester this is because the cost of entry is not prohibitive to starting an online operation. Although ING Direct enjoys a cost advantage, still new entrant will not find it insurmountable to enter this online banking industry. The major barriers to ING Directs new competitors could be there good brand image and customers loyalty, which new entrants may find difficult to overcome. This conclusion is that ING Directs faces serious threats by new entrants because of the dynamic nature of global financial industry.
Substitute Products:
ING Direct also faces strong threats from other types of financial products being offered by others financial institutions and banks. HSBC’S online banking is currently offering higher interests rate than ING Directs saving accounts. This has the potential to make ING Directs customers to switch to HSBC’S online saving accounts.
Power of buyers:
The bargaining power of ING Directs customers Is quite substantial. This is because these customers may decide switch to others competitors offering higher interest rates on product like savings accounts. So ING Directs has to always maintain high product and service quality so as to retain there customers.
Power of suppliers:
The power of suppliers is not very high in ING Direct because there are many suppliers in the financial industries also there are many substitute products. There are no major dominant suppliers controlling the interest rates or pricing of other financial products.
Competitor or rivalry:
ING Direct is facing strong competition from rivals like HSBC (first direct), Barclays bank and all. This is as result of the rapid expansion and growth in the online banking industries. This completion become strong if buyers can switch easily to other banks that offer more favourable packages, like lower mortgage rates, low home insurance premium.
