Financial service providers have long placed considerable faith in positive word of mouth communication as a means of attracting new customers and a variety of studies of customer choice of bank highlight the significance of personal recommendation. Given that financial services tend to be...

Increased competitive pressure in the market for loanable funds has encouraged the banks to place greater emphasis on the marketing of their services to both corporate and personal customers. The small business sector of the corporate market covers the majority of corporate accounts and for a...

Consumer protection was an important motivating factor behind the introduction of polarization in the Financial Services Act. Despite the potential benefits to the consumer of using independent financial advice as a source of information and a medium for the purchase of financial services, the...

Traditionally, marketing in financial services had been a largely tactical activity, concerned primarily with the advertising and selling of existing products. With the growth in environmental turbulence which characterized the 1980s the notion of marketing as a strategic activity became...

The strategic importance of distribution for financial services was reflected in and reinforced by the provisions of the Financial Services Act. Through requirements relating to polarization, best advice and commission disclosure, the Financial Services Act sought to create a regulatory...

The development of effective customer relationships is widely advocated as a key element of marketing strategies in the service sector. The advantages associated with the development of such relationships are thought to be particularly relevant in the case of services for which credence...

The process of establishing a competitive advantage is at the heart of competitive marketing strategy. However, a competitive advantage cannot be established without a clear idea of what constitutes the relevant competitive arena. Theoretically, there are strong arguments for seeing both these...

The development of effective customer relationships is increasingly recognised as an important component of marketing strategies, particularly in the case of service industries. Developing and maintaining satisfactory customer relationships can help to reduce perceived risk, reduce transactions...

With channels of distribution changing rapidly and multi‐channeling becoming increasingly widespread, studies of consumers will need to focus not just on understanding product choice, but also on understanding the reasons for channel choice. Although the choice of individual channels and the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how banks have a critical role in helping SMEs by providing investment capital that businesses need and by offering sound financial advice through the growth of the company. Design/methodology/approach – Using the Forum of Private Business (FPB)...