Marketing Strategy of National Bank of Abu Dhabi - Case Study Example

The paper “Marketing Strategy of National Bank of Abu Dhabi” is a convincing variant of case study on marketing. Marketing strategies would differ for the various customer segments. The segments can be differentiated as 1) those that have high relationship revenues (mainly the existing customer base) and 2) those that have high relationship costs (mainly the emerging customer base) in all types of customers, be it government, corporate or individual. Hence, there can be three types of customer segments (Storbacka, n.d):

Group I: The profitable customer base would have high relationship revenues and low relationship costs. This can be addressed by a defensive marketing strategy.

Marketing Mix
The bank must, first of all, develop a distinct image through branding, that is developing its logos and other products. The brand can be further strengthened through advertising, special promotions, sponsorships, and public relations. The bank should engage in aggressive promotions through advertisements on newspapers, television and the internet.27

The banking sector in the UAE is strongly related to the oil and gas industry. It is a highly fragmented industry, with the top 3 banks, including National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) controlling 50 percent of the market. The dominance of the national banks, which have only limited global exposure, has meant that the global financial meltdown has not affected the industry too much. However, the industry is closely related to high-income growth as a result of growing oil and gas prices and real estate activities. With falling oil and gas prices and the real estate investment decline, as a result of the financial meltdown, means that there will be pressure on deposit and credit growth of UAE banks.

NBAD has focused primarily on corporate private and public sector, which is closely related to oil and gas activities and increasing investment in real estate and industries. It has also begun focusing on small and medium enterprises.

There is little focus on retail banking yet even though with the growing population of expatriate and wealthy high net worth individuals, there is a growing market for personal banking, particularly in mortgage loans, car loans, credit cards, personal loans, portfolio management wealth management.

With globalization, not only does NBAD face stiffer competition from foreign banks at home, but it can also increase its market by expanding into other Arab and non-Arab countries.

For the growth of both retail banking operations at home and abroad, developing a marketing strategy through customer segmentation and using internet banking not only for reaching customers but also to segment the customer base is essential.

The United Aram Emirates (UAE) is one of the richest countries in the world. It is a federation of seven geographically small Gulf Emirates – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah (Hashmi, 2007). It is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council and has been one of the major oil and gas exporters in the world. The economy has been growing fast over the past decade and the momentum of growth has been maintained despite the global financial meltdown.