Abstract
M.Comm.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the marketing challenges that face South African banks that have chosen to operate in other emerging markets, and the strategies that have been implemented by these banks in order to meet the challenges that they encounter in these markets. Emerging markets have become important players in the world economy and world politics during the last decade. According to Woodall (2006:4), the combined output of emerging markets reached an important milestone when it began to account for more than half of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world economy in 2006. It is for this reason that global businesses, as well as South African banks, are aggressively expanding their operations into these markets. The four largest South African banks in South Africa posted combined profits of more than R1.2 bn in 2002 from their African operations. This figure represented an increase from the R800 m in profits that were posted in 2001 (Wright, 2003:1-4). The current literature fails, however, to provide any insight into the challenges and strategies that are being implemented by the South African banks that are aggressively expanding their operations into these other emerging markets. This gap in the currently available literature suggested the necessity for a study that would provide the service industry – and more particularly the banking industry – with some potentially valuable insights into these challenges and strategies.
This study was guided by an exploratory descriptive and contextual research design, and it includes an empirical component of nine in-depth interviews with a selection of top executives from the South African banking industry. The researcher analysed the opinions of the participants from this sample by making use of the Morse and Field approach and this produced a whole range of interesting findings. These findings include a confirmation that South African banks face similar marketing challenges in emerging markets to those that businesses which are operating in the retail and production industries have to face. The fact that South African banks have to cope with a lack of local labour with the necessary training and skills needed for employment by the bank, and the language heterogeneity between the countries of
emerging markets, were identified as key marketing challenges for banks that operate in emerging markets. The study also confirmed that South African banks have selected a policy of combining standardisation and adaptation in their marketing mix, and that these banks deliberately make their first entry into an emerging market with a value proposition to businesses and corporations, and only later expands their offerings into the retail market.
This study is unique because it provides key information about the marketing challenges that currently face services industry and businesses (and South African banks in particular) in other emerging markets, and so makes a contribution to the body of knowledge. This research therefore fills a key gap in the literature. It further offers a detailed knowledge of the exact strategies that are being implemented by enterprising South African banks as they strive to cope successfully with these challenges in other emerging markets.