Brand Inventory
Brand Inventory
Introduction
According to Nair (2020), more than 75% of Emirati have high trust in the banking sector. It is going to be challenging in the finance sector, especially in managing the growing consumer trust forever. Therefore, there is a need for the organizations to assess their brand equity to indicate the deteriorating factors that could impede the organization’s success. This report evaluates the brand’s sources of equity to indicate its current position, and to suggest ways that improve or leverage the brand equity, by identifying strategic opportunities for brand extensions and addressing the threats associated with the brand image.
Overview of First Abu Dhabi Bank products and services
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) is a historic merger between two iconic franchises namely the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank. It is currently the largest bank in UAE and the second largest in MENA in total assets and market capitalization. FABs products and services include Personal banking, corporate & Investment Baking, and private banking. Personal baking services and products are designed flexibly to match personal needs such as credit and debit cards, loans, insurance, and savings (FAB, 2022). Private banking includes preserving the person to enhance investment performances and seize opportunities available in the market, using strategies suitable to the private individual needs. The Corporate & Investment banking products operate with a client-driven model, based on local and international expertise, and are designed in a manner that suits the client’s needs to make them grow stronger and more successful (Annual Report, 2020). FAB also supports its clients by providing working capital and trading finances in form of loans, including the real estate financing. It provides securities for under-writing, treasury bonds, and shares buyback via Bank’s referral agreement with US securities firms in New York.
Brand Elements
Brand elements include the unique aspects of the brand including logo, brand name, and color schemes, to construct a recognizable image for the business in a manner that stands out from competitors. After the merger, FAB launched its new brand identity comprising of a new logo and slogan. The logo features the “FGB’s Awwal (First)” brand identity mark, with the slogan “Grow Stronger.” The elements for the brand comprises six aspects important in selecting brand element. The first aspect is memorability, which is well illustrated in the slogan “Grow stronger.” The slogan words are simple, iconic, easily recognizable, and memorable, thus promoting brand equity. The second aspect is meaningfulness, which implies that the brand elements should have a story behind them. The logo indicates the identities of the merged identities, which makes it resonate with its targeted audience, thus enhancing its brand equity. The third aspect is likeability, which is present in the FAB logo and is shown to increase the trustworthiness of the bank. The fourth element is transferability. FAB has thoughts to extend the brand in the future, that is why they keep the slogan and logo elements simple so that they can still be recognizable in case of extensions in the future. The FAB’s logo font style and color scheme demonstrate adaptability through its rebranding. This is because the logo has consistent notable elements that can be remembered easily. The last aspect is protectability, which entails registering and trademarking the elements, thus offering defense against use by their competitors.
Inherent attributes of the product
The inherent attribute of the bank’s product is that it uses a value-added approach to enhance its plan of reaching the majority of its targets. For instance, their pricing strategy focuses on offering premiums of a low budget to match their clients. Despite the relatively low premium budget, FAB offers quality services that ensure that clients’ needs are met exceptionally, even with a low-budget plan. FAB is strategically placed/located, with over 130 branches in the UAE (Annual Report, 2020). The distribution strategy aims at ensuring that the brand enters into the international space, as it targets expatriates working in the region. The idea revolves around the maximization of the expatriate’s distribution network that exists in the region, thus enhancing its brand equity. The organization has a vigorous hiring process to ensure that the right people get the right roles in the organization. FAB understands that effective staffing is critical for quality service engagement (Annual Report, 2020). FAB adopts integrated marketing communication, which makes it highly effective in enhancing the brand. The combined digital and traditional communication channels aid in effective engagements with the targeted audience. This approach ensures that the client has access to critical information through either personalized auto-generated messages, traditional media, or other social media platforms.
To increase its visibility, the bank adopts promotional strategies that emphasize its efficiency in the banking sector. The promotion strategy includes traditional advertising such as the use of pamphlets, brochures, and TV and radio adverts. FAB is increasing its online presence, where it uses social media to reach the targeted markets. The social media presence is effective in increasing its competitive advantage as it makes it easier to access, especially in responding to urgent client queries (Annual Report, 2020). The physical appearance of the bank branches and ATMs increases its client’s perceptions of the services offered by the facility. The physical evidence of the FAB banking hall indicates a user-friendly environment that is comfortable for clients. There are no long queues indicating that the services are provided promptly. These inherent attributes place it among the leading financial agent in the region. The inherent attributes give FAB a proper positioning strategy that makes it stand out from the rest of the banking services.
Profile Competitive brands
Financial services is a very competitive market globally due to the number of organizations offering the same type of services. The completion in the finance sector in the UAE is categorized as monopolistic competition, which entails small and large banks competing on similar products. The UAE has grown, propelling the growth of the financial sector. The FAB’s major competitors are Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ABCB), and Emirates NBD. The revenue and profit reported by FAB in 2020 were $7.4 billion and $2.8 billion, as compared to ABCB’s $4.8 billion and $960 million respectively (Forbes, 2021b). In the same year, Emirati reported $9.7 billion and $1.7 billion whereas DIB reported $3.6 billion and $745(Forbes, 2021c; Forbes, 2021d). These statistics indicate that the finance industry is saturated with monopolistic competition.
FAB’s point of parity is that the finance industry is adopting technological adoption, and are gaining ground as they try to innovate and provide solutions. Through these strategies, the companies are able on reducing costs of operations that can be used in the other untapped market. The UAE has over 24% of fintech companies, which offers specialized products to the existing banks (Forbes, 2021a). This indicates that FAB faces a moderate threat of substitution. Therefore, there is a need for FAB to remain imminent for strategies that will help it survive and thrive. The point of difference is based on FAB’s marketing strategy. FAB has established a roll-out of strategic marketing plans, one that understands the public’s perception of the bank. The bank tailor makes different activities as guided by emerging information from the marketing research plan. Additionally, marketing research is adopted based on the emerging matrix for measurement. The advanced marketing strategy helps the organization works collaboratively, thus designing products that match clients’ need.
Brand Exploratory
Investigation into consumers
Consumers have an array of banking choices in today’s banking market. This is especially due to social media, which exposes them to many choices in the market. Therefore, consumers make quick decisions based on the products that address their needs. The decision made by the consumers determines the products they eventually decide to purchase. Assessing the company’s brand equity is key in determining the strategies that can be used to indicate the brand positioning and consumer attitude towards the proposed product. Understanding an organization’s brand equity requires thorough investigations of consumers so that they can give their perceptions. A 5-Likert scale questionnaire that comprised of 20 questions (see Appendix 1) was developed to investigate consumers’ knowledge and awareness of the brand, the brand’s strength, favorability, and the uniqueness of the associations to enhance the brand promise. The questionnaire also highlights the customer’s purchase power, and their product use as well as the disposal patterns. The main goal of the investigation was to find out what consumers feel, think, and act toward the brand. The information aids in the identification of brand equity and uncovering any arising issues.
The study was conducted on 12 participants. Approximately, 42% and 58% were males and females respectively. About 50% of the participants belonged to the young generation (18-24 years), while 25-44 years and 45-64 years shared the percentage at 25% each. The number of employed and unemployed participants was equal, with the employed earning more than $9000. About 75% of the participants reported being familiar with FAB, with all of them reporting that they can easily recall the organization logo, its symbol, colors involved, and slogan. They report that FAB has a strong distinct personality, especially in the Fintech world, which makes the bank remain unique and of high status. This good reputation makes the organization have a clear competitive advantage over the other competitors. About 66% of the participants report that FAB provides its customers with what it promises, with 58% reporting agree and strongly agree that FAB meets the customer’s expectations as indicated in fig 1. All of the participants stated that they have confidence in FAB. The research findings also indicated that the majority of the participants were willing to recommend the bank to friends and relatives because they are very satisfied with FAB. However, about 2% of the participants reported that they are not loyal and are not committed to FAB.
Fig 1.
FAB brand loyalty
The brand’s strength is its advancement in the fintech industry to ease banking operations. To start with, the clients can make transactions on their smartphones, without necessarily having to drive to work. Their queries and concerns are addressed directly using email, messaging and social media. The brand uniqueness of associations includes relatively low budgets, unlimited products that match clients’ needs, and excellent customer care services (Annual Report, 2020). FAB also provides its customers with better credit and debit cards and better depositing rates than its competitors. It is also reported that FBA has outlets that are more convenient all over the region, with all of the branches indicating an excellent digital experience. The customer’s purchase power for banking is determined by the FAB’s customer service, personalization of products being marketed, social responsibility, and digital experience. The client’s disposal pattern indicates that 2% of the interviewed participants have no issue with switching to other banks, as long as they have new offers. This indicates that one in almost 20 clients could change their bank, with most arguing lack of social inclusion.
Recommendations for brand positioning
In this context, it is safe to argue that FAB adopts an ingredient branding strategy. The ingredient branding refers to the creation of equity for components, materials, and parts contained with branded products. This signified quality, uniformity across its outlets, and reduced risks that assures customer’s satisfaction. However, about 2% of the clients are concerned about FAB’s social inclusion. To enhance this social inclusion concerns, the following is recommended:
- a) The first recommended strategy is Emiratisation to further enhance the organization’s diversity and social inclusion. This strategy includes hiring and developing Emirati talent, by creating a foundation for local talent. By offering Emirati nationals(of diverse age groups, gender, and marital status), meaningful job roles in the top position of the bank will ensure increased brand awareness through social inclusion.
- b) Adopt celebrity endorsement: This includes the use of a famous individual to shape brand perceptions. It entails the use of a celebrity’s virtue to enhance consumers’ perceptions of the product. The advantage of this approach is it increases the brand’s visibility to potentially useful associations.
- c) The third recommended strategy is sponsoring social-cultural events to enhance its inherent attributes of social inclusion. This strategy enhances brand equity by making the citizen feel appreciated and included in the brand, thus enhancing its awareness.
Conclusion
FAB’s performance is quite admirable. The key achievement includes acquiring great brand equity, with the research indicating that the majority of the consumers report great customer experience and brand loyalty. This is attained through a good brand mantra including an excellent communication strategy to set the aforementioned brand boundaries. This includes remaining simple, crisp, and vivid. Consequently, FAB stakes out the marketplace by remaining personally meaningful, making it remain relevant to as many people as possible. To enhance its competitive advantage further, FAB should adopt the recommended strategies including Emiratisation, use of celebrity endorsements, and sponsorship of the social-cultural events. These strategies improve the brand’s strength, favorability, and uniqueness of existing associations accordingly.
References
Annual Report (2020). Operational review. https://www.bankfab.com/-/media/fabgroup/home/about-fab/investor-relations/report-2020/pdfs/operational-review.pdf?view=1
FAB. (2022). About FAB. https://www.bankfab.com/en-ae/personal
Forbes. (2021a). First Abu Dhabi Bank. https://www.forbes.com/companies/first-abu-dhabi-bank/?sh=166f97647078
Forbes. (2021b). Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. https://www.forbes.com/companies/abu-dhabi-commercial/?sh=4ef46c074693
Forbes. (2021c). Dubai Islamic Bank. https://www.forbes.com/companies/dubai-islamic-bank/?sh=1c64ecf733fb
Forbes. (2021d). Emirates NBD. https://www.forbes.com/companies/emirates-nbd/?sh=793b2f551057
Nair, D. (2020). Consumer trust in UAE banks at a five-year high, industry body says. https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/money/consumer-trust-in-uae-banks-at-a-five-year-high-industry-body-says-1.1051902
Appendix 1: Bank perception survey questions to ask customers
Demographics
- Gender: Male Female
- Age: 18-24 25-44 45-64 above 65
- Employment status: Unemployed Employed
Answers:
(1) Strongly disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Neither agree nor disagree; (4) Agree; (5) Strongly agree
Knowledge about the First Abu Dhabi Bank in brand equity pyramid
- I am familiar with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB).
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- I can quickly recall the logo, symbol or color of FAB.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- FAB has strong distinct personality.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Views about the bank
- FAB is quite different and unique from others.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- FAB has high status/highly regarded.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- FAB have a good reputation.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- FAB have a clear advantage over competitive banks.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Trustworthiness of the bank
- FAB gives what it promises.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- FAB meets customers’ expectations
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- The customer have confidence in FAB.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Attitudes and behavior
- I am a loyal client and very committed to FAB.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- I recommend FAB to friends and relatives.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
- I am very satisfied with this bank.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
