Advertising by Government-Linked Companies:

Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad

Prepared by:

Maryam Binti Abdul Radzim (1112312)

Hafizatul Salma binti Harif Fathilah (1215066)
Siti Zulaikha Binti Shawaludin (1222024)
Nur Najmi Binti Jamal (1223998)
Norfatin Amirah Binti Abd Hadi (1315074)

International Islamic University Malaysia

COMM 3540 Advertising: Principles and Practices

Dr. Aida Mokhtar

23rd May 2015

Semester 2, 2014/2015
 Introduction

Background of the research

This research is conducted by our group to study the advertising used by the Government-

Linked Companies (GLC) assigned, which is BIMB Holdings Berhad (BHB). BIMB

Holdings Berhad (2009) acts as an investment holding company for Malaysia’s pioneer

Shariah-compliant business entities, involve mainly in Islamic banking (Bank Islam Malaysia

Berhad), insurance (Takaful Malaysia Berhad) and stockbroking (BIMB Securities Sdn Bhd).

Therefore, we have chosen Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad as our research subject for the

interview session.

Research Questions (RQs)

1. What is the description of the advertising campaign used by the GLC?

2. Which advertising agency/agencies has/have been working on the advertising campaign in

the last five years?

3. What are the marketing communication tools used by the GLC? Are they part of an IMC

campaign?

4. What is the Islamic perspective of the advertising campaign?

5. What is the plan for future advertising campaigns?

Research Objectives (ROs)

The objectives of this study are:

1. to recognize the advertising campaign used by the GLC

2. to acknowledge the advertising agency/agencies working on the campaign in the last

five years

3. to understand the marketing communication tools used by the GLC

 4. to identify the Islamic perspective of the advertising campaign

5. to discover the future planning for the advertising campaigns

Scope and limitations of research

The study was focused on the advertising by Government-Linked Companies. The scope of

this research is to understand better on the advertising campaigns and choice of advertising

agencies used by Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad as the selected GLC. Indeed there are

limitations while conducting the research as our e-mails for the appointment are being

forwarded from one person to another and we only managed to get the appointment on our

second visit. However, out of five key people from the company, we were being set for only

one interviewee to answer all our interview questions and as commented by the interviewee,

the outline questions given are not really synchronize to the research objectives. With lacks

of participants and by only setting up appointment for only one respondent, they could not

entertain and give full coorperation due to the time constrain.

Significance of the research

In relation to this research, this study aims to identify the advertising campaign used by the

GLC company and who are the advertising agency or agencies working on the campaign in

the last five years. In order to understand the marketing communication strategies used, the

advertising campaigns are also being identified.

 Literature Review

What are GLCs?

GLCs are defined as companies that have a primary commercial objective and in which the

Malaysian Government has a direct controlling stake. Controlling stake refers to the

Government’s ability (not just percentage ownership) to appoint BOD members, senior

management, make major decisions (e.g. contract awards, strategy, restructuring and

financing, acquisitions and divestments etc.) for GLCs either directly or through GLICs

(Khazanah Nasional, 2015).

BIMB Holdings Berhad (BHB)

BHB was established and listed on the main market of Bursa Saham Malaysia in 1997. It

works as an investment holding company for these three Malaysia’s pioneer Shariah-

compliant business entities, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, Takaful Malaysia Berhad and

BIMB Securities Sdn Bhd. With an authorised capital of RM2 billion, it is known to be at

well-positioned to assist the Government’s targets in creating Malaysia as a vibrant

International Islamic Financial Centre (BIMB Holdings Berhad, 2009).

Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad

Bank Islam was established in 1983, as the Malaysia’s first institution to initiate the Shariah-

based as its philosophy. Since that, it has appeared to be the symbol of other Islamic banking

in Malaysia’s financial services industry. Throughout the year, the growing list of customers

contributed to the bank’s position as one of the top banks in the country. With 139 branches

and more than 1200 self-service terminals nationwide, Bank Islam offered to cater the

financial needs of customers through promotion of its product in making it universally

recognised brand (Bank Islam, 2015). With a very good profit for the past few years, Bank
Islam is aiming “to make Islamic banking more effective in the modern world” (Azmir Abdul

Malek, personal communication, May 19, 2015).

Research Methodology

This is a qualitative research study where the data of this non-experimental design is

collected through the face-to-face interviewing session. The interviewee is the key person in

the management position who knows the best to answer the interview questions given. The

details of the interview are as follows:

Name : Encik Azmir Bin Abdul Malek

Position : Head of Brand and Marketing Communications Division

Date : 19 May 2015

Venue :  Menara Bank Islam, Level 23, 22 Jalan Perak, 50450 Kuala Lumpur

  Time :  4:30 p.m.

Interview Questions:

1. Can you tell us about your organisation?

2. How does your organisation promote its products? Does your organisation use public relations,

advertising, promotions and direct marketing to promote your products? Are they used together in

an integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaign or separately? Who works on each

marketing communication tool?

3. Which advertising agency/agencies have you recently appointed to work on the advertising

part of the campaign?

4. What made your organisation choose this/these advertising agencies to work on the advertising

campaign?

5. What are the types of advertisements used by your organisation?

6. What are the advertising objectives of your advertising campaign? Why are they as such?

7. What is the key message of your advertising campaign? Why is it as such?

8. Who are the target audiences of your advertising campaign? Why?

9. What is/are the medium/media used for the advertising campaign? Why has your organisation

selected them?

10. Please comment on your organisation’s advertising from the Islamic perspective.

11. What has your organisation planned for future advertising campaigns?

Research Findings

RQ1

What is the description of the advertising campaign used by the GLC?

As a government link company, Bank Islam has used both internal and external

advertising strategies. It owned its internal body, by having in-house copywriters and

designers. As for the external strategy, Bank Islam has been using McCann Erickson as their

official agency to handle their promotions and campaign.

As addition, Bank Islam is using television, print newspaper, magazines, radio and online

channels to promote their advertisements on products and services. Nevertheless, promoting

advertisements through radio and Facebook page are the cheapest way to reach their

customers compares to television and newspaper which is very expensive. Bank Islam used

customers’ segmentation to promote their product. Each product is targeted to different type
of customers. The advertising campaign used is different as different customers consume

different type of media.

Moreover, the objective for the advertising necessarily is to gain the profit and not

flexible. In order to get the high profit, the advertising needs to do a campaign. The campaign

is depending on what and where that the product to be sale. In addition, the campaign needs

to have an objective. The need for the product is to create the awareness and to re-address the

declining of the sales. Last but not least, the important thing is to maintain the number one

bank position.

RQ2

Which advertising agency/agencies has/have been working on the advertising campaign in

the last five years?

Bank Islam has been using McCann Erickson as their official agency to handle their

promotions and campaign in 2013. McCann Erickson is a global advertising agency network

with 120 offices around the globe. It is one of the large holding companies in the advertising

industry. The organization was established in 1930 when these two pioneers Erickson and

McCann merged and opened their first office in the United States of America (McCann

Worldgroup, 2014).

Basically the process is, the organization would have a pitch session, send out their

campaign brief to several agencies and they will choose the highest pitch of all. For them, the

reason why they opted for international and not Bumiputera agency is mainly because the

international big company offers better creative work. Since they are paying a big amount of

money, they would like to have a creative work in return. They feel more satisfied with the

result brought by the international company compared to Bumiputera during their pitching
period. The result of the product and economic situations were taken into account in choosing

advertising agencies to work with.

RQ3

What are the marketing communication tools used by the GLC? Are they part of an IMC

campaign?

Regarding our interview with the Head of Brand and Marketing Communications

Division, Bank Islam is using all the marketing tools available such as public relations,

advertising, promotions and direct marketing. They also come out with promotions and

campaigns to develop innovative products in the market, with the mixture of 4Ps. Public

communication is the priority and advertising is part of the marketing strategies. Marketing

used includes different channel of distribution, ground strategy, above the line, below the

line, direct marketing as well as telemarketing.

With 100 over products and services, Bank Islam need to use the whole mixture

marketing communication tools in their operation to tackle the customers. For the integrated

marketing communication (IMC), for example, if Bank Islam is to launch a big programme,

such as Al-Awfar, they need to have a one big campaign includes television and radio. Bank

Islam’s strategy is to highlight the customer’s statements, on their Facebook page, corporate

website as well as promotion through YouTube. Withe the variety of channels, it aims to

spread the message to the public.

For those who work on marketing communication tool, it is under a division called Brand

and Marketing Communications, where responsible in suggesting or providing recommendation

on the marketing tools to be used. However, the product owners and sales team are also free to

contribute their ideas as it is a team work effort.

RQ 4

What is the Islamic perspective of the advertising campaign?

BIMB is been known as an Islamic banking in Malaysia, which following Syariah

compliance in their organisation. This practice also includes advertising. In addition, BIMB
also is the first bank that practice Syariah compliance and become the major reference for
other Islamic bank to follow on. To note, every year, approximately more than 60 visitors
from all over the world will fortunately visit BIMB in order to learn more about Islamic
banking principles.

RQ 5

What is the plan for future advertising campaigns?

In the future, BIMB is planning to be more aggressive in term of accessibility of

audience in order to compete with other fast forward organisation. Efficiency and
effectiveness is their major concern in the future. Thus to reach their aim, first BIMB is
planning to engage more with their customer, second, understand what are the medium that
used by the audience, and finally to find a very creative way to reach the larger audience.
 References

Bank Islam (2015). Corporate Info. Retrieved 20 May 2015, from

http://www.bankislam.com.my/home/corporate-info/about-us/corporate-profile.

BIMB Holdings Berhad (2009). About Us:Profile. Retrieved 20 May 2015, from

http://www.bimbholdings.com/about-us/profile.

Khazanah Nasional (2015). About Us. Retrieved 21 April 2015, from

http://www.khazanah.com/faq.htm#ques8.

McCann Worldgroup (2014). About. Retrieved 20 May 2015, from

http://mccann.com/about/story/.
 Appendices

Interview Transcription

Interviewer : Okay, for the first question, can you tell us about your organisation?

Interviewee : Okay, err... Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad is basically the first Islamic bank in

Malaysia. We have been around since 1983, so there is roughly about 33

years coming up from 32 years. Emm... I think for us and everybody works

in Bank Islam are very proud with Bank Islam. As our profit are also very

good for the past few years, several years. So, yes we are the pioneer in

Islamic banking and I think it is our duty to make Islamic banking more

effective in the modern world.

Interviewer : Second question, how does your organisation promote product, and does

your organisation use public relations, advertising, promotions and direct

marketing to promote your products? Are they used together in an integrated

marketing communication (IMC) campaign or separately? Who works on

each marketing communication tool?

Interviewee : Okay, so basically all of the box we use everything. So we use err ... Okay!

Previously for 3 years I was the Head of Corporate Communication. Now,

I’m working in Brand, Marketing Communications. So... just to explain a

little bit, public relations, advertising, promotions, direct marketing, these are

all marketing tools that any company emm... for us, we use all these different

mediums. We use PR to promote ourselves, emm... we use advertising even

not so aggressive. We do come out with promotions, campaigns, err... we

try to develop innovative products in the market so it’s the 4Ps of your

marketing mix lah. So we all, we as if any company we do, we use it

 aggressively because we need to market our products services. So if you ever

in the business of selling a product or services, you obviously need a public

communication. Of course advertising is just one part of marketing kan?

Marketing is one of many many other things, channel distribution, all ground

strategy, above the line, below the line, direct marketing, telemarketing, so

they are so many avenues. And for a dynamic company like Bank Islam,

where we have what, something likes 100 over products and services, we

need to use the whole mix in our operation. But depends on the individual

products, emm... then we do a marketing accordingly lah. Okay? So are they

used together emm... I’ll try answer one by one yeah? Integrated marketing

communication. Yes. It if we launch programme, a big programme, for

example Al-Awfar, and we have one big campaign. If you ask me what is the

big campaign uses maybe TV, radio. Then we put statements, our customer’s

statements, we highlighted on Facebook, on our Facebook page, on our

corporate website, we’ll do a promotion maybe on YouTube so depending

lah. Many, many channel, just to get the message for the course of message.

Okay, who works on each marketing communication tool? It would be from us

lah, so my division is called Brand and Marketing Communications, basically my

division this division is responsible to suggest or provide recommendation on the

marketing tools being used. But of course, product owners, sales team, they are

also free to contribute. So it always about team work, so it always a team work

effort.

Interviewer : Okay, we proceed with another question, which advertising agency/agencies

have you recently appointed to work on the advertising part of the campaign?

Do you use advertising agency from outside?

Interviewee : Okay, umm ahhh yes, one official agency yes, we use McCann Erickson but

we only use them in 2013. We are looking for new agency but most of the

campaign that we do done internally, because we have our own designers,

copywriters, and uhh etc. lah.

Interviewer : So what made you choose McCann Erickson to be your official agency?

Interviewee : Uhh.. Basically the process is we open up for a pitch, so we have a campaign

brief, we send it out to selected agencies so they have to come back with a

pitch, so basically McCann Erickson came up with the highest pitch. So, we

used them for our organization.

Interviewer : What are the types of advertisements used by your organisation?

Interviewee : Err.. Television, newspaper print, magazine, radio.

Interviewer : Radio?

Interviewee : Radio... What else hmm... online.

Interviewer : Do you have any specific focus on?

Interviewee : Radio, radio, hah radio. Because TV is too expensive, radio is also,

newspaper is also expensive, so the cheapest way to get to our customers is

radio. That is why we create our own Facebook page, Facebook, clear?

Interviewer : Okay number six. What are the advertising objectives for your advertising

campaign? So as I explain becoming on where on the graph your product is.

Err… for this kita nak naikkan lah so certain.. sometimes..katakanlah you

kat sinikan? wow..The objectives is for you to get the money right?

Sales..sales..ya lah..profit lah..profit lah eh..so profit. So dah sampai sini you

nak naikkan dia lagi. So you need to have a campaign. So campaign you

depending on where you sales. Katakan lah campaign ni okay you nak get

more to.. I tak boleh jawab lah your question.

Interviewer : The objectives kira flexible la…

Interviewee : Bukanlah kata flexible, during what is the need for your product..haa dia
bukan flexible maknanya you boleh buat apa-apa je..bukan..What is the
need of your product. There must be the objectives right? For your campaign
there is must be an objective. So what is it that you want to do for your
product? So based on this theory, you are here tou want to create more
awareness.. Err..If you are here you want to readdress declining sales..kan?
So depends where you are lah. If you are here, you want to maintain your
number one position, your number one position.

Interviewer : Okay so proceed with the question number seven. What are the key message
your advertising campaign?

Interviewee : Okay same. I dah jawab. Err...Six and seven I dah jawab lah.

Interviewer : Aaaaa, Who are the target audience?

Interviewee : Pun I dah jawab, Depends on your product.

Interviewer : Basically, most of the time, your specific target audience?

Interviewee : There’s no most of the time. Depending on the product. Kalau saya jual

barang commercial. Okay, dalam bank dia ada consumer banking, dia

corporate banking. Corporate banking I jual kat corporate lah. Kan?

Corporation, GLCs. Kalau saya jual macam Al-Awfar, Al-Awfar

Junior. I jual dekat budak-budak lah. Sebab orang dewasa tak boleh ambil

Al-Awfar right? So Depending on the products la. Okay?

Interviewer : And number nine?

Interviewee : Tu lah, Sebab tak specific kan. Susah I nak jawab ni. It very generic

questions.

Interviewer : So, if there a medium used for advertising, as I told you lah. So, depending
 on what we intend to do. And what is the objective. My media selection

mungkin a bit different la. Again, bedasarkan kepada apa?

Interviewer : Product?

Interviewee : No

Interviewer : Needs?

Interviewee : No, Needs of whom?

Interviewer : Customers.

Interviewee : And who are my customers?

Interviewer : Based on the product.

Interviewee : No

Interviewer : Based on the product

Interviewee : Based on segmentation of the customers.

Interviewer : Customers segmentation.

Interviewee : So every product is different kan? Therefore you need to appeal to these

products. If I want to talk to you la for example. What medium should I use?

Interviewer : Social media

Interviewee : Lagi?

Interviewer : Radio

Interviewee : Lagi?

Interviewer : Printed media.

Interviewee : For example, printed media is wide. Which, which magazine?

Interviewer : Girls magazine?

Interviewee : Tak tak, for you lah.

Interviewer : Intrend.

Interviewee : Okay. No lah, it’s okay. Intrend. Katakan Intrend right? Whatever is hip la,

right?

Interviewer : Aaa, yes.

Interviewee : So, that’s how, I, I, I, I can speak to you. If I selling product to you. So

different. If you guys selling a product to me, you masuk advertisment dalam

intrend. Confirm you tak akan dapat I la. So, you understand? So, aaaaa,

depending on who you are. Sama juga macam ni and your life stage. How old

you are, what are your experience. The media you consume is also diferent.

Interviewer : Hmmmm.

Interviewee : Lain, Lain, semua orang lain. Same similar. So, advertising is the same. It’s

not difficult. Advertising is not difficult. Aaa… tak pe kita bagi habis ni dulu

la, baru cerita sedikit.

Interviewer : Question number ten is do you think your organisation is in lined with

Islamic perspective?

Interviewee : Yes of course...We are Syariah compliance.

Interviewer : So you are following 100% ...

Interviewee : 100%...Dia tak boleh 99%...100% We are the first Islamic bank and we are

the source of reference for other Islamic bank...to follow. so every year we

have more and less than 60 visitors from all over the world.. Just to learn

from us about Islamic banking...so... okay.

Interviewer : And the last question is...your organisation...do you have any planned for

future advertising campaign in order to compete with other organisation?

Interviewee : Of course..

Interviewer : and what is the...

Interviewee : In term of media habit..media...in term of media?

Interviewer : In order to grab the media attention

Interviewer : Yaa something like movie or something?

Interviewee : I think in general what we want to say is... What can i say is ...for us we will
be more agressive in the future so... Because they are so many people.. More
agressive...So we need to be more agressive.. It does not mean that if they
put 10 ringgit in, we put 15 ringgit in... No... It doesn’t mean that way ...
What we mean that is... If they put 10 ringgit in and they get 10 people..what
we wanna do maybe we put 8 ringgit in but we got 20 people... so
efficiency and effectivenes is more important for us... So which medium to
use... We have to be more clever lah... We need to understand our audience...
We need to engange with our customer more.. We need to know what are
their lifestyle... What are..what media they consume.