ASSIGNMENT

SEPTEMBER 2020 SEMESTER

SUBJECT CODE : MKM602

SUBJECT TITLE : MARKETING MANAGEMENT

LEVEL : MASTER’S DEGREE

STUDENT’S NAME : YASIR AMIN

MATRIC NO. : M60105200213

PROGRAMME : MBA

ACADEMIC :
FACILITATOR

LEARNING CENTRE : SUBANG CAMPUS

THERE ARE 2 PAGES OF QUESTION, EXCLUDING THIS PAGE.

DECLARATION BY STUDENT

I certify that this assignment is my own work and is in my own words. All sources have been
acknowledged and the content has not been previously submitted for assessment to Asia e
University or elsewhere. I also confirm that I have kept a copy of this assignment.
 Signed: YASIR AMIN

MKM602 Marketing Management 0920 2

INSTRUCTION: Answer ALL questions

PART A: 50%

Your answer should be in an essay format with 2000 – 2500 words

(excluding diagrams, tables, exhibits, references, etc.)

Executive summary
This report entails a brief understanding and analysis of the marketing
strategies and the marketing mix being practiced at the Malaysian-based
highly esteemed and reputable organization- Maybank. This is an attempt
towards understanding the practical application of the marketing management
theories and strategies learned during the course regarding the marketing
culture being followed at Maybank.

Maybank- one of Malaysia’s top banks incorporated in 1930 stands today as

the largest financial services group of Malaysia and a market leader in the
region of South Asia. Setting off in a competitive market ruled by foreign
banks, Maybank has risen to the reputation it now has by developing its
relationship with customers through effective and efficient marketing
strategies that focus on delivering the finest products and services to them.

The competition in the banking sector all over the world has always remained
intense due to the low creativity and differentiation in the products and
services being offered to the customers. However, any organization that aims
at becoming a corporate success cannot do so without having an incredible
marketing plan that integrates the offering of traditional products and services
with a relationship-driven model of business.

Maybank has earned the respect and fame it has today and stood out as a
pioneer in the banking sector by excelling in the niche of their marketing

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 strategies and execution. In order to develop its brand value and experience in
a more meaningful way, Maybank has focused deeply on its goal to humanize
financial services for all customers at an exciting price as well as by showing
commitment to the communities where they are running operations by
participating in corporate social responsibility and community engagement
practices.
This report is oriented towards the basic marketing plan being followed at
Maybank Berhad. It accumulates information regarding the company’s
historical background, brand status, choice of target market and basis of
segmentation, followed by a SWOT analysis and explanation of the marketing
mix (Products, Pricing, Place and Promotion). Lastly, the report is concluded
by making a few recommendations that may prove to be beneficial for the
company.

Introduction
Since attaining independence in 1957, the financial services and banking
industry has witnessed significant growth and made huge accomplishments.
Coupled with positive economic transitions from a humble rustic economy to
a developing one, the Malaysian banking sector has likewise developed
drastically. The Malaysian banking sector that once consisted of only foreign
brands now consists of 27 commercial banks contributing approximately 67%
of the total assets to the economy of Malaysia [1].

Maybank Banking Berhad [2], popularly known as Maybank is a market leader

in the Malaysian banking and financial sector. Founded on 31st May 1960 by
the Singaporean business magnate Khoo Teck Purat and Oie Tjong Le- a
Chinese Indonesian Conglomerate, the company serves as a multi-purpose
financial supermarket offering retail, wholesale and investment banking
services under a single roof. This universal bank, having a brand estimation of
USD 165 billion is Malaysia’s highest-valued brand with key operations
running in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Maybank made a humble start from the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur in
the year 1960. And the same year it inaugurated its first overseas branches in
the neighbouring countries of Brunei Darussalam and Singapore. As time went

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 by, it had grown its international presence tremendously by spreading its
wings in Hong Kong, London, New York, Pakistan, India, Bahrain, Saudi
Arabia, Uzbekistan, China, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and other
countries in the South-East Asia region.

Maybank offers a wide variety of products and services to its customers

including investment banking service, Islamic banking service, commercial
trade facilities, insurance facility, offshore banking service, hire purchase and
lease facilities, trustee and nominee services, venture capital and Internet
banking.
Being the leading banking group of Malaysia today, Maybank shares an ever-
expanding network of over 2200 offices in 20 countries worldwide providing
services to over 22 million customers. It is also the largest internet banking
host with 43% acclaimed market share and the largest financial institution in
terms of net profit, total assets, market capitalization, total loans and deposits.

Brand Overview

Vision Statement of Maybank:

“To be a regional financial services leader.” [3]
The theme of this corporate brand slogan is well incorporated in the
operational routine of the company by focusing on customers it serves and the
communities it operates in. Therefore, the Maybank culture promotes
teamwork, integrity, growth and excellence, and relationship building

Mission Statement of Maybank:

“To humanize financial services across Asia by advising and providing the
people with convenient access to financing services as per their needs on
fair terms and pricing and being at the heart of the community.” [3]

Their mission fuels their corporate struggle by creating ease for the
unbankable to become bankable. They work to uplift the socio-economic
conditions of the society by providing financial accessibility to customers and
extend financing services to those with poor credit backgrounds.

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 The fruit of Maybank's constant endeavour and struggle in delivering value to
its customers is evident in the awards and accolades that it has accomplished
over the years. Maybank was titled as the Best Retail Bank in Malaysia by the
Asian Banker. Maybank likewise picked up the title of Brand of the year
2014-15 for the Banking division by the World Banking Awards. To add,
Maybank was likewise named as the World's Top 20 Strongest Banks, granted
by Bloomberg Markets.

Recent accomplishments include being decorated as the best retail bank, best
social media campaign, excellence in OmniChannel Integration, excellence in
customer centricity, best advertising campaign, best loan offering and most
innovative branch offering at the 10th Annual Retail Banker International
(RBI) Asia Trailblazer Awards. The Asian Banker Excellence in Retail
Financial Services Malaysia Awards 2019 also crowned Maybank as the Best
Wealth Management Business, Automobile Lending Product of the Year, Best
Internet Banking Initiative, Application or Programme. It has also received
many more awards at forums like Alpha South East Asia’s 13th Annual Best
Financial Institution Awards, Asian Banking and Finance Retail Banking
Awards, Global Finance Awards, PayNets Malaysian E-payments Excellence
Awards for the fiscal year 2019 [4].

Competition Overview
As stated earlier, Maybank has managed to sustain a healthy and profitable
relationship with its customers while facing vigorous competition from rival
banks. These competitors offer more or less the same type of product and
services to attract potential customers by varying the price, quality, delivery,
time or other factors. Each competitor intends to establish a Unique Selling
Point (USP) and a product differentiation policy through its marketing
campaign that capitalizes on the mix of these factors. In the Malaysian
banking sector, the top 3 rival banks that compete with Maybank include:
1. Public Bank
2. CIMB Bank
3. Hong Leong Bank

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 Public Bank Berhad [5], initializing operations in 1966 is a Malaysian based
bank founded by Mr. Teh Hong Piow, the then General Manager of Malayan
Banking- also offering financial services in Malaysia as well as the Asia
Pacific Region. They offer commercial, personal, investment and Islamic
banking services to the customers. They also provide them share broking,
trustee and nominee services. Additional services include the facility of online
banking, mobile banking and ATM services.
In terms of asset size, Public Bank lies among the top three names of firms. It
serves the financial needs of nearly 8 million people within Malaysia and
outside. the bank enjoys an unbroken profit track record. They specialize in
residential mortgages, automobile financing and commercial property
financing.

CIMB Bank [6] is another Malaysian universal bank headquartered in Kuala

Lumpur, Malaysia. It holds a key position in the Association of South-East
Asian Nation (ASEAN) as an investment bank. The bank participates in
consumer, wholesale, investment and corporate banking. The group's
geographical reach and presence is well distributed in 18 countries with main
markets established in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.
It ranks as the second largest financial services provider in Malaysia and
among the best in universal banks situated in South-East Asia. It provides
banking services to 7 million customers with its widest chain of 1,080 retail
branches.

Hong Leong Bank [7] - one of the oldest banks established in Malaysia has a
history of 115 years. Founded in Kuching, Sarawak in 1905, the bank back
then extended loans to merchants against the security of export commodities
like salt, pepper, rubber etc. it also provided remittance services to Chinese
customers. The modern Hong Leong Bank provides banking and financial
services to customers in the international markets of Malaysia, Singapore,
Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, United States and Australia. It is one
of the largest conglomerates having subsidiaries in the banking,
manufacturing, property and infrastructure industry in the ASEAN region [8].

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 Target Market
Maybank targets a wide range of consumers and public or private sector
institutions to sell its products and services. Its market campaigns are designed
to attract SMEs, individuals, businessmen, not for profit organizations and
public institutions who are in dire need of financial and banking assistance.

Demographic Segmentation
Maybank uses the demographic segmentation approach to divide the market
into smaller chunks. This classification is done on the basis of demographic
factors like age, gender, race, religion, ethnicity, family size, income and
education in order to capture the market more efficiently.
Age, being one of the most important factors, can be used to design service
packages for life insurance customers by setting the admissible age to 45 to 70
for medical bills cover.
Similar classification is carried out by Maybank on the basis of religion. This
is one reason why the company could operate smoothly in Muslim as well as
secular states. They have introduced the Islamic banking and Takaful system
for their Muslims consumer base and also offer conventional services to non-
Muslim customers.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Maybank is a well-connected organization not just locally but internationally
as well with the largest number of operational branches in 18 countries
catering to the needs and wants of customers with great diligence. This has
allowed the company to easily expand and capture a customer base of 21
million. As per financial performance, Maybank has a high dividend yield
ratio as compared to sectoral and industrial numbers. Return on Assets and
Return on Equity is also substantially higher.

Weakness
Since the company’s key operations are running in Malaysia, Singapore and
Indonesia, therefore the company has stressed more on these markets. This has

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 somewhat restricted the global penetration of the company and a lot of
banking markets have remained unexplored. Similarly, the company has from
the start invested more into retail and Islamic banking that is why much of
their revenue comes from these two services. The other services are yet to
capture the market and profitability.

Opportunities
There is an opportunity for Maybank to strengthen its global presence by
penetrating into new markets in the South East Asian region. They may
establish business in Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar, Laos and many more.
Internet and mobile banking is a relatively new technology driven concept that
facilitates the customers by its ease of use and mobility. Investing in this
technology amid the COVID 19 pandemic to introduce more customer
friendly features will help the company to grow its business.

Threats
The changes made in the fiscal policies of banks in the South East Asian
region pose significant threat to the entire industry and to Maybank too. Also,
the current macroscopic environment over-shadowed by COVID 19 has put
the entire banking sector in turmoil as borrowing and lending transactions face
a downtrend.

Marketing Mix- The 4 P’s

Further ahead information regarding the marketing mix, that is- the product,
placing, pricing and promotion is given. This explains the marketing strategy
being employed at the Maybank office to offer high quality products and
services to the people and achieve the strategic objectives of the company.

Product – It is a universal bank offering a diverse array of products and

services. These include commercial banking, investment banking and
insurance services. Apart from these, debit/credit card services, ATM facility
and mobile/internet banking services are also available to customers and
business professionals.

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 Place – Maybank has established its presence in 18 countries over the region
of South East Asia. It practices commercial banking in Singapore, Vietnam,
Pakistan, Cambodia and insurance banking only in Malaysia. The investment
segment by now operates in Singapore and India only.

Price – The pricing strategy of Maybank is of a penetrative nature. Aiming to

attract customers to their products by offering an initially low price than its
competitors. They have made pricing their USP and a part of their mission
statement. Their goal is to offer fair prices of products to all customers.

Promotion – It uses the pull strategy of advertising and promotion in order to

attract the customers. They do so by engaging the conventional commercial
campaigns and also by indulging in digital marketing. They use social media
sites and the official company website very actively to broadcast their new
offerings. Apart from this they also use print media to create an everlasting
brand image for the customers.

Conclusions and Recommendations

From this report, it can be articulated that the marketing strategy plays a very
important role in the success of an organization. It can either make or break
the quality of service being provided to the customers. After analysing the
synopsis of the information regarding Maybank's marketing policies, the
following recommendations are made:

1. Firstly, Maybank may grow its global presence by penetrating into

different markets situated in other regions.

2. The company may continue to invest in mobile banking and internet

banking to introduce new features during the COVID 19 epidemic.

3. Lastly, the company may also re-evaluate its placing strategy to

develop foreign markets in Pakistan, India, Singapore and other
Southeast Asian regions.

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 References
[1] Mahdzan, N. S., Mohd-Any, A. A., & Hamzah, Z. L. Co-creating value
with online banking services: The case of Maybank.
[2] Maybank
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maybank
[3] Overview: Maybank
Agenda Malaysia - https://www.maybank.com/en/about-us/who-we-
are/overview.page
[4] Annual Reports: Maybank
Agenda Malaysia - https://www.maybank.com/en/investor-
relations/reporting-events/reports/annual-reports.page
[5] Public Bank
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_bank
[6] Cimb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIMB
[7] Hong Leong Financial Group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Leong_Financial_Group
[8] Asean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEAN

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PART B: 50%

You are required to read the article entitled “Effects of COVID-19 on a hotel
marketing and management: a perspective article” (as attached) and answer the
following questions:

1. Based on the article, outline the possible effects of COVID-19 on hotel marketing
and management practices.

An outbreak of COVID-19 that broke out in Wuhan, China, in November 2019, has
now spread across continents affecting millions of people and putting thousands to
rest. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), what looks like a common
flu has clawed into 202 nations with 1,279,723 confirmed cases and 72,616 deaths
globally. COVID-19, a ruthless epidemic that has brought the world to a standstill has
also posed serious concerns regarding the economical operations and international
trade.JP Morgan Research predicts that due to COVID 19 some countries may
undergo a global recession that will have severe consequences on their standard of
living and education. International Trade has also suffered a heavy blow due to the
COVID 19 outbreak.

The pandemic has wholly disrupted trade all over the globe. Mostly affecting the
service industry. As assessed at the forum of United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), COVID-19 will cause global foreign direct investments to
shrink by 5–15% in 2020. It has disrupted operations for tourism, passenger air travel
and also the hotel business. Apart from this, increasing health concerns and large
scale travel restrictions has also reported a significant decline from the usual. Under
the prevailing circumstances, hotel managements all over the world are forced to
cancel or postpone events which have also caused prices to plummet. For example, in
February 2020, revenue-per-available-room at Marriott hotels dropped by nearly 90%
and by 25% in Greater China and Asia-Pacific region respectively.

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2. Discuss marketing strategies for your hotel by incorporating the THREE (3)
dimensions proposed in this article.

Due to COVID 19 outbreak, hotel businesses all over the world suffered a heavy blow
and in February 2020, revenue-per-available-room at dropped by nearly 90% and by
25% in Greater China and Asia-Pacific region respectively at an average. Now that
the economy is gradually recovering hoteliers need to carefully devise marketing
strategies based on the following 03 dimensions to revive their businesses.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

The global spread of COVID 19 has had a great impact on how the hospitality
industry would operate in the coming times since social distancing and reduced
physical contact has become the new norms of the market. This situation has lead
hotel managers all over the world to ponder upon the potentials that AI possesses. It is
a new service concept and an opportunity for hoteliers to better serve and please their
customers. AI and robotics technology can be incorporated into the conventional hotel
management operations to accelerate the dropping demand/sales of the industry while
prioritizing customers’ health above all. Using unmanned devices and robots for
reception, facial scan check ins, voice guest control, robot delivery and concierge
assistants, hotel managers can ensure contact less service being delivered to the
customers and thus also reducing the spread of the disease. Moreover, robots can also
be substituted for labour to clean and sanitize high traffic areas like hall ways,
reception, elevators, stairs etc.

Hygiene and Cleanliness

Cleanliness and hygiene have become the salient Norms of the current time because
the contagious COVID 19 virus spreads by coming in contact with virus affected
surfaces. Public places especially hotels are at a high risk of spreading the virus due to
increased customer contact with surfaces and less sanitization. These surfaces have a
higher microbial count and are a source of COVID 19 transmission and can also
spread the virus through air conditioning systems. Therefore, it is quite important for
hoteliers to improve the sanitization and cleanliness of their hotels and reassure
customers of their health safety. They must ensure regular hygiene surveillance by

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using both man power and technology. Since AI driven robots are endowed with
sensors that can detect dirt therefore achieving hygiene and cleanliness measures have
become very easy. The hotel should focus more on keeping the guest rooms clean,
hygienic and sanitized at all times to ensure the safety of the customers and staff.
Apart from this hotel restaurants should invest more care in ensuring cleanliness and
sanitization of the kitchens. The hotel management can use premium disinfection
packages to attract customers during the wake of COVID 19.

Health and Health care.

The surge in COVID 19 cases has raised considerable interest among people to
concentrate on health and immunity building thus people are shifting to a
more healthier lifestyle. Under this situation hoteliers can become customers’
preference by arranging mediation programs, health diet programs, and digital detox
programs and sleep hygiene programs. They can also design personalized products for
guests keeping in view their well-being. They can also use eco-friendly and green
strategies to make the hotel environment more comfortable and safe for their
customers. Furthermore, hotel management should also have a medical facility inside
the hotel premises so that in case of emergency, guests can receive the first aid
immediately

A hotels’ resilience and sustainability can only be strengthened by addressing

different consumption needs and taking steps to convert misfortune into a
breakthrough. These efforts must be aligned with trends of the market, such as
customer wellness, contactless services through AI and environmental preservation.

3. In your opinion, what is the outlook for hotel industry post COVID-19 pandemic?
Support your answer with data and statistics from the Ministry of Tourism
(http://www.motac.gov.my)
As far as my opinion is concerned, the post COVID 19 period will bring a fierce
competition in the hotel industry due to increased concern for health safety and
consumers’ growing awareness of a healthier way of living. Hotels can only become
successful in these hard times by gaining the customers trust in the hotels' operations.
And until the COVID 19 pandemic is not fully conquered, hoteliers will need to put in
extra effort to please their customers since countless valuable lives are at stake. This

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will require them to integrate AI and robotics into usual routine chores, limiting the
guest limit and ensuring hygiene and sanitization of surfaces at regular times. The
hotel may also consider reducing the staff size of the hotel in order to ensure physical
distancing. Wearing PPE suits, gloves and masks should be deemed compulsory for
the staff. Another aspect of concern for the guests can be food. Customers trust
regarding the quality of food can be gained by preparing their meals live and ensuring
clean cooking stations, kitchens, dining halls and cutlery at all times. They can also
prepare an on the site medical facility to provide the best health care and first aid
services to the people. And can promote health related programs and services by
offering discounts to their customers. 

THE END

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