| dc.description.abstract | The banking industry has remained relatively constant over the past several decades;
however liberalized domestic regulation, intensified internal competition, rapid
innovations in new financial instrument, the growth in information technology and a
change in customer needs and preferences has increased pressure on managers and
workers to dramatically improve productivity and financial services. Once the sole
domain of the bank, mutual funds, brokerage firms, and other non-bank competitors
have continued to enter into these markets eroding the market share of the traditional
banking sector. The banks compete mainly on products and pricing. Though the banks
compete on all fronts like the use of new technology, new products and pricing, there
exists differences in the level of customer service provided in each of the banks and
one can easily differentiate them from the levels of customer service delivered.
Superior customer service coupled with product segmentation is deemed to have a
competitive advantage in which a product whose attributes differs significantly from
rival products. The research used a case study design of Barclays Bank of Kenya and
how it deals with product innovation as a competitive strategy. The target population
was the Product Managers and Assistant Product Managers at Head Office. The data
was collected thorough questionnaires administered through drop and pick later
method. Data collected was analysed and presented in the form of frequency
distribution, percentage tables, pie charts, bar graphs amongst others. The study also
revealed that the bank develops majority of its products on quarterly basis. The bank
also shops for new customers for existing offerings monthly and these will ensure that
the bank recruits customers throughout and these has been greatly achieved with the
help of employing sales ladies/men whose tasks is to recruit new customers on daily
basis which translates to monthly recruitment.. Findings done indicated that marketing
of the new product begins as soon as the product is unveiled to the public and
therefore product test marketing takes place as the real marketing. The study
established that the bank has formal procedures for product innovation. The
respondents unanimously agreed that the bank is facing a number of challenges in
innovating products that is existence of a procedure in switching bank services, (from
other commercial banks) because the teacher's salary must be channeled through to
the bank for the teachers to acquire the Mwalimu benefits. On the other hand, the
i v
respondents indicated that technological changes, political changes, economical
changes, competitors' actions, social cultural factors and management policies cause a
need to have new products. Several recommendations were done and it was realized
the bank develops new products regularly so that if a product does not suit a customer
they can get an alternative rather than move to other banks which may be having the
kind of products they need. The bank should continue shopping for new customers in
order to increase their client base which in turn increases its competitive advantage.
The existence of a formal documented procedure for product innovation may inhibit
faster innovation. It is therefore recommended that the bank does not become strict on
the procedures until the competitors launch almost a similar product. On the
challenges which the bank faces in innovating products is that the bank should put in
measures to counter the challenges that have been highlighted. The use of all the
strategic options by the bank will ensure that if one option fails then they can use the
other to respond to the changes in the market. Recommendations regarding the use of
product innovativeness strategy are that the bank should ensure that they adopt only
the strategies which will ensure that they are beneficial to their business. The research
brought out the implication on policy and practice on the bank. It was identified the
bank needs to develop new products regularly so that if a product does not suit a
customer they can get an alternative rather than move to other banks which may be
having the kind of products they need. The bank should continue shopping for new
customers in order to increase their client base which in turn increases its competitive
advantage. The policy needs to be less strict on the procedures of launching a new
product so that the customer needs are met and Barclays is able to roll out new
products in a timely manner to ensure competition doesn't catch up due to the time
wasted. The policy and practice should continue marketing of the new product as soon
as it is unveiled to the public. This creates a lot of awareness and increases utilization.
The new product approval process needs to be shorted so as to allow the new products
to be released to the customers and meet their needs | en_US |
