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Differentiation: Key to Business Success – a Case of Bank Phb
DIFFERENTIATION: KEY TO BUSINESS SUCCESS - A CASE OF BANK PHB
This week, I have chosen for us to discuss the concept of differentiation, because of its strategic importance to the success of business organizations. Differentiation comes in different shades – either from a corporate point of view or from the perspective of the product, service, processes prices or even behaviour and attitude.
If you notice these days in Nigeria, there seem to be a plethora of ‘me too’ products, promotion and price strategy especially with the use of advertising. Sometimes, the moment the sound track of a particular brand starts on TV, it immediately reminds one of the sound track of another brand. Our people seem not to bother that, it offends the sensibilities of a viewer or listener to engage one brand in another brand’s experience. Most of them too, do not realize that, with the advent of DSTV/HiTV, the internet and extensive traveling around the globe, Nigerians are much more exposed to international media now more than ever before, such that, if a brand copies another brand’s promotional strategy from abroad, it will easily be noticed even here in Nigeria. Replicating other people’s advertising platform, either in the form of creative strategy or even the execution puts a lot of people off from that product.
To put your company or your brand ahead, to get people to admire you and your brand, you’ve got to be different. People just love seeing a company or a brand doing or saying something good in a unique and interesting way. It appeals to the mind and soul to experience new things. This is why, I think that, the Bank PHB ‘One day, cars will run on water’ is a classic. The concept is philosophical and futuristic.
Philosophical because, it questions the existing norm, the existing value. It challenges our present world view and our present logic of existentiality. It expands the frontiers of thought. It creates the vessel of possibility and expands the mind to appreciate the vast landscape of life as a construction of infinite possibilities. It is futuristic because, it presents tomorrow to the people of today, substitutes ‘what ought’ to ‘what is.’ That advert is a ‘typification’ of how fertile the mind can be: expansive and elastic. To be different, you’ve got to expand the mind. That’s why sometimes you hear people say – ‘dare to be different’. It takes boldness, guts and great heart to dare, let alone dare to be different. Once again, I give it to Bank PHB.
Now, talking about differentiation from a technical point of view, it means differential advantage. That is: one or more unique aspect of an organization that cause target consumers to patronize that firm rather than competition. In another way, differential competitive advantage is achieved when a firm provides something that is unique and valuable to buyers beyond simply offering a lower price than the competitive offers.
Somehow, most companies do not expand their mind view when they are thinking of a unique value proposition to create an advantage over competition. This is why, they simply fall into the easy trap of using lower pricing mechanics, either to penetrate the market or maintain their market share in the business place. Meanwhile, there are so many ways to differentiate yourself in the market place. Some have argued that, it is very difficult to differentiate a commodity, product or highly industrial goods and services.
I have always thought that, there is a canvas of opportunities – product, processes, service delivery index, promotions and all – which is available for the various businesses to exploit as a creative means to differentiate themselves from competition. Just like Theodore Levitt, an Edward Carter professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School would say, ‘there is no such thing as a commodity. All goods and services are differentiable. In the market place, differentiation is everywhere. Everybody – producer, fabricator, seller, broker, agent and all tries constantly to distinguish his offering from all others. This is true even of those who produce and deal in primary metals, grains, chemicals, plastics and money.
For me, the use of price to differentiate is really not strategic. What if competition decides to play the price game with you? Anybody can do it. It is not creative; it does not task your intellect. Most times, it is better to – other than the use of the product – access quality service delivery and customer intimacy to craft a differentiation strategy. In the financial market, where service delivery is key, what a marketer should sell must come more in terms of claimed distinction of their execution – the efficiency of their transactions in their clients behalf, their responsiveness to inquiries, the clarity and speed of their confirmations and the like. This means that, the offered product is differentiated but the generic product is identical.
For instance, banks have started offering education loans to their customers. Let me say here that, it is one product that is very much in need in Nigeria. Two banks that offer this service that can easily come to mind now are: Oceanic Bank and Bank PHB. Now, you can see that, the ‘loan’ is the product. In all, the actual loan is generic, because, in actual sense, any bank can decide today to start offering education loan to its customers. So the loan is a commodity.
But, to get patronage for the product, it goes beyond just giving the loan, but the service delivery portfolio in the cause of offering the loan will go a long way to determine whether the customer will patronize Oceanic or Bank PHB. Again, convenience of assessing the loan, repayment plans, the processes and the kind of attention given to prospective applicants to the loan is very important. But above all, the overall corporate perception of the organization in the mind of the applicant is a major motivator for the applicant, for this is what helps the applicant make the decision in the first place, either to go to bank A or B or not to even bother at all, to access the loan.
In all, it must be emphasized that, companies should take the issue of differentiation very seriously because, when the chips are down, that is what truly counts. Organizations should also try and ensure that, their product differentiation ties up with the overall corporate differentiation with the aim of achieving company overall objective. Differentiation too should not be a ‘me too’ thing. It must stream from the company’s vision and core values.
About the Author
Desmond Ekeh is the CEO of Synthesis Communications, a Nigerian based strategic Public Relations company and the Editor of Brandigest, an integrated marketing communications publication designed to provide cerebral information to support industry executives in decision making and to help the public understand happenings in the industry in Nigeria and across the world.
Improving Service Delivery, Integration and Time to Market in Banking
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