The banking sector provides a wide range of products and services to Retail and Business customers. Before making any product available to the customers, banks have to carry out market surveys to understand customer needs so that the right products are designed for the right markets. Marketing includes the product development stage. Sometimes products are designed for the mass market, whilst at times banks propose tailor made products for specific markets. Banks spend huge sums of money in analyzing markets and putting the final product on the market.

Questions:

(i) Provide brief descriptions to the following terms in relation to marketing of banking products:

a. Segmentation
b. Penetration pricing
c. ‘Process' as the 7th
‘P' in services marketing.

(ii) Assess the first three different phases of a new product development.

(iii) Explain how the knowledge of the product life cycle/ company's life cycle concept and the Maslow theory of hierarchy of needs can be useful to bank managers and business relationship officers in the preparation of their action plan to develop their portfolio and customer relationship management.