Formulating a marketing strategy for Barclays Bank to increase their profitability through Syndicate Financing Team

Abstract

This project identifies an opportunity for Barclays and aims to study the scope of syndicate finance in the Pakistani market and pinpoints the methodology to be adopted by Barclays if they are to formulate such a team. Barclays Plc wants us (The Project team) to focus on their main source of revenue generation and develop a strategy which will help them to increase their revenue and market growth. In order to develop such a strategy when we were asked to look into the banks operating structure, we found a loop hole. The problem was discussed with the Bank's management and we were given the project to ‘Formulate a marketing strategy for Syndicated loans which will ultimately increase the profitability of Barclays.’ Most of the data gathered in this project is through a qualitative point of view, where interviews, have been a primary source, and books, articles and websites are the secondary. In this project we conducted multiple interviews with the VP/Head of DO's & FM's, Mr. Mustafa Hasham, in order to analyze their current operations in the corporate department, in order to help us formulate a plan for the Bank. Upon finding the lack of focus on the syndicated financing, we found that a strong brand name like Barclays has still not extended its operations in the department of syndicate financing and loans. It is for this reason that we have recommended Barclays to maintain a focus on its corporate relations in order to attain more business through providing better facilities and bigger loans to their customers. This is only possible if Barclays works on preserving a good contact with their customers. Keeping above in mind, a marketing strategy has been formulated. Marketing a bank's Syndicate requires a lot of vigilance, considering it requires direct marketing, comprising of an amalgamation of Industrial Marketing (Business-to-business) and Services Marketing. A syndicate is formed by getting the most experienced personnel, with great communication and sales skills together, and getting them to work as a team. Thus, we have used an approach we call as 'Playing the Resonance Game ', where, the customer contact data is kept for sound referencing, and a constant reminder to the customers of not only the bank, but the Syndicate teams of the change and growth occurring in the Market, alongside the market trends. This Marketing strategy works in contrast with the Internal factors of Barclays Bank, mainly including the Strengths and weaknesses, and external factors of Opportunities and Threats, where the Strength of the experienced personnel and market opportunities can help overcome the Weaknesses and Threats. We also carried out a PEST Analysis that helped us to further elaborate on the Macro Environmental factors.