PROPOSAL
1.1 Background of the study
According to Schware (2005), quick transformations within the cyberspace, advantageous
knowledge resources from the computers as well as the boom in the world of internet has been
largely responsible for major shift in traditional marketing and increase change in consumers
choice in recent times. Due to this advancement in the world of technology couple with the
never ending increase change in the lifestyles as well as the patterns of consumers, the
communication mediums has become very complex for most marketers and organizations to
deal. As a result of the recent change and shift in the world of technology, most advertising in
the market space has been radically different from what has been going on in the past. In the
current marketing world innovative ideas couple with new means and ways of doing things has
transformed and affected traditional media advertising. This has also climb into the area of new
media and has been used by most marketers to gain better audience of customers and also reach
them with the shortest time possible as well as gain bigger market share. In recent times, the
world advertising foray is changing to digital led content advertisements from traditional
communication of advertisements. The advertising sector is witnessing new developments
which surpass the usual revenue streams from beyond traditional advertising. This new growth
has been largely credited to the addition of online platform of new media to take content to
large number of audience by the use of digital media communication channels and mediums
(Sekaran and Bougie, 2010).
Ghana’s financial sector has changed considerably in the past decade and the industry has
grown in deposit, assets, products offering and profitability. The growth in the financial sector
can be traced and attributed to the sector large automation of services, large strategy of network
expansion as well as a move to focus on difficult customer’s needs instead of ‘off-the-shelf’
traditional products. The Bank of Ghana annual supervision report (2014) stated that the
continued increased competition in the financial sector can be ascribed to the boomed in the
usage of internet by the commercial banks in the country to transact and advertise their products
and services. The use of digital marketing has been extensive in modern day banking as the
players within the sector used it to try to position themselves in the competitive markets which
have already been taken and invaded by Micro finance institutions, private lenders and
shylocks. This technology has motivated the commercial banks within the financial sector to
reconsider their external and internal transactions and relations.
In the ever changing worldwide competitive business market or environment, the use of
technology to render service to customers can no longer be set aside; it has become an urgent
need for all public and individual owned firms in a competitive environment. For this
dynamism in the environment, it has become necessary and needful for firms to make possible
to consumers less costing solution and better the satisfaction of customers by being innovative.
The firms must develop innovative ideas and method to fully meet the changing needs of their
consumers. Most firms operating in the market space has been forced to do away with tradition
method of doing business and to take advantage of the development in the area ICT in order to
maintain and sustain their operations (Lee et al., 2011). The firms must focus more on eadvertising, e-business, and e-procurement as well as e-supply chain philosophy to maintain
their relevance and keep themselves in business. In today’s competitive business environment,
most firms combined both traditional and internet marketing channels such as catalogs and
physical stores to serve their consumers. Most firms in the business environment are becoming
more worried about the interactions between both the internet marketing channels and the
traditional marketing channels as revenue from internet marketing channels grows. In the
financial sector today more commercial banks are using digital market to reach out to their
customers as it has become evident of continuous usage of digital media and the tendency of
more consumers moving to the digital age, a number of firms including the commercial banks
are shifting to digital marketing to successfully serve their target audience.
1.2 Problem statement and the research gap
The Ghanaian banking sector is encompassing digital marketing technology with its due merits.
The usage of digital marketing in particular presents the traditional marketers within the
banking industry the opportunity to in addition to their numerous platforms add low cost
advertising channel. The banking industry has been very instrumental in the growth of
economies all over the world in Ghana especially. In addition to their major role in the growth
and development of the financial sector and the economy at large, the sector is one of the most
profitable in Ghana; however, due to globalization, liberalization, technological advancement
and more enlightened customers, it has been faced with several constraints coming from the
operating environment. It is as a result of these challenges that the commercial banks have had
to be tactful in order to be competitive in the operating environment. The technological
advancement has offered an opportunity for commercial banks to come up with great
innovative methods and ideas.
The convergence of banking services with electronic technologies means that commercial
banks are able to advertise their products with ease and users are able to conduct banking
services at any places overcoming challenges of traditional marketing platforms. According to
Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004), the continuous role of consumers as co-producers of value
has in recent years become very significant. Khan and Mahapatra (2009) pointed out that
technology has been very vital in the improvement of quality of services rendered to consumers
by the commercial banks.
Other studies conducted on digital marketing (2011) on the adoption of E- marketing the large
dairies in Ghana. It was noted in the study that, e-promotion was rated highest in terms of
adoption. Advertising and display of promotional material were the attributes of e-promotion
that were vastly adopted. The study of (Mwarania, 2012) on the adoption of Internet marketing
and its performance of tour operators established that as the cost of developing a website and
maintenance is too high for most companies; they have resorted to the adoption of internet
marketing as this will provide access to global consumer markets as well as growing the market
share. The study of (Wanjuki, 2014) “on the growth of digital marketing and its impact on
customer service at Barclays bank in Africa” states that Barclays bank uses Search Engine
Optimization, Website design and Email marketing as a digital marketing strategy. The study
also reveals that, the bank uses mobile apps to enhance customer service. Nyamamu (2014)
also stated that digital advertising significantly affected print media revenues given that a lot
of people are moving away from the traditional methods of buying printed newspapers to
reading news online.
According to Kanto (2012) also, offline advertising campaigns have affected significantly the
affiliate channel performance when measured by both sales revenue as well as number of sales.
Tesfaye Nekatibebe (2012) again noted that, social media platform have serve as avenue for
everyone to communicate effectively and efficiently than any other media as it can be deemed
as a medium for communication in recent times. The rapid growth in the development ICT has
created opportunities for the commercial banks to expend their activities in the electronic
environment (Eriksson, Kerem, and Nilsson, 2010).
From the above studies undertaken no studies have been done on the effects of digital
marketing on traditional advertising platforms as employed by the commercial banks in Ghana.
This therefore creates a gap on the effect of digital marketing on traditional advertising
platforms used by commercial banks. It is against this background that this study is undertaken
to fill the knowledge gap that exist in the Ghanaian financial sector; which is the effect of
digital marketing on the performance of commercial banks in Ghana specifically within the
Accra metropolis.
1.3 Aims/objectives of the study
The aim of this study is to attain the following objectives:
1. To ascertain the common digital advertising platforms employed by the commercial
banks in the Accra metropolis.
2. To establish the impact of digital advertising on the activities and performance of the
banks in Accra Metropolis.
3. To find out how digital advertising can be used to enhance customer service of the
banks within Accra Metropolis.
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Proposed methodology
1.6 Significance of the study
1.7 Organization of the study
References