The changing face of banking in Saudi Arabia (page 2 of 2)

These were :

Traditionals / Conservatives ; not so ready to actively look around for financial products, more face-to-face interaction oriented, less likely to deal with foreign banks

Islamists ; keen to deal with local and not international banks offering Islamically acceptable products/services

Activists ; attracted by value added services and a width of products and services

Islamic Assurance Seekers ; open to foreign/joint venture banks offering Islamic products, unlike the Islamists.

That survey back in 2000 showed that there were a significant number of Saudi customers who were open to Islamic banking services from foreign / joint venture banks.

Over time, however, many more banks entering the Islamic banking space may have resulted in a blurring of images of banks on this issue of Islamic banking unlike in the past where only Local / Islamic Banks were strong enough in terms of being culturally close to the customer.

And as the Local / Islamic Banks start to catch up with foreign banks on service standards customers will start to select banks on higher order emotional and intangible benefits - which is where understanding the psychographic profile of the customer becomes all the more important.

TargetMoney 2003/2004 offers the best of two segmentation approaches - one based on psychographics ( as first revealed by the Arab As Consumer - ARAC study ) ; and the other based on attitudes to banking products and services (as first developed in TargetMoney 2000).

Clients are able to link up the two approaches and develop marketing plans on which segments they are best resourced to target - based on income profile, banking and product usage etc. And write brand and communication strategies based on these psychographic profiles and the segments' media habits.