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1. Identify and critically evaluate the respective roles of the state and private sectors in the provision of healthcare, education and welfare in your country. To what extent do you consider that the two sectors complement or compete with each other?

In healthcare, public hospitals provide basic services, while private hospitals offer specialized, quicker care.

In education, government schools and universities dominate, but international and private schools attract those seeking different curricula.

Welfare programs such as subsidies, pensions, and housing support are state-driven, while NGOs and CSR programs from corporations provide support too.

Complement vs. Compete:

They complement each other when the private sector fills gaps left by public services.

They may compete when private services pull resources or talent from the public system (e.g., teachers or doctors).

2. What forms of mutual financial services provision take place in your country? Compare and contrast the ways in which mutuals and proprietary providers serve the needs of your country’s citizens.

Comparison:

Mutuals: Serve their members (usually communities, civil servants, etc.); profits are redistributed among members or reinvested.

Proprietary providers (e.g., Maybank, CIMB): Aim to maximize profit for shareholders; more aggressive in marketing and innovation.

Contrast:

Mutuals focus on financial inclusion and support for the underserved.

Proprietary institutions offer broader product ranges, higher technology adoption, and global financial instruments.

3. Which body (or bodies) is responsible for the regulation of financial services in your country? What are its principal goals, and to what extent do you think it is successful in achieving them?

Main regulators:

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) – regulates banks, insurance, payments.

Suruhanjaya Sekuriti (Securities Commission - SC) – regulates capital markets.

Labuan FSA – oversees offshore finance.

Goals:

Ensure financial stability, consumer protection, integrity, and market confidence.

Promote inclusive access to financial services.

Evaluation:

Regulators have been largely successful in maintaining a stable, well-regulated financial system.

They are proactive in Islamic finance, digital banking, and consumer education.

Challenges include the rapid growth of fintech and the need for better enforcement in mis-selling cases.

4. How are the provision of financial advice and sale of financial services products regulated in your country? To what extent do you think those regulations safeguard the interests of private consumers and business customers?

Regulatory Bodies:

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)

Securities Commission (SC)

Key Regulations:

Financial Services Act 2013 (FSA)

Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 (IFSA)

Requirements:

Financial advisers must be licensed

Must follow code of ethics and disclosure rules

Must perform suitability assessment before advising/selling

Consumer Safeguards:

Transparent product information (risks, costs)

Access to Ombudsman for Financial Services (OFS) for complaints

Protection from fraud and mis-selling

Effectiveness:

Strong protection for private consumers

Business customers benefit from transparency but have less regulatory support due to assumed financial knowledge

5. Some people would argue that the resources devoted to corporate social responsibility (CSR) represent theft from the shareholder. How do you feel that CSR impacts upon the interests of various stakeholder groups?

Stakeholder Impact:

Shareholders: While profits may be reduced in the short term, long-term brand value and risk mitigation benefit them.

Employees: Feel more engaged and motivated in socially responsible firms.

Consumers: Tend to prefer ethical, environmentally responsible companies.

Communities: Benefit directly through education, environment, health, and welfare programs.

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1. What is meant by the term gateway product, and to what extent do you believe that the current account performs such a role in your marketplace?

Gateway product: A basic financial product that introduces customers to a financial institution.

Current account: Acts as a gateway by offering essential banking functions (payments, deposits, withdrawals).

In Malaysia, current accounts help build trust, encouraging customers to later adopt loans, credit cards, insurance, etc.

2. In what ways has the business-customer sector benefited from new forms of competitor in the fields of banking and insurance?

Entry of fintechs, takaful operators, and digital banks increased competition.

Benefits to businesses:

More choices and better pricing

Improved customer service

Innovative products tailored for SMEs

Faster, digital claims and loan processing

3. How has technological innovation impacted upon product supply and services delivery in your country?

Enabled online/mobile banking, e-wallets, robo-advisors, digital insurance platforms.

Increased accessibility, speed, and convenience for users.

Reduced operating costs for providers.

Improved real-time communication and customized services.

4. What incentives does your government give to encourage its citizens to save for their future?

Tax reliefs for contributions to:

EPF (Employees Provident Fund)

PRS (Private Retirement Scheme)

Takaful and life insurance

Government-matching grants for PRS youth schemes.

Savings campaigns (e.g., SSPN for education, Amanah Saham for long-term investing)

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1.Choose a product with which you are familiar. What are the different layers in that product? Choose what you think is the main point of differentiation between this product and other competing products.

GO by Bank Islam (Mobile Banking App) provides essential Islamic banking services such as Shariah-compliant savings and current accounts, funds transfer DuitNow, bill payments, and zakat contributions.

The GO app also have biometric login, account overview, transfer options, e-payment features, QR payment functionality, and the ability to apply for selected products like financing or credit cards.

Offering features like zakat and waqaf management, Shariah-compliant product access, and financial tools designed to align with Muslim customer needs

2. Why is line stretching an important part of product management? What are the risks associated with this approach to product management?

To reaches wider customer segments and the risk is customer confusion likes overlapping products can make decision-making harder.

3. What are the key stages in the NPD process? Why is it useful to have an organized process for developing new products?

Idea generation

Screening and evaluation

Concept development and testing

Business analysis

Product development

Market testing

Commercialization

Reduces failure risk through systematic screening.

Ensures resources are allocated efficiently.

4. What are the main types of Islamic financial services? What do you see as the main challenges when marketing financial services?

Main Types of Islamic Financial Services

Murabaha – Cost-plus financing.

Mudarabah – Profit-sharing between investor and entrepreneur.

Main Marketing Challenges

Trust and reputation: The abstract nature of financial products demands trust in the brand.

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1. Why is it important to understand the external environment? What role does marketing play?

Importance of understanding the external environment:

Awareness of market trends: It helps businesses anticipate changes in the market and adjust accordingly.

Identifying opportunities and threats: External factors such as economic conditions, competitor activity, and technological advances influence a company’s strategies.

2. Choose a financial services provider. What are the opportunities and threats that the macro-environment creates?

Example: Bank XYZ (Financial Services Provider)

Opportunities:

Economic growth: Expanding markets and an increase in income levels provide a larger pool of potential customers.

Technological advancements: The rise of digital banking allows for greater convenience and customer engagement, opening up opportunities for innovative financial products.

Threats:

Economic downturns: High unemployment or recessions reduce consumer spending and borrowing capacity.

Increasing competition: Fintech startups and non-traditional financial service providers (e.g., digital wallets) may disrupt traditional banks.

3. Choose a market that you know well (e.g. current accounts, mutual funds, credit cards, housing finance) and analyse the five forces. What are the opportunities and threats?

Example: Credit Card Market

Threat of New Entrants:

Threat: Low barriers to entry for digital payment platforms or new banks.

Opportunity: Established players can leverage their brand loyalty to ward off competitors.

4. Prepare a SWOT analysis in relation to an organisation in the market that you analysed in Question 3. What are the market-level opportunities and threats and macro-level opportunities and threats that you think may be relevant? Include them in the analysis.

SWOT Analysis for Bank XYZ (Credit Card Provider)

Strengths:

Strong brand recognition and trust in the market.

Weaknesses:

High operational costs due to legacy systems.

Opportunities:

Market-Level: Expanding the rewards program to include more merchants; developing co-branded credit cards.

Macro-Level: Leveraging the trend of digital payments and contactless transactions to improve product offerings; targeting emerging markets where credit card penetration is low.

Threats:

Market-Level: Increased competition from digital wallets and BNPL services.

Macro-Level: Economic downturns affecting consumer spending and rising interest rates that make credit less attractive.

5. In what ways do factors in the physical environment, such as climate-related issues, impact upon financial services?

Impact of climate-related issues on financial services:

Risk Management and Insurance: Financial services must assess climate risks such as extreme weather events (e.g., floods, hurricanes) that impact property values, business operations, and loan repayments.

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WEEK 1

I learned about the financial services environment, which is shaped by the rise of fintech and digital banking. I also explored six key factors in environmental analysis. It is include political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental. In addition, I learned about the marketing environment and how it influences businesses to understand and adapt to their surroundings. I learned the macro, market, and internal environments. The macro environment is crucial for shaping broad business strategies, while the market environment plays a bigger role in developing specific product strategies. Meanwhile, the internal environment is where a company has the most control.

WEEK 2

I learned about the goal of financial services organizations. The main goal is to sustainable competitive advantage.  Besides that, marketing is the process of planning, pricing, promotion and distributions of good and services. Marketing also operates through mutually beneficial exchanges between buyers and sellers. I also learned about steps in marketing management strategy. There are 4 steps which is market segmentation, targeting, develop positioning and decide on the optimal marketing mix. I also know the pillar of the marketing concept.  There are 4 distinctive characteristics of financial services. It is intangibility, inseparability, perishability, and heterogeneity.

WEEK 3

VIDEO 1: It is imperative that we understand how marketing environment influence current and future demand and supply of financial products and services in the industry.

VIDEO 2: It is important to recognize that consumer behaviour in financial services is complex, from the business to consumer (B2C) customer to business to business (B2B) customer. It is thus imperative that we understand how marketing theory underpins the marketing of financial services to appeal to the different category of customer behaviour.

VIDEO 3: In this session, we shall look at the stages in the consumer decision making, and the factors and the major players that influence these stages, and their roles. We shall also look at the differences in B2C and B2B consumer decision making process.

VIDEO 4: Students will be taken through the different kinds of financial products and services, from banking and non-banking such as stocks, insurance, mortgage etc

VIDEO 5: Pricing is one of the most important elements in the marketing mix, not only because of its character as the sole source of revenue but also its other relevance to financial services such as competition and sign of quality. In pricing, companies make strategic intent statement such as increasing market share or aiming towards profitability in response to the competition.

VIDEO 6: Advertising is very important to financial services as it crucially influences consumer's purchasing decision making. Due to the complexities of the financial services and the multitude of choice advertising becomes an important tool with which consumers make informed choices.

VIDEO 7: Perhaps the most complex element of the marketing mix in the context of financial services marketing. Due to the characteristics of services as intangible, heterogeneous etc the responsibility and roles of the process, people and systems elements are blurred. This means there must be a seamless integration of these elements in delivering satisfactory services. In most cases both demand and supply happens at the same time in financial services during distribution.

VIDEO 8: Financial services markets are constantly changing due to the introduction of products and services, designed to meet the needs of specific segments of the market. The new product development process in financial services is considerably different from product development practices in other services or goods markets due to the relative ease by which innovation can be achieved. In financial services, new products can be introduced to the marketplace through minor modifications of existing service attributes or the introduction of new attributes, often with little or no need for leapfrogging technologies.

VIDEO 9: One of the unique characteristics of financial services markets is the existence of many sub-groups of consumers with different financial needs. This has resulted in the formation of distinct consumer segments with varying characteristics and financial aspirations. Often the financial needs of the various segments can be mapped against specific categories of financial services. As a result, financial services marketers have the ability to effectively target each of these different segments with unique and customized marketing pitches which are most likely to create customer response within the segment.

VIDEO 10: One of the unique characteristics of financial services markets is the existence of many sub-groups of consumers with different financial needs. This has resulted in the formation of distinct consumer segments with varying characteristics and financial aspirations. Often the financial needs of the various segments can be mapped against specific categories of financial services. As a result, financial services marketers have the ability to effectively target each of these different segments with unique and customized marketing pitches which are most likely to create customer response within the segment.