IMPROVE THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN BANKING SECTOR – THE CASE STUDY OF BIDV

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH --- LÊ THÚY NGÂN IMPROVE THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN BANKING SECTOR – THE CASE STUDY OF BIDV NÂNG CAO VAI TRÒ CỦA MARKET

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH

-

LÊ THÚY NGÂN

IMPROVE THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

IN BANKING SECTOR – THE CASE STUDY OF BIDV

NÂNG CAO VAI TRÒ CỦA MARKETING MẠNG XÃ HỘI TRONG LĨNH VỰC NGÂN HÀNG NGHIÊN CỨU CỤ THỂ

TẠI BIDV

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH

HÀ NỘI - 2020

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH

-

LÊ THÚY NGÂN

IMPROVE THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

IN BANKING SECTOR – THE CASE STUDY OF BIDV

NÂNG CAO VAI TRÒ CỦA MARKETING MẠNG XÃ HỘI TRONG LĨNH VỰC NGÂN HÀNG NGHIÊN CỨU CỤ THỂ

TẠI BIDV

Chuyên ngành: Quản trị kinh doanh

Mã số: 60 34 01 02

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS.TS NGUYỄN VIỆT KHÔI

HÀ NỘI - 2020

DECLARATION

The author confirms that the research outcome in the thesis is the result of author‟s independent work during study and research period and it is not yet published in other‟s research and article

The other‟s research result and documentation (extraction, table, figure, formula, and other document) used in the thesis are cited properly and the permission (if required) is given

The author is responsible in front of the Thesis Assessment Committee, Hanoi School of Business, and the laws for above-mentioned declaration

Hanoi, date of …… / …… /……

Le Thuy Ngan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have gained huge knowledge, skill and insights from my MBA course The course raises

my capacity of administration and management up to the next level

I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis The content of this thesis has been approved

by the committee of Vietnam National University, Hanoi – Hanoi School of Business and Management (HSB) This thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution

In order to finish this project successfully, I have received many helps, supports and guidance from many people who I would like to thank sincerely

First of all, I would like to thank all the professors of MBA program, especially Assoc Pro Dr Nguyen Viet Khoi – my supervisor Then I would like to thank deeply to respondents and interviewees who allowed me to gather enough data for this research Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my husband, my family, my colleagues and my fellow friends who always stand by me during the past two years and encourages me to keep moving from the beginning of

my study

Hanoi, date of …… / …… /……

Le Thuy Ngan

TABEL OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

TABEL OF CONTENTS iii

ABBREVIATION v

LIST OF TABLE vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

CHAPTER 1 THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING - THE UPDATED TREND AND APPLICATIONS IN BANKING INDUSTRY 1

1.1.Overview of social media marketing 1

1.2.Social media marketing channels: 5

1.3.Social media marketing channels in banking sector: 12

1.3.1 The social media channel used popularly in banks: 13

1.3.2 The social media channels in Vietnamese Banking Industry: 17

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS 19

2.1 Methodology and research methods 19

2.1.1 Methodology and research methods 19

2.1.2 The datas: 19

2.2.Data analysis 27

2.2.1.Users of Social Media: 27

2.2.2.Purpose of using Social Media 30

2.2.3.The popular Social Media Sites 31

2.2.4.Time used for Social Media 33

2.2.5.Banks should use Social Media Sites or not 34

2.2.6.Which activities Bank use Social Media for 35

2.2.7.Which of the following social media platforms does your bank use for marketing purpose: 37

2.2.8.Social Media Marketing in Sale 37

2.2.9.Social Media Marketing in Customer Service 38

2.2.10.Social Media Marketing in Customer Relation 40

2.2.11 Social Media Marketing in Recruitment 41

2.2.12.Social Media Marketing in Branding 42

CHAPTER 3 VALUATING THE EFFICIENCY OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING CHANNELS IN BIDV 46

3.1.Introduction about BIDV 46

3.1.1.Summary about BIDV foundation and development: 46

3.1.2.Organiz ational and Governance Structure 47

3.1.3.BIDV Main Products and Services: 49

3.1.4.Business Performance 50

3.1.4.1.Fund Mobilization 51

3.1.4.2.Credit 51

3.1.4.3.Investment 52

3.1.4.4.Services 52

3.1.4.5.Key financial indicators 54

3.2.Analyze the current application of social media marketing channels in BIDV 55

3.2.1.Analyze factors affecting to BIDV and BIDV‟s social media marketing 55

3.2.2.BIDV‟s social media marketing 61

3.2.2.1.BIDV Social Media Marketing in Sales 61

3.2.2.2.BIDV Social Media Marketing in Branding 64

3.2.2.3.BIDV Social Media Marketing in Customer Service 67

3.2.2.4.BIDV Social Media Marketing in Competitor Analysis 68

3.2.2.5.BIDV Social Media Marketing in Recruitment 68

3.3.The advantages and disadvantages of using social media marketing tools in BIDV 69

3.3.1.The advantages 69

3.3.2.Disadvantages 70

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN BIDV 71

4.1.Development orientation of BIDV 71

4.2.Solutions to enhance the importance of social media marketing in BIDV 72

4.3.Recommendations 72

LIMITATIONS 77

APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONNAIRE IN ONLINE SURVEY 79

REFERENCE 83

ABBREVIATION

BIDV Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam

SMCC Social Media Contacting Center

AMA American Marketing Association

IVR Interactive Voice Response

CRM Customer Relationship Management

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1: The Social Media channels and their business characteristics: 11

Table 2: The participants of the discussion 21

Table 3: Summary of the benefits of Social Media Marketing for banking businesses 27

Table 4: Time used for social media 33

Table 5: Should banks have their own social network 35

Table 6: BIDV fund mobilization 2013-2017 51

Table 7: Credit 2013-2017 51

Table 8: Financial performance 2015-2017 54

Table 9: Business result 2014-2017 54

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Average hours/week spent on online activities worldwide 2

Figure 2: Benefits of Social Media Marketing: 5

Figure 3: The Social Media Landscape 2008, by Fred Cavazza 6

Figure 4: The Social Media Landscape 2009, by Fred Cavazza 7

Figure 5: The Social Media Landscape 2011, by Fred Cavazza 7

Figure 6: The Social Media Landscape 2012, by Fred Cavazza 9

Figure 7: Social Media Universe for businesses 10

Figure 8: Banks‟ top preferred social media platforms in America 14

Figure 9: Number of comments about bank on social media the first 4 months 2014 17

Figure 10: Number of Internet/ social media users around the world 2018 28

Figure 11: Most popular messaging app 29

Figure 12: Social media service popularity 29

Figure 13: Top 10 reasons for social media usage 30

Figure 14: Social media users, classified by app 32

Figure 15: Which activities American Bank use Social media for 36

Figure 16 : Organizational Structure 48

Figure 17: BIDV Governance Structure 49

Figure 18: Net service income 2015-2017 53

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large (Approved July 2013 by AMA1 )

Launched in the early 2000s in the form of innovative online applications that facilitate online content sharing, Web 2.0 rapidly evolved into a phenomenon elevating online communications to a new level (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008) All actions of marketing from creating demand to take it in products and deliver, exchange value for customers are implemented on Internet What began as an array of platforms for online interactions with focus on entertainment quickly escalated into a global phenomenon where connectedness to the online networks is everything and the aptitude to “follow,”

“like” or “share” means power The astonishing popularity and the fast rate of adoption of social media lead enthusiasts to speculate on the potential goldmine for marketing that lies within the complex web of user commentaries, testimonials and communities, linking consumers with products and brands (Beer, 2008; Eccleston and Griseri, 2008; Hardey, 2009)

So that businesses are no longer dismissive the role of Digital Marketing in reaching the target customers as well as building brand for products and their own businesses According to a research statistic, Internet advertising gains 33% of the cost for advertising US companies in early 2012 That same year was the birth and development of the powerful Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Pinterest By the preeminent features, Social networking has attracted millions of people with various ages, geographic areas and different interests participating in That makes up a plus the great pile

Only a short time ago, many marketers said that social networking is not suitable for brands However, the trend has changed The result in recent survey indicates that many brands, including high-class brands, such as Mercedes, Burberry , also actively invest in Social Media Marketing like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube to launch mass marketing and enhance interaction with users According to a survey from Alterian2, many company is using social networking to attract new customers and raise awareness about brand This survey polls 400 senior marketing executives from the big brands and gets

1 American Marketing Association

results: 30.1% said that attracting customers is the most important goal in social media marketing; 26.5% to strengthen brand awareness Up to 90% agree that should coordinate Social Media Marketing in overall marketing strategy of company at present period A recent study by Exact Taget2 also showed that digital devices revolutionize the purchasing decision; More than 90% customers believe in online reviews of products, and 18% customers are at least affected by an online ad last 12 months

In Vietnam, the development of advertising through social networking is no longer new to businesses as well as individuals self-employed The benefits, interaction ability and high orientation help social media marketing beginning to be used like an extremely effective communication tool The more and more people read, watch, search information, news or reports through internet than other tradition way

Figure 1: The increasing of internet users

Figure 2: The increasing of users on digital platforms

Follow Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) 09/04/2015

If Twitter is the most popular social networking site in the US, Facebook is not only successful in the world but also the most powerful advertising method in Vietnam Currently, there‟re about 42 millions Facebook user in Vietnam (statistics in 2016) compared with Vietnamese population 93 millions (45%) That‟s an impressive figure

According to Nielsen Vietnam Cross-Platform Insights Report 2015, Vietnamese used average 24,7 hours per week to online, increasing 9 hours than 2014

Figure 3: The average online hours per week

Understanding the importance and impact of social networking to business in general and finance/ banking in particular, on 08/04/2015 BIDV launched SMCC Social Media Command Center Although the activities of SMCC are quite basic and achieved some certain success but so far SMCC is still just stop in advertising to complement the main activities of the bank That doesn‟t take full advantage of social networking brings In addition to the role of marketing to customers preferential programs or attractive products/ services of bank, BIDV has not collected data to analyze and research the demand and behavior as well as capture the new trend of the bank‟s customers now According to information from the leader of the BIDV SMCC, the center has not officially conducted a survey on the effectiveness of interaction, the extent of the brand spread through the social media marketing tool Therefore, by this research, we will evaluate the results of the social media tool at BIDV and then propose a solution to improve the strategy to promote the role

of social media at BIDV

2 Literature review

After more than 10 years – developing in the international market, Digital Marketing has attracted the attention of many researchers Kotler (2003) argues that digital marketing is part of internet marketing, which focuses on product planning, pricing policy and distribution in the marketplace through electronic tools In this sense, the concept of digital marketing is ambiguous, and may coincide with internet marketing Dave Chaffey (2012) asserted that digital marketing is the management and implementation of marketing activities by using electronic media tools such as website, email, iTV, wireless devices combined with digital data related to characteristics and behavior of customers This view extends the storage of customer profiles through digital data that will be a valuable resource for every business in developing new products through significant segments

According to Damian and Calvin (2009), digital marketing is using of digital tools that include not only phones, email, websites but also social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter, etc to spread your image to customers and sell goods, services through online sites like amazon This view emphasizes the development of the image of the business and the way they approach consumers through selling goods But the limit of this research is not showing how to expand the awareness of business brand by digital marketing Because at present not just making a company website, its personal page like Facebook, twitter and putting goods or services on Internet is bringing you money

Kent and Ian (2009, pp 60-61) conclude: "Digital marketing is the future development of marketing, which takes place when most, or all marketing strategies of a company used digital channels Digital channels are accessing channels that allow marketers to communicate continuously, bi-directionally and personally to each customer; These communications provide data from each interaction with customers to forecast for the next like network center In addition, marketers continually use real-time information about customer behavior and direct customer feedbacks to improve and optimize interaction" So, according to Kent and Ian, this will be the future trend of marketing, and emphasis on the direct interaction of customers of firms

Hue D.T and Lukas (2014) suggested that social marketing is a programmatic process that applies marketing principles and techniques to promote voluntarily behavior change This is quite true for some specific business areas The very cold spread of social networking has helped businesses elicit and orient the needs of consumers Hence they can increase the sale of goods and services But the banking sector is especially unique with its specific products that social media is just broaden the scope of image recognition, promoting existing products and services

Daiana Tont (2013) showed the advantages of using social media include the fact that brands can create conversations that engage on a 1-1 basis, which add value for the consumer along the process on a functional, experiential and psychological level (Pine and Gilmore 2011) This distinctive approach actively enriches the consumer‟s experience with the brand establishing an emotional connection and ultimately integrating the brand as part

of their lifestyle (Pine and Gilmore 2011) The key role in building and developing relationships with consumers across different social media platforms is communication–engaging, entertaining and triggering responses from consumers What this research indicated is the reality and trend in marketing objective of business But in banking field where providing unshaped – goods, it needs a significant strategy of social media marketing

to do that

Celine (2012) indicated in her research that the theoretical analysis on the one hand used a wide literature review to discuss the main business benefits of Social Media Marketing, explain why every business should create their Social Media sites and maintain their presence on them regularly On the other hand, the empirical analysis examined the main marketing techniques used by companies on the Social Media channels, analyzed how businesses should develop their Social Media Sites Besides, the limitations and risks encountered by businesses implementing Social Media Marketing strategies were presented

in order to show the negative aspects as well This research gave us the comprehensive view about the role of social media marketing in both positive and negative side In addition, we can find the advantages of each social media channel to be suitable for each business in common and for bank in particularly

Bontis and Booker et al (2007) studied the different effect of social media marketing

in bank That is the mediating effect of organizational reputation on customer loyalty and service recommendation in the banking industry The findings suggest that bank reputation among customers can be improved by focusing on customer satisfaction Customer loyalty and the likelihood of customer recommendation can be enhanced by increasing reputation This reinforces the belief that reputation has an important role to play in the banking service environment It can be implemented by using the spreading ability of social media marketing

Chikandiwa et al (2013) gave out the research related about the social media marketing in South Africa Bank indicated about the existing models to be used the social media adopting models or implementing models and how to measure each model But both

of those are infancy level, it is necessary to develop more than that to apply for another bank in other areas

3 Research Objective

As we knew, nowadays, Social Media Marketing is widely used by businesses It is considered as a weapon that can be used largely for free and very easily, in comparison with other promotional tools (Levinson, J.C & Gibson, S., 2010) The main purposes of using Social Media Marketing are the amplification of word-of-mouth marketing, market research, general marketing, idea generation and new product development, co-innovation, customer service, public relations, employee communications and reputation management Indeed, social networks can increase product and brand awareness, web traffic, customer loyalty, but also improve the company‟s Search Engine Optimization, and even increase the success of new product launches According to Hubspot (2012), 57% of SMBs say social media is beneficial to their business Thus, this research shows the overall knowledge about the social media marketing and some common tools or channel used the most

The second thing this research focuses on the reality of using social media tool in banking sector in Viet Nam The specific case study in BIDV

The last thing is the solutions suggested to improve the role of social media marketing in BIDV

4 Objects of research:

The development of information technology and the explosion of social network in life lead to the changing of marketing activities to adapt to the needs of a part of the population, especially the generation is in the stage: Generation Y (Young generation - born

in 1977 - 1994) and younger generation (Z generation born in 1995 onwards) Pham Hong Hoa (2013) said that approaching customers through online channels such as mobile phones, email, social networking is gradually becoming a popular trend Over the past 10 years, transactions through electronic banking systems in the banking sector have been increasingly promoted, helping banks and customers save time as well as transaction costs while in the case of opening economy, competition in the banking sector is becoming more intense than ever

Understand this situation, BIDV quite invests in approaching customers through social media tool (Facebook page) But there are not an official evaluating research about the results of using this and suggest some solutions to improve existing strategy appropriate

to present trend which has been changing day by day

5.1 Location scope: this study is carried out in BIDV with major information from one of the biggest branch in BIDV: BIDV Central Transaction 1 Branch and SMCC Department All are located in Ha Noi where the population spends much time on internet

5.2 Data and time cope:

- Secondary data: is collected in BIDV report period 2015-2017 about the number of followers, level of interaction

- Primary data: is collected via direct survey from October – December 2017 5.3 Content Limitation

The research subject relate to many wide problems and there are many things to indicate this But in this research I just focus on how the social media marketing is used in BIDV, take full advantage of it and the orientation in future In research scope, we don‟t mention what BIDV achieved in social media activities or comparing with other competitors or standard of industry

6 Research Methodology:

In order to archieve the overal aim and specific aim of this study, the author will use

in majority Interpretivistic research methods (quanlititative approach) because of the lack of quantitative figures relative to our subject, and the inherent biases and errors associated with questionnaires and interviews These methods allow for the interpretation of observed and researched data, where critical theory is examined and assumptions about its use in practice are broken down Then, the relations and use in our subject is suitable for predictions and analysis In this report, the interpretive use of Social Media Marketing theories for research has been used We also have used some Positivistic research methods when dealing with statistics Indeed, some quantitative customer facts and figures have been used to analyze and strengthen the results and use of Social Media Marketing techniques

6.1 The types of information

They are collected on the following:

 Secondary data is collected from BIDV reports, competitors‟ reports and reliable outsource reports

 Primary data is collected through two ways:

+ Data collection through focus - group interviews (qualitative interviews): Select one from the target group and conduct in-depth interviews and discussion Focus - Group interview was conducted by gathering a group of 10 people People are

conditions, avoiding instances of interaction and conflict among group members when discussing Focus – interviews include experts, managers of marketing and other department and staffs Discussion time can last about 1.5 hours and audio / video recorders are used to record the content of the interview

+ Data collection through observation and investigation (Quantitative approach)

Observe the available research from internet by reliable sources From that the author can give some conclusions

Observe, perceive and record customers‟ behavior who use products and services directly in BIDV SGD 1 branch

Build a list of criteria that appropriate with collected observation + The author also prepares the online research questionnaire for study‟s aim Online instruments designed solely for this study have been used to capture data from the selected sample The instrument has been developed using the Google form service

A new Google account was created specifically for this project New forms were used for each case and data collected was used for analysis Protection of the identity of the respondents was maintained The created links were uploaded on the social sites and also sent to available contacts through messenger

Type of question is category question, ranking question, rating questing and open question Sampling method used is purposive sampling That method permits

to select cases that will best enable to answer research questions and to meet objectives

of the study Non – probability sample size choice is also used

6.2 Limitations of methodology:

Interviews and questionnaires on the awareness of banking social media are very limited in response Online questionnaire: The online questionnaire is often quicker and less detailed Also the validity of such surveys are questionable as people might be in a hurry to complete it so might not give accurate responses and may not be willing to share details

7 Structure of the thesis:

The expected structure of this thesis as following:

Chapter 1: The theoretical framework of Social Media Marketing - The updated trend and applications in banking industry

1.1 Overview of social media marketing 1.2 Social media marketing channels

1.3 Social media marketing channels in banking sector

Chapter 2: Research methodology and data analysis

2.1 Methodology and research methods

2.2 Data analysis

Chapter 3: Valuating the efficiency of using social media marketing channels

in BIDV

3.1 Introduction about BIDV

3.2 Analyze the current application of social marketing channels in BIDV

3.3 The advantages and disadvantages of using social media marketing tools in BIDV

Chapter 4: Findings and recommendations for improving the role of social media marketing in BIDV

4.1 Development orientation of BIDV

4.2 Solutions to enhance the importance of social media marketing in BIDV

4.3 Recommendations

 Conclusions, limitations and research contributions

CHAPTER 1 THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING - THE UPDATED TREND AND APPLICATIONS IN BANKING INDUSTRY

1.1.Overview of social media marketing

Social Media appeared in 1978 when the first Bulletin Board Systems exchanged data over phone lines with other users According to Evans (2008): „When the Internet really started to take off, consumers started to tune out those carefully crafted messages and take more control over how they voiced their experiences with products and services From websites to blogs, to forums and message boards, conversations started to spring up around products, brands, and companies These conversations have had more influence on what others buy, subscribe to, and believe is valuable than any marketing message could manage.‟ Nowadays, Social Media Marketing and more particularly Social Networks have been influencing strongly in consumers‟ purchasing decisions, mainly because they amplify word-of-mouth

According to Evans (2008), Social Media relates to a self-generated, authentic conversation between people about a particular subject of mutual interest, built on the thoughts and experiences of the participants Therefore, Social Media is definitely all about sharing and aiming at a collective vision, often intending to offer a more-appropriated or informed choice at the end Furthermore, Social Media changes over time as it allows people to generate the content in a participative way whenever they want to add any additional piece of information Social Media are also evolving constantly as they are part

of internet high technologies, which are modified regularly with additional or replacing features Social Media covers a wide variety of “online and mobile, word-of-mouth forums including social networking websites, blogs, company sponsored discussion boards and chat rooms, consumer-to-consumer email, consumer product or service ratings websites and forums, Internet discussion boards and forums, and sites containing digital audio, images, movies, or photographs, to name a few” (Hollensen, 2011) Social Networks, or Social Media Sites, which are the main actors in the Social Media medium, can be defined

as online communities of people who typically share a common interest or activity, providing a variety of ways for users to interact and having the ability to facilitate communication

Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein [2] define social media as "internet applications based on the technology and ideal of web 2.0, which facilitates the creation and exchange of information by users "

In Viet Nam, as proposed by the Ministry of Information and Communications, social media is "an information system that provides the community of users with a network of services that store, provide, use, search, share and exchange information to each other, including the creation of a personal website, forum, online chat, audio and video sharing, and other similar forms of service "

Social Media is growing every day Even if 90% of the 18-24 internet users use social network via any device at least once per month, social media affects every age group with much higher increase rates for the age groups over 35 (Hubspot, 2012) Also, when looking at the average hours per week spent on online activities, we can definitely see that the world is becoming more social, with an average of 4.6 hours per week spend on Social Media Sites worldwide (Figure 1)

Figure 1: Average hours/week spent on online activities worldwide

The number of active social media users has surpassed 2 billion and is expected to reach 2.44 billion by 20183 This is not just the playground of millennials Users of all ages are well represented in the social universe, especially on the big three: Facebook, LinkedIn

and Twitter Those between the ages of 25 and 44 comprise the largest share of users, but consider that 62% of online adults that user Facebook and 20% that use LinkedIn are 65 or older4

With the development of social media, world marketing in general and Vietnam in particular, gradually change to take full advantage of the strong connection of social networks

Social media marketing is a marketing communication activity on such social media platforms Social Media Marketing is marketing that focuses on people, not products (Diamond, 2008) The products can be presented by the company with as many qualitative features and promotional tools as possible, but what really matters is the comments and appreciations left by the customers People provide the content, and this is the reason why Social Media Marketing is so scary and challenging for marketers They do not control the marketing content anymore Negative word-of-mouth can be spread worldwide in a couple

of minutes only With the explosion of Internet-based messages transmitted through the Social Media, they are now a main factor in influencing many aspects of consumer behaviour, such as awareness, consideration, information gathering, opinions, attitudes, purchasing decisions and post-purchase evaluation International marketers need to recognize the power and critical nature of the conversations being hold by consumers using

Social Media Consequently, the ability of influencing the crowd effectively is the main quality needed by the marketing team (Evans, 2008)

Technology has been changed the consuming habit of customers They trust in personal recommendations than brand‟s messages The traditional sales funnel is a consumer model based on the “four A‟s”: “aware, attitude, act and act again.” Now then, P Kotler (2016), the shopper pathway now has “five A‟s”:

“Aware” – Consumers become aware of brands through marketing, personal

experience or recommendations from other people

“Appeal” – The most attractive brands rise to the top

“Ask” – Buyers seek data online via social networks, reviewers, the media or your

brand

“Act” – Buyers select purchases based on their data, buy what they want and use it

“Advocate” – People develop preferences for brands and make repeat buys A

query or negative comment can prompt proponents to defend their brand publicly

Across all the demograghics, a growing number of users are relying on online sources, including social media, to support their buying or investment decisions According

to a recent report from Google:

- 65% online consumers look up more information online now than they did a few years ago

TE

- 66% of smartphone users turn to their phones to look up something they saw in a

TV commercial

- Searches of businesses “near me” doubles in the past year

- 82% of smartphone users use a search engine when looking for a local business

- 82% of smartphone users consult their phones while in a business deciding what

to buy

- Mobile conversation rates have increases 29% in a single year

- One in three millennials say they have purchased a product as a result of watching a how-to video5

Figure 2: Benefits of Social Media Marketing:

Source: Stelzner, 2012

Social media have redefined the way people interact with one another, enabling people

to build relationships without geographic and demographic barriers

1.2.Social media marketing channels:

The Social Media domain is a huge medium that can be divided in many different types of channels Every marketer has his own way of distinguishing one Social Media from another Therefore, in this section, we will present the almost popular model, Social

Media Landscape by Fred Cavazza Finally, we will provide our own list of Social Media channels and illustrate them all in our model of Social Media channels

Fred Cavazza, a French web business consultant, has become famous with his blog posts presenting his vision of the Social Media Landscapes every year (Figure 2-3-4) He started in 2008, dividing the Social Media channels into ten main groups: publish, share, discuss, social networks, microblog, lifestream, livecast, virtual worlds, social games and MMO Through the years, he has been updating his model with the changes in Social Media Marketing In 2009, he started to put the social platforms in the center of the Social Media Landscape, with four main groups around: Expressing, Networking, Sharing and Gaming Then, in 2011, Cavazza gave the central position of his model to Facebook and Google which are both connected to the seven main areas of Social Media: Publish, Share, Discuss, Commerce, Location, Network and Games

Figure 3: The Social Media Landscape 2008, by Fred Cavazza

Source: Cavazza, 2012

Figure 4: The Social Media Landscape 2009, by Fred Cavazza

Source: Cavazza, 2012

Figure 5: The Social Media Landscape 2011, by Fred Cavazza

Source: Cavazza, 2012

In Fred Cavazza‟s latest version of the Social Media Landscape (Figure 5), the central position of the figure is taken by Facebook, Twitter and Google+, because he wants

to emphasize the fact that they are all three providing a large variety of functionalities, and that they are often used as relays for what internet users are doing on other platforms (Cavazza, 2012) Also, he has added some new players, a generalization of conversations and interactions, and the addition of device types such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and connected devices This graph illustrates greatly the very dense ecosystem which symbolizes Social Media, spreading the various services over families:

blog engines (WordPress, Blogger…), wiki platforms (Wikipedia, Wikia…), lifeblog services (Tumblr, Posterous…) and social Q&A (Quora)

dedicated online services for videos (YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo…), pictures (Flickr, Instagram…), links (Delicious, Digg…), products (Pinterest), music (Spotify…) and documents (Slideshare, Scribd…)

major editors (Zynga, Playdompcap…), dedicated platforms (Hi5…) and smaller but innovative editors (Digital Chocolate, Kobojo…)

professional (LinkedIn, Viadeo…), personal (MySpace, Badoo…)

or for former acquaintances (MyYearBook, Classmates…)

customer intelligence platforms (Bazaarvoice, PowerReviews…), purchase sharing (Polyvore), recommendation (Hunch) or social commerce offerings (Boosket)

mobile applications (Foursquare, Path…), socialized city guides (Yelp, DisMoisOu…) or upcoming events or venues (Plancast)

Figure 6: The Social Media Landscape 2012, by Fred Cavazza

As this report is focusing on the benefits of Social Media Marketing for businesses, especially for banks, we will only analyze the Social Media channels that have any utility or effects on businesses Therefore, the report will not be examining the group

of „Buying‟ and its customer reviews, and the group of „Playing‟, which includes Virtual Game and Social Worlds, such as the famous sites World of Warcraft and Second Life Also, from Cavazza‟s „Localization‟ group, we will only be studying the Social Events channels However, the additional groups will be added Blogs & Microblogs are separated from Wikis, and from Social Bookmarking News Sites as well Besides, the discussion forums are distinguished Our seven types of Social Media channels affecting businesses will be the following:

Microblogs: e.g WordPress Blogger, Twitter…

Content Communities or Media Sharing Sites (Video/Audio/Photo/Presentations): e.g Flickr, YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Picasa, Pinterest, Slideshare…

World66…

Reader…

: e.g Phorum, Yahoo Groups, PHPbb…

Blogs and microblogs will be regrouped in a same section, as well as Social Bookmarking and Social News Sites The following Figure 9 illustrates the Social Media Universe, while focusing on the Social Media channels appropriated to businesses and their brands A few examples for each type of Social Media channel are shown through their logos

Figure 7: Social Media Universe for businesses

Source: Own Creation, 2012 For every business using Social Media Marketing, the challenge is to find on which Social Media channels its audience and customers spend their time and hold conversations (Evans, 2010) Also, people usually visit several Social Media Sites instead

of sticking to only one; this is called cross-pollinating By reading, listening and analyzing their target audience‟s activities, marketers will be able to determine where, when, who and how the consumers are interacting in the Social Media Universe It will also help

marketers to define who the influencers are and which role they play in the online

community: whether they are networkers, everyday users, trendsetters, reporters or opinion

Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+…

- Very personal

- Advertiser‟s dream

- Risks related to the content of the posts

Blogs &

Microblogs

- Corporate blogging Wordpress,

Blogger, TypePad…

- “Better than words”

- Easy to share &

viral

- Relatively young audience

- Vigorous controls needed

- Time-consuming

Social Events - Event organization

- Event promotion

Upcoming, Eventful, Meetup

- Real-time organization

- Reduced costs

- Possible failure

Source: Own Creation, 2012

1.3.Social media marketing channels in banking sector:

Banks are often viewed as cold and impersonal They do business in typical field But when the technology wave affects all areas of life, the banking sector also has to mix with changes In 2017 American Bankers Association did a research about the State of Social Media in Banking sector, a survey initiative by the ABA‟s Endorsed Solution group, examines how banks are taking advantage of social media, where they see challenges and opportunities and what the future is likely to bring

In 800 banks in America asked, “ How social media is important to your banks ”, 76% said agree and strongly agree, just 10% disagree Innovative banks are shedding the industry‟s stodgy reputations with personable new images created and nurtured on social media outlets For example:

• Central National Bank in Waco, Texas, found YouTube stardom with its satirical video on why banks close for Columbus Day 


• First State Bank, headquartered in Gothenburg, Neb., holds a quarterly contest with a local business customer in which each promotes the other‟s business on social media

• Every week a bobblehead gure of Mark Mohr, CEO of
First Bank Financial Centre in Oconomowoc, Wis., pops up somewhere in the world in a “Where‟s Mark Wednesday” Facebook promotion each person to guess the location wins a $10 gift card Banks are using their social media accounts in creative ways to educate, inform, entertain and celebrate

On the other side of the world, 50 banks in Greece have opened accounts on Facebook, in order to resolve complaints and inquiries as well as the media crisis resolving Susan Marshall (2015) studies digital marketing in US banks also agree that this

is a trend in the future Cognizant's (2016) study shows that consumer trends increase, and the use of electronic wallets is increasing as the data that bankers store increases, so as to reach them and to provide services to customers, banks need to have a more appropriate way of traditional marketing, which emphasizes direct interaction At the present time, Generation Y and Generation Z use the internet more and more often, especially in the banking sector with specific facilities such as (1) short-term inquiries and (2) saving transfer expenses However, this also adversely affects the bank as the customer easily moves to another bank, so it is necessary to set up in the context of a digital marketing strategy in accordance with the development of science and technology and market;

digitizing bank data, and enhancing digital marketing on social networking sites - alongside hotlines to address customer needs

Wipro and Efma (2013) show that, to save time and money, all customers want to use electronic services, more than 70% of customers of commercial banks have use at least one means of internet connection, and primarily search for information about banking services through (1) social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter - even on amazon; (2) advertising pages on the Internet In addition to benefiting customers, digital marketing also has the advantage of saving on communication costs for the bank: for advertising, it will reduce costs from 55 percent to 49 percent, At the same time, other activities such as sponsorship and promotion expenses will also be reduced by reducing the time spent on television, instead of other online programs such as Youtube Wipro and Efma also found that: With current retail trends, banks now have to engage with customers through electronic sites rather than traditional affiliates Similarly, Olanrewaju (2014) also shows that European banks are shifting from the trend of providing traditional services to modern banking services through digital technology The authors estimate that each bank would increase about 30% of its total revenue and reduce its share of total labor costs by 20-25%,

as well as the cost of circulating documents

Research by Pham Hong Hoa (2013) shows that commercial banks in Vietnam now have the bases for digital marketing: Internet penetration in Vietnam is high (above 70% for people born after 1975), businesses are connected to the internet so that exchanging information is very easy This, in turn, helps banks find better customers (as a huge data warehouse to exploit), and some dynamic executives can "innovate" different ways to reach potential "prospective customers" So digital marketing is an integral part of business strategy of banks, especially social media marketing what has been developing in amazing speed But the fact that, there are very few banks that have an effective social marketing strategy although the number of Vietnamese internet users are one of the biggest things in the world Mibrand Brand Strategy Consulting Company has just released its "Brand Beat Score 2017" - a report on the effectiveness of the banking sector in Vietnam The report shows that there are 3/60 banks surveyed have effective communication index (Vietcombank, BIDV and ACB, the customer awareness > 20%) Meanwhile, advertising campaigns have a great impact on the behavior of choosing the bank brand of customers

1.3.1 The social media channel used popularly in banks:

Bank‟s top preferred social media platforms are Facebook (90%), LinkedIn (69%),

Figure 8: Banks’ top preferred social media platforms in America

At FirstBank in Denver, Colorado, USA, the use of each social media varies “ We leverage all the platforms but we have slightly different strategies for each of them, says Gordon Banks, senior vice president for marketing “ For example, for Instagram, we have

a very specific program and promotion that we do in our market”

For everyday banking consumers, the banks focus on trying to connect with their customers on a personal level One of the most effective ways to do this is to use social media to handle customer service issues in real time As you can see from the TD bank example below, social media makes it incredibly easy to quickly respond to any customer and attempt to turn a negative experience into a positive customer service interaction

Advertising on social media saves companies a lot of money Financial service companies focus many of their advertisements on their rewards and benefits programs Recently, Chase came out with a great marketing strategy They decided to host private parties for Chase Sapphire credit card holders Other than hosting free parties, they also ran many special promotions through social media advertisements As you can see below, their

Socia media Platform

Socia media Platform

promotion mentioned that if you dined at a specific location, you would receive extra points

Or in other side, there are many reasons why someone would choose to invest their money with one bank over another However, the most important reason is trust Social media can help any investment banking institution build a trust with their customers by showing multiple sides of their bank One of the most effective ways that I‟ve seen this done, is by showing off a bank‟s history, and by promoting how successful they‟ve been for many years

Citibank uses social media to show off their investment banking prowess by promoting their history in investment banking through social media The main reason why Citibank does this is that it allows consumers to know who they are and that they have

been successfully doing exactly what the consumers need for a very long time

Another example of a successful bank on social media is BNY Mellon As seen below, put out their quarterly revenue reports on social media to show how their businesses are doing well By putting out quarterly revenue reports, it will tell their clients, and possibly new potential customers, how well the bank is doing BNY Mellon recently put out their second quarterly report, which provided analysis on how much revenue they generated over the past quarter, and their financial health

The banking industry clearly understands the importance of social media Social media‟s ability to connect with your audience presents consumers with a side of your business they would normally have never seen before It‟s a unique and powerful connection that only comes from social media

1.3.2 The social media channels in Vietnamese Banking Industry:

In Vietnam, although banking is not a prominent sector on social media, most banks are now beginning to focus on advertising on these media

Figure 9: Number of comments about bank on social media the first 4 months 2014

July 2016 BIDV was voted by Asia Banking and Finance (ABF) as the best bank in Vietnam for social networking As BIDV is the first credit institution to build and

successfully operate the Social Network Operations Center via Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube channels

From the fact that, although it has been operating for more than a year (from April 2015), BIDV's social networking center has been highly appreciated by online consultants and all The fanpage of BIDV was consulted thousands of people, asking questions about the products, services Most of the programs and products are directly advised by BIDV staff 24/7 at social networking sites

Not only BIDV, now the trend of consulting products, credit services through social networks have been applied by a series of commercial banks According to comments from the fanpage on Facebook of VIB, VPBank, Techcombank , now each page has 300-400 thousand customers participate in consulting

By the end of 2014, Techcombank will be aggressively deploying Facebook and Google+ social transfers with the "F @ st Mobile" application To this day, Techcombank's

"F @ st Mobile" application has attracted over 500,000 customers

This shows that the current trend of adding social networking to the list of retail channels for retail banking products and services has been considered by many commercial banks and development strategies

The ABA Benchmarking & Survey Research group collected survey data from nearly 800 banks— nastitutions of all sizes—those with less than $250 million under management (20%), $250 to $499 million (25%), $500 to $999 million

(24%), $1 billion to $9.9 billion (26%) and more than $10 billion (5%)

The ABA Benchmarking & Survey Research group collected survey data from nearly 800 banks— nancial institutions of all sizes—those with less than $250 million under management (20%), $250 to $499 million (25%), $500 to $999

million (24%), $1 billion to $9.9 billion (26%) and more than $10 billion (5%)

The ABA Benchmarking & Survey Research group collected survey data from nearly 800 banks— nancial institutions of all sizes—those with less than $250

million under management

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS

2.1 Methodology and research methods

2.1.1 Methodology and research methods

In order to achieve the overall aim and specific aim of this study, the author will use in majority Interpretivistic research methods (quantitative approach) because of the lack of quantitative figures relative to our subject, and the inherent biases and errors associated with questionnaires and interviews These methods allow for the interpretation

of observed and researched data, where critical theory is examined and assumptions about its use in practice are broken down Then, the relations and use in our subject is suitable for predictions and analysis In this report, the interpretive use of Social Media Marketing theories for research has been used We also have used some Positivistic research methods when dealing with statistics Indeed, some quantitative customer facts and figures have been used to analyze and strengthen the results and use of Social Media Marketing techniques

The research methods used in this study were case study, observation and survey research The researcher used a case study of BIDV but the subject of the survey maybe not the customers who have been used products or services of BIDV These help providing data for this research and help the author assess the role of the social media marketing in BIDV, the level of approaching customers

2.1.2 The datas:

The datas are collected by the following:

● Secondary data

The secondary datas were focused on the relevant literature and updated information from academics on the topic of social media: online academic journals, textbooks, blogs and websites of marketing, BIDV reports, competitors‟ reports and reliable outsource reports

● Primary data

Primary datas are collected through two ways:

a Data collection through focus - group interviews (qualitative interviews):

a.1 Select one from the target group and conduct in-depth interviews and

discussion Focus - Group interview was conducted by gathering a group of 10 people People are concentrated in groups with the same demographic characteristics and socio-economic conditions, avoiding instances of interaction and conflict among group members when discussing Focus – interviews include experts, managers of marketing and other department and staffs Discussion time can last about 1.5 hours and audio / video recorders are used to record the content of the interview

Primary data

Interview focus-group

Observe and investigate

Direct interview

Secondary data

Report, figures from BIDV

Information from outside

Table 2: The participants of the discussion

1 Ms Lê Vũ Diễm Hằng Former Director of BIDV Social

Media Contact Center (SMCC)

And other employees in Branding and Relation Public Department of BIDV

The discussion questions are proposed to be:

1 What do you think about social media marketing in Vietnam at present?

2 How about the social media marketing in banking sector in Vietnam?

3 How has BIDV been using this effective tool?

4 Social media marketing is really effective in BIDV, isn‟t it?

5 BIDV has any reports to evaluate the effectiveness of social media marketing tool or not?

a.2 Besides, the author will interview the managers of HR, Customer Services,

Customer Relation Department in BIDV (especially in BIDV Transaction Center 1)to have more information about the role of social media marketing in other aspects of financial business

b Data collection through observation and investigation (Quantitative approach)

The research based on netnography.Netnography is research technique adapting ethnography to study online communities in an immersive unobtrusive manner (Kozinets, 2010) It offers an insight in an objective and flexible manner, observing consumers and their interaction with brands in their natural environment (Brodie, Ilic, Juric and Hellebeek, 2011) This approach was chosen as it provides with understanding of something particular and specific (Koziners, 2010), in this case social media

In addition, the research sought to understand social reality in its own setting with

no interference, this naturalism being one of the traditions of quantitative research and it offers authenticity and realism to the research (Bryman and Bell, 2008) This observation

of the social media in terms of discovery

The advantage of using such an approach is that it provides In the lastest edition, Kozinets (2015, page 9) has redefined Netnography as a “sequence of specific work related

to data collection and creation, analysis, inference and presentation A study in which a significant amount of data is agreegated, participatory research – observable, original and evidence-based, freely shared data on the Internet, including countless mobile application”

He said that Netnography reflects the interaction of people in online society and this society is not as vague as offline society Netnography‟s data is deep and broad, reflecting the consistency and connection of discrete parts from the story and so in the future it is not necessary to combine Netnography with other traditional methods

The author prepares the online research questionnaire for study‟s aim Online instruments designed solely for this study have been used to capture data from the selected sample The instrument has been developed using the Google form service A new Google account was created specifically for this project New forms were used for each case and data collected was used for analysis Protection of the identity of the respondents was maintained The created links were uploaded on the social sites and also sent to available contacts through messenger

Type of question is category question, ranking question, rating questing and open question Sampling method used is purposive sampling That method permits to select cases that will best enable to answer research questions and to meet objectives of the study

The research at hand used non – probability sampling because it allow the researcher to gather information quickly and in an inexpensive way

The sample size: deciding the size of the sample, among scholars is a flexible

matter, meaning the researcher can use any number depending on the cost and availability