"Bank Putting "I"in Front"

Industrial Bank of Korea kicks off ad campaign for its new marketing strategy

The Industrial Bank of Korea said its management strategy for this year has been set as "I Marketing"taking the letter "I"from the IBK, the bank's English name. The bank called it the marketing for I for all 48 million people in the country, signifying the bank's rebirth with the letter "I"on its front, said the bank in a release of its public relations material recently.
The bank said when looking at the current social cultural trends, blogs and home pages for individuals have increased and lately UCC contents, which are geared toward expressing "I"in onlines, changing online trends. The trends show that individualism is on the rise seeking individual satisfaction with many individuals playing MP3P, PMP and mobile games at public places for personal satisfaction. They also seek personal pleasure at famous coffee shops and go to fitness centers for physical exercises alone, showing that the number of people seeking personal satisfaction is rising lately, the bank said in explaining the background for drawing up its new slogan for its management strategy, "The Bank with "I"in front."The IBK kicked off its ad campaign to promote the new slogan for the first time in 24 years, signifying a new start for the bank.
The IBK is very proud of its achievement of creating 100 trillion won in total assets without mergers or outside help through its own effort. The bank concluded that the achievement was the result of its management putting the letter "I"in front or "me"showing that it has always given top priority to "I"over everything else to make sure that its customers can get the financial services from the IBK that gives priority to "I", myself."The bank thinks that "I"generation is expanding and the marketing to suit the trend has also been progressing rapidly. Society has been changing rapidly due to the importance on individual character and taste and the financial marketing which has been centered around financial services for customers is required to go a step further to provide financial services for "I."Strategic marketing based on that trend will be able to satisfy the I generation.
President Kang Kwon-seok of the Industrial Bank of Korea(IBK) said that IBK will not cut its loans for SMEs this year, despite the move by commercial banks to reduce loans, adding that banks should not always adjust their operations according to economic trends, but help create economic trends.
He said the bank will increase its loans by 10 trillion won this year to help out small and medium companies, stressing that the bank will be an umbrella when it rains.
The IBK chief said he is determined to make IBK to play a professional bank for SMEs by expanding the loan amount to the same level of increase made last year, although commercial banks have been trying to reduce their loans this year in line with the Bank of Korea's move to reduce total amounts of loans made by banks and raise the level of reserve deposits.
The IBK will provide 70 trillion won in loans to SMEs this year, 10 trillion won more than that last year, which will help the bank increase its market share of the SME loan market to 20 percent.
The IBK has introduced its new corporate identity mark for the first time in 24 years this year and the action came following its achievement of boosting its total assets to 100 trillion won with 1 trillion won in net profit last year.
CEO Kang said he should have left the landmark event to the next CEO, but he went ahead with it, thinking that the matter was too important and should have been carried out regardless who the CEO is. He said his tenure has only several months to go.
He explained that the bank was able to clear 1 trillion won in net profit last year easily because it had already a large loan provision even before the Financial Supervisory Commission strengthened the loan provision levels for banks last year.
The problem for IBK is its non-interest income takes up only 10 percent of total income and the bank, therefore, should diversify its income portfolio to expand non-interest income, which in turn, enable the IBK to put out more loans to SMEs.
He said the IBK should strive to become an integrated financial service bank by adding insurance and securities to its operations, which is the matter for its survival, not an optional strategy.
The IBK CEO stressed that the bank should be prepared to provide comprehensive services to top managers of SMEs, its core customers, in the face of the merger of the financial market in the country with the passage of the Integrated Financial Law. The IBK needs insurance and securities businesses to be able to survive from competition, which shows why the bank tried to take over LIG Insurance last year.
He said the bid price was unacceptable to the LIG in the way of explaining why the bid failed. But he said the bank will continue to try to add insurance and securities to its banking operation in the future.
The IBK plans to upgrade its rep office in Ho Chi Minh City to a business facility this year and set up two additional branches in China and put them under a regional head office to operate the banking service to local companies.
Of the 70 outlets to be set up this year, 30 of them will be facilities to service individual customers. nw

IBK President Kang Kwon-seok.