Malaysia’s Hong Leong, the
country’s sixth-largest retail bank, has decided to tie its latest
marketing push to the 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence.
The bank has opted for a number of prizes and gifts as well as
discounted rates and fees on its products and services, writes
Titien Ahmad
In conjunction with the 50th
anniversary celebrations of Malaysia’s independence, Hong Leong
Bank (HLB) has launched a promotional campaign running across its
entire suite of products and services.
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Moey Tan, Hong Leong’s CEO of personal financial services, said:
“Rising from a small player to a full-fledged financial institution
[with] more than 1.7 million consumers, HLB has grown along with
the country. This campaign provided an appropriate vehicle for HLB
to reinforce ourselves as a progressive home-grown bank.”
The Merdeka campaign – merdeka means ‘independence’ in
Malay – is based largely around specially discounted rates for
several Hong Leong products, and is being complemented by an
aggressive ad campaign. One incentive offers 10 percent of a
housing loan at a low 1 percent interest rate for life.
The bank is also offering a 1.5 percent sales charge on retail
investment funds, a 6.99 percent per annum for life interest rate
on balance transfers to gold credit cards, and gifts such as DVD
players, phones and designer luggage for priority banking
customers.
There is over MYR1 million ($300,000) in prizes. Every time credit
card customers spend MYR50 or more they enter a free prize draw to
win items including a luxury car, 300,000 air miles from Malaysian
Airlines, MYR100,000 worth of personal insurance from Hong Leong,
and even a trip to watch a football game in the UK for two
people.
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By GlobalData“We decided to leverage [the] bank-wide platform by pulling
together all products and services across personal financial
services and reward our customers both new and current with a wide
range of unprecedented privileges and offers for taking either a
card, loan, investment or deposit with the launch of Hong Leong
Bank Merdeka campaign,” Tan continued.
The campaign has been marketed extensively through print and radio
advertising, direct mail, statement inserts, house-drop packs,
nationwide branch open houses and road-shows, public relation
activities and point-of-sale marketing material such as buntings,
flyers and leaflets at Hong Leong’s 186 branches.
“It is our way of saying thank you to our Malaysian consumers for
all the support they’ve given us through the years,” said
Tan.
Launched on 1 July, the campaign will run until 30 September. So
far, the 1 percent for life mortgage offer has been particularly
successful, according to Tan. Although this is only for 10 percent
of the loan amount, she said that the response from the market has
been “very positive”.
Prior to launching this new pricing offer, “our market intelligence
showed that consumers wanted to have the benefits of enjoying both
a fixed and floating rate at the same time”, said Tan.
“Consumers only had the option of choosing a completely fixed rate
home loan or one based on a floating structure. There was an unmet
need among the Malaysian consumers. With this offer, Hong Leong
Bank has opened up a new dimension of choice for the Malaysian
consumer,” she continued.
“As a result, HLB provides a full bouquet of housing loan choices
to meet their needs. All our consumers can choose from the
following HLB products for their individual mortgage requirements –
Combi Term Loan of 1 percent fixed for live, Conventional Term
Loan, MortgagePlus and Islamic Financing.”
Maybank’s competing merdeka celebration
Hong Leong is not the only Malaysian bank to use the 50th
anniversary theme for a marketing campaign: Malaysia’s largest
bank, Maybank, has also launched several marketing campaigns with a
similar focus.
Until the end of September, Maybank is offering a range of special
packages and rewards programme for customers who purchase mortgage
financing, car financing, credit cards, savings and investments as
well as insurance or takaful products. Contests include
the Deposit & Drive campaign, the latest Maybank Merdeka
contest and the Maybankard Shopping Mania initiative.
Prizes worth over a total of MYR1.2 million include a Honda CRV 4WD
offroad vehicle, MYR100,000 cash, electrical and electronic
appliances, and travel as well as shopping vouchers. The bank is
also extending its loyalty programme, TreatPoints, to those who pay
from their savings or current accounts; previously, TreatPoints
were available only to credit card customers.
The group has joined up with a local non-governmental organisation,
the Malaysia Children Hope Foundation, to raise funds in a
programme called Our Vision for the Nation. The initiative looks
“to share the vision of local children”, according to Maybank ,
through a photo montage in the form of a Malaysian flag that will
be raised on 31 August 2007 – Malaysia’s independence
day.
