Bank of America case abstract
I. Problem Statement: implement an appropriate mobile Strategy to create an added value to the customer to increase loyalty and brand awareness and at the same time generating profit for BoA.

II. SWOT Analysis:
* Strengths: BoA is the largest U.S. bank holding company. More than 100 years of experience. Recognized brand with a reputation as one of the nation’s strongest and best managed banks. BoA’s market covered 82% of the U.S. population. Leadership position in 23 top metropolitan areas. 6,000 banking centers & 18,000 ATMs. #1 position in online and mobile banking with 35% share of the market.
* Weaknesses: Conservative culture of a large national bank.

* Opportunities: Increasing mobile banking market that could potentially lead to a higher income and increased customer retention (Expected to grow to 37 million consumers by 2014). Expanding mobile payment services market. Mobile banking projected to be one of the least costly banking channels.
* Threats: Competitors implementing the same mobile strategies or developing even better apps. Users considering limited value of mobile banking, security concerns and cost of data access. Slow adoption of the new technology. Rapid evolving technology which demands BoA to be adapting to it.

III. Alternatives: A. Mobile Messaging B. Mobile Internet C. Apps D. Mix of SMS, Internet and Apps.

IV. Alternatives Evaluation:

A. Mobile messaging (SMS): Advantages: help customers to check account balances or setup textmessage alerts regarding account activity, deposits or transfers. Works across all wireless operators and required no software installation. 85% of users have regular phones. Disadvantages: text based and limited to 140-160 characters per message. Increase cost since mobile operators for each SMS have to be paid.

B. Mobile Internet: Advantages: provides and effective connection of mobile users to a bank’s online website. Easiest option since the bank already has a well established online presence. Disadvantages: users need a data plan through their mobile provider to access the service. Slow browser speed on many phones. Small phone screens that made it less appealing to users. Only 15% of users have smartphones.

C. Increase functionality of currents apps & build new ones: Advantages: potential to engage with users. Allow the users to locate bank branches and ATMs through GPS. Increase use of smartphones. Reduce costs by reducing the number of calls to call centers. Disadvantages: by adding complexity to current apps could slow down the app and negatively affect the user experience. Expensive to develop due to many combinations of devices, operating systems and networks. Only 15% of users have smartphones.

D. Mix of SMS, Internet & Apps: Advantages: cover all the market segments (smartphones + regular phones) fulfilling all the market needs. Increase brand awareness. Increase customer retention and satisfaction. Richer customer experience. Potential engage with customers. Disadvantages: expensive to implement and itmight take longer to do it.

V. Recommendation: I would recommend option D. Although it is an expensive alternative, BoA will make sure to cover all the current market segments by choosing a mix of SMS, Internet and Apps. Since the smartphones just started to emerge and most customers have regular phones (85%), the company needs to fulfill all its customers’ needs and not just the needs of one of its segments. In the long run this will increase the customer retention and satisfaction. Also it is expected that more customers will start using smartphones but in the meanwhile BoA should consider all of its customers.

VI. Implementation: BoA should start implementing this strategy step by step, by first enhancing the current apps that they have for smartphones to avoid been seen by the market as a non-innovative company. At the same time they should have ready the Mobile Internet available for all customers taking the advantage that they already have good online website presence. At the end they need to develop the option of having SMS available for all customers, which with time it will be less used since a transition to smartphones is expected. All this should be done within 1 month. A good way to measure its success will be with click through rates, amount of SMSs sent, quantity of visitors to the website through phones, quantity of apps downloads, amount of transaction made through a Smartphone or a regular phone.

Lilia Chavez
ID# 811079
Dr. Linda Swayne.
Marketing Management
MBAD 6171-00M
Fall Semester 2011
Case # 2