PRICE BUNDLING

abhishreshthaa

Abhijeet S
Price bundling is a selling arrangement where several different products are explicitly marketed together to a price that is dependent on the offer. As banks are multi-product firms this strategy is more applicable to retail banking. Price bundling offers several economic and strategic benefits to a bank. It offers economies of, utilization of the existing capacities and reaching wider population of customers. Bank can get the benefits of information and transacting. In the process of extending variety of services, banks are acquiring enormous amount of customer information.


If this information is systematically stored, banks can efficiently utilize this information in order to explore new segments and to cross-sell new services to these segments. Cross-selling opportunities and larger customer base can also be the motive for merger against usually stated advantage of cost savings. Price bundling can be used in order to lengthen the relationship with a customer.


It will reduce the need of resources to be put on acquiring new customers and saves time of the bank. Among the strategic benefits, price bundling may cause less aggressive competition; it differentiates its products compared to rivals in the same market where the products are sold individually or in other kinds of bundles.


Retail banking offers many services and it gives an opportunity to the bank to combine different services in different kinds of bundles. In many cases demand for one service affects the demand for another service, for example current or savings account and payment services are highly related, and here price bundling is a better alternative than individual selling. Banks have to analyze the customer segment and bundle products before applying the pricing strategies.


The first step in price bundling decision is to select the customer segment. The bundle is targeted to choose a strategic objective. If there are two products (A and B) that are considered to be bundled together, the comprehensive strategic objectives for the different customer segments are:


• Cross-selling to customers that only buy one of the products.

• Retaining customers that already buy both of the products.

• Acquiring new customers when they buy neither product for the time being.
 
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