While many banks are closing branches, that is not necessarily the best strategy for banks attempting to stay close to their customers.
Transaction costs: Of course all banks want to reduce transactions costs, but how many look at their customer's cost/value trade-offs. A win-win may be online banking at Wells Fargo, or a tie-up with Quicken and Microsoft Money, assuming the customers in focus are computer-savvy and are happy with low touch. Transaction costs exist on both sides -- the bank and the customer. A bank's strategic plan should insure that the customer sees time-savings, lowered costs or improvements to his/her business.
Promotion: Promotion, advertising and other techniques should be the result of the above thinking. Once a bank decides on its chosen market and what services it wants to deliver, the decision on marketing strategies is much easier.
Conclusion
The preponderance of evidence indicates that banks which employ strategic planning are more profitable than those that don't. In addition, extraneous influences, increasing competition and lower barriers to entry have changed the banking world so much that, without a strategic plan, a bank risks being...
The option of maintaining the old, people-intensive, high-cost methods is no longer available.
Strategic planning is not the preserve of larger banks only. Smaller banks have fewer degrees of freedom, and less maneuvering room when mistakes are made. Smaller bank managers must therefore carefully consider their environment and their business constraints, and convey a clear concept of the bank's specialization to its employees and customers.
Bibliography
Hopkins, SA and Hopkins, WE. "Strategic Planning-Financial Performance Relationships in Banks: A Causal Examination." Strategic Management Journal (1997): 635-652.
Ibrahim, NA and Rue, LW. "The Relationship between Planning Sophistication and Performance in Small Businesses." The Journal of Small Business Management (1998): 24-33.
Scholtens, B. Competition, Growth, and Performance. Economic Performance Analysis. Groningen: University of Groningen, 2000.
This is clearly difficult to derive, but an excellent study on the G7 countries found robust proof that large and smaller banks do best. Source: (Scholtens)
Importance of Strategic Planning in the Bank's Performance
