Reflections

Lee Yue Yang (S10046128J)

In this project, we had to create an Islamic banking product and then market it. I feel that this project was a challenge because firstly, we did not have much knowledge about Islamic banking and the laws involved and secondly, we did not have much marketing knowledge too. Therefore, we had to overcome these two challenges and in the process, learn more about both Islamic banking as well as marketing.

Our group decided to create an Islamic credit card as we noticed that there wasn’t such a product in the Singapore market as of yet. However, we first had to understand how credit cards contradicted the Islamic law of Shariah. This required much reading and research. After we have gained a brief understanding of Shariah, we had to tailor our credit card in such a way that we complied with the Shariah.

In this project, I had to read up on the Shariah as did everyone else in the team. This was to ensure that everyone was on the right track and could contribute effectively during discussions. One of our marketing strategies was to conduct a road show. I was tasked to conduct research on holding the event, creating a floor plan for the road show as well as investigate the costs involved. Another one of my main role was to create an idea for our skit, which we used as a demonstration of our TV commercial.

Although everyone was given their own tasks to do, everyone in the team helped each other out when there were difficulties which could not be solved. For example, when I was investigating the costs involved in running the road show, I had some problems finding the price of hiring entertainers. However, my teammates were able to assist and helped me to overcome this problem.

I feel that this project was beneficial on two fronts. Firstly, it helped me to understand more about Islamic banking. This is important as Islamic banking is a fast growing segment and is highly lucrative. Secondly, I learned more about marketing of financial products as well as marketing in general. One big problem that our team had was the production of collaterals. We did not have much sources to produce professional standard collaterals and had to rely mainly on standard A4 printing paper to produce our collateral. Perhaps the project should place less emphasis on physical collateral and instead allow us to use computers to design our advertising materials.

Lee Yicheng Gary (S10037917G)

My role and assigned responsibilities for this group project was to create features of a credit card that able to attract the customers. The features of the credit card should stand out from other normal credit cards. By offering complimentary insurance coverage and critical illness in a credit card provides protection to the credit card holder. Another outstanding feature of the credit card was the credit shield. This helps to provide a buffer if the credit card holder got retrenched or passes away suddenly, the shield will allow a certain time frame to make payment by other family members should there be a loss of income.

Another role and responsibilities was to find companies to collaborate. Instead of finding local brand names like NTUC or Singapore Airlines, we go for international airline such as Emirates Airlines as the credit card is use globally and the target audience is from the working class. We also look for Sheng Siong Supermarket as it is the only supermarket that is been featured in the television programme.

I was assigned to create a Facebook fanpage to create awareness of the credit card as there are a lot of Facebook users. We also know that Internet is a medium that able to spread the news all over the world within a short period of time.

The learning points for this project allow us to know how to work within a budget. If the figure is high, we also need to find alternatives and to cut cost to meet the budget. We also find that to find rental figure for prime areas such as Orchard was very difficult to find in the Internet as we believe that organizers want to keep the price confidential to fight off any competition.

As for the entertainers and Singapore Idols gracing for the event, we are not sure about the price of hiring them to provide entertainment to the public as no figure was given and we also believe that there are many agencies that have their own people to entertain, hence the price remain confidential to people like us who wanted to know the rates of hiring an entertainer.

We also need to know how to market the product in such a way it will attract potential customers. We need to plan how to attract customers for the credit card in television advertisement and to capture readers in newspapers advertisement.

I believe that this project give us a real insight as how marketing product works. It is not easy as marketing involves budgeting, target audience, survey from the public, and what are the responses whether consumers or customers like the product through advertisement in newspaper, television and in Internet.

Yong Pei Wei (S10046059F)

In this project, I was given the task to design the product as well as the showcase material such as the brochure and application form. Besides that, I was also tasked to prepare the PowerPoint slides for the presentation. In order to prepare for the PowerPoint slides, I have to consolidate all the work done by the group members; therefore I have to ensure that the work are submitted to me by the targeted deadline so as not to hinder the group’s progress.

Besides that, I have to ensure that the work submitted is up to expectation. I will scan through the work and ensure that the works are done according to what the group has agreed on during the discussion. In the case if the works are not up to the expectation, I will inform the specific member and get him to redo before submitting to me again. Therefore, I have somehow become the “bad” guy in the group who keep pushing the group members to complete their work before the deadline and rejecting their work due to the sub-standard quality.

By doing this project, I have learnt more about Islamic Banking and how it functions such as the rules and regulations governing Islamic Banking. Besides that, I have also learnt how to market financial product. To market a new product is never easy. There are a lot of factors that need to be taken into consideration such as the target audience, how to go about marketing it, how to work within the given budget and lastly, to be flexible with the changes such as the budget.

Besides that, I learnt that communication skills and teamwork are essential. As everyone has own their point of view, we must therefore listen to one another so as to minimize the chances of conflicts and disputes from arising. I wouldn’t say there are not conflicts during the course of this project, but we manage to solve them by listening to each other’s reasoning and decide what is good for the group. Teamwork is another factor that contributed to whether the end product will be good or bad. Throughout the project, we try to help each other as much as we can.

Overall, I think that this project is interesting and it enables us to think out-of-the-box to come up with creative ideas to market the product.

Lee Qi Xian (S10046567F)

MFS is a very useful module which allows me to have insight knowledge on how banks market their products and what types of product are there in the market. The most unforgettable concept I learned so far is to turn intangible asset into tangible by incorporate 5 senses. Market financial products are hard because it is intangible. For example, in order to sell an insurance policy, you must have something unique to convince people because a policy is intangible and people can’t actually feel it.

Secondly, the group project has allowed me to know more about the Islamic banking. Islamic banking is a sector that to be watched out in the future. It is one of the fastest growing financial sectors and it did not really be affected by the recent crisis. I learned a lot of principles in Islamic banking. Most importantly, I really learned how to come out a competitive product based on the Islamic principle and to market it. Our group came out a lot of creative ideas to convince people to sign up for our product. Able to convince people is a very important element in financial services.

So far, I’m glad with the progress so far and I hope I still can learn more.

Leong Zhi Wei (S10048514B)

I was assigned to work on the benefits and privileges for the card in this project. To complete the task, I first looked up what other banks were offering as understanding the market is important to making a competitive product. The banks collaborate with many retails firms to give exclusive deals, privileges and offers when spending with their cards. As our card is mainly targeted at the Muslim community, we decided to include retail outlets which the Muslim community favours as our major collaboration partners. This is so as to provide them with more benefits and greater incentive to apply for and use the card. In the end, we chose emirates airline, Best Denki, Sheng Siong Supermarket and Shell petrol as our major collaboration partners as they prove as market leaders in their fields and are relevant to our target group of the Muslim community.

Before commencing on this project, I have already heard of this term “Islamic banking”. However, I did not really understand what it was about until requirements for this project lead me to discover and learn more about it. It is interesting to find out that Muslims actually have a law whereby certain banking activities; i.e. paying/charging of interest is disallowed. Therefore, to keep in line with the Islamic law, financial products have to be structured and designed to meet their needs. I am glad that this project has let me learn more about Islamic banking as it is a growing market and more banks are starting to take note of and target this portion. Other than Islamic banking, I’ve also learnt more about marketing of products on a hands-on basis. From thinking of the product, ways to market, designing of advertisement to allocation of budget and much more, we went through all these ourselves and realized the amount of efforts needed to market a product. The toughest part of all was not to think of the ideas but to put the ideas into action, we spent much effort designing our advertising material and creating samples as much details were required.

The process was an enriching one; it encouraged us to think of creative ways to market a product. As marketing is very much ‘alive’, learning through hands-on experience is more effective compared to reading through textbooks and going through test. This project has given us such a chance to experience marketing a product and understand the requirements for a successful marketing campaign. After completing this project, I am able to better appreciate marketing as a powerful tool for products to reach the mass public.