Impacts of Promotional Tools on Bank’s Profitability and Brand Image: A Comparative Study between Islamic Banks and Conventional Banks

Benazir Rahman and Shirin Akhtar

Banking industry is one of the prime and highly competitive sectors of the economic as well as financial system of Bangladesh. Banks are competing with each other to create and retain their brand image and to ensure sustainable growth by increasing profitability. In Bangladesh commercial banks are using many marketing tools to capture the target market and retain customers for long time. This paper focuses on the marketing promotional tools and strategies used by banks to increase financial profitability and brand image and specifically shows the comparative study between the conventional and Islamic banks in Bangladesh in terms of using marketing promotional tools to create brand image, to retain goodwill in the financial market and to ensure financial profitability and growth. The study includes both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Two selected banks of each category has used for the study. This paper reveals that now-a-days conventional and Islamic both type of banks are engaged with promotional tools in a positive manner but may be their goals are a slight different. Conventional banks are more attentive to promote their services for creating brand awareness and image which affects their sales as well as financial return. The Islamic banks are very much conscious to increase their financial profit in comparison to brand image. But being a Muslim country, people are relying more on Islamic Banks in terms of various banking transactions from their religious perspective on the other hand, they are more attracted by the offers of the conventional bank. Such type of activities incurs huge costs on a regular basis which directly affect net profit (NPAT) and also regain revenue as impact of sales up growth. Outcomes of the paper may be used as an index by both type of banking categories for formulating their brand image and financial sustainability and growth through the promotional activities.