NHH, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration

MBM421
Managing Corporate Reputation
“GE Money Bank Case”
Term Paper
Table des matières
1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
1.1 GE Money Bank USA............................................................................................................1
2. Identification and Prioritization of the Stakeholders.......................................................................2
2.1 GE Money Bank’s stakeholders in the US..............................................................................2
2.2 The three most important stakeholder groups.........................................................................3
a. The Customers........................................................................................................................3
b. The Retailers...........................................................................................................................4
c. The Employees.......................................................................................................................4
3. Stakeholders’ needs and perceptions..............................................................................................5
3.1 The Customers........................................................................................................................5
a. The Needs...............................................................................................................................5
b. The Perceptions......................................................................................................................6
3.2 The Retailers...........................................................................................................................7
a. The Needs...............................................................................................................................7
b. The Perceptions......................................................................................................................7
3.3 The Employees.......................................................................................................................8
a. The Needs...............................................................................................................................8
b. The Perceptions......................................................................................................................9
4. Strategic positioning and associative network..............................................................................10
5. Corporate communication campaign............................................................................................12
6. Bibliography.................................................................................................................................16
6.1 Books....................................................................................................................................16
6.2 Articles.................................................................................................................................16
6.3 Websites...............................................................................................................................16
7. Appendixes...................................................................................................................................17
7.1 Appendix 1: List of GE Money Bank’s stakeholders............................................................17
7.2 Appendix 2: Maslow’s pyramid of needs.............................................................................18
7.3 Appendix 3: Associative network and brand positioning......................................................19
 1. Introduction

Although before the 60s most authors tended to agree with the view defended by Milton
Friedman in his article The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Profits (1970)
saying that the sole purpose of a company was to increase the return on investment for its
shareholders, it seems that nowadays attitudes have somewhat changed. According to Charles
Handy1 for example, the sole purpose of a company should be to achieve sustainability in
order to be able to maintain its contracts with all its stakeholders (and not only its
shareholders).

The main question that arises from such a new approach is the following: “Who is a
stakeholder?”

In the first part of this report, we will try to answer this question in the specific case of GE
Money Bank USA and then select what we believe are the three most important stakeholder
groups for this company. Then, we will investigate the needs and perceptions of these three
groups and use this information to build a strategic positioning that is relevant for all three of
them. Finally, in the last part, we will develop a plan for a corporate communication
campaign intended to improve GE Money Bank’s reputation in one of our groups.

1.1 GE Money Bank USA2

Founded more than 75 years ago, in the United States, during the Great Depression, GE
Money Bank USA is a company that provides a broad range of financial services going from
private loans and installment lending to private label credit cards to a variety of customers
including individual consumers, businesses and merchants. The company is part of GE
Capital, one of the five main branches of General Electric (GE Infrastructure Technology, GE
Energy Infrastructure, GE Consumer and Industrial, NBC universal, and GE Capital) and is a
branch of GE Money Bank that is nowadays present in more than 55 countries around the
world. In total, more than 130 million customers rely on the company for everyday financial
solutions. In the following report we will refer to GE Money Bank USA by the acronym
GEMB.

1
HANDY, C., 1993. What Is a Company For?, Corporate Governance: An International Review, 1(1), pp. 14-17.
2
http://www.gemoney.com

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 2. Identification and Prioritization of the Stakeholders
2.1 GE Money Bank’s stakeholders in the US

According to R. E. Freeman, a stakeholder could be defined as “Any group or individual who

can affect or is affected by the achievement of the firm’s objectives3”.

Using this definition as a starting point, we have discovered that a large number of
stakeholders could be identified for a company such as GEMB (see Appendix 1: List of
GEMB’s stakeholders).

According to what Dowling presented in his book Creating Corporate Reputations – Identity,
Image and Performance (2002), all these stakeholders can be divided into four major groups
namely normative, functional, diffuse, and customer groups.

Normative groups conduct and/or determine the company’s areas of operation. The
stakeholders we have identified in this case are the following:

- The government that can affect GEMB by imposing favorable or unfavorable

regulations.
- GE group that can affect the global strategy of the GEMB through GE Capital and can
be directly affected by GEMB’s reputation.
- The shareholders that can affect the company through their expectations for return on
investment and be affected by GEMB’s financial performance.
- The creditors that can affect the company through financial pressure and could be
affected by GEMB’s inability to repay its debts.
- The regulatory agencies (FDIC) that can affect the company’s activities by enforcing
standards within the industry and monitoring standards compliance.

Functional groups facilitate operations and serve the customers of company. These are:

3
FREEMAN, R. E., 1984. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. New York: Pitman.

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 - The employees that can affect GEMB through the labor they provide it with and can
be affected by the general working conditions the company offers them.
- The retailers (Wall-Mart, Ikea) that can affect the company through the intermediary
role they play between it and its customers and can be affected by the quality of the
service provided by GEMB.

Diffuse groups include journalists and special interest groups and are usually concerned
with the protection of other people’s rights. Amongst them can be found:

- The media that can affect the company through the good or bad publicity they make
for it.
- The labor unions that can affect the company through strikes, work stoppages, etc.
- The consumer unions that can affect the company though the creation of good or bad
reputation in the customer group.

Customer groups with different needs that the company intends to fulfill.

- The customers that can affect the company since they are in many ways the basis of
the firm’s profit and can be affected by the quality of the services offered by GEMB.

In addition to categorizing the different stakeholders of a company, Dowling also insists on

the fact that the needs, perceptions, and drivers of choice for each stakeholder groups vary.
Consequently, it is the company’s task to balance these when deciding on a strategic
positioning.

Moreover, in the case of GEMB, just like any other company, some stakeholders might be
more important than others. In this term paper we claim that the three most important
stakeholders for GEMB are the retailers, customers and employees.

2.2 The three most important stakeholder groups

a. The Customers

The first group we have identified as being important for GEMB are its customers.

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Indeed, Berman et al.’s empirical study in 1999, suggests that caring about customers has
direct effects on the company’s financial performance. As they are the basis for profits, taking
their needs and perceptions into account is likely to help a company improve its sales and
profits.

Not only are they the basis for profits but in addition they serve as a basis for the whole
business idea. Peter Drucker and his book The Practice of Management (1954) are still
relevant to understand the relationships between GEMB and its customers. He exposed that
the purpose of a business is to create and keep customers.

When looking at how reputation is built, customers play a crucial role. A Nielsen Company
survey of April 2009 shows that 90% of people have trust in recommendations from people
known and 70% in consumer opinions posted online. So building good relationships with its
customers would lead to positive word-of-mouth and enhance the company’s reputation.

b. The Retailers

As an intermediately group, the retailers help GEMB reach customers, and access new
markets. Moreover, GEMB can use the retailers as a communication channel towards the
public.

Financially, the retailers are a very important stakeholder group for GEMB because they
represent a direct link between the firm and the consumers who need credit financing. A bad
relationship between GEMB and the retailers could lead to a decreasing customer base and
less revenue for the private label credit card provider. In the US market there are a number of
specialized banks who offer consumer lending. Consequently, if the company does not
maintain a good relationship with its retailers the retailer can easily find another consumer
financing bank.

From a reputational point of view, the company can use the retailers as a powerful
communication tool. Dowling’s (2002 p. 34) theory on functional stakeholders shows that
there is a clear link of collaboration between the company and its functional stakeholder
groups. Hence, through the link that appears when GEMB engages with the retailers, the

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reputation of the retailers can affect the organization’s reputation. Firstly, you will have the
affect of GEMB being directly associated with the retailer. Hence, a retailer becomes a part of
GEMB’s communication which, in turn, will affect GEMB’s reputation and image. Moreover,
concerning the reputational importance of retailers, the choice of the retailers to which the
company decides to offer credit agreements determines what type of customers the company
wants to be associated with. For example, by engaging a partnership with Wal-Mart, GEMB
sends a signal about what type of consumers they want to offer lending.

c. The Employees

The last group we consider to be of prime importance when looking at GEMB different
stakeholders are its employees.

First of all, it is the employees that provide the human resources that “power the engines” of
the company. Without them, the business is unlikely to function even if there are some
shareholders out there ready to bring capital in the company and potential customers waiting
to buy its products or services. This first argument is supported by most authors including
Dowling that refers to employees as a functional group that “directly affects many of the day-
to-day activities of the organization (GEMB)4” and Grunig and Hunt that acknowledge that
functional groups “are essential to the function of the organization” because they “provide
labor and resources to create products and services (such as employees and suppliers)5”.

Secondly, it has been shown by Berman (1999) that the way a company manages its
relationship with its employees can have a significant impact on its financial performance.
Yet, as we know, the maximization of profit is one of the main objectives of any business in
the world.

Finally, the employees also play a major role regarding corporate reputation. As Thompson
(2005) said: “Internal people (including employees) make the brand, sell the brand, service
the brand and live the brand in the community6”. The danger of overlooking such a role is that

4
DOWLING, G., 2001. Creating Corporate Reputations: Identity, Image, and Performance. New York: Oxford University
Press.
5
RAWLINGS, B. L., 2005. Prioritizing Stakeholders for Public Relations. Institute for Public Relations, Brigham Young
University.
6
Meeting 13 on Internal Communication.

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employees unsatisfied with the way their company behaves in its business could start making
bad publicity for their employer.

From then on, because of these strong “functional”, “financial” and “reputational”
dependences of the company on its employees, it seems essential for it to pay careful attention
to these specific stakeholders and manage the relationship it has with them.

3. Stakeholders’ needs and perceptions

In this segment we define the stakeholder’s needs and positive perceptions as their drivers of
choice of GEMB, and their negative perceptions as their barriers of choice.

3.1 The Customers

a. The Needs

Considering GEMB as a bank providing loans to consumers, its customers’ needs are the
following:

High quality service and cheap loans

Customers usually want high quality product at a cheap price. As GEMB is offering
purchasing power, customers are demanding high quality services surrounding the loan.

Provide money on a short-time notice

Money that GEMB is providing should arrive fast into its customers’ bank account. Usually,
customers will accept the first offer made to them. For example, if you do not want to miss
sales on car, you will have to be sure to have the money on short-notice.

Transparency on the fees

One of the key issues for customers when talking about loans is transparency. A customer
needs to be well informed on monthly payments but also insurance against default, delay fees

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etc. These fees can be hidden in small lines at the end of the contract. But customers need
honesty from its loan provider.

Good handling of relations when a borrower cannot pay

The main risk when you borrow money is that you are not able to pay it back. Customers hope
that if they happen to be in this situation, their banker would care about their case, show
understanding, and give them an offer to restructure the deal. Usually, it is the moment when
banks make the more money on customers. But if they charge too much on their customers,
they would not be able to pay anything and will declare himself bankrupt, much similar to the
subprime lending.

b. The Perceptions

Reliable

GEMB is perceived by its customers as a solid loan provider. Indeed, GEMB benefits from
the good image and reputation of General Electric. It is one of the oldest companies in the
United States and the only one which was there at the foundation of NY Stock Exchange and
which is still there. Moreover, their expertise dates back more than 75 years ago when the GE
Credit Corporation was formed to finance the purchase of home appliances in the U.S. during
the Great Depression.

Worldwide presence

With a presence in 55 countries and 130 million customers, GEMB is perceived as an

international company. If a customer decides to go and live abroad, he will be sure to find the
same service in its host country. GE being an American company, this might evoke some
patriotic spirits among the American customers.

Subprime provider

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As all consumer loan providers, GEMB has been implicated in subprime mortgages. In April
2007, 87% of GEMB’s and WMC Mortgage’s (GEMoney bank’s subsidiary) mortgages were
subprime7. When the crisis sparkled they sold their subprime subsidiary, WMC Mortgage
after laying off 50% of the staff. By being implicated in subprime loans, GEMB is sometimes
seen as one of the causes of recent economic crisis by giving money to people who could not
afford it. This effect might have been increased by the diffuse stakeholder groups.

3.2 The Retailers

a. The Needs

Sales and profits

Retailers, and especially in times of economic and financial hardships such as the financial
crisis in the US, need to maintain/increase their sales/profits to be able to survive.

Consumer loyalty

A consumer credit card can improve customer loyalty, increase sales, and increase the
probability for repeated purchases. The ability to lock-in a customer base with a retailer’s
credit card can give customers an incentive to use a retailer as a primary source for those
products.

Consumer Satisfaction

One could also argue that by offering a consumer credit card, a retailer could increase
consumes satisfaction because it is giving the customer an opportunity to buy what they need
when they need it, even though the customer does not have the money at the time of the
purchase. According to Keller (1993) increased consumer satisfaction may lead to increased
consumer loyalty.

Solid collaborative partner

7
ICP & Fair Finance Watch 2006 Report

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Firstly, GEMB is a part of GE which is a big corporation. Hence, the consumer financing
comes from a solid provider which also have previous experience with banking and loan
activities. Having a reliable credit provider is important in any case of financing difficulties.

Increased visibility

GEMB offers a solution called Business Locator on their web-pages. It gives the customer an
opportunity to use GEMB’s homepage to as a search engine to find retailers within a certain
radius that offers GEMB credit cards. Thus, their collaboration with GEMB helps to increase
the visibility of the retailers, and make them more accessible for customers.

b. The Perceptions

Opportunity

There is reason to believe that the retailers view GEMB as an opportunity for them in many
senses. Firstly it can make them gain loyal customer. Secondly, it can help the company reach
new customers. Both of these could most probably lead to an opportunity to increase sales.

Solid Corporation

GEMB, being a branch of the GE enterprise, comes from a solid corporation with a sound
financial backing as shown by its $157bn revenues in 20098.

Subprime provider

As with the customers’ perceptions, the result of the history of GEMB as a subprime lender
might indicate that the bank is still perceived as such by its retailers. Consequently, the
retailers probably do not want to be associated with a subprime lender.

8
GE Financial Report 2009

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 Flexibility

GEMB argues that they tailor/structure their solution specifically to the needs of their clients
(source webpage).

3.3 The Employees

a. The Needs

In order to remedy a general lack of information, we have decided to call upon the Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs developed by Abraham Maslow in his paper A Theory of Human
Motivation (1993) in order to explore more in depth the potential needs of GEMB employees.
The main idea behind Maslow’s theory is that unsatisfied needs are the main source of
motivation for human beings (Appendix 2: Maslow’s pyramid of needs). According to
Maslow, there are five fundamental needs that drive human beings’ actions: the physiological
needs, the safety needs, the belonging needs, the esteem needs and the self-actualization
needs.

Physiological needs

As far as employees’ physiological needs are concerned, it is essential to understand that

nowadays, in our modern societies, everything has a price. From then on, the only way for an
individual to provide himself or his family with the sufficient financial resources to buy such
things as food, a place where to sleep or even medicines is to find a job.

Safety needs

Once the physiological needs are fulfilled, the next thing an employee will start to look for is
a job that will last over time. In other words, employment safety becomes a critical issue for
the employee. In addition the employee will also have to feel safe within his workplace. The
company should provide him with working conditions that respect his health and prevent him
from getting injured or ill in the workplace.

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 Belonging needs

Maslow then states that the next thing people start to look for is to overcome the feeling of
alienation and loneliness. In the specific case of employees, this is translated in the fact that
the majority of them need to feel they belong to the company they work in. They will
therefore look for companies that put the emphasis on collaboration, share of information…

Esteem needs

Moreover, for most people, working should also enable them to get recognition for what they
do for the company and respect as well.

Self-actualization needs

Finally, once an employee has managed to meet all the needs we have mentioned above, he
can eventually start to feel productive and useful, and finds meaning in his work. Given the
amount of time people spend working, the employee self-concept and identity is very much
linked to the work they do.

b. The Perceptions

As far as employees’ perceptions of GEMB are concerned, we have decided to use job
reviews widely available on the internet to investigate them9.

Benefits, Stock options and Incentives vs Low average pay

GEMB is seen by its employees as a company that offers excellent Benefits, Stock options
and Incentives. However, it also appears out of our analysis that because working for GE is
considered as some sort of privilege in the United States, the salary is perceived as lower on
average than in other companies.

9
www.glassdoor.com

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 The Back-up of a big company vs A Huge and Industrial company

GE is also perceived as benefiting of the back-up of a solid group that has been present in the
American landscape for many years, namely General Electric. However, because of the size
of the company, some of the employees feel as if they were just numbers.

Opportunities to Learn and Grow, Competent Teams and People and Flexible Schedules

Concerning the other positive perceptions, the employees tend to agree to say that GEMB
offers good opportunities to learn and grow within the company, that the people and teams
working for GEMB are real experts in finance and that it is possible to achieve a good work
life balance through flexible schedules.

Poor Human Resources, Bureaucracy and Advancement

On the negative side, GEMB employees claim that the company is somewhat too
bureaucratic, that the HR is more focused on cost reduction than helping internal people and
finally that it is relatively difficult to achieve advancement within the company.

4. Strategic positioning and associative network

In this part we have to define a strategic positioning for our three most important stakeholder
groups. Concretely, we have to build the intended image we want these three groups to share
about GEMB, based on their common needs and drivers of choice.

In this purpose we will use the associative network model. It will be composed of core
associations that we define as the associations which are most central in building a consistent
brand positioning. Our core associations are split between primary associations, which are the
most important drivers for choice for our three groups, and secondary associations, which are
how GEMB exploits these drivers distinctively compared to other banks.

To build our network model, we started from the needs and perceptions we identified in the
previous part. We searched for common or close statements that could be chosen as primary

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associations. Indeed we think that it would be easier to start from key driver for choices in the
banking sector. As a result, we have decided to base the strategic positioning of GEMB in the
US on the three following primary associations; Solidity, Expertise, and Respect. In essence,
we want the different stakeholders to think about these associations first when they think
about GEMB.

Solidity: It is an important driver for choice for our three stakeholder groups because it is
critical if they want to engage in a long term relationship with a bank.

Expertise: Another important driver for choice, because all our relevant stakeholders want to
deal with the bank with the best knowledge and experience.

Respect: Last but not least, we think that respect is a driver for choice, because the three
stakeholders need to believe that a bank care about them and are not only trying to fool them.
In the current context, this perception has been damaged, but we would like to reinstitute it as
a primary association.

Moreover, using the CBBE model created by Keller (2009), we think that these three primary
associations are mainly points of parity (POPs), because they are common for the whole
banking sector and are therefore necessary conditions of choice. The problem is that they are
not necessarily sufficient as the stakeholders need points of differentiation (PODs) to help
them choosing between the different banks.

Therefore, we selected secondary associations, so that they show how GEMB US is exploiting
these primary associations differently from its competitors. In other words, they act as
differentiation factors for GEMB US and represent the way we want consumers to link
GEMB to the primary associations within our strategic positioning. In order to explain our
choice of secondary associations, we have put in some stakeholder specific associations to
explicit the links.

Concerning solidity, GEMB already differentiates itself thanks to its history (the fact that it
was an early player in the Great Depression), its worldwide presence and mostly its belonging
to the GE group (cf. perceptions of the three groups). We also would like to make it viewed as

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a reliable company. This last association needs to be explained, as all the stakeholders need to
rely on GEMB but on very specific ways: indeed retailers need a sound, continuous and zero
default financial service to build long-term relationships, while employees are looking for
secure jobs that will ensure them to keep a sustainable living standard and that customers need
transparency in the contracts they sign to avoid surprise when the time comes to reimburse.
These secondary aspects that differentiate GEMB from its competitors make the solidity
aspect very believable.

The expertise aspect is also supported by GEMB’s worldwide presence, its image of early
player, the fact that it creates specific opportunities for each stakeholder groups and that it has
the reputation to be flexible (that is to adapt to change in each stakeholder needs). Then, we
would like to build another secondary related association: a people-oriented aspect, meaning
that GEMB offers good service to customers, a supportive management to employees and
win-win partnerships to its partners. Unfortunately, this is an aspect GEMB would have to
work on as the related perceptions of employees and customers are quite negative.

At last, GEMB should express respect to its stakeholders through different ways. It could
count on its very high flexibility to adapt to change in needs. Then it should improve its
reliability, be more people-focused and adopt a socially responsible profile, so that it could
have a special positioning compared to other firms. And because respect as a primary
association has been massively questioned during the crisis, we think we can make it a point
of difference. By focusing on the related secondary associations we want to make it GEMB’s
major differentiation factor of choice for GEMB.

5. Corporate communication campaign

We have chosen to develop a plan addressing customers because, as we have said before, they
serve as the basis for the whole business activity, play a major role in the profit of the firm
and can have a strong impact on the firm’s global reputation. Moreover, we believe that it is
all the more important to communicate to them now as the crisis has severely damaged the
image they have of the banking system in the USA and particularly of the banks that used
subprimes. GEMB has been particularly facing this issue in the USA as it was accused to be
the cause of the crisis.

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Therefore we propose a campaign whose purpose is to promote GEMB’s “respect” towards
customers. The intended image we want to build is composed of respect as primary
association and of all the secondary associations linked to it (reliability, flexibility, people-
oriented and socially responsible). In the current context, this core association has indeed been
damaged and customers have to be reassured about this aspect. We could only restore this
aspect as a point of parity association, which is a necessary condition for bank choice but not
a necessarily sufficient one. However we want to go further and make respect a point of
differentiation compared to other banks. Indeed, because the crisis put more emphasis on this
aspect, it is now an important criterion of choice for customers and we think that it would be
all the more profitable to make respect one of GEMB’s points of differentiation. We believe it
is possible if we can differentiate enough from what the competitors propose, given the fact
that nearly all the banking system has seen its reputation falling and that a lot of banks didn’t
succeed to modify this image yet. Therefore the timing is critical as GEMB has to be the first
mover in restoring respect as a primary association.

In this purpose, we will implement a 360° plan. Our first measure will be to work on primary
communication, which is defined as the communication effects of products and corporate
behavior (Balmer and Gray, 1999). As stressed by Dowling (2001), if you want to improve
the intended image of a company, you first have to implement changes inside the company:
“The time to change the corporate identity is after there have been significant changes in the
company’s operations or market offerings10”. Therefore, GEMB should improve the products
and structure in its own organization before communicating directly on them. First, we
propose to improve further the flexibility aspect by giving customers an opportunity to
restructure their loans in case of payment difficulties. Then, we want to improve the reliability
of GEMB products by checking that loan contracts are not misleading and by selecting safer
customers to avoid payment default. At last we think it would be important to improve the
quality of GEMB customer service by making employees follow skill seminars with
highlights on how to answer customer needs better or by improving the after sale service (e.g.
giving customers a personal follow-up...). Through customers direct experience of new
financial products and services, we believe that these measures will reinforce the second
associations (flexibility, reliability and people-focus) linked to the respect that is due to
GEMB’s customers.
10
DOWLING, G., 2001. Creating Corporate Reputations: Identity, Image, and Performance. New York: Oxford University
Press.

15
The secondary communication, which is GEMB’s controlled form of communication
(Balmer and Gray, 1999), will be addressed through several communication channels. To
meet our goal, we advise to use corporate image advertising. Indeed, Dowling (2001) claims
that it is relevant in activity where the customers buy the company as well as the product,
which is the case with the banking sector.

 We have chosen to begin our campaign on Internet, because in the case of GEMB it is
the most relevant communication channel. Indeed as a considerable part of the loans are
contracted on internet, it is easier to attract customer directly there.

First, we propose to communicate on other internet sites (as online shops) with purchase of
banners. We will use them to promote a “shock” message: first we will communicate on a
new loan accessible to anyone without conditions, but in reality it would be a “fake” ad which
goal will be to arouse customer’s interest before GEMB delivers its true message, which is
that it refuses such methods because it is not respectful towards customers. For instance, when
customers click on the window, they will be redirected to GEMB website on a page saying
“Did you really believe that we would lend money without any guaranties? In GEMB, our
policy is to make sure that you will have a loan which corresponds to your financial situation
and doesn’t put you in financial difficulties. Respect of our customers is our primary
concern.”

Emailing this “fake” promotion to customers with a precise profile (by renting a database on
people interested in loans…) will also create traffic on GEMB site.

Another way to use internet, and more precisely GEMB website, is to communicate on a new
CSR policy. We think that socio-sponsorship is the more relevant kind of CSR in this case, as
we want to enhance corporate reputation (intangible benefits), rather than to increase the sales
(tangible benefits). As most literature documented it the higher the perceived congruence
between the cause and the firm activity, the more positive customer evaluations the
sponsorship generates. We propose that GEMB engages in the sponsoring of an association
that helps people in financial difficulties because of the crisis (for example, people who lost
their home because they couldn’t pay mortgages). This cause is highly congruent with GEMB
activity, and also with the particular issue of subprime. GEMB will then appear to “repair” its

16
faults. We think that social responsibility could be a secondary association nourishing the core
value of respect and more importantly make it a point of differentiation. Indeed this kind of
policy would be credible as it is congruent with GEMB activity and unique so that it makes
GEMB distinct from the other banks.

 Advertising on TV will be our second communication channel. It is also interesting as

it enables to touch a large customer audience.

We will use this channel in different ways. First, we will communicate on our “shock”
campaign by making a short ad claiming the new loan (for example with a sentence such as
“Would you like money without conditions? The answer is coming soon…”). This will
increase awareness and give more power to the real message afterwards. Indeed a second add
will be broadcast after a few days, claiming that GEMB refuses to use such practices which
mislead customers and are used by some disrespectful banks and reaffirming its commitment
towards customers respect.

Secondly, we would like to use TV to promote GEMB corporate social responsibility and
make it a point of differentiation. By communicating on GEMB engagement towards people
in very difficult financial situation, the value of respect will get a broader meaning and
differentiates itself from what the other banks could communicate. To prove efficient, the
message will have to appear non-commercially oriented, because as showed by Weeks and al
in 2008, it generates more positive attitudes. In the same logic, the fit articulation should stay
implicit so that the effect on attitude is higher (Skard, 2010).

At last, we think it would be interesting to use GE ads, with for example tags, to promote
GEMB activity. Indeed, GE has a more significant image and a larger customer basis than
GEMB, and therefore the impact will be significantly higher if GE stresses GEMB “respect”
towards customers in its ads.

 The partners, and more precisely the retailer’s shops, will be another “channel”.
Indeed we think that using them as intermediary will reinforce reliability as it highlights the
partnerships of GEMB with other retailers, meaning that retailers trust GEMB. Moreover if
customers trust their retailers, GEMB promotion done by them will have a bigger impact.

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Concretely, we could try to make partners participating in our communication by giving each
customer a leaflet promoting GEMB’s products (credit card and loan service) - highlighting
the flexibility of these products, the high quality of financial services and the reliability of the
whole process - and assuring GEMB’s respect towards customers. We also believe that
associating credit card business and loan service will be profitable for the loan activity
because the credit card business has a stronger image of reliability.

 The last channel we will use is employees through internal communication.

Employees might also be customers and can be an efficient source of word-of-mouth. As we
already explained, they will receive new instructions through seminars so that they understand
that customer respect is now a central part of GEMB activity. Moreover they will also be
exposed to the “shock” campaign through posters inside the company premises, computer
screen, etc. At last we will communicate on the new CSR policy through internal conferences
and events, to make employees aware of GEMB engagement. We hope that they will be proud
of GEMB’s action and be therefore more willing to promote it outside the organization.

We hope that this integrated communication plan will have an optimal total effect on GEMB
reputation among customers. Indeed we concentrate on one main choc message stressing
GEMB respect and we try to make it a point of differentiation with a focus on a congruent
CSR engagement. This powerful and unique message is broadcast through different
communication channels, all relevant for GEMB and maximizing the total impact on
customers. At last, the communication is supported by a concrete change in GEMB’s
practices, which will increase the credibility of the message.

18
 6. Bibliography
6.1 Books

DOWLING, G., 2001. Creating Corporate Reputations: Identity, Image, and Performance.
New York: Oxford University Press.

DRUCKER, P., 1954. The Practice of Management. New York: Harper & Row.

FREEMAN, R. E., 1984. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. New York: Pitman.

KELLER, K. L., 2008. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing
Brand Equity, New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
6.2 Articles

BALMER, J. R. T., GRAY E. R, 1999. Corporate Identity, Corporate Communications: Creating

A Competitive Advantage, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 4(4), pp.
171-176.

FRIEDMAN, M., 1970. The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits, The
New York Times Magazine, 13 Sept.

HANDY, C., 1993. What Is a Company For?, Corporate Governance: An International

Review, 1(1), pp. 14-17.

KELLER, K. L., 1993. Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing Customer Based Brand
Equity, Journal of Marketing, 57(1), pp. 1-22.

MASLOW, A. H., 1943. A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50, pp. 370-
396.

RAWLINGS, B. L., 2005. Prioritizing Stakeholders for Public Relations. Institute for Public
Relations, Brigham Young University.

WEEKS et al., 2008. Leveraging Sponsorships on the Internet: Activation, Congruence and
Articulation, Psychology and Marketing, 25(7). pp. 637-654.

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 6.3 Websites

FAIR FINANCE WATCH. Subprime Racial Disparities Grew Worse in 2006 at Citigroup,
HSBC, Chase, Wells Fargo & Other Banks. [Accessed 18 September 2010]

Available at: http://www.fairfinancewatch.org/2006hmda1.html

GENERAL ELECTRICS. Financial Report 2009. [Accessed 20 September 2010]

Available at: http://www.ge.com/investors/financial_reporting/index.html

GE MONEY UNITED STATES. GE Money United States. [Accessed 8 September 2010]

Available at: http://www.gemoney.com/en/index.html

GLASSDOOR. GE Money Reviews. [Accessed 14 September 2010]

Available at: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/GE-Money-Reviews-E15198.htm

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7. Appendixes
7.1 Appendix 1: List of GE Money Bank’s stakeholders

Customers

Media Retailers

Consumer
Unions Employees

GE
Money
Labor Bank Shareholders
Unions

GE Group Government

Creditors Regulatory
Agencies

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7.2 Appendix 2: Maslow’s pyramid of needs

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maslow's_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg)

22
 7.3 Appendix 3: Associative network and brand positioning

Learning Increased
Environment Revenues
Purchasing
Employement
Power Supportive
Safety Customer
Transparency Zero default Management
Service
service
Create Win-Win
Opportunities
Early Player Partnerships
Reliable
Flexible
People

Focus
GE Group Socially
Worldwide Responsible
Presence
SECONDARY
PRIMARY

SOLIDITY EXPERTISE RESPECT

Consumers

Retailers

Employees

Common
23