Marketing Report of Bank Sohar in Oman

Marketing Report of Bank Sohar in Oman


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A brief review of economic condition of Oman

Oman is still heavily dependent on subterranean petroleum which is depleting at a very fast

pace. That time is not very far off when Oman would not have any petroleum to extract.

Keeping in view that eventuality, Government of Oman has put in place a diversification

process where tourism and natural gas based industries have been identified as key growth

drivers. Though there are none in Oman that can be called to be below poverty line, one of

the most remarkable facts is nearly 60% of labor force are expatriates. The other interesting

fact about Oman is agriculture contributes only as little as 1.5% of the GDP of the country

while industry and services provide the rest, with services contributing more than 50% of the

GDP (Central Intelligence Agency 2011). All these unique factors put an enormous onus on

services sector, especially banking sector, to provide the necessary thrust in maintaining and

improving the economic status of the country.

Bank Sohar – a recapitulation of its achievements

The bank has departmentalized its operations in such a manner that every client has a feeling

that they are special, and their queries and needs are attended to by Relationship Managers

who have proven expertise in dealing with such queries (My Oman Info.com 2011).

The bank recorded a 31% increase in operating profit in 2010 over 2009 and its interest

income during the same period increased by a phenomenal 34%. Sohar Bank could manage

to increase its loans and advances by 14% in 2010 over 2009. They have also started

increasing their footprint in private sector and, though rather insignificant at the moment,

have managed to get a toehold as their share in total private sector credit stood at nearly 9%.

Private sector is also gradually warming up to Bank Sohar in depositing their money with this


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bank as can be seen from the fact that the bank has been able to garner nearly 7% of private

sector deposit at the end of 2010 (Oman Daily Observer 2011).

An analysis of marketing strategy of Bank Sohar

GE Matrix

When analyzed through GE Matrix, Oman genuinely offered the right market for a new bank

like Bank Sohar. This bank was new and, irrespective of the governmental support it had, it

could not have been able to conduct commercially successful operations purely on the

strength of wholesale banking operations. It badly needed to win over the trust of retail

customers. This could not have been done overnight and would have been even more difficult

had it chosen to operate in country other than Oman. The management of the bank was well

aware of the cultural and social ethos and customs of the country and packaged their products

in such a manner that while retaining the economic attractiveness they never contravened the

prevailing ethos (Chapman, et al. 2008). So, in spite of being much smaller than international

reputed banks that were already operating in Oman, Bank Sohar could very quickly mark its

place in the banking industry in that country.

(12manage 2011)

PESTLE Analysis

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Marketing Report of Bank Sohar in Oman