A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration, School of Management

Research report (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2003

The Thai banking sector has become highly competitive due to the deregulation, technological changes, and entry of non-financial companies in the market with highly innovative product. Therefore building and managing strong brands can help the service firms to differentiate. Brand reputation is a largest single intangible asset for companies. What sets the market leader apart from the others is the promise of performance, and meeting the expectations of the consumer. This research study is done as a case study of service branding on the Siam Commercial bank (SCB) one of the fourth largest bank and widely recognized bank in Thailand. Today the banks and financial services are poorly differentiated. Only few customers were able to describe how one provider differed from another. Though SCB has a wide recognition that is not sufficient condition in today's highly competitive environment. SCB needs to develop a favorable brand image. For this research study Keller's framework of Customer Based Brand Equity Model is applied to analyze branding strategies of SCB. A brand audit is conducted to analyze the Brand Inventory and Brand Exploratory. Brand Identity of SCB involves the analysis of entire brand identity tools that SCB uses to convey its brand promise to its customers. Brand Exploratory is the analysis of the customer's perception towards the SCB Brand. The results from the analysis would help to identify the gap between SCB's Brand identity and the Brand image. Finally recommendations are made in order to enhance the SCB Brand strength.