Lloyds Bank plc is one of the biggest commercial and retail bank in United Kingdom. Its branches are spread in Wales and England. The bank is known to be one from big four banks, others are, Barclays, HSBC, and bank of Scotland. Lloyds bank was founded in Birmingham in 1765. It took over several small banks in order to grow and to reduce the competition level. It is serving to businesses, households and Britain communities with determination and devotion. It offers broad range of services and products like current accounts, credit cards, mortgages, savings, and loans (Lloyds bank, 2019).
Porter five forces model helps the companies is identifying the opportunities and threats for further growth and expansion. It helps the company in determining the industrial competition level and detailed analysis so that companies can restructure its approaches and strategies. Lloyds Bank is working in competitive market in United Kingdom; hence Porter five forces model helps the bank in analysis. Here is the detailed Porter five forces analysis of Lloyds Bank;
Bargaining Power of Buyers
The high bargaining power of the buyers is not beneficial for any industry, as they directly impact on the prices set by the companies. Price sensitivity is the main factor for companies that depicts the profitability of the company. However, Lloyds’ consumers have low bargaining power, as there is high switching cost. In United Kingdom, many people do not want to switch the banks. High level of customer loyalty enables the bank to charge reasonable prices and maintain the quality of the services (Nanjekhe, 2018).
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
It is necessary for the Lloyds bank to handle the threat from suppliers’ bargaining power. The bargaining power of suppliers is high in the financial industry of United Kingdom. This is the threat for the financial institutions, as it affects the profitability level of the banks. Banks have to bear more costs as inputs to match the supplier’s needs. It is necessary for Lloyds to build good relationship with its suppliers, and also increase the supplier base. Lloyds bank should work more towards innovation, as high prices for different feature or services attract the consumers. This helps in paying high costs to suppliers (Udibrosh, 2014).
Threats of New Entrants
For Lloyds bank, threats from new entrants are low, because of the slow growth financial industry of United Kingdom. The decrease in the profitability level of banks, also discourages new entrants from entering in financial industry. There are four major banks; HSBC, Lloyds bank, bank of Scotland and Barclays. They are big giants and compete with each other on high level and strive hard to gain high market share. Thus, they do not leave any room for new entrants to compete in the market. Lloyds bank has great consumer loyalty and do not want to switch to other banks (Nanjekhe, 2018).
Threats from the Substitute Products
There are threats from the substitutes in every big and small industry as firms compete to satisfy the consumer needs. Lloyds Bank along with competitor banks face low threats of substitutes. The main reason for this is undifferentiated products and services. However, the banks that gives major threat to Lloyds are small, which bring some attractive features in their services. Regardless of this, Lloyds is able to make strong customer base and brand image in the financial industry. It works hard towards innovation which attracts consumers. Moreover, the switching cost is high, which does not allow consumers to easily switch to substitute (Udibrosh, 2014).
Rivalry of Existing Players
Even though the financial industry of British is consolidated, Lloyd bank faces intense competition from both indirect and direct competitors and financial providers. Direct competitors are banks like Barclays, HSBC, Bank of Scotland etc. Indirect competitors are financial providers like British supermarkets like Sainsbury, C-operative Bank, and also the Tesco bank. This indirect competition can also be extended to online payment methods like Paypal. It becomes necessary for the Lloyd bank to expand itself in international markets with efficient services to diversify the risks. There are high exit barriers, which means competitors cannot leave the industry easily (Esfandiari, 2014).
References
Esfandiari, A. 2014. Marketing Plan and Implementation of the Lloyds Bank Plc. [Online], Available at:https://www.academia.edu/35124798/Marketing_Plan_and_Implementation_of_the_Lloyds_Bank_Plc, [Accessed on: 23rd November, 2019].
Lloyds bank, 2019. About us. [Online], Available at: https://www.lloydsbank.com/banking-with-us/who-we-are.asp?WT.ac=NavBarBottom/Navigation/Aboutlloyds, [Accessed on: 23rd November, 2019].
Nanjekhe, P. 2018. LLOYDS BANK PORTERS FIVE FORCES AND BCG MATRIX ANALYSIS 2018. [Online], Available at: https://www.123writing.com/sample/lloyds-bank-porters-five-forces-and-bcg-matrix-analysis-2018, [Accessed on: 23rd November, 2019].
Udibrosh, 2014. Application of use of porter five forces. [Online], Available at: https://www.coursehero.com/file/p60b6kh/Application-of-use-Porters-Five-Forces-framework-in-Analysis-of-Lloyds-Banking/, [Accessed on: 23rd November, 2019].