In-Depth Marketing Strategy Of Royal Bank of Canada – With STP Analysis

Updated on: Aug 23, 2022
Marketing Strategy Of Royal Bank of Canada - Featured Image

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In a previous article, we learned about the Marketing Strategy of American Express Bank, a multinational corporation and a leading payment card service provider. In this blog, we are going to elaborate on the marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada  – the largest bank in Canada and a multinational financial services company.

The goal is to learn and delve deeper into the Royal Bank of Canada and understand how the Royal Bank of Canada went on to become the largest Canadian bank by virtue of market capitalization and revenues.

As you can see, the world is now completely online, and marketing is the backbone of every industry. If you want to gain knowledge more about marketing, attend our Free Masterclass on Digital Marketing led by IIDE’s CEO and founder, Karan Shah.

By the end of this blog, we will have learned about the marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada. Let’s start with the company’s story, target audience, and digital presence before delving deeper.

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About Royal Bank of Canada – Company Overview

Marketing Strategy of Royal Bank of Canada - RBC

The Royal Bank of Canada is a Canadian multinational financial services corporation and the country’s largest bank by market capitalization. The bank has over 16 million customers and over 86,000 employees worldwide. 

It was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1864, and now has corporate headquarters in Toronto and its head office in Montreal. 

The Royal Bank of Canada’s institution code is 003. Royal Bank of Canada was added to the Financial Stability Board’s list of global systemically important banks in November 2017.

Personal and commercial banking operations in Canada are branded as Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank in English and Royal Bank of Canada Banque Royale in French, and the bank serves approximately ten million clients through a network of 1,209 branches.

Royal Bank of Canada Bank is a US banking subsidiary that previously operated 439 branches across six states in the Southeastern United States, but now only provides cross-border banking services to Canadian visitors and ex-pats. City National Bank, Royal Bank of Canada’s other US subsidiary, has 79 branches in 11 states.

Royal Bank of Canada also has 127 branches in seventeen Caribbean countries, serving over 16 million customers. Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets is Royal Bank of Canada’s global investment and corporate banking subsidiary, while Royal Bank of Canada Dominion Securities is the investment brokerage firm. There are also investment banking services available.

 

Quick Stats on Royal Bank of Canada
CEO David I. McKay
CMO Alan Depencier
Area Served the USA
Industry Financial services
Market Share/ Revenue CA $46.16 Billion (2022)
Vision To be among the world’s most trusted and successful financial institutions.
Tagline Let’s Make Someday Happen

 

Marketing Strategy Of Royal Bank of Canada 

There is my topic that will be included in the marketing strategy of progressive which will help you to understand more about it. Let’s begin with Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning 

The Royal Bank of Canada audience is more evenly distributed across age brackets. Both tails, younger 13-24-year-old section and older 45 plus-year-old segments.

The Royal Bank of Canada audience seems to have a wide variety of interests, from a love of professional sports to tweeting about real estate. Royal Bank of Canada delves deeper into who its distinct segments truly are, allowing them to deliver on its promise to be more customer-centric.

There were seven discovered personas for the Royal Bank of Canada audience. The three discovered personas with the highest percentage of portraits were Mainstays, Female Millennials, and, surprisingly, a younger Gen Z persona.

Royal Bank of Canada offers financial services and products with a social component to Aboriginal communities, individuals with disabilities, low-income clients, students and youth, seniors, women entrepreneurs, and newcomers. They also support a variety of programmes and initiatives that benefit underserved communities or groups.

Royal Bank of Canada is the market leader in nearly every major Canadian banking product category.

A rigorous emphasis on the client first, collaboration, accountability, diversity and inclusion, and integrity would be an accurate summary of the key values that guide, unite, and inspire Royal Bank of Canada employees to achieve record results year after year.

They position themselves as a bank that focuses on setting reasonable banking fees for their service packages allowing them to provide value to their clients.

 

Marketing Campaigns 

Royal Bank of Canada’s Cross Border Marketing Campaign 

Marketing Strategy Of Royal Bank of Canada - Royal Bank of Canada’s Cross Border Marketing Campaign 

With border restrictions loosening, Canadian snowbirds are looking to escape south to avoid the upcoming winter. Amid this rush, Royal Bank of Canada has made an important move by furthering its clients’ access to cross-border banking services. 

Knowing that travel across the border has already been accelerated, Royal Bank, as one of the largest banks in North America, made certain that its clients are aware of and prepared for the benefits that the bank is providing. 

This marketing campaign, in our opinion, was launched just 10 days before the reopening of the US-Canada land border. Furthermore, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other platforms have been used to raise awareness as soon as and as quickly as possible.

Marketing Strategy Of Royal Bank of Canada - Ideas Happen Here campaign 

Another campaign is the first campaign on the ‘Ideas Happen Here’ platform of Royal Bank of Canada which will include TV commercials and other advertisements featuring Royal Bank of Canada Training Ground participants, the bank’s programme that finds and funds potential Canadian Olympic athletes. 

The wider scope of the campaign will also feature athletes (such as diver Jennifer Abel) using Royal Bank of Canada products and services, such as AI financial advice tool Nomi, MyAdvisor, and the new Royal Bank of Canada Vantage, and will run during CBC’s Olympic broadcasts, as well as social and digital channels, throughout the Olympic Games.

It All Adds up – Financial Literacy Campaign 

Marketing Strategy Of Royal Bank of Canada -  It All Adds up - Financial Literacy Campaign 

Royal Bank of Canada collaborated with Free the Children to create this campaign to help students learn key vocabulary for understanding money matters, develop their ability to set and achieve personal financial goals, plan cost-effective fundraisers, and more. 

Students in elementary school learn to track and analyse their wants and needs, whereas students in secondary school create a personal budget to help them begin planning for life after high school.

 

Social Media Marketing 

Royal Bank of Canada is very active on social media platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. It has more followers on Facebook than on Linkedin and, finally, on Instagram. 

The LinkedIn and Facebook handles have around 550K followers whereas Instagram has 59.4 K followers. LinkedIn is a more professional social media platform that excludes young teenagers because the majority of them do not have LinkedIn accounts. 

The posts include promotional and informational content about their various campaigns, as well as some posts about new products/service launches.

 

SEO Strategies

Marketing Strategy of Royal Bank of Canada - SEO

According to SEO rankings, the number of keywords – below 500 is bad, above 1000 is good, and 10,000+ is amazing. As one can see, www.Royal Bank of Canada.com has 120,209 organic keywords, which itself is considered excellent. That means Royal Bank of Canada’s digital marketing strategies are gaining a lot of traction and are working well.

Furthermore, the monthly traffic is approximately 4.3M, which is an excellent figure. As a result, the Royal Bank of Canada has clearly made efforts to optimise its search engine results and is reaping the benefits effectively, as evidenced by the numbers.

 

Influencer Marketing 

Analyzing the Facebook page reveals that the Royal Bank of Canada is constantly updating it with new posts. 

Royal Bank of Canada uploads videos or photos of events with their partners (for example, The Official Canadian International AutoShow), and you can also see posts with new programmes by the bank’s innovations.

It uses the platform Instagram for collaborating with influencers with more than 1k followers and relative interest in finance. The influencers along with the Royal Bank of Canada put up informational videos about the company’s different products and how they can help individuals to manage their funds effectively.

 Also, it serves as a medium to provide financial literacy through different audio-visual messages.

 

E-Commerce Strategies 

Marketing Strategy of Royal Bank of Canada - e-com

To make banking more convenient for their clients, Royal Bank of Canada provides fully integrated mobile applications for all major platforms in Canada. 

The Royal Bank of Canada Mobile app has a wide range of features, including the ability to view account details, pay bills and transfer funds, send money via Interac e-Transfers, and locate nearby branches and ATMs.

Because it combines this functionality with simplicity and ease of use, it consistently receives high ratings in app stores.

 

Mobile App

Marketing Strategy of Royal Bank of Canada - Mobile App

The Royal Bank of Canada mobile app is available for both Android and IOS users. It allows you to use their personalised tools to spend, save and manage your funds at your fingertips. 

You can access your monthly fee amount, rebates or Royal Bank of Canada reward points, all in one place without any hassles. You can also manage shared finances among your social circle on this app.

 

Content Marketing Strategies

Royal Bank of Canada is very active on social media. A maximum number of their social media posts contain publicity of their campings as well as awareness messages. Their content also revolves around the new features or apps launched by the Royal Bank of Canada. 

Every social media handle be it Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or LinkedIn, all have some other information related to campaigns, awareness messages, and apps.  On Twitter, it has Royal Bank of Canada Bank News as a separate page where Royal Bank of Canada Bank keeps posting about what is going on in Royal Bank of Canada. 

Royal Bank of Canada also makes itself publicly known by doing content releases and advertisements in newspapers.

 

This ends the elaborative marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada. Let us conclude our learning below from the marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada.

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Conclusion – What’s Unique in Royal Bank of Canada Marketing?

Royal Bank of Canada is a leading integrated financial services provider in Canada and a best-in-class provider of personal and business financial services in the United States. Furthermore, as seen in the marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada, a premier provider of selected global financial services.

With the rise of the digital world, where almost everyone spends at least an hour a day on their phones, proper digital marketing and online presence can be a great way to improve customer relations as implemented by the Royal Bank of Canada to further their customer base and spread awareness about their financial services through different digital mediums.

Digital marketing is crucial since it links a company with its clients when they are online and is effective across all sectors. It links businesses with ideal consumers through SEO and PPC on Google, social media marketing, and email marketing. If you would like to learn more and develop skills, check out IIDE’s 4-Month Digital Marketing Course to learn more.

Alternatively, you can enrol in one of our free online masterclasses led by IIDE’s CEO, Karan Shah, to gain insight into the field of digital marketing. 

We hope this blog on the marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.

If you like such in-depth analysis of companies just like the marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

Thank you for taking the time to read the marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada, and do share your thoughts on this case study marketing strategy of Royal Bank of Canada in the comments section below.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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