Banco Comercial Português: Putting Marketing at the Forefront

The opening up of an entire economy can present opportunities often dreamed of by entrepreneurs who have an ideal and a mission; it is a chance to break free and attempt to alter the status quo, revolutionising the way people think and act. Yet such attempts often fall short of their objectives as ambition outpaces reality. In 1984, the founders of Portugal’s Banco Comercial Português1 recognised this risk, but nevertheless pushed on, aiming to be Portugal’s leading private sector bank in record time. It was a race against the clock from the very beginning as they recognised that, in order to survive, they would not only have to convince their target market of BCP’s superiority relative to other institutions, but also gain a sufficiently strong internal position to be able to defend themselves against the onslaught of European competition that would herald Portugal’s entry into the European Community in 1986. Today, there are few people who would not concede BCP’s success, a success due primarily to the accepted but often ignored principle that ‘the customer knows best’, applied through a careful market segmentation process and corresponding niche strategy. The managers of BCP are not wizards or magicians, but instead individuals who have the intelligence and the daring to apply traditional concepts in such a way that they will produce results.