Indian Banks’ Taglines, Trust Building and Customer Satisfaction
In 2013, IDBI Bank’s TV commercial (TVC) took the fancy of the viewers; it opens with two kids sitting in the playground of a school. The girl starts speaking to the camera. She says, “One day I caught cold”. While the girl speaking to the camera, the boy keeps on sharpening a pencil for her. She continues, “and I did not have a handkerchief.” She points towards the boy and says with a smile, “Then he gave me his tie to wipe my nose”.The boy looks towards the camera and smiles. He gives the pencil to the girl and she starts writing something in a notebook. IDBI Bank logo appears on screen with a Voice Over (VO): Aisi dosti ek bank nibhaye toh? (“What if a Bank maintains the same kind of friendship?”) The TVC ends with a super- IDBI – Bank Aisa Dost Jaisa! (A bank like your friend). The ad features neither – the bank, customers, money, deposits, financial security nor a typical image of a piggy bank, and the audiences were bemused with its positioning on friendship. Why is it that the positioning platforms for banks are limited vis-à-vis other industries as indicated by their taglines (Exhibit III a & b)? What is the correlation between customers’ trust and customers’ satisfaction in banking industry? What would it take for banks to gain their customers’ trust? With a series of high profile banking failures and scams over the years and during the recent past how would banks’ taglines resonate with Indian consumer?
When India went liberal (in 1991), private banks established their presence and started challenging nationalized player’s long standing supremacy through their effective service models and trendy media campaigns. Their ads projected young and fashionable employees, trendy and urban upper-to-middle-class customers and retail products, which took the fancy of the public. Customer preferences were evolving faster than the ability of banks to respond, resulting in a widening of the delivery gap (Exhibit I). Despite having a loyal consumer base, it became imperative for national banks to reinforce high levels of trust, confidence and satisfaction among their customers. In 2012, India ranked 7th in the world top 10 nations where customers were losing trust in banks (Exhibit II), according to the 2012 ‘Retail Banking Voice of the Customer Survey’ carried out by Capgemini. It was also reported that twice as many customers around the globe (31%) say they have little or no trust in the banking system, compared to the 15.3% who say they do. In order to restore the trust and satisfaction, Indian banks left no stone unturned to redefine their positioning strategy...........................
Indian Banks: Trust and Friendship Through Taglines
Industry experts opine that, most banks are attempting to define their ‘customer experience’ initiatives, but few are starting the journey on the wrong foot with an inside out thinking of how they can fix their processes, people skills and technology initiatives to deliver the maximum value to their customers. However, their customer-experience initiatives should be aimed at customer engagement rather than customer management, and therefore should involve “right brain thinking” about customers’ emotions, thoughts, likes and dislikes as a starting point before getting into left brain areas such as processes and technology............
Social Media + Trust Factor: The Social Banker?
With the ubiquitous presence and ever growing importance of social media, many banks have taken to leverage the power of social media to build an engagement architecture. Highlighting the importance of social media and how Indian banks should integrate the same into their business architecture, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT)...........
Banks’ Performance and Trust Factor
While all the Indian Banks, like other banks, have been focusing on several innovative approaches to be on top of the league, with their competitive and customer-centric strategies, their performance over the last few years offers mixed results (Exhibit IX). Many industry observers, drawing a parallel to India’s Most Trusted Brands (Exhibit X).............
Assignment Questions
I. What is your analysis of the taglines given in Exhibit III a & b of the case study? How many banks have the words, ‘trust’, ‘family’ and ‘friend’ in their taglines? How far this strategy of positioning on emotional benefits would enable the banks to gain customers’ trust?
II. What do you mean by a value proposition? Do you agree with Professor Y.L.R.Moorthi’s hypothesis of, “Foreign banks in India are chosen for self-expressive benefits, private Indian banks are chosen for functional benefits and public sector Indian banks for emotional benefits.” (page#1, para 2) Analyze the same with Exhibit III (a & b) of the case study.
III. .................
Exhibits
Exhibit I: PSU Bank’s Brand Promise Delivery Gaps
Exhibit II: World Top 10 Nations Where Customers are Losing Trust in Banks
Exhibit III (a): Indian Banks – Their Taglines
Exhibit III (b): Indian Private Banks - Taglines
Exhibit IV: Trust Construct
Exhibit V: Social Media Strategy
Exhibit VI: Changing Consumer Behavior in the Digital Era
Exhibit VII: Nationalized Banks Social Media Interactivity Level
Exhibit VIII: Top Ten Banks Based on their Social Media Performance Level
Exhibit IX: India’s Best Banks
Exhibit X: India’s Most Trusted Brands 2013
