Branding: Much more than just a baseline for banks

Ujjal K Basu Roy

What can I do for you?" is IDBI Bank’s baseline. Just below an acquamarine logo. The State Bank of India’s (SBI) logo is supposed to denote a body of water (lake) which is always full. What, indeed, can branding do for a financial services player?

Says Standard Chartered Bank’s head, marketing and e-commerce, consumer bank, Akshay Kumar: "There is a lot that goes into a brand. The brand has to convey what the bank stands for. Sometimes a brand is used to convey care and concern or the leadership position of a bank. Some of these values can be articulated while some cannot be articulated."

Branding is seen as a key as unlike in a commodity, the customer buys the product with the producer. In other words, the producer plays as important a role as the product. This is where branding helps.

Says Citibank India’s director, marketing, Atul Malik: "It is as important for a bank as for any other company offering products or services. Over time, you may have seen that there is a proliferation of companies offering banking services with the product differentiations between each becoming less. So the brand in an era of competition is what helps a bank to stand out with its own distinctive identity."

Branding gives information to consumers and makes the search easier for them. For example, when two financial institutions are offering the same rates for a fixed deposit programme, how does the consumer differentiate and choose? Branding cannot, like in any other commodity, replace the product, but acts as an aid.

While some like Citibank, HSBC and ICICI have been very successful at creating a mother-brand, there is also the issue of sub-branding in the financial services sector. Standard Chartered Bank does so. Sub-branding plays a significant role in the FMCG sector wherein sometimes a sub-brand becomes larger than the mother brand.
Examples abound. Surf, Lux and Liril have the same if not stronger appeal than Hindustan Lever Ltd. The same could be said about Pepsi also.

In the Indian context, the preference has been to stay away from strong sub-branding in the financial services sector. This simplifies the value proposition. Research has shown that the consumer is more interested in the generic product and not in the sub-brand per se.
Normally, the core or mother brand is built on and then products are cross sold.

The exact extent of emphasis on the mother brand and the sub-brands of course, differ from one financial institution to another. In the mutual funds (MFs) industry for that matter, sub-branding is extensively used. This is due to the fact that the sub-brand connotes a different product. The sub-brand plays the role of a descriptor in the MF industry.

Says HSBC’s manager, marketing, personal financial products, Robinder Singh: "The brand means different things for different organisations. It stands for the values which an organisation represents and for HSBC, these values are safety, transparency and being upfront."

All financial institutions like to believe that the colour of the logo plays a role. It is a subjective matter but either at a sub-minimal or an overt level, colour does matter. The institutions choose their own set of colours and attribute certain characters to the colours depending on the values which the institutions stand for. Says Mr Malik: "The colour will certainly matter in the communication. The colour has to be in sync with what the brand is expected to denote."
Says Sun Life Financial’s vice-president, international marketing, Gary M Comerford: "The brand is much more important than just the logo. The brand stands behind the logo. The logo is just the identification. The brand is the value and what the company stands for."

The financial services industry is also categorical about the fact that the Indian customer is aware and branding does play an important and often a deciding role in the Indian financial services industry. Says Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd’s chief operating officer, KVS Manian: "The Indian customer is increasingly becoming aware than what he was a few years back. As competition increases, consumers, especially in urban areas, are becoming increasingly brand-conscious even in the financial services sector."

Indian customers now have choices which are on par with anywhere in the world. Consumers are realising the power of associating with a particular brand. Financial services players are realising the advantages of creating an aspirational aura around the brand. Long live the brand!