As the financial crisis deepened towards the end of 2008, with it came a shocker for one of the largest private sector banks in India – ICICI Bank. Rumours related to the financial status of the company led to tremendous panic amongst investors and customers.
As the bank saw huge withdrawals, with it tanked the brand image and the company was left with a huge task of gaining back the trust of its customers and investors. It tweaked its communications strategy to tide over the image crisis and launched its ?Power of Belief? campaign in December 2008 through print media and on its corporate website.
It was, however, in February this year during its fiftieth anniversary celebrations that the company took some firm steps towards tweaking its marketing strategies and put consumer?s security and belief first. It marked a departure from the days when Shah Rukh Khan, ICICI?s brand ambassador, and now the bank?s global brand ambassador exhorted consumers to lead life ?on your terms?.
Experts say ICICI as a brand has always stood for innovation, the quality of being adaptive, youth and leadership. The management highlighted its initiatives to change the general perception about the bank.
Firstly, it made all its communications subtle and shifted away from its earlier ?know all? approach. It tried to build personal relations with its customers and has been increasing its focus on branch banking, compared to its earlier strategy of pushing customers towards ATMs and internet, which never allowed any relationship to be built between the customer and the bank. Most of the loan products were know directly handled by the bank and the use of the infamous direct selling associates (DSA) has been reduced to bare minimum.
And following the crisis, media interactions are being handled only at the highest level and dissemination of information taken very seriously. The company saw a leadership change in May, when 47-year-old Chanda Kochhar took over as the new chief executive officer.
Industry watchers say for years ICICI sold most of its products from bank accounts to home loans to personal loans to insurance policies to credit cards like they were soap or toothpaste. The company was aggressive on growth but Kochhar has reoriented the strategy to the current economic environment.
Kochhar wants ICICI Bank to become what banks used to be in the good old days: sedate, with balanced growth for sustainable and higher income. While it went subtle as far as traditional advertising is concerned, it leveraged on technology to create innovative solutions and introduced ?anytime, anywhere? banking through its multiple touch points.
But while ICICI Bank went subtle, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance executed strong marketing campaigns throughout the year. One of the biggest campaigns that it launched this year was Pragati Ki Anokhi Paathshala (PKAP) in 115 schools across Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, to inform parents residing in the rural areas about how to plan their children?s education better. Through the campaign, the insurance player seeks to inform its target consumers about its education insurance plans.
After establishing itself as one of the biggest private insurance companies in the country, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is now pushing its pension plans through a new TVC. The ad shows a man dreaming about being an apple farmer, among other things, and is aimed at the 30-45 years age group to invest in pension plans.