Jas Business Blog

The story of Phoenix may be a myth, but its alter ego reflections in brands is not. State Bank of India (SBI) is one such rare brands which have come back to life from its ashes. Though many may counter that SBI was never facing extinction, but nevertheless one has to agree that five years back the SBI brand was looking at the last leg of evolution cycle, desperately in need for some fresh idea or a fresh vision or pure luck. Well as luck would have it (no pun intended) the latter two happened for this massive amalgamation of nationalized banks cluster. The fresh vision came in form of Om Prakash Bhatt and the luck came in form of 2008-09 world recession triggered by the collapse of financial system worldwide.

Bhatt started off as a probationary officer in the State Bank of Indian in 1972 and worked his way up the ladder. Ironically, banking was not his first choice for a career. He joined the bank only after he proved to be “underage” to appear for the Indian Administrative Service. After that it was a dance of his skills, within an year of taking over as chief general manager of the bottom-ranked north-eastern circle of SBI, Bhatt lifted the circle to the No. 1 position. In his next assignment as the managing director of the State Bank of Travancore, Bhatt changed the profile of a traditional traders’ bank into a retail bank and aggressively sold mutual fund and insurance products.

Bhatt was later elevated to chairman in July 2006 . The first thing he did was to stop the roll-out of core banking solutions in SBI branches. TCS was implementing the computerization of SBI banks and Bhatt made them do about 700 changes to the project they were already rolling out as he felt it was just a “mechanical roll out of technology without checking of it was benefiting customers”, which seems to true for image of SBI at that time! Bringing a new word AUDACITY to SBI he opened about 955 branches in just 5 months. He plans to use ATMs for issuing cheque books and bill payments apart from cash dispensing. Results? “Our home loan portfolio has grown 27% this year, higher than the competition. Similarly, the auto loan portfolio’s growth has been 30%. You can’t call SBI a sleeping elephant any more,” said Bhatt with a wide grin in his interview in May 2008.

With him at center-stage of aggression, SBI has managed to come up with campaigns such as Surprisingly SBI. Although this campaign caught people unaware and many wondered why such an old and reputed bank went for “surprising” campaign, but it did a huge publicity of banking facilities to the younger generation. Thanks to great execution, some of the ads like “Chiman lal Charlie“, guy with no pants etc made a strong mark in mind of customers. The brand recall of SBI shot through the roof! It had just to connect old  faith with new customer and these ads did brilliantly. It was backed with elderly couple ads. Stage was set for the luck to come and make the party louder for SBI.

Sep 2008 saw the unimaginable sublimation of Lehman Bros empire, and with it eroded the reputation of and trust in the financial world. Suddenly the private banks saw their liquidity drying up. The strongest competitor and the only other bank apart from SBI in world’s top 500 financial services brands, ICICI, suddenly was again caught in bankruptcy rumors which erodrd the trust to great extent. People were now chanting PSU banks and running there. And with high brand recall guess who came to the mind? Yes, the war was won by SBI.

Bhatt has become businessman of the year, 2009 and is now in race for the Indian of the Year award instituted by CNN-IBN. HDFC chairman and member of the jury Deepak Parekh said of Bhatt: “OP Bhatt has proved that given the constraints of working in the public sector one can move forward….he has improved the results of the bank and has put State Bank of India on the global map.”

Since he took charge at India’s largest public sector bank in 2006, he has raised the banks market share and loans from 15% to 16.5% and deposits from 15% to 17.5%. He has also regained the top slot for market capitalisation, a position it lost to ICICI in 2007. And SBI has also taken over HDFC  in home loans. The State bank of India is now 29th most reputable company in the world according to Forbes.

Some stories make much great read once completed, you just read one of them. All the best SBI!

This one is a real puller from Shanghai J&J Advertising Co. The idea is brilliant and it may not compel a buy decision but it surely will result in better brand recall. In logistics business, the majority of the money is spent to assure the timely delivery and with zero damages; basically translating to two words – fast and reliable.

DHL hits the nail right on the head with this creative advertisement insert in a magazine. The advertisement includes a piece of transparent PVC paper placed into a magazine and having a DHL worker printed on it showing on both sides. This PVC paper is placed between the other two pages showing a guy on one side with Japanese backdrop and a lady on other page with Chinese backdrop. Therefore, when one turns the paper, the worker delivers the express mail between a guy (in Japan) and a lady (in China) effortlessly. Only a sentence is printed on top of a page reading, “International courier service express delivery guaranteed.” (see ad below)

And not only this, we have been witnessing many more such creative activities in paper magazines. Marketing is like creating a noise which right consumer can hear, and there is no point shouting in a fish market.

Magazine advertising is a definitely a different ball game as compared to other offline media. Just check how much time do you spend on reading a newspaper and a magazine. With television media, the problem is that the advert will be shown as per timing and the targeted customer does not have any control on this. The magazine medium’s essential strength lies in the active way in which readers choose and use their magazines. Magazines are an active medium, with the reader in control. Readers become deeply engaged with their magazines. As a result a strong relationship, a bond of trust, grows up between the reader and his or her chosen magazines. The time spent reading is substantial, and the copies are read thoroughly. Copies tend to be read repeatedly, often picked up more than once during a day and on more than one day. Then research has shown (and common sense strengthens it) that people are more likely to remember and recognize advertiser if they have repeated impressions from a regularly appearing ad. And as always, too much advertising leads to clutter.

With these points, I can now tell you why I really liked this ad! The ad involves two senses of consumer rather than one – sight and touch, which makes it stand apart. The use of plastic instead of paper has added to the novelty of the idea. It builds a small excitement in the mind of consumer and hence ensures a brand recall tomorrow when consumer has to use some logistics service. The magazine as a medium made sure that the consumer has all the time needed by him/her to relish the idea and absorb it. Remember one doesnt need to impress all, just the targeted audience. So over here there is nothing in advert which makes the right consumer to be pulled specifically. It people who will get excited by the idea would have no correlation with the intent to buy. Hence the success of advert will depend a lot on the kind of magazines DHL chooses to advertise.

Here are another two fine pieces of magazine adverts breaking the clutter of the noise and making a dent in reader’s mind.

Eye donation, by National Association for the blind
Advertising Agency: DDB Mudra, India

Styx Underwear, Czech Republic