SBI- the Banker to Every Indian:

The world of finance and economics is very complex and boring for the layman. India is a developing economy moving from agrarian to the service sector directly giving manufacturing sector a miss in its transformation. The extent of a developed country can be gauged from the level of complexity and maturity of the financial market. Banking forms a critical part of the financial market comprising of equities, debt, commodities and a bit of insurance.

SBI is the oldest bank in India with a rich heritage of more than two centuries. It is India’s largest public sector bank in terms of balance sheet, customers, number of branches and ATMs and number of employees as well. Yet it doesn’t have the brand recall of say an ICICI or HDFC or any other foreign bank. SBI was a sleeping giant even post liberalization. Foreign banks and even Indian private banks went miles ahead in the race of brand equity and brand recall and service. SBI stood for a government bank, lethargic in its service. SBI was not the preferred choice for customers. Its scale, backed by the government made it sustainable. But since last couple of years it has woken up to the array of opportunities and turned itself into a versatile origination attuned to the needs of the changing customer.

The Indian consumer’s purchasing power and disposable income has grown exponentially in the last 5 years. The nimble and lean foreign and Indian banks have grabbed the customer with both hands. SBI lacked in this, rather all Indian Public sector banks lacked in this. Thus there was a line of PSBs outside ad agencies for changing everything from logo to the positioning and the promotional campaign. We had union bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda among others changing their logo and using celebrity endorsements for their promotions.

SBI of late has started with a print and outdoor campaign which is drastically different. Neither are they talking about financial products, interest rates or returns nor are they going for the emotional appeal of trust, ease in service or reach of maximum ATM. The campaign is based on the value which makes all great brands i.e. the longevity. IBM, Coca Cola are century old brands. SBI is also trying to say that if we are centuries old, we are that damn good for the people. The methodology to convey this message is quite peculiar.

Motilal Nehru, one of the early Indian independence activists, Sardar Patel, architect of the integrity of India, Jagdishchandra Bose, an eminent Indian scientist, Dadabhai Navroji, founder of Indian National Congress for independence of India, Rabindranath Tagore, literature Nobel Laureate, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Independent India’s first President, M Visvesvaraya, Engineer and Statesman were customers of SBI. This methodology is unlike testimonial ads yet it has that flavour. No other bank can boast of such an elite clientele. Thus they are trying to say that this is the clear differentiation which no other bank can claim to have.

A good and a refreshing piece of creativity and strategy. Kudos to you, SBI and their agency.

First mover advantage- make sure you wrestle the advantage:

Al Ries and Jack trout in their book “Positioning” said that “it is better to be first than it is to be better”. The book gives the examples of IBM being first in mainframe computes, Kodak first in photos, Ford in cars among a lot of other great examples. This concept talks about the first-mover advantage and how advantageous it is. We will look at this concept from Indian point of view specifically related to the television content since the advent of satellite channels.

Can you name the first General entertainment channels in India? Zee TV. Although star plus, Sony TV and the latest Colors have made inroads in GECs, it was Zee which started the entertainment revolution through shows such as Tara, Banegi apni baat, zee horror show etc. Zee TV is still among the top 3 is not the topper. Star plus was an English channel showing programs such as Bold and Beautiful, Baywatch. The converted star plus to a Hindi channel and started a new channel called star world for such English programs. This is an example of starting a ‘new category’ which will be covered in another literature part.

Can you name the first saas-bahu show which catapulted star plus into the limelight and helped it overtake Zee TV? Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi (KSBKBT). It, along with ‘Kahaani ghar ghar kii’ and ‘Kasauti zindagi kii’, spawned a new genre of shows and there was a rush of “me-too” shows on other channels too. Some of them were successful and some weren’t. These three shows continued to rule the roost for the next 8-10 years with hundreds of episodes. Did some one say first mover advantage..

Can you name the first reality show on Indian television? Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC). It not only extended the lead which star plus had over other channels but also took them miles ahead of competition. Is there any other reality show which could create that magic and the Television rating points (TRPs). Hardly any. ‘Sawaal ek crore ka’ and ‘jeto chappar padh ke’ on Zee TV and Sony failed miserably. Even Shah Rukh Khan as host of KBC couldn’t bring the TRPs. ‘Dus ka Dum’ and ‘Kya aap panchvi pass hai’ were successful but not as much. Did anyone say first mover….

Which was the first laughter show? Laughter Club on Star one. The ‘me-too’ products such as ‘comedy circus’, ‘hans baliye’, ‘chote ustad’ and others haven’t been as famous as laughter club.

Which was the first sports channel? Star sports. New sports channels such as Ten sports, SET MAX, DD Sports, Zee sports haven’t been as successful. People remember Harsha Bhogle from star sports only and too a certain extent, the noodle straps by Mandira Bedi on SET MAX.

Which was the first cartoon channel? Cartoon Network. Hungama, Nickelodeon, Jetix, Disney channel also were launched but ask any child and the first name he would say is ‘Cartoon network’. Although ‘Shin Chan’ is famous, for children, cartoon means only Cartoon Network. First mover advantage isn’t it…

Third goes to show that the concept of first mover still holds true and will continue to do so since people often remember the first new thing that they see or feel. First impression shouldn’t be the last impression but unfortunately it becomes the first impression, although unintentionally. Thus it is better to be first than it is to be better.