In-Depth Marketing Strategy of HDFC – Overall Analysis

Updated on: Aug 13, 2022
Marketing Strategy Of HDFC - Featured Image

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In the previous article, we learned about the Marketing Mix of ICICI Bank – A Financial Services Company. Today we are going to talk about the Digital Marketing Strategies of HDFC Bank – India’s Leading Private Bank.

The objective of this blog is to provide knowledge about the HDFC Bank, from starting as a Scheduled Commercial Bank to becoming India’s leading private bank. The mission of HDFC is to become a World-Class Indian Bank.

Nowadays people are becoming more digitally dependent, from using net banking to UPIs. So if you want your company/website to be known, marketing plays a major role, especially digital marketing. If you are interested in digital marketing, check out Free Digital Marketing Masterclass with Certification by our CEO and Founder, Karan Shah.

In this blog, we will be learning about the entire marketing strategy of HDFC Bank, but before exploring it, let’s look into a bit of the history of how HDFC Bank grew and became what it is today.

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About HDFC Bank – Company Overview 

The Housing Development Finance Co-operation Limited or HDFC was established in August 1994 and founded by HT Parekh. In January 1995, the bank began its operations as a Scheduled Commercial Bank. They were one of the first institutions to receive an ‘In Principle’ approval from the Reserve Bank of India, to commence the bank in the private sector. 

HDFC Bank has a mission which is to become a World-Class Indian Bank. They have a two-fold objective: First and foremost, to be the preferred provider of banking services for the target retail and wholesale customer segments. The second goal is to achieve profitable growth that is consistent with the bank’s risk tolerance.

HDFC Bank has its headquarters in Mumbai. HDFC Bank’s authorized share capital is Rs. 650 crores as of December 31, 2020. The HDFC Group owns 21.15 percent of the bank’s equity, while the ADS Depositories own about 18.67 percent. The Bank’s distribution network consisted of 6,342 branches spread across 3,188 cities as of March 31, 2022. 

The bank also operates a network of 18,130 ATMs throughout India. They provide various services such as phone banking, net banking, mobile banking, and SMS-based banking.

 

Quick Stats on HDFC
CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan
CMO Ravi Santhanam
Area Served India
Industry Financial Services
Market Share/ Revenue Rs 167695 Crore
Vision To be the most important financial partner in ensuring long-term housing and living standards.
Tagline We Understand Your World

 

Marketing Strategy of HDFC Bank

Let’s become acquainted with the amazing marketing strategies and marketing campaigns of HDFC Bank.

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning:

HDFC Bank has a wide range of banking services ranging from commercial and investment banking on the wholesale side to transactional / branch banking on the retail side. It has 3 key business segments: Wholesale Banking, Retail Banking, and Treasury.

The target audience for wholesale banking is the institutional customers such as government bodies, emerging cooperates, SMEs, etc. Likewise, the target audience for retail banking consists of individuals, salaried or professional borrowers, NRIs, self-help groups, etc. 

HDFC Bank has made itself known for its superior product delivery/service levels, strong customer orientation, providing various types of loans, mobile and net banking facilities, ATMs, and depository participant services( a facility to hold their investment in electronic form).

Marketing Campaigns

“MOOH BAND RAKHO”

Marketing Strategy of HDFC - mooh bandh rakho

Through this campaign, HDFC Bank’s main aim was to create awareness of the types of frauds and showcase the importance of keeping your mouth shut. HDFC Bank succeeded in this campaign because it did 2000 workshops in 2021 across the country to make people aware that sharing personal information can be harmful and can eventually lead to fraud.

“FESTIVE TREATS”

Marketing Strategy of HDFC - festive treats)

In this campaign, HDFC Bank brought 1000+ offers online and in-store on cards, EasyEMI, loans, etc. for the customers during the months of September to November. The amazing benefits such as EasyEMI, different types of loans, and much more led to the success of this campaign.

“BOUNCE BACK”

Marketing Strategy of HDFC - bounce back

HDFC Life launched its ‘Bounce Back’ brand campaign to demonstrate how financial security facilitates the development of a new successful path. The success of this campaign was due to the emphasis on the human race’s “never-say-die” spirit, which arose more than ever before during the pandemic crisis.

Social Media Marketing

HDFC Bank has made its presence known on the platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. It has 2 million+ followers on Facebook with 1 Million+ follower on LinkedIn, followed by 531k followers on Twitter and 297k followers on Instagram.

As you can see from the above statistics HDFC Bank has a major number of followers on Facebook. HDFC Bank posts frequently on all of the social media platforms, this is one of the main reasons it has gained a large number of followers. 

HDFC’s social media contains informational as well as promotional content. They also post content related to awareness where the hashtag #GoDigitalGoSecure is used to save users from cyber fraud and fraudsters.

 

SEO Strategies 

Marketing Strategy of HDFC - SEO strategy

As you can see from the above picture HDFC Bank has 6,41,254 organic keywords which are more than amazing. It also has organic monthly traffic of 12,265,644 which shows that a great number of people are interested in HDFC Bank. All these statistics show that HDFC is doing a great job with its SEO strategy and can aim to become the best in the private sector while maintaining this number and making efforts on increasing it.

 

Influencer Marketing

HDFC Bank has collaborated with various Actors, YouTubers, and Influencers.  A very recent partnership done by HDFC was with Rohit Saraf on Instagram for their new payment app which is ‘PayZapp’. 

HDFC has collaborated with many famous Actors for the Festive Treats Campaign such as Yami Gautam, Kajal Kitchlu, Rajkumar Rao, Kriti Kharbanda, and Tamannaah Bhatia. It has also collaborated with many Influencers, Actors, and Youtubers for Millennia. Overall HDFC has a pretty good amount of collaboration with famous people.

 

E-commerce Strategies

HDFC Bank has a ‘Smart Buy’ option on its website through which a person can compare and book flight tickets, bus tickets, train tickets, and hotel bookings. 

Smart Buy also provides up to 5x reward points on select credit cards and 5% cashback on credit and debit cards for various brands such as Amazon, Apple, Flipkart, Redbus, Hamleys, and Makemytrip, and many more. 

Basically, HDFC’s Smart Buy has amazing offers and deals in all sectors from shopping to travelling.

 

Mobile Apps

Marketing Strategy Of HDFC - Mobile App

HDFC has a Mobile App on both Android and IOS. This app provides various facilities such as online banking, UPI fund transfer, bill payment, and managing accounts.

HDFC has different apps for different purposes like PayZapp for UPI and bill payments, Smarthub App for collecting cashless payments, Home Loan App for services regarding loans, HDFC Securities: Trade Stocks for investing in stocks and mutual funds, GO Cards App for viewing all card details and many more such apps that makes a person’s life easier.


Content Marketing Strategies

HDFC Bank is very active on social media. A maximum number of their social media posts contain publicity of their campings as well as awareness messages. Their content also revolves around the new features or apps launched by HDFC. 

Every social media handle be it Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or LinkedIn, all have some other information related to campaigns, awareness messages, and apps.  On Twitter, it has HDFC Bank News as a separate page where HDFC Bank keeps posting about what is going on in HDFC. 

HDFC also makes itself publicly known by doing content releases on newspapers such as Midday, The Economic Times, Lokmat, The Financial Express, and Moneycontrol.

 

This ends the elaborative marketing strategy of HDFC. Let us conclude our learning below from the marketing strategy of HDFC.

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Conclusion – What’s Unique in HFDC Bank’s Marketing?

If we see the above statistics HDFC Bank has a very good hold on its marketing strategies. Marketing strategies have played a major role in HDFC’s flourishing. The way HDFC displays its content on social media platforms, collabs with famous actors, gives quality content through the posts, provides amazing offers, has different apps for different purposes, leads campaigns that are beneficial to society, and provides news on what is happening in HDFC through Twitter, all of these have been the key points that have made HDFC Bank grow and become stronger day by day. HDFC Bank’s marketing strategy has been very strong due to which it has achieved great heights and if it keeps going on like this then its aim of becoming the World Class Indian Bank will also become a success.

Digital marketing is crucial since it links a company with its clients when they are online and is effective across all sectors. It links businesses with ideal consumers through SEO and PPC on Google, social media marketing, and email marketing. If you would like to learn more and develop skills, check out IIDE’s 4-Month Digital Marketing Course to learn more.

Alternatively, you can enrol in one of our free online masterclasses led by IIDE’s CEO, Karan Shah, to gain insight into the field of digital marketing. 

We hope this blog on the marketing strategy of HDFC has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.

If you like such in-depth analysis of companies just like the marketing strategy of HDFC check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

Thank you for taking the time to read the marketing strategy of HDFC, and do share your thoughts on this case study marketing strategy of HDFC in the comments section below.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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