In this blog, we will give you a detailed analysis of the marketing strategy of Santander bank, one of the largest banks in Spain. You can refer to the Marketing strategy of American Express Bank to get an in-depth analysis of it.
With this blog, you will get an idea about how Santander bank became one of the most trustworthy and largest banks in Spain. Its services are not restricted to Spain, but it is available to various other countries also.
In the world after the Covid-19 pandemic, everything is becoming digital and online. Online marketing is becoming an integral part of every business. If you are keen to learn more about digital marketing then check this Free Masterclass on Digital Marketing 101 by Karan Shah who is the Founder and CEO of the Indian Institute of Digital Education (IIDE).
By the end of this blog, you will have a clear idea about the marketing strategy of Santander bank. But before directly jumping into its marketing strategy, let’s first learn about Santander bank and have some knowledge about it.
About Santander – Company Overview
Banco Santander does business as Santander group and is a Spanish multinational financial services company that offers all banking and financial services. It is known for its European Banking operations but also has operations in Northern and Southern America and recently in Asia mainly through its mergers. It was founded in 1857 as Banco de Santander and later in 1999 merged with Banco Central Hispano. It is placed in the 37th position on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s biggest public companies.
| CEO | Timothy H. Wennes |
|---|---|
| CMO | Jennifer Mathisen |
| Area Served | Worldwide |
| Industry | National Banking |
| Market Share/ Revenue | $ 44.297 Billion (2020) |
| Vision | To be the largest network for university cooperation centred on Ibero-America, promoting change and innovation through a platform of products and services for the university community and businesses. |
| Tagline | Driven to do better |
Marketing Strategy of Santander
Let’s know about the Marketing Strategy of Santander and how Santander carried out its marketing campaigns in Boston.
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.
Market segmentation means dividing the market into various groups according to their needs, behaviours or characteristics.
Santander is a bank headquartered in Boston. In the banking, industry customers vary according to their wants, needs, locations, behaviour, cultural and geographical differences, buying attitudes etc. With the help of geographical segmentation, Santander has segmented its customers geographically according to their culture and preferences. This strategy of market segmentation has helped Santander to reach out to its varied customers effectively and efficiently.
Santander has targeted mainly large enterprises and individual investors as its potential customers. The major revenue earner for Santander bank is Retail Banking. Retail banking generates 74% of the total profits of Santander bank. Santander operates B2B and B2C mediums because it deals in banking with various business entities as well as personal banking.
The position of Santander in the international banking industry is enormous and it has increased its operations across Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and Latin America via mergers, acquisitions and subsidiaries. Santander has a widespread distribution channel which includes its 14,392 branches and workforce of about 186,000 employees. Santander has an enormous international presence which includes various countries from all over the world like the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Austria, Denmark, France, Finland, Poland, Colombia, Peru, Japan, United States, Singapore, etc. It serves 102 million customers and has also implemented various policies to gain brand awareness.
Marketing Campaigns
Santander is one of the leading banks in the United Kingdom with 14.3 million active users, from which 6.3 million are digital customers. Santander arrived in the UK market in 2004 and it promised to help people and businesses to prosper.
This campaign was launched in September 2017. It ran across various platforms like television, Facebook, digital display and video on demand. This ad campaign was launched to boost its marketing efforts. To create this campaign, Santander teamed up with Engine– a creative agency and it featured ordinary people doing extraordinary things, thus conveying the message of prosperity to the people.
With this campaign, Santander has focused on its brand awareness, increased the interest of potential customers in its product and also gained loyalty from existing customers.
As a result, this campaign turned out to be successful as it increased the awareness among the people, the customers also had positive responses about the bank and also recommended it to others.
Santander launched the ‘Santander cashback campaign’ in the United Kingdom in November 2021.
This campaign was done to promote Santander’s offer for its 123 Current account holders. The offer was cashback to the 123 current account holders of the bank on household bills such as electricity, water and gas. Santander installed giant taps with coins gushing out of them on billboards in London and Manchester to promote and publicise its offer of monthly cashback on household bills.
The results of this campaign are not available as it is one of the latest campaigns done by Santander.
Santander launched the ‘Bank of Antandec’ campaign in June 2019. In this campaign, celebrities Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are seen launching a copycat bank suggesting various funny financial solutions.
This campaign helped the bank to boost its business. According to the survey conducted by the bank, 38% of customers loved the bank more because of the campaign. Also, 54% of people loved this campaign. In the history of Santander’s marketing campaign, this campaign was the most successful one.
Social Media Marketing
Santander is active on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. It has around 9371 followers on Instagram whereas it has around 164,898 followers on LinkedIn. Their LinkedIn and Instagram page mainly consists of promotional posts and their new campaigns.
SEO Strategies
According to the SEO rankings, if the number of keywords is below 500 then it’s bad, if the number of keywords is above 1000 then it’s good and if more than 10,000 keywords then it is considered amazing. From the above result, it is seen that Santander has a 450000 search volume, which means it is amazing.
Thus, we can say that the SEO strategies of Santander are amazing as its rank is increasing on Google’s organic search engine results page.
Influencer Marketing
Santander has collaborated with celebrities to promote its product. In 2013, Santander UK made Olympic Gold medalist Jessica Ennis it’s brand ambassador. In 2019, Santander launched a campaign with Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. Santander teamed up with these celebrities to make its brand famous in the banking industry.
E-Commerce Strategy
As the pandemic struck the whole world and made people get locked up in their houses, people started using online platforms. After the Covid-19 pandemic, almost every business became digitised.
Santander also entered the digital market. It redesigned its software and modernised its account opening procedure. This made the consumer experience smooth and they were able to deliver services effectively.
Mobile App
As Santander got its services digitised, it also launched its Mobile app. This app can be downloaded from Google Play Store and it is compatible with android as well as iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The application is free to download.
It provides various mobile banking features like bill payment, mobile check deposit, quick balance, transfers, creating/changing debit card pins, etc.
Content Marketing Strategy
Santander is one of the largest banks in Spain. It has done marketing via various means. Santander is also actively posting about its new launches, campaigns and services on its social media platforms. It also releases awareness posts and videos about its brand.
Santander has also collaborated with celebrities to enhance its brand value and position in the banking industry. These collaborations helped it to make its content worthy as people enjoyed and loved its campaigns.
This ends the elaborative marketing strategy of Santander. Let us conclude our learning below from the marketing strategy of Santander.
Conclusion – What’s unique about the marketing strategy of Santander?
From the above case study of the marketing strategy of Santander bank, we can say that the bank is gaining popularity and has become trustworthy over time. Santander has become one of the largest banks in Spain. With digitalization, it has made its services easier and smooth for its customers.
Also, the bank has launched its Mobile app for its customers for easy access to their accounts which makes it more preferable. The reason for the success of Santander bank is its marketing strategies and advertising techniques which are loved by people and as a result, Santander gains popularity in the banking industry.
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 Santander has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.
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