In a previous article, we learned about the Bank of Baroda’s digital marketing strategy, one of India’s oldest public sector banks. This case study aims at getting insights into South Indian Bank, how it became the leading top private sector bank and giving customers the next-generation banking experience.
Marketing aims to help businesses grow efficiently and reach their highest potential by promoting brands, products, and services. The world has gone digital, hence digital marketing is the leading trend. If you are interested in new-age marketing, then check out our Free Masterclass on Digital Marketing by the CEO and founder of IIDE, Karan Shah.
We will explore the marketing strategy of South Indian Bank by the end of this blog, let’s start with the company’s overview, target audience, and relevance in the industry.
About South Indian Bank
The South Indian Bank (SIB) is acknowledged as one of the most proactive banks in India, with a tech proficiency team of experts at the core of its services. It holds a record as one of the earliest banks in South India. The bank came into the limelight as a fulfilment of the dreams of a team of enterprising men who joined together at Thrissur, a major town (now known as the cultural capital of Kerala), to provide a secured, effective and efficient service of savings to the community and equally giving out loans with reasonable rates of interest, thereby freeing the business community from the clutches of greedy lenders.
The private sector bank has its headquarters at Thrissur in Kerala, India. It has 933 branches, 4 service branches, 1 extension counter, and 18 Regional offices to its record. Founded on 29 January 1929, it has the chairman in the person of Salim Gangadharan. Services to its credit are; credit cards, mutual fund trading, Demat account, consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, mortgage loans, private banking, wealth management, and investment banking.
| CEO | Murali Ramakrishnan |
|---|---|
| CMO | Azmat Habibulla |
| Area Served | India |
| Industry | Banking / Financial Services |
| Market Share/ Revenue | $0.41B (2022) |
| Vision | To be the most preferred bank in the areas of customer service, stakeholder value and corporate governance. |
| Tagline | Experience Next Generation Banking |
Marketing Strategy of South Indian Bank
Let’s elaborate on the marketing strategy carried out by South Indian Bank.
SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING
The bank’s segments include treasury, corporate/wholesale banking, retail banking and other banking operations. The treasury segment constitutes interest earnings on the investment portfolio of the bank, gains or losses on investment operations and earnings from foreign exchange business. The corporate/wholesale banking segment provides loans to the corporate segment. Retail banking takes care of loans to non-corporate customers. Other banking operations segment covers income from para banking activities.
South Indian Bank has different account types and this is a method that covers different age grades, thereby having a wide range of target audiences. With the SIB, Junior from 10 years is eligible with an age limit of 18 years. There is Insta Savings from 18 years and above. Youth Savings covers ages 20-35 years and the Senior Citizen account exists from age 55 years and above. This is to develop healthy savings for all age grades.
South Indian Bank is one of the top private sector banks, it’s conscious digital technology upgrade gives seamless / stress-free banking transactions for its customers.
MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
In 2017, a campaign about the E- Lock feature on the mobile app using a youtube channel that helps customers protect themselves from fraud. You can lock and unlock your account before and after a transaction. It received over 1.5M views and more consumers downloaded the app.
Also in 2018, South Indian Bank did a commercial using their youtube channel to explore the dimensions of trust when banking with them. The theme was recorded success and promoted the brand.
In 2018, the ‘leave it to us’ campaign was launched across print, outdoor, digital and in-branch mediums. It positioned the bank as a ‘bank in need’, a bank that stands for its customers whatever their need is.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
South Indian Bank (SIB) is active on social media platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter. It has;
- 71.7k followers on Linkedin
- Instagram and Twitter have a range of 9-8k followers
- Youtube subscribers are 4.9k
- Facebook has 400,353 followers
The content of their posts is informational, promotional and launch of product features.
SEO STRATEGIES
Using SEO ranking, the number of keywords is above 10,000+ which is the benchmark for amazing. That means the marketing team takes into full consideration the SEO Strategy and it is fully utilised.
Also, the traffic per month is 496.9m of organic traffic. South Indian Bank with these statistics is an SEO-oriented brand.
INFLUENCER MARKETING
South Indian Bank has collaborated with many celebrities to market/ release product launches with good content to their customers. One of such is the collaboration with the filmmaker Prakash Varma of Nirvana Films, to direct a short ad film, which had a good viewing across India, thereby promoting the brand.
E-COMMERCE STRATEGIES
South Indian Bank has a digital and user-friendly website, where customers can carry out seamless transactions at the convenience of their homes without going to the bank. It offers various services on the website.
Apart from the financial transactions, they help users stay abreast with forex rates, a readily available help desk, and a media room for up-to-date news about the brand.
The website is structured in a way that customers have a mini bank on their phones. It is segmented and tailored to meet the specific needs of customers, they include, online banking, personal banking, priority banking, NRI banking, and business banking. Users experience easy, convenient and hassle-free transactions/operations.
MOBILE APP
The South Indian Bank app goes with the name SIB mirror+. It is the banking application for NRI and domestic customers that ensures a secure banking experience. You can view and manage your savings, current, term deposit, and loan accounts. It has the Android and IOS version that is compatible with any device. It equally has SIB UPI- POS, which is the mobile application for pos merchants.
Key highlights and features of the SIB Mirror+ include; fund transfer, BHIM UPI ( a single app for all your account and can be accessed), All-in-one scan and pay, Bill Payments and Recharges, school/college fee payment, E-lock and E-limit, SIB Insta, SIBermart(lets your book flight tickets and shop online, debit card and cheque management.
CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIES
The South Indian Bank balances its post content on all its social media handles. The media room remains an important part of the South Indian Bank website. It consists of the corporate magazine as PDF files and also the press release channel where users can preview the number of press releases such as the credits, achievements and product launches.
South Indian Bank creates and shares relevant infographics, and videos on their social media channels to help solve queries of customers and keep them abreast with the latest upgrade on their products and services.
This ends with an elaborative marketing strategy of South Indian Bank. Let us conclude our learning below from the marketing strategy of South Indian Bank.
Conclusion – What’s Unique in South Indian Bank’s marketing?
The South Indian Bank despite being a private sector is structured to operate like the public sector banks. The bank is making provisions for a new SME platform that will onboard all SME customers as part of the 6 C’s which include; capital, CASA, cost-to-income, competency building, customer focus, and compliance. The marketing strategy of the bank is customer based, meaning that it takes into consideration informing clients of new developments.
South Indian Bank is lacking also in digital marketing, there are no new ads/ campaigns carried out to create awareness among customers. Also, its copyright on the website has not been updated to 2022, it still carries 2021 and this goes further to tell customers the website hasn’t gone through revamping this year.
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 South Indian Bank has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.
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