Union Bank of India is one of the well known public sector banks of the country. Being one of the oldest banks in India with more than a century of experience, the bank has its branches spread across the nation providing reliable services to millions of customers. It is also popularly known as “Union Bank”.
In this case study, we will be understanding the Union Bank of India in detail by going through its 4Ps of the marketing mix, its marketing strategies and campaigns along with the SWOT analysis.
About Union Bank of India
Union Bank of India (UBI) is an Indian government-owned bank. The bank was registered on 11 November 1919 and has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The tagline of the bank is, “Good People to Bank with”
UBI is a retail and industry banking company and its target market comprises all individuals and corporates. The bank has positioned itself on the lines of “Complete Banking Solutions”. It has received several awards and recognition for its prowess in technology, digital banking, financial inclusion, MSME, and human resources development.
Currently, UBI has 9500+ branches in India and serves 120 million customers all over the world. UBI also has overseas branches, banking subsidiaries, and joint ventures.
Recently, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank were amalgamated into Union Bank of India with effect from 01 April 2020.
Now, let’s understand the UBI’s 4Ps of the marketing mix to understand the strategies it deploys to sell its offerings.
Marketing Mix of Union Bank of India
Marketing Mix is a blend of variables that can be managed by an organization to impact customers to buy its products and services. In other words, the marketing mix is a set of actions, or strategies, that an organization implements to promote its products or brand in the market.
These 4Ps make up a marketing mix – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Let’s go through understanding these 4Ps of the marketing mix adopted by the Union Bank of India.
Product Strategy of Union Bank of India
UBI provides various banking products and services to its customers. They did technological transformation in 2008 and provided platforms to their customers to ease the transaction process.
They offer deposits like term deposits, fixed deposits, recurring deposits; loans on homes, cars, and personal loans too. They also offer Visa cards like credit and debit cards, corporate and international cards.
Apart from this, they offer insurance schemes, cash management services, mutual funds, online payment, tax payment, Demat and trading account opening, and saving schemes for senior citizens.
UBI also offers online services like UPI app for easing the transaction process, Net banking services, U-Control app for credit card users. They had also introduced schemes to give credit under MSME policy to small, micro, and medium enterprises.
Price Strategy of Union Bank of India
UBI has transparent and dynamic pricing which keeps changing according to the requirements.
The primary source of revenue is interest rates. And, these interest rates are dynamic as it is governed by the regulatory body, Reserve Bank India (RBI). Also, UBI’s pricing depends on the feedback provided by the general public on other banking products. However, most of the times, the bank keeps its pricing standards as per the industry standards.
Revenue sources are mainly from interest rates, consulting fees, and commission. Market standards and competitor pricing are the main parameters for determining the price.
Place Strategy of Union Bank of India
UBI is operational worldwide and has 4200+ branches in India. They have around 6000 ATMs in India. Its ATMs and branches act as distribution centres for delivering banking services to their customers.
(Image source: Business Standard)
The bank is well equipped with Core Banking System Solutions so that users can access and use their accounts from any part of the country from any branch of Union Bank of India.
Promotion Strategy of Union Bank of India
UBI uses a mix of various media channels to promote its brand. They use both, direct and indirect channels of communication. Apart from highlighting the modern facilities, they also emphasize the benefits a UBI’s customer gets.
Print media has worked great in strengthening UBI’s brand identity. They also advertise on televisions and mainly focus on showing the ease of banking and the new facilities and products they provide.
Newspaper Advertisements of UBI
(Image(s) Source: Advert Gallery)
They also undertake various advertising campaigns. One of its popular campaigns was, “Your dreams are not yours alone”. The message behind the campaign was processing housing loans in just 5 days.
Now that we have understood its marketing strategy, let us understand the steps that UBI has undertaken to communicate its offerings to the general public.
Marketing Strategy of Union Bank of India
The marketing strategy of the Union Bank of India includes traditional as well as digital marketing. Through its marketing strategy, the bank wants to increase its market share in India’s expanding banking and financial services industry.
Their goal is to create and reinforce the bank’s unique voice to build brand awareness, importance, reputation, and esteem among the customer. The bank plans marketing & promotional activities to enhance brand building & increase visibility as part of its traditional marketing strategy.
Let’s see how the bank is performing digitally.
Digital Marketing Strategy of Union Bank of India
The bank has a good brand presence on social media platforms like Instagram and they constantly work towards keeping their audience updated about their products and services.
It has several digital campaigns that revolve around showcasing its products and reinforce the benefits it provides. With its constant efforts, it has acquired a massive following on Instagram.
- They usually spread awareness about their products.
- They educate their customers and post about it in regional languages too.
- Their content mainly revolves around the product their customers need after reaching a certain age. Like, they post about education loans for the betterment of student’s future.
- They make all the senior citizens aware by educating them about the schemes they have for senior citizens.
- They create content around their products like car loans, investment schemes, farmer loans, etc.
However, they lack digital customer support. They do not respond to their customer’s queries and do not guide them which helps their competitors.
On the website, they promote their product like loans, deposits, and other services like digital banking, etc.
Now let us look into the campaign and advertisements by the Union Bank of India that made an impact on the general audiences.
Marketing & Advertising Campaigns of Union Bank of India
Marketing campaigns have been around as long as there have been products and services to promote. Marketing campaigns are proven to assist businesses in reaching a wider demographic. A marketing campaign implies employing various sorts of media and online platforms for promoting a product.
Let’s see the marketing campaigns undertaken by the Union Bank of India.
Name Plate – A Home Loan Marketing Campaign of UBI
The brand did this campaign in November 2019. The bank had created a video advertisement to promote its home loan by making a woman the homeowner.
In the ad campaign, it is shown that a woman is asking by pointing to the nameplate that “Why only her name is written and not his husband’s name too”. To which the man replied, “The name of the person who bought the house is written on the nameplate”.
Union Bank of India also highlights how they have been helping people for 100 years to get their own homes.
Car Loan Campaign of UBI
The aim to create this ad was to let everyone know that Union Bank of India’s products and services are processed faster compared to its competitors.
The idea was to borrow insightful stories from real life and showcase stories about a common man’s aspirations and dreams. The brand did this campaign in September 2013.
Now, let’s see what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats which the Union Bank of India is having, or may have in the future.
SWOT Analysis of Union Bank of India
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project or in a business venture. A good SWOT analysis can help you reach your online marketing goals or kick your business startup into high gear.
SWOT Analysis of Union Bank is as follows:
Strengths of UBI
- Provide financial products to the agriculture sector
- Products are aligned with government schemes
- Have international representative offices in Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Sydney, etc.
- Provides Core Banking Service (CBS).
- Provide online banking facilities.
Weakness of UBI
- Less International presence as compared to leading players
- Less Advertisement which leads to lower brand presence
- Average offerings compared to its private banking competitors
Opportunities of UBI
- Small scale business banking
- More global penetration through International banking
- To create full-fledged digital marketing plans
Threats of UBI
- Economic crisis
- Highly competitive environment
- Strict Banking Norms
With this our case study on Union Bank of India comes to an end, let us summarize everything in the following section.
Conclusion
UBI, being one of the main public sector undertaking (PSU) banks, it provides all kinds of banking services a person is looking for. It is also backed by the Government of India that adds extra trust in the minds of customers.
However, the bank has to work out more on marketing its services. It has to come up with regular campaigns both online and offline to bring in new customers or to retain existing customers.
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