Indian banking’s focus on technological innovation has seen a paradigm shift towards digitalisation as Internet banking has emerged as the biggest focus area in the “Digital Transformation” agenda of banks fostered by India’s Digital India initiative.

According to an EY report, the shift towards internet banking is fueled by the changing dynamics in India as byy 2020, the average age of Indian citizens will be 29 years and this young consumer base will be internet savvy and need real time online information. The report concluded that Indian banks need to aspire high and move toward implementing a world class internet banking capability.

IndusInd bank, ranked 12 by the Brandz top 50 most valuable Indian brands has invested extensively in fintech,. According to PwC research, over 95% of financial services incumbents seek to explore fintech partnerships. IndusInd also introduced its mobile app Indus Mobile which goes into the realm of biometrics and enables transaction approval through a simple fingerprint validation.

As to how IndusInd is benefiting from investing in fintech, The Drum spoke with Anil Ramachandran, IndusInd’s head of marketing and communication, and head, retail unsecured assets who says: “The new age is one of collaboration, and banks and fintechs are each finding collaborations to be accretive. The simple rule is that of playing to your clear competencies and plugging and playing with competencies of the partner. Alliances in the digital world enable us to bring a diverse set of services to our consumers.”

“We have partnered with leading companies towards bringing tangible benefits to the consumer. Both entities draw on each other’s innovative skills and inherent strengths to create a stable and robust business platform on the one hand and a superior customer experience on the other.”

IndusInd has also adopted the concept of ‘Responsive Innovation’ as a central theme of its brand building program by which ‘customer feedback received through social media is crafted into solutions for the new age banking customer’.

Ramachandaran explains the digital shift, saying:”The bank has, over the recent years, been investing judiciously in advertising and marketing programs using a range of media, from traditional ATL/print/TV etc. to a deep focus on the digital medium. The bank was one of the earliest BFSI brands to understand the importance of going digital, both from a customer onboarding/servicing/ engagement perspective, to using the medium as a brand builder. An effective use of traditional media and the emerging digital paradigm has worked effectively to enhance the brand image and recall.”

IndusInd has ventured into campaigns through which it aims to build up the brand salience, according to Ramachandaran. He says: “The focus was on the showcasing products and services we offer and on taking to the market our platform of responsive innovation; which in essence was understanding consumer pain points ( though a sustained focus on research ) and arriving at simple , customer-friendly solutions which made banking convenient.”

IndusInd has also created a platform called “IndusInd for Sports”, under which it aims to bring all sports-related initiatives. In the first campaign it raised awareness and supported paralympic athletes who represented India at the Rio Olympics, while the second campaign supported the visually impaired Indian cricketers playing at the T20 World Cup Cricket 2017 for the blind.

Explaining the strategies behind these campaigns, Ramachandaran says: “As we have grown as organisation, we have also started supporting causes which we believe in, and where we believe we can make a distinctive difference. We have, for a while, been supporting causes that relate to ‘Sports’ because we believe that qualities that one associates with sports (leadership, endurance, team spirit etc.) can transform people and organisations.”

On whether they plan to expand through partnership, he says: “The bank will continue exploring opportunities, where we can provide the requisite impetus to compete and excel in sports. We are very passionate about this cause and would want to continue to give support to the core development and progress of sports. Our support will be in areas where we believe we can make a difference.”

In terms of advertising spend, IndusInd aims to go beyond traditional advertising to create a favourable disposition and to drive the “buy “decision according to Ramachandaran.
He says: “Our philosophy is that every touch-point is a direct communication to a potential customer and we have tried to use a complete 360 degree approach to creating brand salience. We are strong users of outdoors and the television medium and in recent times our deployment behind digital is increasing significantly.”

“But we also use each of our innovations and outlets to drive customer preference. A simple example would be our ATMs which have the Choice Money feature which enables the customer to choose denominations of her choice. It is a big favourite, not just with our customers, but with other bank’s customers as well, as it solves a very basic need of having denominations of one’s choice. These properties also create a significant positive brand disposition.”

It may not be overtly palpable, but the Indian consumer is changing and is becoming more and more digitally inclined each day. Anil Ramachandran – Head of Marketing and Corporate Communication, IndusInd Bank explores the intricacies of digital marketing and understanding the digital consumer.

India has seen an exceptional growth in adoption to the new and emerging digital world, and its emerging paradigms. Despite the oft-cited lacunae of poor infrastructure, last mile connectivity, cost of data and mobile telephony, the Indian consumer is changing, and is connecting to a new digital reality. A lot of this has to do with large investments by telecom companies and network solutions providers and their emerging business models, which have been able to create low cost solutions, facilitating online connectivity. Mobile data connectivity is becoming ubiquitous and online connectivity is no longer a preserve of the rich and the upper middle class.

More than half of the world’s population now uses the internet, with more than 3.75 billion people online today. Over the last few years organisations have made serious changes to their media budgets and marketing strategies to expand their presence to where their audience now is: online.

With the emergence of digital and online media, companies have significantly changed the scope of their marketing strategies. A strong focus is now on managing online brand presence; and no marketing team is today complete without having a strong talent base and expertise in the digital medium. The advantage of the digital medium is that it comes with the innate ability of influencing a purchase decision, managing customer experience, enhancing service delivery, creating sustained engagement, all the while providing superior effectiveness measurement metrics, which is so critical for any marketer. As the online world moves increasingly into the mobile phone, customer stickiness becomes all the more pertinent. It becomes increasing difficult to have a new adoption for a similar service, for example when the customer is already highly engaged with an app!

As with the entire digital space, digital marketing, too, has been moving at an incredible pace. New and innovative methods keep emerging as to how brands convert fans to customers, and how it transitions customers to endorsers and influencers. As in any marketing journey the process of discovering what works best, is driven as always by research; and then to a large extent, by a structured process of iteration. The smallest of things, such as the colour of your creative, the tone of your advertisement, how online responses are worded on an online query etc. goes a long way in establishing a strong brand identity online.

We have become dependent on the internet in both our personal and professional lives. This evolutionary change that has fostered the development of an entire industry that did not exist prior to the internet. Some marketers still continue to grapple with this rapidly changing world. At the end of the day digital marketing is nothing but the means of promoting business objectives online. The message remains the same, but the medium and how the message is conveyed changes significantly. Technology therefore becomes a means of reaching a target audience.

Digital terms, simplified

At the forefront of internet integration in everyday life are search engines. Not only have they become the driving force in internet innovations, but also in digital marketing. The terms Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are the original foundations of digital marketing. Typically, the higher a business ranks on search results and the more frequently it appears in searches, the more traffic that site will receive. Driving ranking on search engines is both an art and a science, and clever deployment of investments towards this is critical.

Social media is an integral part of digital marketing. It is, however, critical to have a judicious mix of social media, and this involves having a well thought through social media strategy. Content marketing is another strategic marketing approach, focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action and behaviour. Design, navigation and layout of a website is extremely critical and ensuring compatibility on mobile devices, to provide the user with a seamless experience, is key .While this may sound simplistic, examples still abound of sites which are poor on navigation, or which have not yet adapted to mobile compatibility.

We are seeing a series of emerging trends in the digital space. In recent times virtual reality is a growing trend seen in the video gaming industry. Live streaming allows you to engage with your audience instantaneously. Product placement in these areas are creating new marketing opportunities. Influencer marketing has become digital marketing’s “word of mouth” strategy. In real life, if a friend raves about an incredible restaurant she recently visited, her opinion would have an influence on you your next restaurant visit. In the digital world, if a popular travel blogger eulogises and recommends a travel destination that would significantly influence the purchase behaviour of the readers. This provides, for example, a travel company an opportunity to leverage off the influencer and create packages and market them accordingly.

Digital Marketing has changed the marketing landscape simply because it’s the one means of communicating with consumers that is always “right there;” on smartphones and tablets that go with consumers literally everywhere.

In order to sustain growth in any business, you will need to focus on building your brand. While this may seem like an impossible task, with the right digital marketing strategies you will be able to enhance the recognition and reputation your brand has to offer.

The work that you put in regarding the building of your brand is worth it considering just how beneficial it can be when trying to retain loyal customers.
Creating and managing content online is essential to promoting a brand and having a content strategy is vital for the astute marketer. The key is to create content that is interesting and different. Smart marketers are able to take (at times!) mundane information and turn it into an interesting narrative, gripping for the consumer and culminating in a desired call-to-action. Almost everyone loves a good story. A well-constructed digital story manages to connect and engage the audience by using a message that is empowering and inspiring.
Creative content can be used to chat, connect and answer questions. This is not only a great way to understand client needs and concerns, but also promotes an image of a caring organisation, which is willing to listen.

Some things never change. The good old time-tested practice of taking feedback from salespeople and understanding from them as to what customers are thinking, remains as critical today: What do they talk about? How can you help them? Research will help, but sometimes it’s the salespeople who feel the real pulse from the field. Companies that put their customers first when creating content are bound to win, because they will produce something of real value. And that’s the secret behind content marketing.

A few thoughts that could be of use while devising your digital communication strategy which feeds into your marketing plan:

Diversify : It is unlikely that your entire customer base and target audience are all on the same social network. Age as a simple variable can sometimes segregate social media platform adoption. Diversify your company’s engagement efforts by participating in multiple platforms. Aside from your blog, Twitter and Facebook, connect via Pinterest, Tumblr and LinkedIn and other platforms. Not only will these different platforms allow you to reach out to a larger audience, your brand can experiment with different types of content for each platform. Remember, one size does not fit all when it comes to social channels. It is critical to be nimble and fleet footed to adapt to content consumption patterns and tastes.

Creativity of content is key: If your brand is already well established and is already considered a thought leader in the industry, it isn’t necessary for every tweet, post and article to be about your company. General interest content works well for creating and sustaining brand interest and patronage. Share connected stories or news related to your business, or even ask your customers what they think the next blog post should be about! Customer-focused content will sometimes will work much better than tom-tomming your products directly.
The digital medium provides for an end to end delivery, from a customer life-cycle perspective. Right from igniting customer interest to the influence on the purchase decision through to servicing and renewal/replacement decisions, the digital media can be used to drive customer preference and engagement.

The role of the marketer starts blurring in a digital world. A digital marketer plays an important role not just in influencing the purchase decision but in the entire life cycle. How customers interact with the brand, the digital tonality, the look and feel of the digital engagement screens, the digital engagement devices, driving influencer behaviour etc. all come in within the marketer’s purview.

Even in a fast-moving digital age, some things have remained the same. An obsessive focus on the customer, and keeping the customer in the forefront is still the key to a successful marketing and business strategy.

The medium may have changed. The messages remains the same, though communicated in a different manner and perhaps , more effectively!
This article was written by Anil Ramachandran – Head of Marketing and Corporate Communication, IndusInd Bank.

The term paradigm shift is an interesting one. If you considered a dictionary meaning then it will reveal a paradigm shift as a shift in direction of any business or strategy of a nation from the past for the betterment of future, or something along those lines. If we keep the year 2000 as a starting point, what is that moment when you felt Indian sport made that shift?

Two occasions instantly come to mind.

The first was in 2007 when the India cricket team travelled to South Africa for the T20 World Cup. After a demoralizing World Cup campaign in the West Indies played earlier that year, India’s cricket mad public needed a lift. In South Africa, a young team, a young and inexperienced captain, promised excitement but not much hope to go all the way. But Dhoni and his motley crew had other ideas. Throughout the fortnight, the Men in Blue played an exhilarating brand of cricket that was high on flair, attitude and guts and they topped it off with a nerve-jangling final over victory over our most storied rivals.

The other occasion, almost exactly a year later, was at the Chinese capital. For every Indian, an individual Olympic Gold had become the very definition of the monkey on the back. At the Beijing Shooting Range Hall, Abhinav Bindra decided enough was enough.  In an absorbing 10m air rifle final, Bindra performed flawlessly and delivered a golden moment that filled every single Indian with pride and inspired many others to stick it out in training for one day it could be they who had an Olympic gold slung around their neck.

But do these qualify as a shift? Maybe, maybe not. But here another case can be made. The first season of the Indian Premier League.

If Roman Abramovich’s takeover of Chelsea ushered in a new era for the Barclay’s Premier League, then the same can be said of the inaugural IPL Season which took place a little over a decade ago. Till the explosion of the IPL into the global conscious, Indian sport’s chief exports were still restricted to our athletes. But IPL changed that and how! India finally had a product that viewers – both at home and abroad – couldn’t get enough of, this super charged, thrill-a-minute ride that truly brought the ‘hyperactivity’ of European club football to the erstwhile meandering pace of International Cricket, and this is with all due respect to ODI’s.

There was T20 cricket before the IPL but after the IPL, it became synonymous with it.

For a country obsessed with cricket, the popularity of the Indian Premier League has been galvanized by the Indian consumer’s rising disposable income and the country’s youth – the largest in the world. The young and happening in India had a product that matched their attention spans and with opinion merchants frolicking on social media and giving brands impressions to salivate over, the sporting ecosystem took on a new moniker. The success of the IPL is evident a decade later; just look at the dizzying numbers being speculated for the battle for the IPL rights. But this tide of success has also lifted other boats and resulted in a mushrooming of sports leagues. Badminton, MMA, Wrestling, Football, you just need to name a relatively popular sport and you have a league.

And for all these sports, they finally got that one thing they craved for: attention.

Without these eyeballs, this sense of connection, how will the money factor be addressed? Government spending can only go so far, but these leagues have proved havens for brands and the trickledown effect has meant athletes getting the sort of remuneration their efforts have warranted. No denying, more can be done but at long last there is some something to build on. Our growing confidence in India’s place in the world has also helped and this has reflected in our athletes, no doubt bolstered by the fact that Indian sporting success is no longer isolated to just cricket. A perfect example of this new-found confidence and the evolution of the Indian sporting system was at the Rio Olympics last year.

The story of three incredible Indian women shone through as Sakshi, Sindhu and Dipa became the beacons of hope for thousands of women in India as they declared, ‘We are all of you’. The other heart-warming takeaway was that two of the girls – Dipa and Sakshi – performed wonderfully in sports that aren’t high on the popularity index. This is the evolution of the Indian sporting area and in 2017, the Indian sporting story is finally multi-dimensional. Thanks to the Internet, the athlete’s story is not guaranteed to be lost in the annals of history, more people are exposed to these stories than ever before. Once we support our athletes, the ecosystem is empowered and then it’s a small matter of inspiration and motivation and history has shown time and again that both of factors work in funny, magical ways.

Today, an athlete is confident at a global stage, motivated beyond the regular underdog story. And maybe, that is the real paradigm shift in Indian sports.