From last few days I am observing that State Bank of India(SBI) is advertising heavily in print media as well as broadcast media.In most of the major newspapers you can see the" SBI customer"comparison Ad.It describes that all income class people can be a SBI customer.He may be a driver or may be a top business man. He may be a mechanic or the owner of the vehicle.Though State Bank of India has already created a brand equity among Indians but still its preemptive strategies are customer oriented.But what i can say is that now banks are spending on Brand Building like never before.The reason behind it what I believe is banks are the most commoditised brands in the world now.They not only try to position themselves differently but also try to create value to the customer and achieving customer's faith.So banks are going the FMCG way in advertising.According to media monitoring company AdEx India ,banks were the third largest among advertisers in the first half of 2008. HDFC Bank topped the list with an spent of Rs 307 crore in the financial year of 2007-08. Citi Bank and ICICI Bank were the other major spender.Union bank is going to spend Rs 75 crore on advertising this year. So on an average banks have raised their promotional expenses by about 40 percent in the last two years.Celebrity endorsements are more frequent now. Royal Bank of Scotland roped in Sachin Tendulkar,Sania Mirza for Deutsche Bank,SRK for ICICI Bank are some examples. In their advertisements they deliver certain Brand Promises like the private Indian banks claim world class efficiency,foreign banks claims to be more Indian's type and the public sector banks claim to be more modern in operation. But whether it is Sachin or SRK,banks need to make sure they inspire trust while building brands.
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