PROJECT REPORT ON

MARKETING OF SERVICES PROVIDED BY BANK ITS IMPACTS AND TRENDS WITH REFERENCE
TO
ICICI BANK

INDEX

SR.NO TOPIC PAGE NO.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
1. INTRODUCTION OF BANKING IN INDIA
• Changing face of banks 6-8
2. MARKETING
• Meaning
• Definition
• Characteristics 9-10
3. SERVICES
• Meaning
• Classification
• Characteristics 11-14
4. SERVICE MARKETING
• Introduction
• Concept of marketing
• Evolution of Marketing Concept
• Service Marketing
• The Importance of Marketing in the Service-Sector 15-18
5. BANK MARKETING
• Introduction
• Concept of bank marketing
• Diagram of approaches of bank marketing 19-21
6. MARKETING STRATEGIES
• Introduction
• Traditional Marketing- the Marketing Mix
• The Concept of Mix:
• 4 P’s of Marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion)
• Promotional Measures by Indian Banks
• Types of marketing
• Internal Marketing
• Interactive Marketing
• External marketing
• Process: (System and Procedures) 22-43
7. 10 Ps OF BANKING 44-46
8. CUSTOMER SERVICE
• Importance of Customer Service in Banks
• Customer Service in Indian Banks 47-50
9. ICICI BANK
• Overview
• Introduction
• History
• About icici bank
• Social and development initiative
• Customer service in icici bank 51-57
10. SERVICES PROVIDED BY ICICI BANK
• Personal banking
• Demat service
• ATM services
• Cards
• Mutual funds
• Online services 58-64
11. IMPACTS
• Impacts of online services 65-66
12. 10 Ps OF MARKETING OF ICICI BANK
• Product mix
• Pricing mix
• Place
• promotion mix
• process
• physical evidence
• people
• positioning
• perception
• planning 67-75
13. TRENDS IN ICICI BANK 76-77
ANNEXURE 78
SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS 79
CONCLUSION
80

BIBLIOGRAPHY 81

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

With the change in business environment from a sellers market to a buyers market,
the concept to a buyers market, the concept of marketing also changed in its
demand the focus. When the availability of product was less than its demand the
focus was on production. But when various products were made available to meet a
particular need or want of the customer, emphasis was on quality and product
improvement to win the customer.

Originally marketing concept was developed around a physical product but later on
as services sector grew in importance and competition intensified marketing
concept was also applied to the services. But services are unique in their
characteristics. They differed from physical production the ground that are
intangible, inseparable from the provider, inconsistent depending upon the skill
and efficiency of the provider and they cannot be stored.

Traditionally marketing is the marketing mix of 4 Ps, i.e. Product, price, place
and promotion. It is a judicious blend of the tools and techniques of marketing to
meet the customer’s needs in an effective manner.

A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition,

use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. In a banking context it is a
service which is intangible.

Price refers to the amount of money a customer is willing to pay for the product.
From the supplier’s angle, it is the amount of money at which the firm is prepared
to offer its goods and services.

Promotion is a process of persuasive communication and relates to the task of

informing the target market about the firm’s product. This is a challenging job in
service marketing as services can not be pre-tested or inspected by the customer
before purchasing.

1. INTRODUCTION OF BANKING IN INDIA

The word “Bank” is originated from the German word “Bank” which means heap or
mound or joint stock fund. From this, the Italian word “banco” meaning heap of
money was coined. The English meaning of “bank” is prevalent today, i.e., as an
institution accepting money as deposits for lending.

A bank is an institution, which deals in money and credit. Thus, bank is an

intermediary, which handles other people’s money both for their advantage and to
its own profit’s but bank is merely a trader in money but also an important
manufacturer of money.

For a common person it may be just a storehouse where he may store his money; for
a businessman it may be a financial institution and a day-to-day customer it may
be an institution where he can deposit his savings.

Bank plays an important role in the economy of any country as they hold the saving
of the public. Provides a means of payment for the goods and services and provide
necessary finance for the development of business and trade. Bank may also be
defined as a financial institution that links the flow of funds from savers to the
users.

Bank is also defined as “one who in ordinary course of business honors the cheques
drawn upon him by person from and for whom he receives money on current accounts”

“Banking means accepting for the purpose of lending or investment, of deposits of

money from the public, repayable on demand or otherwise and withdraw able by
cheques, drafts, order or otherwise”.

A banking company may be defined as “any company which transacts the business of
banking”

Customers Relationship Management, on the other hand, is an individualistic

approach which concentrates on certain select customers from the homogeneous
groups, and develops sustainable relationships with them for adding value to the
bank. This may be termed as a "Selective" approach. Thus, bank marketing concept,
whether "collective" approach or "selective" approach, is a fundamental
recognition of the fact that banks need customer oriented approach. In other
words, bank marketing is the design and delivery of customer needed services
worked out by keeping in view the corporate objectives of the bank and
environmental constraints.

CHANGING FACE OF BANK

Banks are the most important constituent of the financial infrastructure of

a country. They play a vital role in bringing about desired change in the economic
development of the country. The size and composition of the banking transaction
mirror the economic happenings in the country. Banks provide to the saver a
convenient avenue for investment of surplus funds, and to the investor a source to
finance. Thus, they, as ‘Repositories of People’s Savings’, mobilize small
scattered savings of the community and as ‘Purveyors of Credit’ channelise the
savings so mobilized into the production of capital goods and thereby facilitate
capital formation. They, by providing cheap and timely credit to the best of the
schemes, help in optimum utilization of scarce productive resources and in keeping
the production cost low. Further, by providing remittance facility with their vast
branch network help free flow of funds over different parts of country wherever
there is a need for it instead of allowing them to lie dormant in stagnant pools.
They help in the implementation of various welfare programmes of the Government
and are also of tremendous help to the Government in meeting plan objectives by
directing the resources through desired channels.

Banking after independence can be divided into three specific phases:

1. Pre-nationalization era (1947-1969)
2. Post-nationalization era (1969-1990)
3. Financial reforms and thereafter

The financial reforms process and resulting liberalizations that started in

the year 1991 have put the banking system in an atmosphere which was never before.
They were no more in the control regime of administered prices. Interest rates
were deregulated and prudential norms were introduced. The entry of new players
like the new private and the foreign banks with their state of art technology and
improved customer service made the competition in the banking industry more keen
and intense. The impact of such competition ultimately led to the sinking bottom
lines of the banks.

In the above circumstances, the banks had no other option than adopting
marketing as the strategy for survival and growth. It has been seen that the bank
which is able to understand the needs and wants of its customers well and
satisfies them in the best possible manner at a profit to itself, emerges as the
winner in the long run.

2. MARKETING

Meaning of Marketing

In the most simple and not-technical language marketing may be defined as a

business function entrusted with the creation and satisfaction of customer to
achieve the aims of business itself.

According to Philip Kotler, “marketing is a human activity directing at

satisfying needs and wants through exchange process.”
Business aims at profit:
1. To realise profit, a sale has to be made.
2. To make the sale, a customer has to be created.
3. To retain the customer, he has to be satisfied.
4. To satisfy the customer, his needs have to be me.
5. To meet his needs, the product should conform to the requirements of the
customer.
The analysis exactly fits in to Drucker’s comment on the purpose of the business,
i.e. to create a customer.

This idea may be stretched a little further to structure the term marketing
as one that is directly concerned with demand: its recognition, anticipation,
creation. Stimulation and finally satisfaction. Thus marketing is, therefore, eyes
and ears of the business. It is responsible for keeping the business in close
contact with its environment and informed of events that can influence its
operations. Because of changing emphasis it is no easy task to define the term
marketing. However, it may be defined “as a social and managerial process by which
individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and
exchanging products and value with others”. It is concerned with identifying
consumer ‘needs’ and determining ways in which the organisation is able to meet
those needs in a profitable manner.

In general, marketing activities are all those associated with identifying

the particular wants and needs of a target market of customers, and then going
about satisfying those customers better than the competitors. This involves doing
market research on customers, analyzing their needs, and then making strategic
decisions about product design, pricing, promotion and distribution.

DEFINITION OF MARKETING:

(1) According to William Stanton, “marketing is a total system of business

activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want satisfying
products to target markets in order to achieve organizational objectives.”

(2) According to Philips kotlar, “marketing is a human activity directed at

satisfying needs and wants through exchange process.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF MARKETING:

(1) Regular and continuous activity: marketing is a continuous activity in which

goods and services are manufactured and distributed to the consumers. Assembling,
grading, packaging, transportation, warehousing etc are the activities which are
supplementing marketing and are useful for the smooth conduct of the marketing
operations.

(2) Satisfaction of human wants: marketing activities are basically for the
satisfaction of consumer needs. Identification of consumer needs should be the
starting point of marketing activities.

(3) Relates to goods and services: marketing is concerned with the exchange of
goods and services with the medium of money between the buyer and seller of the
goods.

(4) Transfer of ownership: marketing of goods brings transfer of ownership and

services and facilities physical distribution production acts as a base of
marketing.
(5) Importance of 4ps: marketing is the sum total of product, price, promotion
and physical distribution which are often termed as the 4ps of marketing. Large
scale marketing is possible through appropriate combination of four Ps called the
marketing mix.

3. SERVICES

Meaning of Service

A service is an activity or benefit that one party can offer to another which is
essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its
production may or may not tied to a physical product. "Thus services are
separately identifiable: essentially intangible activities which provide want
satisfaction and that are not necessarily tied to the sale of a product or
service. To produce a service may not require the use of tangible goods. However,
when such use is required there is no transfer of title [permanent ownership] to
those tangible goods."

According to “American Marketing Association” “Services are the activities,

benefits or satisfactions which are offered for sale or are provided in connection
with the sale of goods.”

Services as defined in the clause (v) of section 2 of the ‘MRTP Act’ mean
service of any description which is made available to potential users and includes
the provision of facilities in connection with banking, financing, insurance,
transport, processing, supply of electrical or other energy boarding or lodging or
both, entertainment amusement or purveying of news or other information but does
not include the rendering of any service free of charge or under a contract of
personal service.

When a customer buys a service in the service market, he buys the time,
knowledge, skill or resources of some one else who is the provider or supplier of
the service. The buyer receives only satisfaction or benefits from the activities
of the provider who may be an individual, a firm or a company specializing in
selling certain benefits or satisfaction.

Characteristics of Services

Services have four important characteristics which make them so different

from physical products.

1.Intangibility

The distinguishing feature of a service is its dominant intangible aspect.

Some intangible features as listed by ‘J.Bateson’ are:
• A service cannot be touched
• Precise standardization is not possible
• There is no ownership transfer
• A service cannot be patented
• Production and consumption are inseparable
• There is no inventories of the services, and
• The consumer is a part of production-process, so the delivery system must go to
market or the customer must come to delivery system.

Pre-testing the service is not possible as they cannot be seen, tasted,

felt, heard and smelt before they are bought. When a prospective customer cannot
experience the product in advance they are asked to buy what are essentially
promises of satisfaction. The buyer has to have faith in the service-provider.
Client's confidence in the service can be created by taking the help of
celebrities, developing a brand name, increasing services tangibility, emphasizing
services benefits rather than just describing its features.

2. Inseparability
A service cannot be separated from its provider. This is in direct contrast
to a physical product, which exists whether or not its source is present. As the
provider only can render the service(s), it limits the firm's scale of operation.
To overcome this limitation the service provider can learn to work with larger
groups, to work, faster or the service organization can train more service-
providers.

3.Variability
In most cases human element is involved in providing service. Thus depending
upon who provides them and when and where they are provided the quality of service
is bound to vary. Standardization becomes a difficult task to achieve. So to
ensure quality, service firms should take care to select proper personnel and give
them adequate training for the work and should have a proper system to monitor
customer satisfaction.

4.Perishability
Services cannot be stored. So services not utilised is lost forever.
Perishability of service is not a problem as long as the demand for the same is
steady. Number of service, providers (staff) can be planned in advance for
expected demand. But it becomes a problem when it faces fluctuating demand. So, to
overcome this problem, the service concerns should have proper product planning,
pricing, and built-in flexibility in the organisation.

5.Ownership
In the case of goods, after the completion of process, the goods are
transferred in the name of the buyer and he becomes the owner of the goods. But in
case of services, we do not find this. For e.g. a consumer can use hotel room or
swimming pool, however the ownership remains with the providers

CLASSIFICATION OF SERVICES

There is wide variation in the nature of services rendered which makes it

difficult to classify them in a particular manner. They can be classified from
different angles.

First, they may be people-based or equipment-based.

People-based services are rendered by either professional’s viz. doctors,

accountants, lawyers, skilled workers viz., plumber, carpenter or unskilled worker
viz. Laborers, coolies etc.
Equipment based services may be classified on the basis of amount of equipment
used or nature of equipment used like automated equipment and equipments operated
by skilled labour or relatively unskilled labour. Sometimes the equipment may add
value to the services or it may exist to reduce the amount of labour needed.
Second, the delivery of service may require the presence of client or may
not. If delivery of service required the presence of client it demands some thing
extra from the service provider to be alert and considerate of the client's needs.

Third, the service can be classified on the basis of clients purchase

motives. If the service meets a personal need it may be termed as personal service
or if it meets a business need it may be termed as a business service.

Fourth, on the basis of service providers motives (profit or non-profit) and

form (private or public) services can be categorized into four types by taking two
Characteristics at a time, i.e. private profit seeking, private charitable and
similarly public profit seeking, public charitable.

Finally, a classification can be made on the basis of the nature of services

rendered. These may be financial (Banking, Insurance), medical, educational,
personal transport, communication, storage, entertainment, consultancy etc. This
may lead to creation of specialized service-industries as we have for physical
products.

4. Service Marketing

Introduction
On the basis of survey of literature, an attempt has been made to trace the
evolution of marketing, explain the marketing concept such as its meaning and
definition, point out peculiarities of service marketing, and its relevance
relationship of marketing to banking business, and growth of bank marketing. A
brief account of bank marketing sense in India has also been attempted.

Concept of marketing
An analysis of contemporary literature reveals clearly is conceptual
variation in the use of the term marketing. They describe it as a “function”, an
“orientation” or an “attitude” or a management science or technique. A closure
analysis would reveal that marketing in fact conveys all of these and often more.
An attempt is made here to trace the evolution of marketing and deal with all such
concepts through which marketing has been viewed.

Evolution of Marketing Concept

If we go back to the times before and after the nomads tried to settle down
on the banks of rivers, we will find that there were no markets. This can be said
as a ‘self-sufficient stage’. Each family then was a self-sufficient unit as far
as production and consumption were concerned. Barter system came into vogue giving
rise to an ‘exchange oriented’ stage. To facilitate this exchange process central
market were developed. These developments laid the foundation stone of marketing.

The term marketing has changed and evolved over a period of time, today
marketing is based around providing continual benefits to the customer, these
benefits will be provided and a transactional exchange will take place.
 With the change in the business environment there has also been a change in
the areas of trust. Emergence of competition has gradually changed the sellers
market in to buyers market. This period of transition has witnessed changes in the
areas of focus and angle from
Which marketing is viewed. There are five competing concepts on which marketing is
based. They are:

1. Production Concept
The production concept holds that consumers favour those products that are
available and highly affordable. Where the demand of a product is more than its
supply or where the product's cost is higher, it is natural that one will
concentrate on finding ways to increase production to make the product available
and affordable to consumers. Thus, the emphasis was on the production and
manufacturing and making the process as efficient as possible, seeking to achieve
the greatest output at the most economic levels of cost.

2. Product Concept
The product concept holds that consumers favour those products that offer
the quality, performance and features and therefore the organizations should
devote its energy to making continuous product improvements. The product concept
leads to marketing myopia because it presumes that customers will continue to buy
the product as long as the quality of the product is good but it overlooks the
fact that customers are interested in their need satisfaction not in the product.
Any other unproved product of a competitor may satisfy the need of the customer
better.

3. Selling Concept
This concept was based on the idea that the customer will either not buy or
not buy enough of the organization’s products unless the organizations make
effort, to stimulate customer's interest in their products. It was assumed that
the products are sold-not bought. Under this approach, which dominated 1950s, the
entire focus of organizations was shifted to gearing up their sales department.
Their attitude was that the sales department has to sell whatever the organization
produced.

4. Marketing Concept
The marketing concept is a more recent philosophy, which brought about a
significant change in the approach of organizations towards their products and
customers, in marketing; the attention is focused on producing such goods which
are wanted by the customers rather than selling whatever goods have been
needlessly produced.

Thus the marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organizational
goals consists in determining the needs and wants of target-markets and delivering
the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors.

5. Societal Marketing Concept

In the age of environmental deterioration, resource shortages, explosive
population growth, worldwide inflation and neglected social services, it is
expected that firms that senses, serves and satisfies individual wants should gear
themselves to act in the best long run interest of consumers and society.
Therefore there is emergence of societal marketing. Thus, this concept connotes
that the organisations task is to determine the needs, wants and interest of
target markets and to deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively and
efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer's
and society's well-being.
Service Marketing
The concept of marketing discussed previously was initially developed to
market a physical product. Now it becomes essential to find out if the same
concept developed for marketing of physical products is applicable to the
marketing of services. Before we come to this point, it is natural that we have no
two meanings regarding services and their characteristics.

The Importance of Marketing in the Service-Sector

Marketing was not that popular in services-industries as it was with
manufacturing firms. The reasons are obvious. Many service businesses were small
and were not using management techniques such as marketing which they thought
would be expensive or irrelevant. There were also service businesses like law and
accounting firms which believed that it is unprofessional to resort to marketing.
They relied more on their knowledge and efficiency than marketing their services.
Some service businesses like, educational institutions and hospitals had so much
demand that they had no need for marketing.
In India services sector has grown significantly. Its growth is also quite
important for India. Diagram has shown, the employment elasticity [to GDP growth]
in the services sector is higher than as in the case of both agriculture and
manufacturing sector. Secondly, the services sector by providing complementary
services to agriculture and industry, acts as a catalyst in the growth of the
entire economy. Thirdly, with its greater flexibility in location, low capital
intensity and personal nature is ideally suited for the small sector, which is the
most important sector for overall development of Indian economy. Accordingly, the
services sector has grown faster than the commodity sector.

5. Bank Marketing

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the banking industry around the world has been undergoing a
rapid transformation. In India also, the wave of deregulation of early 1990s has
created competition and greater risk for banks and other financial intermediaries.
The cross-border flows and entry of new players and products have forced banks to
adjust the product-mix and undertake rapid changes in their processes and
operations to remain competitive.
 Over the years, Indian banks have expanded to cover a large geographic &
functional area to meet the developmental needs. They have been managing a world
of information about customers - their profiles, location, etc. They have a close
relationship with their customers and a good knowledge of their needs,
requirements and cash positions. Though this offers them a unique advantage, they
face a fundamental problem.

During the period of planned economic development, the bank products were
bought in India and not sold. Marketing is a customer-oriented operation. What is
needed is the effort on their part to improve their service image and exploit
their large customer

Information base effectively to communicate product availability.

Furthermore, banks need to have very strong in-house research and market
intelligence units in order to face the future challenges of competition,
especially customer retention. Marketing is a question of demand (customers) and
supply (financial products & services, customer services through various delivery
channels). Both demand and supply have to be understood in the context of
geographic locations and competitor analysis to undertake focused marketing
(advertising) efforts. Focusing on region-specific campaigns rather than national
media campaigns would be a better strategy for a diverse country like India.

Throughout much of the last decade, banks world-over have re-engineered

their organizations to improve efficiency and move customers to lower cost,
automated channels, such as ATMs and online banking but this need not be the case.

As it is proved by the experience, banks are now realizing that one of

their best assets for building profitable customer relationships especially in a
developing country like India is the branch-branches are in fact a key channel for
customer retention and profit growth in rural and semi-urban set up. However, to
maximize the value of this resource, our banks need to transform their branches
from transaction processing centers into customer-centric service centers. This
transformation would help them achieve bottom line business benefits by retaining
the most profitable customers. Branches could also be used to inform and educate
customers about other, more efficient channels, to advise on and sell new
financial instruments like consumer loans, insurance products, mutual fund
products, etc.

We define bank marketing as “Bank marketing is the aggregate of functions,

directed at providing services to satisfy customers financial (and other related)
needs and wants, more effectively and efficiently than the competitors keeping in
view the organizational objectives of the bank.”

Concept of Bank Marketing

Marketing as it is viewed today is a way of managing a business so that each
strategy is evolved with foreknowledge of the impact of such decision on the
customer. Banks have broadly three dimensions, i.e., deposits, borrowings and
other allied services. Anyone who interacts on any of these fronts is qualified to
be a customer of a bank. Thus, a bank renders financial services as an
intermediary. As it renders personalised services and the present emphasis in
marketing is customer satisfaction it will not be inappropriate here to observe
that “customer of a bank is king”.

Therefore bank marketing implies that “it is the creation and delivery of
financial services suitable to meet the customer's needs at a profit to the bank”.
The concept of bank marketing encompasses:
1. Identifying the most profitable markets now and in future;
2. Assessing the present and future needs of customers;
 3. Setting business development goals and making plans to meet them;
4. Managing the various services and promoting them to achieve the plans;
5. Adapting to a changing environment in the market place.
From the above discussion of the bank marketing it can be understood that
the existence of the bank has little value without the existence of the customer.
The key task of the bank is there fore not only to create and win more and more
customer but also to retain them through effective customer service. Marketing as
related to banking is to define an appropriate promise to a customer through a
range of services (products) and also to ensure effective delivery through
satisfaction. The actual satisfaction delivered to be a customer depends upon how
the customer is interacted with. It goes on to emphasis that every employee from
the topmost executive to junior most employee of the bank is marketer.

The following chart gives an overview of the Two Pronged Approach to Bank
Marketing.

6. Marketing strategies

Introduction

Marketing strategy implies development of an action plan to achieve the

marketing objectives. It involves skill and concerned effort on the part of
management to evolve tools and techniques, which are understood and accepted
throughout the organisation in furtherance of the marketing cause.

According to Granroos, marketing strategy in the case of services may

consist in traditional external marketing, internal marketing and interactive
marketing.

Traditional external marketing consists of usual four ‘Ps’ of Product,

Price, Place and Promotion of marketing mix. Internal marketing is that the
service firm must effectively train and motivate its customer-contact-employees as
well as all the supporting service personnel to work as a team to provide customer
satisfaction. Interactive marketing is that the perceived service quality is
highly dependent on the quality of buyer/seller interaction.

Traditional Marketing- the Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is a combination of tools and techniques with which a marketer
has to meet the consumers in furthering his marketing objectives. The tools, as
propounded by different authorities, are many, but traditionally they are the
famous 4 Ps viz., Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Therefore, they constitute
the tools of traditional marketing.

The Concept of Mix:

Before the individual tools and techniques are discussed one point which
needs emphasizing is that none of the tools are very useful in isolation. It is
important, therefore, to think from the very beginning in terms of a judicious
blend of the tools and techniques of marketing mix. “Business executive is a
‘decider’, an ‘artist’ a ‘mixer of ingredients’, who sometimes follows a recipe
prepared by others, sometimes prepares his own recipe has he goes along, sometimes
adapts a recipe to the ingredients immediately available and sometimes experiments
with or invents no one else has tried".

From the above statement, given by Prof. ‘James Culliton’ in his study of
“manufacturer’s marketing cost”, Prof. ‘Neil H. Borden’ took a clue to describe
the marketing executive as a “mixer of ingredients” one who is constantly engaged
in fashioning creatively a mix of marketing procedures and policies in his efforts
to produce a profitable enterprise. Thus the concept of marketing mix is evolved.

It is needless to state that all products and services are not for all
segments, all segments may not afford the same price, the same place may not be
suitable for all segments for delivery of the products/service or the same
promotional measure May not arouse same level of confidence in all the customers.
Therefore, the essence of traditional marketing lies in providing each group of
customers a segment with a cost-effective mix of product, price, place and
promotion most suits their needs.

4 P’s of Marketing

1. Product

“A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention,

acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes
physical objects, services, persons, places, organisations and ideas.” The
function of marketing is to assess what attributes the consumer seeks from the
product and to combine these to make the most attractive product offering that, in
turn, will optimise the company’s profits. Our concern here is with the
‘services’. This is the product which banks deal in. Thus it becomes essential to
keep in mind the peculiarities of services like its intangibility, inseparability,
variability and perishability before we frame any product strategy. By buying a
service a customer doesn't possess anything as in case of a physical product. What
he gets is satisfaction of his wants and needs from the use of the service. Thus a
bank product is “anything that has the capacity to provide the satisfaction, use
and return desired by the customer.”
 As ‘Theodore Levitt’ has suggested there are four different levels of
satisfaction constituting a total product concept.

Levels of Satisfaction

The basic utility that the customer derives from a product is the first
level or core level placed at the centre surrounded by higher levels of
satisfaction. At each level more and more value addition takes place.

For a banking service such as a deposit account, the core element might be
safety and return on deposits. The higher level associated with it is expectation.
The customer also expects that the transaction must be completed without undue
delay and neat and accurate statement of account should be given to him and all
that in a warm and friendly atmosphere. E.g. Customers who purchase a camera are
buying more then just a camera they are purchasing memories. At the augmented
Level the banker on his own provides additional services, such as, a loan
facility, locker facility, credit card and also customer service which
differentiate the product from that of competitors. The highest level, the
potential level, consists of all potential additional features which the banker is
capable of packing into the banking product, besides, forging personal rapport
with the target customer. Thus the banker transforms into a friend, philosopher
and guide at this stage.

Levels of Satisfaction

The Product Life Cycle

A product's life cycle (PLC) can be divided into several stages

characterized by the revenue generated by the product. If a curve is drawn showing
product revenue over time, it may take one of many different shapes, an example of
which is shown below:

Product Life Cycle Curve

Development Stage
Product development is the incubation stage of the product life cycle. There
are no sales and the firm prepares to introduce the product. As the product
progresses through its life cycle, changes in the marketing mix usually are
required in order to adjust to the evolving challenges and opportunities.

Introduction Stage
When the product is introduced, sales will be low until customers become
aware of the product and its benefits. Some firms may announce their product
before it is introduced, but such announcements also alert competitors and remove
the element of surprise. Advertising costs typically are high during this stage in
order to rapidly increase customer awareness of the product and to target the
early adopters. During the introductory stage the firm is likely to incur
additional costs associated with the initial distribution of the product. These
higher costs coupled with a low sales volume usually make the introduction stage a
period of negative profits.

Growth Stage
The growth stage is a period of rapid revenue growth. Sales increase as more
customers become aware of the product and its benefits and additional market
segments are targeted. The Marketing team may expand the distribution at this
point. When competitors enter the market, often during the later part of the
growth stage, there may be price competition and/or increased promotional costs in
order to convince consumers that the firm's product is better than that of the
competition.

Maturity Stage
The maturity stage is the most profitable. While sales continue to increase
into this stage, they do so at a slower pace. Because brand awareness is strong,
advertising expenditures will be reduced. Competition may result in decreased
market share and/or prices. The competing products may be very similar at this
point, increasing the difficulty of differentiating the product. The firm places
effort into encouraging competitors' customers to switch, increasing usage per
customer, and converting non-users into customers.

Decline Stage
Eventually sales begin to decline as the market becomes saturated, the
product becomes technologically obsolete, or customer tastes change. If the
product has developed brand loyalty, the profitability may be maintained longer.
Unit costs may increase with the declining production volumes and eventually no
more profit can be made.

Product Mix
Product mix is the list of all products offered for sale. The concept behind
the product mix is that a marketer typically manages to market a number of
different products which are in different stages of their life-cycle. This
disparity of performance calls for different types of decisions in response to
differing market circumstances. A product mix is essential because:

1. There are an ever growing number of new products, each requiring the
development of specific marketing plans to manage them through their life-cycles.

2. There is an imperative need to prioritize products with respect, to the

resources available with the marketer which will be allocated toward their
management. Some products may offer better opportunities in attaining marketing
objectives than others.
3. As many of the bank products are related to each other there is a likelihood of
crippling an existing product with a new product. The product mix approach
provides the marketer with better advantage thereby reducing the extent of his
problem.

Boston Consultancy Group

This product portfolio matrix classifies product lines into four categories.
The BCG model suggests that organizations should have a healthy balance of
products within their range. The Boston Consultancy Group classified these
products as following:
The BCG matrix divides the products and services into 4 groups: Dogs, Cash Cows,
Stars, and

Dogs are products and services which are not doing well in a market and with
little potential. They are the products which might attract customers who will
then be attracted to more profitable services. But no bank can bear the cost of
too many dogs.

Cash cows are product and services form the core of the business always in
demand and produce high revenue in a stable market. Cash Cow is products at the
mature stage of the lifecycle, they generate high amounts of cash for the company,
but growth rate is slowing. There are chances that the product may slip into
decline; appropriate marketing mix strategies should be employed to try to prevent
this from happening.

Stars are products making an important contribution to the business in a

growing market. Stars have high market shares that operate in growing markets. The
product at this stage should be generating positive returns for the company.

Question Mark is a product which is presently enjoying low market share but
is considered to have high growth potential. A push at this stage will convert the
‘problem child’ into star product. These are products with low market share but
operate in high market growth rates. The company puts a lot of resources in this
product in the hope that it will eventually increase market share and generate
cash returns in the future.

ICICI bank has high market growth along with highly capturing market share
and hence he falls under the category STARS.
2. Price

The second P of the marketing mix is price. Price refers to the amount of
money a customer is willing to pay for the product. From the supplier’s angle, it
is the amount of money at which the firm is prepared to offer its goods and
services. Buying and selling, in a competitive market, is a game in which a
transaction takes place. It is necessary that both buyer and seller must have the
feeling of winning from the transaction.

The seller, looks to the cost plus profit and buyer looks to the
satisfaction in return for price to be paid. The satisfaction is a judgment, a
notion, a feeling and as such cannot be quantified in terms of money. It differs
from person to person. Accordingly, the variable that determines the satisfaction
would differ from person to person. Thus the banks while pricing their products
must take care of this factor and rely on product quality and promotion. A hike in
price is always viewed by the public with skepticism and distrust but it could be
alleviated by better communication, between bankers and their customers. One
survey pointed out that when customers were offered an explanation for changes in
fees, the proportion of customers, who viewed the changes as justified, increased
by about 50 per cent.

The other side of the pricing is cost. Price should cover the costs and a
return for the organisation to thrive. But the relationship between costs and
benefits offered by the banks in India, over the years, has been very hazy. This
is because banks were operating in an administered structure where the rates of
interest on deposits and advances were prescribed by the RBI. Therefore, theories
relating to pricing which assume the free play of market forces were of little
relevance. Due to lack of professional approach to the pricing of services offered
by the banks there were variations in charges for different services. However, due
to the efforts of Indian Banks Associations, public sector accepted a uniform
schedule of charges in respect of several services in 1985.

Since 1991, after liberalisation of financial system and gradual interest

rate deregulation by RBI there has been keen competition among banks resulting in
dwindling spreads,
from 7 percent in 1991 to 2 per cent in 1996. Participation in the rate war (price
fixation) without concern for cost will be suicidal. So a cost in the competitive
scenario is of paramount importance.

While there is no single recipe to determine pricing, the following is a

general sequence of steps that might be followed for developing the pricing of a
new product:
1. Develop marketing strategy - perform marketing analysis, segmentation,
targeting, and positioning.
2. Make marketing mix decisions - define the product, distribution, and
promotional tactics.
3. Estimate the demand curve - understand how quantity demanded varies with price.
4. Calculate cost - include fixed and variable costs associated with the product

Methods of Pricing (Pricing Tripod)

1. Cost based pricing:
This the simplest form of pricing. In this pricing strategy, you take the
"Cost Price" of the product and you add to it how much profit you would like to
make per unit sold. What you get is the “Selling Price”.

To understand this better, consider you make 100 units of a product and it
costs you Rs.10 per piece. Now you decide that you would like to make a 2% profit.
So you charge Rs.2 extra per product and keep that is your profit.

This seems to make sense. However, this pricing strategy is very crude. This
pricing strategy is independent of the market and your target consumer. Besides
this, in the production of product, these must be some "fixed cost" that is
independent of the quantity produced. This cost may not be directly accounted for
in this system.

2. Demand based Pricing

In this method of pricing the cost is not considered but the service
provider allows the demand to determine the price. Demand based pricing is
generally used to where the services are price sensitive. The consumer perception
of the value of the service quality varies. Therefore successful demand based
pricing is based on effective segmentation of market to achieve the maximum price
from the segment.

3. Competition based pricing

Homogenous services that are standardized without special service attributes
are the best examples of competition based pricing. In this method of pricing the
price is determined on the basis of competitor’s price. Price under such
situations may be used to gain short-term competitive advantage over rivals.

Pricing Objectives:
Common objectives include the following:
Current profit maximization - Seeks to maximize current profit, taking into
account revenue and costs. Current profit maximization may not be the best
objective if it results in lower long-term profits.
Current revenue maximization - Seeks to maximize current revenue with no regard to
profit margins. The underlying objective often is to maximize long-term profits by
increasing market share and lowering costs.
Maximize quantity - Seeks to maximize the number of units sold or the number of
customers served in order to decrease long-term costs as predicted by the
experience curve.
Maximize profit margin - Attempts to maximize the unit profit margin, recognizing
that quantities will be low.

3. Place

The third ‘P’ in marketing mix is place or physical distribution. It refers

to the establishment and operation of outlets for physical distribution of the
products. In order to deliver the value satisfaction to target customers it is not
only sufficient to properly price the product, but it is also necessary to
physically move it to the place of consumption. The very objective of distribution
is to get the right product, at the right places and at the right time at the
least cost. Hence, distribution involves establishment of a strategy covering
channels of distribution and physical distribution of the product from the points
of origin to the points of consumption at a profit.

In case of goods the distribution may be direct, or indirect through agents,

middlemen and/or mercantile middlemen. But in the service sector, the distribution
is ought to be direct because of the character ‘inseparability’. Both production
and consumption of services take place at the same time.

In the banking context distribution refers to the establishment and

functioning of a network of branches and other offices through which banking
services are delivered. Extensive branch network helps a bank to have access to a
larger section of the people. From the customer's angle it is the proximity and
convenience of operation which plays a vital role in the selection of a bank, as
their need for banking service is repetitive in nature.

Suitable location of the bank, proper layout and provision of facilities

for the customer are the key factors to get majority of customers. Selection of
suitable location is not entirely under control of a banker. It has to get the
sanction of RBI, though control measures have been deregulated to a large extent.
It has been the practice of banks, with an intention to become nearer to the
customers, to locate their branches in the congested areas of marketplaces. While
doing so one should not overlook the factors such as availability of parking space
and traffic.

Though location of banks is guided by many extraneous factors, banks have

discretion in designing the structure of the building, planning the internal
layout, maintenance and upkeep of their premises. In the olden days, banks were
imposing structures, designed to impress the elite section of the society. In
terms of their physical appearance they were more awe-inspiring than inviting. But
shift to mass banking and the resultant emphasis on social approach have dictated
the appearance of branch offices to be more customer-friendly. Besides the
structure of the building, the neat, clean, tidy premises, proper branch layout,
i.e., position of the counters, space for movement, queuing in front of the
counters, waiting lobbies, etc, attract people to walk in. Upkeep and maintenance
of the branch is a regular process and not one time measure. “Fight dirt and
remain clean” should be cultivated as part of organisational culture.

The banks in India, besides having full-fledged branches, also operate

various other types of outlets like extension counters, mobile branches and
specialised branches for delivery of banking services. The need for enlarging
their activities and upgrading them for marketing of services should be explored.
It is true that the scope for opening new branches in the urban and
metropolitan areas of the country is extremely limited but by splitting up bigger
branches, up gradation and more effective use of non-branch outlets, acquiring
branches through amalgamation of smaller banks, etc., banks can overcome this
limitation.

The place is more than physical place. It is where actual transaction takes
place. It can be beyond the bank premises. And this has been made more significant
by technological advancements which have extended it to the doorsteps of the
customer even into the cozy atmosphere of his living room.

In diagram two types of channel of distribution methods are available.

Indirect distribution involves distributing your product by the use of an
intermediary. Direct distribution involves distributing direct from a manufacturer
to the consumer.

Indirect distribution direct distribution

4. Promotion

Promotion is a process of persuasive communication and constitutes one of

the 4 Ps of marketing mix. It relates to the task of informing the target market
about the nature and type of firms product and services, their unique benefits,
uses and features as well as price and place at which those would be available. It
is imperative on the part of a marketer to begin by attention then creating
interest, inspiring desire and precipitating the action for purchase of its
product or and above all it should result in a mutually satisfying exchange. Thus
the essence of promotion is the supply of required information which in turn will
stimulate the target customer and create a product preference among them. To put
it in other words, the term promotion embraces influence processes exerted by the
sellers of product on those who seek to be buyers.

In banking context promotion is a challenging job. Banks sell benefits. The

services rendered by the banks can-not be pre-tested or seen by the customers. For
this bankers have to organize effective promotional measures which seek to inform,
educate and actualize the markets. As, we have observed, communication provides
the base for promotion. It is a process of transmitting meaning through written,
oral and non-verbal message. It implies that receiver understands the message in
the same sense what the sender wishes to communicate.

Communication Channels

Here in diagram the source is the bank, which desires to transmit idea to
the customer through any vehicle, which may be a personal mode or impersonal mode
such as Newspaper, TV. And Radio. The idea may be in verbal or non-verbal mode and
it may be a scheme and/or its theme. The receiver is the customer(s) to whom
message is directed. Feedback is the signal received by the sender from the
receiver indicating effect of the message.

The Promotion Mix

Promotion comprises of four major elements viz., Advertising, Publicity,
Sales promotion, Personal selling. To achieve the objectives of promotion i.e., to
inform, to persuade, to remind and to reinforce, all the four methods are used to
some degree. Selection of the mix is based on their relative strength. Thus
promotional mix would vary from time to time, bank to bank, and place to place
depending upon the major customer segments and the type of service offered.

1. Advertising
It is any paid form of non-personal presentation of ideas, goods and
services by an identified sponsor. Advertising is used for mass communication and
includes the use of newspaper, magazines, radio, television, hoarding, posters,
banners, leaflets/brochures, direct mail etc.

2. Publicity
Publicity refers to the communication of any non-sponsored commercially
significant information about a company or its products to the public through non-
personal media without any financial charge to the company. It may be in the form
of a news item or editorial comment. Normally, a customer is faced with a
bewildering array of advertisements and does not either pay attention to or
believe much of what he is told. But publicity, as it is a third party, which says
about the product or organisation, is likely to have greater impact on the target-
audience.

3. Sales Promotion
 Sales promotion has been defined by American Marketing Association as “those
activities, other than personal selling, advertising and publicity that stimulates
consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness such as displays, shows, exhibitions,
demonstrations and various non-recurrent selling efforts, not in the ordinary
routine”. This is a type of activity where short-term incentives are extended to
encourage purchases. This may break through buyer's inertia towards a particular
product or service, but frequent use of this tool may lose its effectiveness.

4. Personal Selling
Personal selling is the most vital tool in the promotional mix. It is an
oral presentation while in conversation with prospective customers. It is of
particular relevance to a service industry like banking. As it involves two way
communications in social behaviour, both of buyer and seller, influence the
process to a great extent. For the same reason it is also necessary that bank
staff should adopt the characteristic retailers approach and should have the
following knowledge and ability:
Knowledge of all existing services or at least the knowledge of the person
to whom the customer should be referred for further information
Understanding of customer’s problems;
Ability to solve the customer’s problems and persuade the customer to accept
the solution.

Push & Pull Strategies

Communication by the manufacturer is not only directed towards consumers to

create demand. A push strategy is where the manufacturer concentrates some of
their marketing effort on promoting their product to retailers to convince them to
stock the product. A combination of promotional mix strategies are used at this
stage aimed at the retailer including personal selling, and direct mail. The
product is pushed onto the retailer, hence the name. A pull strategy is based
around the manufacturer promoting their product amongst the target market to
create demand. Consumers pull the product through the distribution channel forcing
the wholesaler and retailer to stock it, hence the name pull strategy.
Organisations tend to use both push and pull strategies to create demand from
retailers and consumers.

Promotional Measures by Indian Banks

The Indian banking sector seems to have displayed a half-hearted approach
towards promotion strategies. There seems a lack of commitment to advertising,
communication and personal selling. As banks grew in their size and reach and
faced competition from within and outside, the importance and imperative of
business promotion was felt.

Till the late sixties only a few banks were taking initiative to insert
short, perfunctory advertisements in magazines and newspapers. A change in the
advertising was marked after the nationalization in 1969. But they were to operate
within a controlled framework in pursuing promotional measures. A joint publicity
committee of public sector banks was constituted towards the end of 1971. Though
originally constituted for mobilizations of savings, subsequently it was
reconstituted and broad based. It brought out advertisements on matters of common
interest covering the areas like deposit mobilization, customer education,
advances to priority sectors and performance of public sector banks etc.

In July 1982 promotional expenditure of each public sector bank was

restricted to 0.01 per cent of its gross earnings and items that would be included
under the head “Publicity and Advertisement Expenses” were also listed out. But on
March-April 1984 a ban was imposed on the incurring of publicity expenses. In
Oct.1985, subject to certain conditions, there was relaxation in such expenses. In
1987 the banks were allowed to spend a maximum of 0.05 percent of their domestic
gross earnings; and 0.01 percent of overseas gross earnings and contribute 20
percent of their publicity budget to JPC. In 1989-90 the contribution made by the
banks was increased to 30 percent of their publicity budget. The permitted cases
in which public sector banks can advertise in the press are:

(1) Obligatory advertisements: branch opening and shifting, customers meet;

(2) Statutory advertisements: Balance sheet, P&L A/c;
(3) Unique schemes

It appears that public sector banks are in a regulated environment whereas

private and foreign banks in India enjoy relatively more freedom in spending on
advertising and publicity

TYPES OF MARKETING

Internal Marketing
The concept of internal marketing as propounded by Prof. ‘Leonard L. Berry’
of “Texas A&M University” of U.S.A. presumes the bank employees as its ‘internal
customers’ and jobs offered to them as products. So effort should be made to offer
a product mix that satisfies the needs and wants of these internal customers. The
same marketing tools which are used to attract and retain customers (external) can
gainfully be used to attract, retain and inspire the employees (internal
customers.), particularly the best among them.

The logic behind such type of thinking can be attributed to following facts.
Customers buy products and services of the bank exchanging their financial
resources. Similarly employees also buy jobs of the bank exchanging the human
resource. As both are drawn from the same society the exchange process is found to
be similar in many respects. It may be argued that in Indian context, a customer-
may have a better and wider option to change banks but employees do not have such
opportunity. In future, it is expected that the liberalized scenario may provide,
the best of the employees, with such opportunity. But one thing for sure is that
it remains the discretion of the employee to give his best or not. In a financial
industry like banks the product differential and price competition is almost nil
or the distinctiveness is difficult to maintain. The only area where a
distinctive- ness can be maintained is the quality of human resource. Further,
banks provide services and services by their nature are inseparable from the
provider. In this context the bank employees who provide these services assume
paramount importance. How far and to what extent the quality level of their
performance would reach is solely the discretion of the employee. As a satisfied
employee can deliver total satisfaction to a customer, it becomes important for
banks to satisfy the needs and wants of its employees on priority basis.

These activities can be further reinforced by certain promotional activities

directed at them. A highly motivated workforce is a common trait of all successful
organisations. Though it is difficult to ascertain what precisely motivates
employees, a clue can be taken from Abraham Mallow’s hierarchy of needs. Presuming
that the physiological needs of the bank employees have by and large, been taken
care of, greater emphasis should be laid on psychological and self-actualizations
needs such as: security, contribution to society, esteem and the need to reach
one's full potential, etc. It is necessary to create an organisational climate
where superior and extra-ordinary contributions made by employees at various
levels are noticed and acknowledged.

Advertising is a potent tool in making an employee aware, motivated,

educated, and inspired. Though a poster at the branch with the headline such as
“you never hear our people say 'that's not my job” or “if you are not satisfied
tell us, if satisfied tell others” are directed towards external customer. Yet, it
is clearly meant for the internal customers too and will have tremendous impact on
them. Of course, before putting up a poster like that would need taking staff into
confidence. It is needless to say that any advertising campaign which can
originate from the staff themselves would have more credibility and acceptability.
Or else it may be treated derisively and be counter-productive. Senior executives,
in this regard, have a definite role to play.

Interactive Marketing (Moment of Truth)

Moment of truth means that this is the time and place the service provider
has the opportunity to demonstrate to the customer the quality of its services.
Quality of service is dependent on the quality of buyer/ seller interaction.
This is the point, which may lead to creation of a customer or not. Though, we may
win him at that point of time, because of some other reasons, we may not retain
him or he may not come to us again if that interaction is not satisfying for him
to leave a lasting impact on him. We may have a beautiful marketing mix of
product, price, place and promotion, which bring the customer to us. We may still
have a good internal marketing, which prepares a band of knowledgeable employees
ready. But if we fail at this point all our effort so far will be futile. This is
the reason, which makes interactive marketing so important.

Thus interactive marketing describes employee’s skill in handling customer

contact and involves the following:
1. Employee
2. Process
3. Customer

Interactive Marketing

Interactive Marketing As indicated in above it is the group of able and

willing employees, which make the starting point of interactive marketing. They
are to be aided by proper processes (systems and procedures) as suitable vehicles
to render best customer service, which in turn will result in satisfied and loyal
customers. Internal marketing provides the required employees orienting them for
the job.
External marketing
The external marketing efforts are the traditional functions of marketing of
the customers and make promises to the customer as to what to be delivered.
Anything conveyed to the customer in any form before the delivery of service can
be viewed as a part of external marketing function.

According to Zeithaml and Bitner, the customer’s expectation of the service

can be derived from the following sources:
1. Past experience.
2. Corporate image.
3. Word of mouth communication.

Care should be taken to maintain credibility while setting the promise

because a very high expectation may lead to a highly dissatisfied customer.

Process: (System and Procedures)

In service marketing, process, which covers systems and procedures are the
vehicles for delivery of customer satisfying needs. Systems and procedures, in
vogue in Indian banks, were not seen as aids to promotion of client satisfaction.
They have not kept pace with the changing environment and changing demands. They
were contend with maintenance of books of accounts and serving to traditional
customers and that too, with strict observance of the rules. Multiplicity of
returns and duplicity of efforts have added to the workload of the staff leaving
them insufficient time for paying attention to customer needs.

It is expected that the objectives of systems and procedures, instead of

being satisfactory maintenance of books of accounts and safe documentation, should
be geared up to ensuring prompt and speeding delivery of services to the customer.
Therefore, it needs to be simplified and should be backed by proper office layout
and smooth flow of work so - that use of intermediary people to move papers is
minimized. The inter-relation ship between people and procedure need not be
overlooked. It is they who carryout the procedure.
Any innovation must not be imposed on them; rather a conscious effort should
be made to involve them in the process of change. Their views and suggestion
should be given due importance. For which, formal suggestion schemes, interaction
forums like staff meetings, customer service committees and quality circles may be
given due importance. Management audit can be undertaken as a tool for ensuring
ongoing improvements relating to systems, procedures and management policies.

The benchmarking in process shown below

7. 10 Ps OF BANKING

1. Product:
The business has to produce a product that people want to buy. They have to decide
which ‘market segment’ they are aiming at – age, income, geographical location
etc. They then have to differentiate their product so that it is slightly
different from what is on offer at present so that people can be persuaded to
‘give them a try’
2. Promotion:
Customers have to be made aware of the product. The two main considerations are
target market and cost. A new business will not be able to afford to advertise on
national television, for instance and would not wish to because its market will be
local to start with. Leaflets, billboards, advertisements in local newspapers,
Yellow Pages and ‘word of mouth’ would be more appropriate.
3. Price:
The price must be high enough to cover costs and make a profit but low enough to
attract customers. There are a number of possible pricing strategies. The most
commonly used are:
PENETRATION PRICING – charging a low price, possibly not quite covering
costs, to gain a position in the market. This is quite popular with new businesses
trying to get a ‘toehold’.
CREAMING – the opposite to penetration pricing, this involves charging a
deliberately high price to persuade people that the product is of high quality.
Luxury car makers often use this strategy
COST PLUS PRICING – this is the most common form of pricing. Costs are
totalled and a margin is added on for profit to make the total price.

4. Place:
"Place" deals with the distribution channels by which your prospects will be able
to buy and receive your products and services. Clearly without defining the niche
prospects, it is impossible to set up the best distribution channels.
5. People:
An essential ingredient to any service provision is the use of appropriate staff
and people. Recruiting the right staff and training them appropriately in the
delivery of their service is essential if the organisation wants to obtain a form
of competitive advantage. Consumers make judgements and deliver perceptions of the
service based on the employees they interact with. Staff should have the
appropriate interpersonal skills, aptititude, and service knowledge to provide the
service that consumers are paying for. Many British organisations aim to apply for
the Investors In People accreditation, which tells consumers that staff are taken
care off by the company and they are trained to certain standards.
6. Process
Refers to the systems used to assist the organisation in delivering the service.
Imagine you walk into Burger King and you order a Whopper Meal and you get it
delivered within 2 minutes. What was the process that allowed you to obtain an
efficient service delivery? Banks that send out Credit Cards automatically when
their customers old one has expired again require an efficient process to identify
expiry dates and renewal. An efficient service that replaces old credit cards will
foster consumer loyalty and confidence in the company.
7. Physical Evidence:
Where is the service being delivered? Physical Evidence is the element of the
service mix which allows the consumer again to make judgements on the
organisation. If you walk into a restaurant your expectations are of a clean,
friendly environment. On an aircraft if you travel first class you expect enough
room to be able to lay down!
Physical evidence is an essential ingredient of the service mix, consumers will
make perceptions based on their sight of the service provision which will have an
impact on the organisations perceptual plan of the service.
8. Positioning:
POSITION (STP) process is 'positioning.' Positioning is undoubtedly one of the
simplest and most useful tools to marketers. After segmenting a market and then
targeting a consumer, you would proceed to position a product within that market.
9. Planning:
Marketing plans are vital to marketing success. They help to focus the mind of
companies and marketing teams on the process of marketing i.e. what is going to be
achieved and how we intend to do it. There are many approaches to marketing plans.
10. Perception:
As perception differs from person to person, so do the results of the positioning
map e.g. what you perceive as quality, value for money, etc, and is different to
my perception.

8. Customer service

Customer service has been defined in many ways, but it will be better
understood if we define it from the customer’s angle. Thus, customer service is
the perception of a customer regarding the services he gets from his bank. As the
human perception change from individual to individual and -within an individual
from time to time, what is effective customer service today may be indifferent
tomorrow and even a bad service the day after. This makes customer service a
dynamic concept and a challenging job for the bankers.

Importance of Customer Service in Banks

Bank is a commercial outfit marketing financial products. Its products are

services offered by them. Services are performances. Production and consumption of
services occur simultaneously. Therefore, the frontline people and their
interaction with customers, thus everyday postures, gestures, actions, reactions,
emotions, activities and impressions contribute significantly in projecting a
particular image of the bank distinguishing it from the rest of the field.

Further customer service has a tremendous retention-value. If we can-not

retain a customer, all our efforts in terms of time and money in creating and
winning a customer would be a sheer waste. Besides, it is found that retaining
customer is often cheaper than finding a new customer. In addition to that
satisfied customers recommend the business to others.

Thus a customer is viewed as a long-term relationship rather than a party to

a stray single transaction. The initial transaction is taken as the starting point
and opportunity to establish a relationship through providing total customer
satisfaction, which in turn will ensure further business, from him. This is what
we term as relationship banking. Qualitative customer service and total
satisfaction forms the edifice of “Relationship Banking”.

Concept of Customer Satisfaction.

Satisfaction is a function of expectations about a product and its perceived
performance. When perceived performance of a product/service matches or exceeds
one’s expectations of service quality satisfaction occurs and vice-versa. The
service quality attributes in a banking contest are of two types.

First the product per se attributes like interest charges, accuracy of

entries and reliability etc.

Second, psychological attributes like recognition as important customer,

personal favour by the staff etc. As per product per se attributes, if a bank
fails to meet them, it causes dissatisfaction. But, if bank meets them, they are
treated as routine jobs that any bank, would have performed. Thus absence of such
factors causes dissatisfaction while their presence would only avoid
dissatisfaction. They, by themselves, would not motivate a customer any further
than the present level. Therefore, these attributes are treated as ‘maintainers’.
On the other hand, if a bank fails to meet expectations in the area of personnel
related psychological factors, it may not result in dissatisfaction but their
satisfaction will result in high motivation and elation on the part of the
customer. Therefore, these attributes are treated as ‘motivators’. Thus for a
customer to be totally satisfied, first there should be satisfaction with respect
to product per se attributes then, in addition, he should get favorable treatment
by the staff and the service should be delivered with a human touch.

Customer Service in Indian Banks

Customer service in Indian banks does not have a good track record. The
reasons are many. Before nationalization banks were serving to the upper and
middle strata of the society and Banker. Customer relationship was based on the
principle of uberrim fidae. After nationalization they were directed to expand and
enlarge their field of activities at an unprecedented pace which, in the absence
of or meagre direct recruitment resulted in vertical movement of staff who were
inexperienced and deficient in knowledge to handle diverse activities. In the wake
of emerging interbank competition and shift in focus to business growth the
accounting accuracy and the standard of customer service was diluted. The worst
damage was done to customer service by the creation of employees unions. Bank
management had to compromise; at times, even on principle, in the hope of
maintaining industrial peace. Labour laws governing the industry provided rather
unqualified protection to employees and it became
Virtually difficult for management to take action even in cases of extreme
indiscipline and dereliction of duty. Poor customer service was a natural
corollary to this atmosphere of permissiveness prevailing in the banking industry.
Which became a matter of great concern for the Government, RBI and the Banks
alike.

As early as in 1972, the Banking commission, appointed by the Government of

India under the chairmanship of Sri R.G. Saraiya, had made several recommendations
on customer service. In the year 1975, the Government appointed a working group on
customer service in banks under the chairmanship of Sri R.K. Talwar. This working
group made 176 recommendations covering all the important areas relating to
customer service besides some general, recommendations.

Some important recommendations of the Talwar Committee that have been

implemented are:
1. Establishment of customer service committee/staff committee in the every ranch.

2. Customer meets to be held at the branches at least once in a half year.

3.15th of every month (next day if 15th is a holiday) to be observed as customer’s
day at branches and administrative offices.
4. Provision of complaint-cum-suggestion box in every branch.
5. Provision of ‘May I help you’ counter in branches.
6. Immediate credit of cheques up to Rs.2,500 which has since been increased to
Rs.15,000.
7. Payment of penal interest in case of delay of collection of cheques.

During the eighties, greater importance was given to the redressal of

grievances of customers. The government and the RBI, to redress the grievances
took several steps such as setting up of Customer Service Committees, Customer
Service Centers in various cities, Directorate of Public Grievances under the
Cabinet Secretariat, etc., as also in the observance of Customers Day. The year
1986 was celebrated by the public sector banks as “customer service year”. The
year 1988 witnessed further improvement in customer service with the
implementation of recommendation of the Estimates Committee. In the year 1991
Goiporia Committee was appointed to look in to the customer service.
In the year 1995 as a landmark event in the Indian banking history ‘Banking
Ombudsman’ was established by RBI with objective of resolving customer grievances
relating to provision of banking services in a quick and inexpensive manner.
Another important development was in the area of mechanization and
computerization.

Despite all these measures devised and adopted by banks, either expectations
of a customer from his bank have gone up or banks have failed to deliver the
services in a customer satisfying manner, the criticism for poor customer service
still remains. Hence, there is an urgent need for the banks to re-look at all the
attempts made so far by them in improving customer service.

9. ICICI BANK

Overview
ICICI Bank is India's second-largest bank with total assets of Rs. 3,997.95
billion (US$ 100 billion) at March 31, 2008 and profit after tax of Rs. 41.58
billion for the year ended March 31, 2008. ICICI Bank is second amongst all the
companies listed on the Indian stock exchanges in terms of free float market
capitalization*. The Bank has a network of about 1,308 branches and 3,950 ATMs in
India and presence in 18 countries. ICICI Bank offers a wide range of banking
products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a
variety of delivery channels and through its specialized subsidiaries and
affiliates in the areas of investment banking, life and non-life insurance,
venture capital and asset management. The Bank currently has subsidiaries in the
United Kingdom, Russia and Canada, branches in Unites States, Singapore, Bahrain,
Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Qatar and Dubai International Finance Centre and
representative offices in United Arab Emirates, China, South Africa, Bangladesh,
Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Our UK subsidiary has established branches in
Belgium and Germany.
ICICI Bank's equity shares are listed in India on Bombay Stock Exchange and
the National Stock Exchange of India Limited and its American Depositary Receipts
(ADRs) are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
INTRODUCTION
ICICI Bank (formerly Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India)
is India's largest private sector bank in market capitalization and second largest
overall in terms of assets. ICICI Bank has total assets of about USD 79 Billion
(end-Mar 2007), a network of over 950 branches and offices, about 3500 ATMs, and
24 million customers(as of end July '07). ICICI Bank offers a wide range of
banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through
a variety of delivery channels and through its specialised subsidiaries and
affiliates in the areas of investment banking, life and non-life insurance,
venture capital and asset management. ICICI Bank's equity shares are listed in
India on stock exchanges at Kolkata and Vadodara, the Stock Exchange, Mumbai and
the National Stock Exchange of India Limited and its ADRs are listed on the New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

History
ICICI Bank was originally promoted in 1994 by ICICI Limited, an Indian
financial institution, and was its wholly-owned subsidiary. ICICI's shareholding
in ICICI Bank was reduced to 46% through a public offering of shares in India in
fiscal 1998, an equity offering in the form of ADRs listed on the NYSE in fiscal
2000, ICICI Bank's acquisition of Bank of Madura Limited in an all-stock
amalgamation in fiscal 2001, and secondary market sales by ICICI to institutional
investors in fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2002. ICICI was formed in 1955 at the
initiative of the World Bank, the Government of India and representatives of
Indian industry. The principal objective was to create a development financial
institution for providing medium-term and long-term project financing to Indian
businesses. In the 1990s, ICICI transformed its business from a development
financial institution offering only project finance to a diversified financial
services group offering a wide variety of products and services, both directly and
through a number of subsidiaries and affiliates like ICICI Bank. In 1999, ICICI
become the first Indian company and the first bank or financial institution from
non-Japan Asia to be listed on the NYSE.

About ICICI Bank

ICICI was established by the Government of India in the 1960s as a Financial
Institution (FI, other such institutions were IDBI and SIDBI with the objective to
finance large industrial projects. ICICI was not a bank - it could not take retail
deposits; and nor was it required to comply with Indian banking requirements for
liquid reserves. All this changed in 1990s. ICICI founded a separate legal entity
- ICICI

Bank which undertook normal banking operations - taking deposits, credit

cards, car loans etc. The experiment was so successful that ICICI merged into
ICICI Bank ("reverse merger") in 2002. At the time of the reverse merger, there
were rumours that ICICI had a large proportions of Non Performing Loans ("NPA", as
they are known in India) on its books - in particular to the steel industry. Since
2002, there has been a general revival in Indian industry (and metal based
industry in particular). It is widely believed that the proportion of NPAs has
come down to prudent levels (even if it were high earlier). ICICI Bank now has the
largest market share among all banks in retail or consumer financing. ICICI Bank
is the largest issuer of credit cards in India.

[1] It was the first bank to offer a wide network of ATM's and has a large
network of ATM's. ICICI Bank now has the largest market value of all banks in
India, and is widely seen as a sophisticated bank able to take on many global
banks in the Indian market. The Bank is expanding in overseas markets and has the
largest international balance sheet among Indian banks. The international banking
business was set up in 2002 to implement a focused strategy for the overseas
market. The Bank now has wholly-owned subsidiaries, branches and representatives
offices in 18 countries, including an offshore unit in Mumbai. This includes
wholly owned subsidiaries in UK, Canada and Russia, offshore banking units in
Singapore and Bahrain; advisory branch in Dubai, branches in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong
and Belgium; and rep offices in the US, China, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh,
South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The bank is targeting the NRI (Non
Resident Indian) population for expanding its business.

Type
Private
BSE & NSE:ICICI, NYSE: IBN
Founded 1955 (as Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India)
Headquarters ICICI Bank Ltd.,
ICICI Bank Towers,
Bandra Kurla, Mumbai India
Key people N Vaghul, K.V.Kamath, Nachiket Mor, Chanda Kochhar
Revenue
USD 5.79 billion
Website www.icicibank.com

Social and developmental initiatives

Rural Thrust: ICICI Bank has identified rural as one of the major areas of growth.
It is creating holistic propositions to address this opportunity. ICICI Bank has
formulated a comprehensive strategy for rural, micro-banking and agri business
encompassing a range of products and multiple delivery channels. The objective is
to meet the needs of the rural economy while building a sustainable business
model. The range of products comprises six primary credit products – micro finance
loans, farmer financing, working capital financing for agri-enterprises, farm
equipment financing, commodity based financing and jewel loans as well as savings
investments and insurance products.

1. Sustainable Development:
The bank operates and supports a diverse range of social projects in the
areas of primary education, healthcare, micro-finance, environment, research & bio
technology, finance & development. ICICI Bank’s work in the area of development
aims at facilitating wider participation by India’s poorer communities in social
and economic process. Its efforts are broadly divided into two spheres –
partnership based development initiatives and market-based direct initiatives. For
those initiatives that seek to make a broader impact on society, ICICI Bank’s
strategy has been to identify partners and work with them to build competencies
and effectiveness on the field. The Bank has taken a more market-based direct
approach for those initiatives that directly impact the economic well-being of
individuals.

2. Financial Counseling:
ICICI Bank setup the DISHA Trust in April 2007 as part of ICICI Bank’s
Corporate Social Responsibility activity. Its main objectives are to provide free
credit counseling, financial education and debt management services to consumers
and to increase awareness about financial products and services, thus promoting
better understanding and decision making.
With centres around the country, DISHA Financial Counseling provides its services
FREE of cost to all customers, even to those of other bank’s.

IMPORTANCE Of CUSTOMER SERVICE IN ICICI BANK

Bank is a commercial institution of outfit marketing financial products.

Service performances, production and consumption of services occurs
simultaneously. Therefore, the frontline people and their interaction with
customers, thus everyday postures, gestures, actions, reactions, emotions,
activities and impressions contribute significantly in projecting a particular
image of the bank distinguishing it from the rest of the field.

Further customer service has a tremendous retention-value. If we can not

retain a customer, all our efforts in terms of time and money in creating and
winning a customer would be a sheer waste. Besides, it is found that retaining
customer is often cheaper than finding a new customer. In addition to that
satisfied customers recommended the business to others. Thus a customer is viewed
as a long-term relationship rather than a party to a stray single transaction. The
initial transaction is taken as the starting point and opportunity to establish a
relationship through providing total customer satisfaction, which in turn will
ensure further business, from him. This is what we term as relationship banking.
Qualitative customer service and total satisfaction forms the edifice of
“Relationship Banking”.

CONCEPT OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Satisfaction is a function of expectations about a product and its perceived
performance. When perceived performance of a product/service matches or exceeds
one’s expectations of service quality satisfaction occurs satisfaction occurs and
vice versa. The service quality attributes in a banking context are of two types.
First the product per se attributes like interest charges, accuracy of entries and
reliability etc. Second, psychological attributes like recognition as important
customer, personal favors by the staff etc. As per product per se attributes, if a
bank fails to meet them, it causes dissatisfaction. But, if bank meets them, they
are treated as routine jobs that any bank would have performed. Thus absence of
such factors causes dissatisfaction while their presence would only avoid
dissatisfaction. They, by themselves, would not motivate a customer any further
than the present level. Therefore, these attributes are treated as ‘maintainers’.
On the other hand, if a bank fails t meet expectations in the area of personnel
related psychological factors, it may not result in dissatisfaction but their
satisfaction will result in high motivation and election on the part of the
customer. Therefore these attributes are treated as ‘motivators’.

Thus for a customer to be totally satisfied, first there should be

satisfaction with respect to product per se attributes then , in addition, he
should get favorable treatment by the staff and the service should be delivered
with a human touch
10. PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OF ICICI BANK

1.Personal banking:
1) DEPOSITS.

ICICI Bank offers wide variety of Deposit Products to suit your requirements.
Coupled with convenience of networked branches/ ATMs and facility of E-channels
like Internet and Mobile Banking, ICICI Bank brings banking at your doorstep.

(a)SAVING ACCOUNTS
ICICI Bank offers you a power packed Savings Account with a host of convenient
features and banking channels to transact through. So now you can bank at your
convenience, without the stress of waiting in queues.

(b)LIFE PLUS SENIOR CITIZEN SERVICE

We understand that as you reach the age to retire, you do have certain concerns.
Whether your hard earned money is safe and secure … whether your investments give
you the kind of returns that you need. That's why we have an ideal Banking Service
for those who are 60 years and above. The Senior Citizen Services from ICICI Bank
has several advantages that are tailored to bring more convenience and enjoyment
in your life.
(c) YOUNG STARS
It's really important to help children learn the value of finances and money
management at an early age. Banking is a serious business, but we make banking a
pleasure and at the same time children learn how to manage their personal finances
(d)FIXED DEPOSITS
Safety, Flexibility, Liquidity and Returns!!!! A combination of unbeatable
features of the Fixed Deposit from ICICI Bank.

2) LOAN AND ADVANCES

ICICI Bank offers wide variety of Loans Products to suit your requirements.Coupled
with convenience of networked branches/ ATMs and facility of E-channels like
Internet and Mobile Banking, ICICI Bank brings banking at your doorstep. Select
any of our loan product and provide your details online and our representative
will contact u

(a)Home loans
The No. 1 Home Loans Provider in the country, ICICI Bank Home Loans offers some
unbeatable benefits to its customers - Doorstep Service, Simplified Documentation
and Guidance throughout the Process. It's really easy!

(b)PERSONAL LOAN

If you're looking for a personal loan that's easy to get, your search ends here.
ICICI Bank Personal Loans are easy to get and absolutely hassle free. With minimum
documentation you can now secure a loan for an amount upto Rs. 15 lakhs
( c) CAR LOAN

(c)The No. 1 financier for car loans in the country. Network of more than 2500
channel partners in over 1000 locations. Tie-ups with all leading automobile
manufacturers to ensure the best deals. Flexible schemes & quick processing.
Hassle-free application process on the click of a mouse.
2. Demat Services
ICICI Bank Demat Services boasts of an ever-growing customer base of over 11.5
lacs account holders. In our continuous endeavor to offer best of the class
services to our customers we offer the following features:

SERVICES FOR DEMAT

1. e-Instructions: You can transfer securities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

through Internet & Interactive Voice Response (IVR) at a lower cost. Now with
"Speak to transfer", you can also transfer or pledge instructions through our
customer care officer.

2. Consolidation Demat Account: Dematerialise your physical shares in various

holding patterns and consolidate all such scattered holdings into your primary
demat account at reduced cost.

3. Digitally Signed Statement: Receive your account statement and bill by

email.

4. Corporate Benefit Tracking: Track your dividend, interest, bonus through

your account statement.

5. Mobile Request: Access your demat account by sending SMS to enquire about
Holdings, Transactions, Bill & ISIN details.

6. Mobile Alerts: Receive SMS alerts for all debits/credits as well as for any
request which cannot be processed. Dedicated customer care executives specially
trained at our call centre, to handle all your queries. Countrywide network of
over 235 branches, you are never far from an ICICI Bank Demat Services outlet.
You will find service charges very competitive - offering the best value for your
money.

3.ATM SERVICES
ICICI Bank's 24 Hour ATM network is one of the largest and most widespread
ATM Network in India. Our ATMs are located in commercial areas, residential
localities, major petrol pumps, airports, near railway stations and other places
which are conveniently accessible to our customers. ICICI Bank ATMs features user-
friendly graphic screens with easy to follow instructions. We have introduced ATMs
which interact with customers in their local language for increased convenience.
Following are the features available on our ATMs, which can be accessed from
anywhere at anytime.

SERVICE FOR ATMs

1. Cash Withdrawal: Withdraw upto Rs. 25,000/- per day from your account
(50,000 for HNI's). Fast Cash option provides the facility of withdrawing prefixed
amounts. Ultra Fast Cash option allows you to withdraw Rs.3000/- in one shot.

2. Balance Enquiry: Know your ledger balance and available balance

3. Mini Statement: Get a printout of your last 8 transactions and your current
balance.

4. Deposit Cash / Cheques: Available at all full function ATMs, Customers can
deposit both cash and cheques. Cash deposited in ATMs will be credited to the
account on the same day (provided cash is deposited before the clearing) and
cheques are sent for clearing on the next working day.

5. Funds Transfer: Transfer funds from one account to another linked account in
the same branch.

6. PIN Change: Change the Personal Identification Number (PIN) of ATM or

Debit card.

7. Payments: The latest feature of our ATMs, this functionality can be used for
payment of bills, making donations to temples / trusts, buying internet packs,
airtime recharges for prepaid mobile phones and much more...

8. Others: Request for a checkbook from our ATMs and our concerned branch will
dispatch it such that it reaches you within 10 working days.

9. Charges: There is no charge levied on ICICI Bank customers for transacting

on ICICI Bank's ATMs. However for customers not maintaining the minimum quarterly
average balance in their savings account, first 6 transactions in the quarter will
be free and Rs. 25 per transaction will be charged thereafter.

4.CARDS
ICICI Bank offers a variety of cards to suit your different transactional
needs. Our range includes Credit Cards, Debit Cards and Prepaid cards. These cards
offer you convenience for your financial transactions like cash withdrawal,
shopping and travel. These cards are widely accepted both in India and abroad.
ICICI Bank Credit Cards give you the facility of cash, convenience and a range of
benefits, anywhere in the world. These benefits range from life time free cards,
Insurance benefits, global emergency assistance service, discounts, utility
payments, travel discounts and much more.

5.Mutual Funds
A Mutual fund is an organization that invests in a diversified portfolio of
financial securities on behalf of a pool of subscribers to its schemes. These
securities can be in the form of equity, debt instruments, money market
instruments etc., or a mix of these securities, depending on the scheme
objectives.
(a)Savings on transaction costs
As purchases and sales are done in bigger quantities, the funds also get the
advantages of lesser brokerage and other reduced transaction costs.

(b)Tax Advantages
In India these funds become even more attractive because of the tax
advantages, like indexation benefits, long term capital gains tax, tax free
dividends and much more.

(c)The banks meet customer’s needs

ICICI BANK believe that every one has specific needs are priorities. Your
needs could vary from buying a house, getting your daughter married to providing
for your child’s education. You might even want to travel the world. All your
needs are very important for us. We can help to fulfill your needs to reality by
helping you select schemes, which would be consonance with your needs.

(d)Building an ‘Investment Culture

It would be our constant endeavor to inculcate saving and organized
investing habits in you. We will help you plan your investments and build a
healthy mutual fund portfolio, which would be an optimal solution for your needs.
Cultivating an investment culture will not only help you but also your family.

(e)The bank will keep customers updated

A newsletter, which will keep you, informed of the latest happenings in the
stock markets, economy and important events, apart from giving you the NAV and
other relevant information about your schemes will be sent you every month. Latest
NAV of the schemes can also be found out from our various branches.

(f)The bank can be customers ‘One Stop Financial Solution’

Apart from subscribing to Mutual fund schemes through us, you can also take
advantage of our banking services and a whole range of financial products. Like -
ATM card, credit card, personal loan products, depository services, loan against
units/shares etc. and see your financial needs satisfied under one roof.

6. Online Services

Bill payment

No more hassles of personally visiting the Biller to pay the bills.Pay your
bills for Utility Companies (Electricity and Telephone), ICICI Bank Credit Card,
Mobile bills, Insurance Premiums and lot more. Avail our Free bill payment
services through your Internet Banking Account. Why be in line, when you can be
ONLINE?
Shopping

Shopping at your fingertips. ICICI Bank facilitates you to buy variety of

products online from more than 75 shopping websites. Payment can be made
conveniently using your ICICI Bank Account. Visit our partner websites, choose
your product and pay using Internet Banking Facility.

Ticket booking

With ICICI Bank you need not visit Train/ Air ticket booking reservation
centers any more. You can now buy your tickets online and pay using our Internet
Banking Facility. You can book your Railway Tickets on IRCTC and air tickets on
Air Deccan.

Mobile top-up

Recharge your Prepaid Mobile anytime, anywhere in just a few minutes by

logging into Internet Banking on ICICIBank.com or by sending a simple SMS. The
fastest & easiest way to recharge your prepaid mobile is now at your fingertips!

Share trading

Trade in Securities Market Online through the unique 3-in-1 account that
integrates your banking, broking and demat accounts. You can also invest online in
Mutual Funds, Initial Public Offers of the Companies and Postal Savings Schemes
through www.icicidirect.com.

11. Impact of services

ICICI Bank Services leaves positive impact on customers

ICICI Bank Services leaves positive impact on customers. Recently announced

that ICICI Bank’s online services continue to receive positive feedback from
customers during the holiday season by helping them to conduct transactions at
their own convenience even when they are on holiday abroad. ICICI bank services
allow customers to automatically pay their bills when it is due; renew their
‘savings as well as current’ balance automatically or manually through their
mobile, along with access to many other services that are available on-line i.e.
www.icicibank.com or 24*7 help lines or off-line i.e. bank branches.

Customers can easily manage their account through the online services; check
the value and details of their bills make payments online, recharge their bank
account and carry out many transactions quickly and safely at any time with one
single click or can simply by visiting any nearest ICICI Bank Branch’s Offices.

Commenting on this, the manager, said: “Since ICICI Bank launched Online
Services, ICICI Bank have developed them to become one of the most state-of-the
art and convenient services for their customers. Today, more than 350.000
customers use these services and carry out 1.5 million transactions every year.”

Services Implemented:
It currently provides a number of services. These include bill payment,
renewing and recharging mobile by using the credit card or from bank accounts,
shopping online, purchasing gold, investing in mutual fund or in share market etc

Services Implemented automatically:

Some services are implemented automatically without customer involvement
such as paying bills when it is due through two payment alternatives - either
total payments to previously specified accounts, or monthly fixed payment from
registered date chosen by the customer’s credit card. These transactions can be
carried out very accurately online with the additional advantage of 10% extra
credit. Customers can apply for these services on www.icicibank.com.

Customers will receive an SMS to confirm all transactions to maintain

maximum convenience and ensure the highest standards of services. To avoid
interruption of services, customers will receive an SMS to inform them that they
do not have enough balance to cover required transactions so that they can use
another credit card or use other means of payment.

Services implemented on demand via Mobile Phone:

(Mobile pay) service is implemented only when needed by using the mobile
phone. It allows customers to pay their bills or recharge their account using
their handset .Customers can simply apply for these services on www. icicibank.com
online and choose any alternative.

ICICI banks services are extremely secure as they are protected by ‘3D
secure’ system for online payments which is developed by ‘Visa’ and ‘MasterCard’
who are the leaders in issuing cards. This ensures the best protection without any
additional cost credit.”

12.10 p’s of Marketing for ICICI Bank

Marketing of services by ICICI bank

1. Product Mix:
i. Deposits:
ICICI Bank offers wide variety of Deposit Products to suit our requirements.
Coupled with convenience of networked branches/ over 1800 ATMs and facility of E-
channels like Internet and Mobile Banking, ICICI Bank brings banking at your
doorstep.
Savings Account: ICICI Bank offers a power packed Savings Account with a host of
convenient features and banking channels to transact through.

Senior Citizen Services: The Senior Citizen Services from ICICI Bank has several
advantages that are tailored to bring more convenience and enjoyment in your life.

Young Stars: It's really important to help children learn the value of finances
and money management at an early age. Banking is a serious business, but we make
banking a pleasure and at the same time children learn how to manage their
personal finances.

Fixed Deposits: Safety, Flexibility, Liquidity and Returns!!!! A combination of

unbeatable features of the Fixed Deposit from ICICI Bank.

Recurring Deposits: Through ICICI Bank Recurring Deposit you can invest small
amounts of money every month that ends up with a large saving on maturity. So you
enjoy twin advantages- affordability and higher earnings.

Roaming Current Account: Only Roaming Current Account from ICICI Bank travels the
distance with your business. You can access your accounts at over 500 networked
branches across the country.

ii. Investments

Along with Deposit products and Loan offerings, ICICI Bank assists you to manage
your finances by providing various investment options such as:
ICICI Bank Tax Saving Bonds
Government of India Bonds
Investment in Mutual Funds
Initial Public Offers by Corporate
Investment in "Pure Gold"
Foreign Exchange Services
Senior Citizens Savings Scheme, 2004

iii. Anywhere Banking:

iv. ICICI Bank is the second largest bank in the country. It services a customer
base of more than 5 million customer accounts through a multi-channel access
network. This includes more than 500 branches and extension counters, over 1800
ATMs, Call Centre and Internet Banking. Thus, one can access the various services
ICICI Bank has to offer at anytime, anywhere and from anyplace

v. Loan:

Home Loans
Personal Loans
Car Loans
Two Wheeler Loans
Commercial Vehicle Loans
Loans against Securities
Farm Equipment Loans
Construction Equipment Loans
 Office Equipment Loans
Medical Equipment Loans

vi. Cards:

Credit Card
Debit cum ATM Card
Travel Card

vii. Demat services:

ICICI Bank Demat Services boasts of an ever-growing customer base of over 7 lacs
account holders. In their continuous endeavor to offer best of the class services
to our customers we offer the following features:
• Digitally signed transaction statement by e-mail.
• Corporate benefit tracking.
• e-Instruction facility - facility to transfer securities 24 hours a day, 7
days a week through Internet Interactive Voice Response (IVR) at a lower cost.
• Dedicated specially trained customer care executives at their call centre,
to handle all queries.

viii. Mobile Banking.

With ICICI Bank, banking is no longer what it used to be. ICICI Bank offers
Mobile Banking facility to all its Bank, Credit Card and Demat customers. ICICI
Bank Mobile Banking enables you to bank while being on the move.

ix. NRI Services:

ONLINE MONEY TRANSFER facility available to NRIs worldwide through

www.money2India.com at the click of a button!

Benefits:
• FREE Money transfers into accounts with over 30 banks in India
• Demand Drafts issued and payable at over 1250 locations in India
• ONLINE Tracking of the status of your funds
• SUPERIOR Exchange rates
• OFFLINE MONEY TRANSFER facility is also available across geographies through

2. Pricing Mix:

The pricing decisions or the decisions related to interest and fee or

commission charged by banks are found instrumental in motivating or influencing
the target market.

The RBI and the IBA are concerned with regulations. The rate of interest is
regulated by the RBI and other charges are controlled by IBA.

The pricing policy of a bank is considered important for raising the number
of customers’ vis-à-vis the accretion of deposits. Also the quality of service
provided has direct relationship with the fees charged. Thus while deciding the
price mix customer services rank the top position.

The banking organizations are required to frame two- fold strategies. First,
the strategy is concerned with interest and fee charged and the second strategy is
related to the interest paid. Since both the strategies throw a vice- versa
impact, it is important that banks attempt to establish a correlation between two.
It is essential that both the buyers as well as the sellers have feeling of
winning.

3. Place:

This component of marketing mix is related to the offering of services. The

services are sold through the branches. The 2 important decision making areas are:
making available the promised services to the ultimate users and selecting a
suitable place for bank branches.The number of branches OF ICICI: 1900 in India
and 33 in Mumbai.

LOCATION OF BRANCH:
Shivam Shopping Centre, S.V.Road, Opp. New Era Cinema, Malad (W), Mumbai.

LOCATION OF ATMS:
• Malad subway
• With branch
• Mindspace
• Orlem
• Raheja township

Why they select this place as branch?

• The selection of a suitable place for the establishment of a branch is
significant with
• the view point of making place accessible.
• The safety and security provisions a
• Convenient to both the parties, such as the users and the bankers
• Infrastructure facility
• Near to station and located on s. v. road well crowded area.
• Market coverage

4. Promotion Mix:

Advertising: Television, radio, movies, theatres

Print media: hoardings, newspaper, magazines

Publicity: road shows, campus visits, sandwich man, Sponsorship

Sales promotion: gifts, discount and commission, incentives,etc.

Personal selling: Cross-sale (selling at competitors place),personalized

service

Telemarketing: ICICI one source Call center (mind space)

5. Process:

Flow of activities: all the major activities of ICICI banks follow RBI
guidelines. There has to be adherence to certain rules and principles in the
banking operations. The activities have been segregated into various departments
accordingly.

Standardization: ICICI bank has got standardized procedures got typical

transactions. In fact not only all the branches of a single-bank, but all the
banks have some standardization in them. This is because of the rules they are
subject to. Besides this, each of the banks has its standard forms,
documentations etc. Standardization saves a lot of time behind individual
transaction.

Customization: There are specialty counters at each branch to deal with customers
of a particular scheme. Besides this the customers can select their deposit
period among the available alternatives.

Number of steps: numbers of steps are usually specified and a specific pattern is
followed to minimize time taken.

Simplicity: in ICICI banks various functions are segregated. Separate counters

exist with clear indication. Thus a customer wanting to deposit money goes to
‘deposits’ counter and does not mingle elsewhere. This makes procedures not only
simple but consume less time. Besides instruction boards in national boards in
national and regional language help the customers further.

Customer involvement: ATM does not involve any bank employees. Besides, during
usual bank transactions, there is definite customer involvement at some or the
other place because of the money matters and signature requires.

6. Physical Evidence:

Physical evidence is the material part of a service. Strictly speaking there

are no physical attributes to a service, so a consumer tends to rely on material
cues. There are many examples of physical evidence, including some of the
following:
• Internet/web pages
• Paperwork
• Brochures
• Furnishings
• Business cards
• The building itself (such as prestigious offices or scenic headquarters)

The physical evidences also include signage, reports, punch lines, other
tangibles, employee’s dress code etc.

Signage: each and every bank has its logo by which a person can identify the
company. Thus such signage is significant for creating visualization and
corporate identity.

Financial reports: The Company’s financial reports are issued to the customers to
emphasis or credibility.

Tangibles: bank gives pens, writing pads to the internal customers. Even the
passbooks, chequebooks, etc reduce the inherent intangibility of services.

Punch lines: punch lines or the corporate statement depict the philosophy and
attitude of the bank. Banks have influential punch lines to attract the
customers.

Employee’s dress code: ICICI bank follows a dress code for their internal
customers. This helps the customers to feel the ease and comfort.

7. People:

All people directly or indirectly involved in the consumption of banking

services are an important part of the extended marketing mix.
 Knowledge Workers, Employees, Management and other Consumers often add
significant value to the total product or service offering. It is the employees of
a bank which represent the organisation to its customers.

In a bank organization, employees are essentially the contact personnel with

customer. Therefore, an employee plays an important role in the marketing
operations of a service organisation.

To realize its potential in bank marketing, ICICI become conscious in its

potential in internal marketing - the attraction, development, motivation and
retention of qualified employee-customers through need meeting job-products.
Internal marketing paves way for external marketing of services. In internal
marketing a variety of activities are used internally in an active, marketing like
manner and in a coordinated way.

The starting point in internal marketing is that the employees are the first
internal market for the organization.

The basic objective of internal marketing is to develop motivated and

customer conscious employees.

A service company can be only as good as its people. A service is a

performance and it is usually difficult to separate the performance from the
people.
If the people don’t meet customers' expectations, then neither does the service.
Therefore, investing in people quality in service business means investing in
product quality.

8. Positioning:

POSITION process is 'positioning.' Positioning is undoubtedly one of the

simplest and most useful tools to marketers. After segmenting a market and then
targeting a consumer, icici bank would proceed to position a product within that
market.

The term 'positioning' refers to the consumer's perception of a product or

service in relation to its competitors. You need to ask yourself, what is the
position of the product in the mind of the consumer?

Six-step question framework for successful positioning:

1. What position do you currently own?
2. What position do you want to own?
3. Whom you have to defeat to own the position you want.
4. Do you have the resources to do it?
5. Can you persist until you get there?
6. Are you tactics supporting the positioning objective you set?

9. Perception:

As perception differs from person to person, so do the results of the

positioning map e.g. what you perceive as quality, value for money, etc, is
different to my perception. However, there will be similarities. Products or
services are 'mapped' together on a 'positioning map'. This allows them to be
compared and contrasted in relation to each other. This is the main strength of
this tool. Marketers decide upon a competitive position which enables them to
distinguish their own products from the offerings of their competition
10. Planning:

Marketing plans are vital to marketing success. They help to focus the mind
of companies and marketing teams on the process of marketing i.e. what is going to
be achieved and how we intend to do it. There are many approaches to marketing
plans.ICICI bank has focused upon the key stages of the plan. It is contained
under the popular acronym ASOT.

13. TRENDS IN ICICI BANK

India's Largest Private Sector Bank, ICICI Bank, Enables Customers to Wirelessly
Manage their...

ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank, has contracted with Air2Web
India to use their Mobile Internet Platform to provide ICICI Bank customers with
wireless access to their banking and credit card accounts.
"Our new wireless applications are going to help customers better manage
their checking and credit card accounts by allowing them to receive and request
pertinent information anytime, anywhere via their digital cell phone," said Ms.
Chanda Kochhar, Executive Director of ICICI Bank. "With this wireless service, our
customers can keep track of their account balances, as well as request details on
how to pay credit card balances, confirm when they have been paid, and receive
banking and credit card statements. We feel this value added service will improve
our customer service offering."
"ICICI Bank has developed a wireless application which enables their
customers to get their banking and credit card account information when and where
they want it and from their most common wireless device, their digital cell
phone," said Sanjoy Malik, President and CEO of Air2Web India. "ICICI Bank has
always been known for its use of cutting edge technology. So, it is no surprise
that they are launching one of the first wireless banking products to not only
incorporate automated notifications of balances of both your credit card and bank
accounts, but one that also allows customers to pull timely account information.
This new wireless service gives ICICI Bank customers substantially more control
and flexibility over their accounts, thus enhancing their customers' experience
and another added value which sets ICICI Bank apart from its competitors."
Air2Web's Mobile Internet Platform provides businesses with a competitive
edge enabling its customers to wirelessly access critical back-end information
residing in existing CRM, ERP, SFA or SCM systems. Information can be accessed
across any network and with any carrier and via any digital wireless device
including Short Message Service (SMS) and web-enabled phones, personal digital
assistant devices (PDAs), and pagers. Air2Web's ability to work with multiple data
and audio formats streamlines integration with existing applications.
 The ICICI Bank Credit Cards was launched in January 2000 with three variants
Solid Gold, Sterling Silver and True Blue. The card is now available in 36 cities
across India. The customer base is over 6.5 million.
About Air2Web India
Air2Web India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air2Web, which like Air2Web's
US operation, provides the same state-of-the-art application hosting with day to
day applications management and round-the-clock support, as well as software
licenses of the Air2Web Mobile Internet Platform. Air2Web India serves its
customers in the Asia Pacific region.
To date, Air2Web has more than 70 production deployments with blue-chip
customers providing wirelessly enabled financial applications, critical field
force applications, customer relationship management, M-commerce and subscription-
based content services. Customers include companies such as Delta Employees Credit
Union, ABN AMRO, BellSouth, Digital Insight, eBay, Best Western International, ADC
Telecommunications, Lexmark International, UPS, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and
Crowne Plaza hotels, the Weather Channel, CBS SportsLine, and other leading
finance, travel & hospitality, media & entertainment, health care, retail, and
transportation companies.

Annexure
Questioners

1. Can you briefly explain something about Bank Marketing?

2. In the field of marketing where does your bank stand?

3. What types of product and services provided by your bank?

4. What actions you have taken for marketing your various products?

5. In banking sector who are your competitors?

6. What are your future strategies to attract your customers?

7. Do you think that in marketing area your bank has to improve?

8. .what respond did you got from your newly trends services from your
customers?

9. Is the customer is satisfy with services provided by the bank?

10. According to you what are the level of exception you have made for customers
,are they satisfied with it?

11. What are social and development initiatives taken by icici bank?

12. In which department of bank services you have achieved progress?

Summary of Major Findings

With the changes in business environment the concept of marketing also

changed in its area of focus. It shifted from production to product, then to
selling and ultimately to the customer. Originally banks were conservative in
their approach to marketing as they were sure of ‘walk-in’ business. But with the
growing competition they were forced to have a marketing orientation.

Marketing in bank consists of traditional external marketing, internal

marketing and interactive marketing. External marketing is the marketing mix of 4
Ps with which the marketer has to face the customer in fulfilling his marketing
objectives. ICICI Bank was originally promoted in 1994 by ICICI Limited, an Indian
financial institution, and was its wholly-owned subsidiary

ICICI Bank (formerly Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India)

is India's largest private sector bank in market capitalization and second largest
overall in terms of assets .ICICI bank has achieved spectacular progress in all
departments such as capital, deposits, advances, and in branch network. The bank
has a product development group under Personal and Service Banking Department. The
product development process in the Bank is based on a perfect theoretical
framework.

The importance of advertising and publicity has been increasingly felt by

the Bank and as an evidence of which expenditure on it has gone up in absolute
terms.

Thus the above analysis reveals that the bank has tried its best to perfect
its marketing effort. It has adequate and suitable products

CONCLUSION

The banking industry in India is facing the challenges on deposit

mobilization front, because of the severe competition from various financial
institutions and public corporations.
ICICI Bank today services a growing customer base of more than 5 million
customer accounts and 5 million bondholders accounts through a multi-channel
access network. This includes over 400 branches and extension counters, 1080 ATMs,
call centres and Internet banking.
Bank renders personalised services and the present emphasis in marketing is
customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction, which must be the ultimate goal
of bank marketing, is achieved not only through creating suitable products
according to his need but also through delivering them in a most satisfying
manner.

This project has given me an insight how Bank should marketing their
products in the right way by overcoming all the difficulties like proper place,
advertising, staff etc. In spite of the changing banking environment and newer
challenges emerging, Bank Marketing by ICICI bank will continue to remain a
popular.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS REFERRED:-

SERVICE MARKETING BY P K GUPTA

BANK MARKETING BY UMESH C PATNAIL
MARKETING IN BANKING AND INSURANCE BY ROMEO S. MASCARENHAS
SERVICE MARKETING: RESEARCH IN INDIAN BANKS BY RAVI SHANKAR

WEBLIOGRAPHY
www.icicibank.com
www.icicisme.com
www.allbusiness.com