Sarkari banks get an image makeover

PSU banks have stepped up their ad campaigns and revamped their logos in a bid to shed their worn-out image

A little girl comes crying to her brothers room. He asks what happened and she says her tooth broke. He wipes her tears and consoles her. He takes the tooth and says,Issko hum mitti mein boyenge aur ek bada sone ka daant niklega. She picks up a broken tooth from her schools playground and keeps it. She starts collecting teeth from dentures,skeletons in the school lab and wherever else she can find them. Next shot,her brother sees her digging a hole in the garden. He asks her what shes doing and she says,Main sone ke daant uga rahi hoon. He asks why and she replies,Kyunki aapki racing car ke liye paise ban jaayenge. This is an ad for one of Indias largest state-run banks,Union Bank of India (UBI). The ad signals a new birth for the 90-year-old bank. UBI recently changed its corporate logo to identify itself in these changing times,and also launched two television commercials (TVCs) and four print ads.

This is just one of the many campaigns that state-owned banks have been coming up with to shed their worn-out image and be important to the youth. And it is not just ad films,but

logo changes,radio spots and outdoor advertising,which have been pulled out of the hat to make the neighbourhood government bank look swank.

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Bank of Baroda (BoB) was the first public sector bank to go for an image makeover in 2005 with a new logo and a revamp of its Gen Next branches with bean bags and plasma TVs. Canara Bank,too,got a new logo in late 2007two entwined triangles in blue and bright yellow. Sujata Keshavan,managing director,Ray & Keshavan,a WPP Group company responsible for brand image consulting for BoB,Canara Bank and Jammu & Kashmir Bank,says,With public sector banks rubbing shoulders with private banks on the stock market index,they had to look profitable and rope in customers. Keeping this in mind,we used the sun in vermillion for BoB to show the spirit of enterpriseeveryone would recognise the symbol. For Canara Bank,we did a study that showed there was no recall as far as the logo was concerned but they all remembered the colourblue. So we used a fresher sky blue instead of the old cobalt blue to help communicate a brighter outlook. With a dash of yellow it was a positive and happy combination. For J&K Bank we used red for Jammu,green for Kashmir and blue for Ladakh. We combined the three and showed it as a bird.

IDBI,one of the heavy weight government banks,which has always been synonymous with corporate financing and industrial development,is also trying to reach out to the layman with its Everyones invited campaign. Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather made a commercial showing two boys playing football with a baby elephant to help the bank send the message across.

Though these banks have worked hard to keep the customers coming,the recent financial downturn also seems to be helping them. But that is pure co-incidence,say advertisers. According to them,the inherent quality of state-run banks being safe and trustworthy remains unchallenged. We have a better story, says Bobby Pawar,chief creative officer,Mudra,the agency that handles the Union Bank of India campaign. The current focus is how you can bank the way you want to. By now,people know that we are a public sector bank and what we stand for. We see no need to add noise to that issue, he says.

Everyone knows that public sector banks are safe. There is nothing new in that. The brief from the bank has not changed. The feel that the bank is unapproachable is what we were changing and will continue to do so. We are focusing on product innovation and what the bank has to offer. In the present scenario,it is the rate of interest for loans and fixed deposits that we see as competition factors with the other banks, says Siddhartha Dutta,creative director,Ogilvy & Mather,who worked on the IDBI ad.

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The makeovers have worked. The response has been good. The employees too see themselves in a better light,apart from the consumers,who now think of us as a modern bank, says Pawar about the Union Bank of India campaign.

The banks have ad spends in the range of Rs 30-75 crorethese may not be cut back during the slowdown. This is a good time to attract customers the banks may have lost earlier, says Suman Srivastava,CEO,Euro RSCG India,one of the agencies on BoBs advertising panel. The agency also handles BSNL and Bharat Petroleum. There has been a major brand score for the PSUs. Now is a time to capitalise. All PSUs will spend on advertising this year,government mandate or not. There have been some sectors that have been badly hit but if you look at Indian companies,they have a more realistic view of things. Multinationals have been cutting costs drastically,but here,the initial freeze that lasted from November to February is now easing out.

So while there are still some sone ke daant to invest,it is the sarkari banks that are ready with a shiny new welcome.

IN A NUTSHELL

PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS

There are 25 commercial banks,including SBI and IDBI,under the control of the Government of India. They have 54,238 branches across the country.

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PSU banks control nearly 70 per cent of the banking business in India.

PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS

There are 26 banks in the private sector,with a branch network of 8,265. They control about 20 per cent of the banking business.

FOREIGN BANKS

As many as 28 foreign banks with a branch network of 280 operate in India.

OTHERS

There are 95 regional rural banks,1,807 non-scheduled urban co-operative banks,55 scheduled urban co-operative banks and 30 state co-operative banks.