ICICI Bank is India's largest private sector bank with total assets of Rs.

5,946.42 billion (US$ 99 billion) at March 31, 2014 and profit after tax Rs. 98.10

billion (US$ 1,637 million) for the year ended March 31, 2014.ICICI Bank currently

has a network of 3,837 Branches and 11,876 ATM's across India.

The bank offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to its retail

and corporate customers through a variety of delivery channels and specialized

subsidiaries. Its services include investment banking, life and non-life insurance,

venture capital and asset management. ICICI Bank, originally promoted in 1994 by

ICICI Limited (an Indian financial institution), was the latter's wholly - owned

subsidiary. ICICI Ltd merged into ICICI Bank in 2002. The equity shares of ICICI

Bank are listed in India on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock

Exchange of India Limited, and its American Depositary Receipts are listed on the

New York Stock Exchange. ICICI Bank set up the International Banking Group

(IBG) in 2002 to implement a focused strategy for its international banking business.

ICICI Bank is currently present in various global locations through subsidiaries in

the United Kingdom, Canada and Russia, and branches in Singapore, Bahrain, Hong

Kong, Sri Lanka, Qatar and Dubai. It has representative offices in the United States,

China, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Thailand and South Africa. Its UK

subsidiary has recently set up a branch in Germany and Belgium.

ICICI Bank is India's largest private sector bank with total assets of Rs. 5,946.42 billion (US$ 99

billion) at March 31, 2014 and profit after tax Rs. 98.10 billion (US$ 1,637 million) for the year

ended March 31, 2014.ICICI Bank currently has a network of 3,837 Branches and 11,876 ATM's

across India.

Social Media Strategy Review

This review is a part of our Social Media Strategy Review series where we do a 360 degree analysis of a brands entire social media activity.

Overall Strategy:

ICICI Bank has been doing an Excellent job with is overall Social Media Strategy! It is one of

the few banks from the Indian financial industry to embrace social media in such a nice way to

connect with its consumers.

ICICIs Social friendly strategy is doing a bang up job of building a community of loyal fans around itself job on three platforms Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It is innovative in tapping onto new customers in the market.

Platform-wise Strategy

Facebook:

ICICI Bank goes beyond marketing on its Facebook page. It is not only listening to customers its

but also engaging with them with appealing updates like interesting world currency facts, helpful

updates, puzzles and quiz, ICICIs offline activities, etc.

It is evident that it has very good engagement on its Facebook page.

It is also leveraging Facebook page for Customer Service with a special tab that assists the

customer with all the helpful information and customer care numbers. There have been efforts to

drive traffic to its website through engaging Facebook apps.

Twitter:

ICICIs every tweet has a human touch unlike most other banks who sound like automated answering machines. @ICICIBank_Care is effective in creating and sustaining communication

on Twitter.

The way ICICI bank responds to concerns on the spot and encourages interaction in a friendly

manner gives it a great networking opportunity and an edge over other financial institutes.

YouTube

ICICI Banks YouYube channel. There a number of insightful interviews about the economy, financial trends, inside stories, ICICIs offline activities, testimonials, etc.

With 118 videos, the channel is rich with noteworthy content on YouTube!

Comparison with Competitor:

Citi Bank has a small community on Facebook as compared to ICICI bank. Even Citibank is

trying to engage its fans with interactive updates, quiz and puzzles but a comparatively smaller

size of its community is limiting its engagement.

Source: SImplify360 A Social Media Analytics Tool

It was very surprising to find out that all of a sudden Citibank disappeared from Twitter after a

very successful DilVsBill campaign.

Citibank had launched a campaign titled Tweet a cloud, Dil Sewhich targeted Diwali shoppers over a weekend, intending to judge the customers sentiments about how they would spend for Diwali. The campaign initiated live Twitter feed under #DilVsBill hashtag, where tweeple were

engaged in conversation about their Diwali shopping.

It is shocking how brands suddenly vanish after a huge successful campaign.

The Fan of the Month Campaign:

The fan of the month campaign is a loyalty programme and an engagement tactic by ICICI bank

on Facebook which they have been continuing since 3-4 months.

The application encourages fans to to tell them what they like about ICICI bank. It is a notable

way to get valuable insights from customers and acting upon it.

The more a fan interacts on the page, more are the chances of him winning the contest. It thus

successfully drives engagement and loyalty.

PRODUCT MIX:

1. 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: Its 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.

Bank @ Campus: Thanks to bank@campus, child can now surf the Net and access all the details

of his / her account at the click of a mouse! No need to visit the bank branch at all.

ICICI Bank Salary Account: is a benefit-rich payroll account for Employers and Employees. As

an organization, you can opt for our Salary Accounts to enable easy disbursements of salaries and

enjoy numerous other benefits too.

2. 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

3. ANYWHERE BANKING

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.

4. LOAN

a) Home Loans

b) Personal Loans

c) Car Loans

d) Two Wheeler Loans

e) Commercial Vehicle Loans

f) Loans against Securities

g) Farm Equipment Loans

h) Construction Equipment Loans

i) Office Equipment Loans

j) Medical Equipment Loans

5. CARDS

a) Credit Card

b) Debit cum ATM Card

c) Travel Card

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

Local branches and in association with partner banks/ exchange houses.

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- -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

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)

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 organization.

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 dont meet customers expectations, then neither does the service. Therefore, investing in people quality in service business means investing in product quality.

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.

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, employees dress code etc.

Signage: Each and every bank has its logo by which a person can identify the company. Thus

such signages are significant for creating visualization and corporate identity.

Financial reports: The Companys 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.

Employees dress code: ICICI bank follows a dress code for their internal customers. This helps

the customers to feel the ease and comfort.

Blueprint of customer services

A Service blueprint is a picture or map that portrays the service system so that the different people

involved in providing it can understand and deal with it objectively, regardless of their roles or

their individual point of view. With ICICI Bank, this particular model is blueprinted for the branch

service staff or front line staff interacting with the customers; in particular customers who have

transactional issue which has to be sorted out. The measures considered here is to show case the

real service delivery flow which is happening at the moment in the branches.

The scenario which is behind the blue print is about a customer who swiped his debit card for a

transaction in merchant establishment. Usually, there is an issue where customers are debited twice

when swiped in a credit card purchase. It clearly takes place only because of the last paper role

which stops rolling out the paper despite the transaction gets approved. Due to lack of knowledge,

the merchant swipes for the second time after filling with the paper roll. The customer is also

unaware about it in most situations. Only the merchant can realize on the next day when he receives

a double credit in his bank account; the customer realizes this when he receives his bank statement.

The above blueprint describes the service flow when the mentioned customer raises the dispute

against the double transaction seeing his statement of accounts. Firstly, on the line of interaction

component is the customer, who begins from the line of interaction / the physical evidence / front

stage with the enquiry about the dispute to the line of internal interaction from the employee actions

/ back stage / invisible. There is a minimum waiting time of fifteen minutes due to the traffic by

more customers calling the call center which makes customer to hold the phone for long period -

first area of dissatisfaction. After getting connected, as these transactions are directly linked with

the VISA / MASTER services, they must be routed to the particular department which processes

the merchant payments from VISA / MASTER services. So, the phone banking officer takes a

complaint and registers the case with the payments department. As this cannot be sorted out over

the phone; need to provide the transaction slip of the purchase with a requisition letter signed, the

customer must visit the nearest branch for the same.

The customer waits in the queue in the physical evidence for a long time in a busy branch; in spite

of its twelve hours banking system which is operating from morning eight till evening eight, it has

a reasonable crowd between nine in the morning till six in the evening. The branch is not with the

space it requires as the crowd grows slightly bigger; the paint is generally dark red and twenty per

cent portion is cream color painted, there is no music played in the branch during the banking

hours; no drinks provided to the customers. This is the second area of customer dissatisfaction. At

once the customer reaches the front line service staff which is on stage / visible employee

auctioning line, the staff greets the customer and offers a seat. But, the customer can feel the

originality of service is not expressed from the servicing staff member; this is due to the long

working hours and attending more number of customers who walk in to the branch. This is the

third are of customer annoyance. If the staff could not address the issue, it has to be verified with

the line manager in the line of visibility itself. This often happens as the staff members lack in

training and they are not updated on the process flow regularly. Now, the line manager in this case

anyway need to address with the operations in charge of the branch, who is out the visible area /

back stage which is the line of internal interaction. Then, the operations manager who in turn routes

the case to the back office which is the support processes center in the blueprint. The back office

staff will have it interact with the collection department which is again a supporting process for

the bank to raise the dispute back at the merchant where the transaction took place and so, the

customer is requested to wait for minimum ten working days to get the credit back to the card

account. The customer feels that the process is taking too long and questions the front line staff

why a credit must take such a long time (in this case the merchant's account is also with the same

bank) to transfer between ICICI Bank accounts itself. Actually, the process delay is due to the

issue must be addressed to the VISA / MASTER services and a formal request must be sent to the

merchant verifying whether the case has occurred, even though the transactions would reveal that

the merchant got a double credit irrespective of any other risk arising incidents like there might

have been double purchases from the customer itself.

Finally, after the verification gets through post ten or may even reaches up to twenty working days

depending on the delay from the merchant's side, the transfer would happen to the customer's

account from the payments department, the support processes. If there is a possible delay of

anything more than ten days, the customer used to ring up the branch asking for the particular front

office staff and every time he needs to check the account and give reasons for the delay. This is

the last area of dissatisfaction from the customer and a huge loss to the bank due to the resource,

the front line staff used in a time consuming process of giving blame reasons on the delay caused.

Lastly, the customer thinks that the bank is not serving him for the premium he pays and he

becomes an annoyed user of the bank services.

7 Ps - Service Marketing Mix of ICICI Bank

Product

ICICI Bank offers wide variety of competitive products to suit customer needs; coupled with

convenience of networked branches and other facilities. They are broadly retail banking

products, corporate banking, premier banking for HNIs (High Net worth Individuals), investment

products, international banking for non - residents, loans, credit cards toned with anywhere

banking system. But, the product in service industry is intangible which adds complexity. The

perspective of the consumer is of two types, one is the documents, cheque book, card received

while opening the account which does not carry most weightage and the other is the expectation

of the value added services - the customer service quality has the major impact with the bank.

Price

It is one of the most important elements of the marketing mix; the only mix, which generates a

turnover for the bank. The remaining mix are the variable cost for the bank. It costs to design,

implement and to promote it. Price must support other elements of the mix. ICICI Bank's pricing

strategy is challenging as it has to tear the hurdles from the traditional banking prices and must

reflection thorough supply and demand management. Pricing a product too high or too low could

mean a loss of sales. Bank should critically consider fixed and variable costs, competition,

objectives, positioning and targeting.

Place

The bank needs to diversify on how it is going to distribute the service or product offered to the

customers. The organization must distribute the product to the customer at the right place and at

the right time. It distributes its services through various channels such as branches in central

locations, field sales force, telephone selling, ATM centers; efficient and effective distribution is

important to meet its overall marketing objectives. In case the demand is underestimated, the risk

is high that customers cannot purchase a product which directly affects the firm's profitability.

Promotion

Success of bank's service means nothing unless the benefit of such a service can be communicated

clearly to the targeted audience. ICICI Bank's promotional strategy mainly consists of the

following methods. Personal selling are driven in the branch, through field sales and phone

banking team. Advertising done through television adverts, radios and newspapers. Public

relations involve developing positive relationships with the organization media public; in this case

the bank has a challenging role as not only to obtain favorable publicity in media, but also being

able to handle successfully the complaints about the servicing issues. Direct mailing is mostly done

with the bank statements along with the promotional letters. Direct mailing allows using bank's

resources more effectively by allowing them to send publicity material to a named person within

their target segment; these personalizing materials increases the response rates thus increasing the

chances of business development.

People

Essential ingredient to any service provision is the use of appropriate staff and people. Recruiting

the right candidates and training them appropriately in the delivery of their service is essential

for the bank to obtain the form of competitive advantage. Customers make judgments and deliver

perceptions of the service based on the employees they interact with. Staff should have the

appropriate interpersonal skills, attitude, and service knowledge to provide the service that bank's

customers are paying for.

Process

Process refers to the systems used to assist the organization in delivering the service. Customer

walking in with an complaint, who is listened and gets solutes quickly is a process that allowed

the customer to obtain an efficient service delivery. For instance, the bank sends out Credit Cards

automatically when their customers card gets expired, again require an efficient process to

identify expiry dates. An efficient service will foster consumer loyalty and confidence towards

the company.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidence is the element of the service mix which allows the consumers to easily judge

the service levels of an organization while looking the physical appearance. If a customer walks

into the bank, the expectations are of a friendly environment, ease of transaction with security for

his money. Physical evidence is an essential ingredient of the service mix; consumers will make

perceptions based on sight of the service provision which will have an impact on the

organization's perceptual plan of the service