This issue carries three research papers and one case study. Corporate branding by banks in Nigeria forms the subject matter of the first paper, “Re-Examining the Meaning of Corporate Branding: Does Corporate Advertising Give Useful Insights?”, by Olutayo Otubanjo and Chantal Epie. This conceptual paper provides a semiotic interpretation of print advertisements of four major banks operating in Nigeria. The paper also includes an interesting and in-depth analysis of how the bank’s customers interpret these advertisements. The paper concludes that corporate branding can also be understood as an expression of corporate personality, with the propensity to create meanings.
The concept of brand equity is fundamental to brand management, and is at the same time quite an intriguing one with many different definitions given by various proponents on this subject. One of the approaches to brand equity is to look at it from the consumer’s point of view, in effect highlighting the fact that brand equity ultimately rests with the brand’s customers. The second paper, “Determinants of Brand Equity from the Consumer’s Perspective: A Literature Review”, by Dhruv Brahmbhatt and Juhi Shah, captures the essence of several prominent papers on the subject of brand equity through a literature survey. It shows how authors present differing perspectives on brand equity, thus enriching our understanding of this concept.
The third paper, “Challenges of Selling Luxury Motorcycle Brands in India”, by Rekha Attri and Rahul Bairagi, is about the challenges of selling luxury motorcycles in India. The paper captures the essence of the luxury motorcycle market in India in terms of the key players, the products offered by them, sales achieved, etc. Through discussions with 24 major dealers of different brands of luxury motorcycles, it identifies the distinctive aspects of this market, the key pain points and challenges faced in marketing luxury motorcycles in India.
The previous issue carried a case study on Patanjali Ayurved, outlining the meteoric rise of this brand, and how it has posed a strong challenge to the leading multinational and domestic FMCG companies in India. This issue carries a study on Patanjali, this time, with a different orientation. The last paper, “Growth of Patanjali Brand from Local to Global Market: A Study”, by Namrata Maheshwari and R P Sharma, focuses on Patanjali’s move towards expanding into foreign markets, thus growing from a local company to a global one.
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs): The Changing Face of Banking in India
Bank Management
Information and communication technology has changed the way in which banks provide services to its customers. These days the customers are able to perform their routine banking transactions without even entering the bank premises. ATM is one such development in recent years, which provides remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the development of this self-service banking in India based on the secondary data.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is playing a very important role in the progress and advancement in almost all walks of life. The deregulated environment has provided an opportunity to restructure the means and methods of delivery of services in many areas, including the banking sector. The ICT has been a focused issue in the past two decades in Indian banking. In fact, ICTs are enabling the banks to change the way in which they are functioning. Improved customer service has become very important for the very survival and growth of banking sector in the reforms era. The technological advancements, deregulations, and intense competition due to the entry of private sector and foreign banks have altered the face of banking from one of mere intermediation to one of provider of quick, efficient and customer-friendly services. With the introduction and adoption of ICT in the banking sector, the customers are fast moving away from the traditional branch banking system to the convenient and comfort of virtual banking. The most important virtual banking services are phone banking, mobile banking, Internet banking and ATM banking. These electronic channels have enhanced the delivery of banking services accurately and efficiently to the customers. The ATMs are an important part of a bank’s alternative channel to reach the customers, to showcase products and services and to create brand awareness. This is reflected in the increase in the number of ATMs all over the world. ATM is one of the most widely used remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the growth of ATMs of different bank groups in India.
International Scenario
If ATMs are largely available over geographically dispersed areas, the benefit from using an ATM will increase as customers will be able to access their bank accounts from any geographic location. This would imply that the value of an ATM network increases with the number of available ATM locations, and the value of a bank network to a customer will be determined in part by the final network size of the banking system. The statistical information on the growth of branches and ATM network in select countries.
Indian Scenario
The financial services industry in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth, diversification and specialization since the initiation of financial sector reforms in 1991. Greater customer orientation is the only way to retain customer loyalty and withstand competition in the liberalized world. In a market-driven strategy of development, customer preference is of paramount importance in any economy. Gone are the days when customers used to come to the doorsteps of banks. Now the banks are required to chase the customers; only those banks which are customercentric and extremely focused on the needs of their clients can succeed in their business today.
