ICICI Bank's latest ad campaign,
called the "Power of Belief", reassures its customers to believe in the bank to fulfill their dreams. There
is a widely held view that through this campaign, the bank is intending to
put congeniality ahead of its strength in its brand missives. Never in the past
has the bank promoted itself in such a soft manner. Its marketing strategy was
always very aggressive and focused on innovation, the quality of being
adaptive, youthfulness and leadership. These strategies paid off over the years,
and the bank was hailed as India's largest private sector bank and India's
second largest bank in terms of assets. However, the present campaign does not
focus on any of these achievements, but is embarking only on the `belief'
quotient. It is designed to give an impression of fine-tuning of the bank to the
customers' needs.
There is a strong reason for the bank to change its tone. Following the
collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ruination of ICICI Bank's investments in
it, panic spread among the customers of ICICI, and this was soon reflected in
the bank's share price plunging by 20% on October 10, 2008. Panic-struck
customers also had to be pacified by the bank, RBI, and the government that
nothing was wrong with the bank. Since then troubles have been brewing up for
the bank; and the news of rising NPAs, falling profitability, dipping deposits
and advances, fall in the net interest income, and decline in the profits
of bank's subsidiaries have only aggravated them. Banking experts say
that for a bank that outshone others, this scenario is something
unbearable. Chanda Kochhar, who replaced KV Kamath as the MD and CEO of
the bank on May 1, 2009, has an onerous task of preserving the legacy
handed over by Kamath and take the bank to newer heights. She says, "Priority
for the bank is to review its organizational structure periodically to ensure it is
in tune with evolving operating environment and aligned to achieve defined
objectives as well as capitalize on the emerging opportunities." Towards
this direction, she has charted a well-planned strategy focusing on four
Cs—capital conservation, Current Account and Savings Account (CASA)
improvement, cost control and credit monitoring. To implement her strategy and
to better maintain the bank's legacy, the new CEO admits, the bank is going
back to the basics of banking.
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