Indiantelevision.com Team

(5 January 2008 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The missing link of emotional connectivity in marketing financial brands unlike FMCGs (fast moving consumable goods) is the reason for low penetration of financial brands in India, observed Reliance Capital head of branding Ajay Kakar.

Kakar was speaking at a panel discussion on "the latest trends in consumer banking along with perspective on how social marketing is changing business perspectives in financial services" moderated by CNBC feature editor Anuradha Sengupta.

Mutual funds penetration is 4 per cent in India, while penetration of general insurance is only 2 per cent and 17 per cent is the retail penetration of life insurance in India, said Kakar.

He also maintained that penetration of financial brands is less even when there are more than 32 financial brands in India.

Kakar said that the Indian market is flooded with financial brands that confuse the customers and do not lure them. He reasoned that the existence of "cousin brother" brands selling the product further confuses the consumer and decreases the sale. The consumer gets confused with various categories, brands and products.

Speaking on the same panel, Citi Group CEO Central and Eastern Europe, global consumer group and CMO Europe Middle East and Africa Sanjeeb Chaudhuri agreed with Kakar.

Chaudhuri said, "To experience incredible pay-offs, marketers must be obsessed about customer needs and not about internal business goal."

While selling financial brands, consumer needs and wants are the most important aspects that any marketing plan should focus upon, he stressed.

Speaking on "Using marketing technologies to become customer centric" Chaudhuri said marketing plans should reinforce brands with every interaction and treat customer experience with competence.

He further added that marketers should reduce unnecessary contacts with the customer and improve relevance of the message. He explained that instead of bombarding the customer with a long list of offers, he can be offered only those options which suit his needs. The needs of the customer can be researched based on customer loyalty and his various transaction.