Marketing of Financial

Services & Products

Made By:
KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK
Abhiram Sandhuja
TOPIC COVERAGE
Ayush Sharma
• About the bank and its offerings
Anuja Gulati
• STP
Kuhuk Saxena • Explain any product from the bank and explain along with its pricing
• Explain the distribution channel of your Kotak bank.
Meet Patel • Explain about their promotion strategies.
Rahul Nagpal

Harsh Vidhani
About Kotak
Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in the city of Mumbai, India.
Kotak is one of India’s leading diversified and integrated financial services conglomerates, providing a wide span of solutions across
banking (consumer, commercial, corporate), credit and financing, asset management, life and general insurance, stock broking,
investment banking, wealth management, microfinance, and asset reconstruction, encompassing all customer and geographic
segments within India. As a group, it also operates in overseas markets through international subsidiaries or branches in key
geographies. It is leveraging the expertise and presence to deliver a banking and financial services experience that is contemporary,
customized and built for the not-as-usual world. Currently the group is `4.8 trillion institutions (consolidated assets) with a market
capitalization of `3.5 trillion (as on 31st March, 2021).

FIGURE A: KOTAK GROUP SUBSIDIARIES

Kotak caters to the diverse financial needs of individuals and the corporate sector. The bold vision that underscores Kotak’s
growth is an inclusive one, with a host of products and services designed to address the needs of the unbanked and insufficiently
banked.

FIGURE B: KOTAK PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

For the purpose of this project, we are interested in Consumer Banking sector of the group. Specifically, Home loans and Loans
against property. We have discussed the pricing of the product, how it is placed in the market. We have also talked about the
distributional channels and promotion strategies of the product in depth as we go further.
Kotak Mahindra Bank can use the following four steps to build a Customer Value Driven Marketing strategy in financial industry
–

Step 1 – Market Segmentation

Step 2 – Targeting
Step 3 – Differentiation
Step 4 – Positioning

What is Market Segmentation and how Kotak Mahindra Bank can use market segmentation in the Regional Banks industry?

Consumers in the Regional Banks industry vary in their needs, wants, demands, resources, locations, access to technology,
cultural differences, buying attitudes, and end use of the products and services. Market segmentation is the process through
which Kotak Mahindra Bank decides to segment the overall market in smaller segments and groups that have similar attributes,
buying behaviour, socio economic background, etc. This is done to reach out to the group of consumers more efficiently and
effectively.

Example of Different Types of Segmentation

Some of the most popular ways of consumer and market segmentation are –

Geographic Segmentation
Geographic segmentation is dividing the overall market based on different geographic units such as – countries, continents, zip
codes, states, trading blocks, cities, and neighbourhoods. Geographic segmentation is highly efficient for Kotak Mahindra Bank in
the international markets because the
prospective customers have different culture, preferences, and administrative systems. Secondly, if the cost of transportation is
a critical cost in the value proposition delivery then it is prudent to do geographic segmentation as the costs of serving
customers in different locations will be completely different.

Demographic Segmentation – Example of Demographic Segmentation

Demographic segmentation is dividing the mass market into smaller segments and groups based on gender, income, occupation,
age, life cycle stage, ethnicity, religion, and generation. As the products of Kotak Mahindra Bank provide a superior value
proposition, it should segment the customers based on two main demographic criteria – income of the prospective customer
and life cycle stage. One of the most widely used demographic segmentation frameworks in the United States by various
marketers is – PRIZM. PRIZM is the geo-demographic segmentation system that combines geographic data with various
demographic, consumer behaviours, and other data to help marketers identify, understand and reach their customers and
prospects. PRIZM classifies every U.S. household—assembled by zip code—into 66 demographically and behaviorally distinct
segments.
Psychographic Segmentation – Example of Psychographic Segmentation
In the marketing world, lifestyle oriented interests, activities, and opinion, are categorised under psychographic variables. Kotak
Mahindra Bank can use psychographic segmentation to divide the potential buyers into different segments based on –
personality characteristics, buying patterns,
consumption opinion, opinion on social issues, leisure activities, hobbies, and many other dimensions. Psychographic
segmentations are effective because people in the same demographic can have different psychographic characteristics based on
individual life experiences and growing up environment.

One of the most widely used consumer behaviour frameworks to do consumer psychographic analysis is –

VALS - A widely used segmentation method that classifies America’s adult population into eight distinctive subgroups:
innovators, Thinkers, Achievers, Experiencers, Believers, Strivers, Makers, and Survivors.

Behavioural Segmentation / Use base segmentation – Example of Behavioural Segmentation / Use base segmentation

Behavioural segmentation divides buyers into groups based on their - attitudes, product knowledge, product uses, and other
responses to a product. Many marketing experts believe that behaviour variables are a good starting point to build consumer
segments. For example for any service – Freemium model is a far more effective segmentation strategy than geographic,
demographic, or psychographic. The behaviour segmentation can help the organisation to focus on key features, and provide
the consumers with features that they are more likely to use. Continuous engagement leads to higher customer satisfaction
rates and high net promoter score.

What is Intermarket (Cross Market ) Segmentation

A lot of consumers have similar wants, needs, and buying behaviour even though they are located in different countries,
cultures, and political systems. Kotak Mahindra Bank can use the principle of cross market segmentation – defining and targeting
the same type of consumers in different markets, strategy in this scenario. Kotak Mahindra Bank marketing team shouldn’t
confine itself to one segmentation strategy. In fact should strive to inculcate numerous features to better define and identify the
target groups and segments.

What is Targeting and how Kotak Mahindra Bank can use Targeting in the Regional Banks industry?

After identification of various consumer segments within the marketplace, Kotak Mahindra Bank needs to target a specific
market. The choice of target market is dependent on ten critical factors –
- Organisational technical capabilities to cater to a specific consumer segment in the Regional Banks industry
- Organisation’s comparative strengths and weaknesses to market successfully to the target market.
- Product Life Cycle stage – It is highly relevant in the international scenario
where the product life cycle is at different stages based on social, economic, regulatory, and political reasons. Kotak Mahindra
Bank needs to find out at what stage of the product life cycle the target segment is.

- Segment structural attractiveness - Presence of core infrastructure to market successfully to the target market.
- Presence of appropriate collaborators to market successfully to the target market – Is there sufficient infrastructure available
to target certain customer segments?

For example, everyone knows that there is an environmentally conscious segment in the automobile industry who can pay
premium prices for electric vehicles, but none of the major auto players successfully target that segment because there was no
collaborators ecosystem. Tesla became
successful by building that ecosystem.

- Regulatory and other entry barriers - Are there any regulatory and technological barriers that Kotak Mahindra Bank will face if
it decides to enter the market.

- The financial return potential of the target market – Kotak Mahindra Bank needs to decide whether the segment it is planning
to target can be financially lucrative.
- Organisation’s mission, vision, and the consumer segment fit – Is the targeting consistent with the vision, mission, ethos, values
and strategic fit of the Kotak Mahindra Bank.

- Financial resources to target a specific segment – Does the organisation have marketing capabilities, operational skills, and
financial resources to target a specific segment of consumers.

- Competition in the target segment – What is the level of competition in the target segment? I the competition is fierce then
there is less likelihood of sustainable margins in the long term.

What is Positioning and how Kotak Mahindra Bank can use Positioning in the Regional Banks industry?

Brand positioning and value proposition positioning are critical to marketplace success in today’s competitive marketplace.
Kotak Mahindra Bank needs to position its product in such a way that it creates a – distinct image, provides a specific identity /
reference point of the product and services in the customer’s mind. Brand positioning and product differentiation have become
increasingly
critical because of the driving down of production costs in the Regional Banks industry and the direct access to consumers using
e-commerce and other online retailing strategies.

Factors determining the Positioning choices of Kotak Mahindra Bank are –

- Relevance of positioning to the customers – Is the positioning relevant to the customers. For example Blackberry tried to
position itself as a provider of high end corporate security. Most consumers didn’t buy into that positioning because most were
not using their phones for corporate purposes.

- Strategic fit of Kotak Mahindra Bank – As Kotak Mahindra Bank already have numerous products and services, the new
products and services need to fit into the strategic fit of the already prevalent value chain delivery model.
- Ability to defend a differentiation and positioning – Can Kotak Mahindra Bank defend the differentiation it seeks to project. If
Kotak Mahindra Bank can’t defend the new product / services positioning, then it will be left to fend off competitive threats
from new entrants.

- Consumer ecosystem – If the positioning of the product is not consistent with the consumer ecosystem then consumers won’t
accept the product or service
Home Loans and Loans against Property
a home loan is a loan taken to buy or construct a new home – i.e. the property is not owned by the loan applicant. A mortgage
loan, also known as a loan against property, is a loan secured by a property that the loan applicant already owns.

Real Estate: The real estate industry remains largely regional play with only a handful of players having a meaningful presence in
more than a couple of cities. Given the lockdown in Q1, Real Estate was expected to be among the worst impacted industries.
While Q1FY21 did see a sharp fall in residential sales, quarters post the lockdown saw a sharp rise which took most industry experts
by surprise. The same was driven by a combination of factors such as government support (reduction of stamp duty in Maharashtra
being one example), low home loan rates and improving affordability index.

Kotak offers one of the lowest home loan interest rates starting at 6.65%*p.a. applicable across all loan amounts. Pursued an
aggressive home loan acquisition strategy by offering customers a very competitive interest rate, a superior product proposition
and the convenience of an instant in-principle sanction on Kotak Digi Home Loans.

During FY 2020-21, the Home Loan business was a key focus area and taking leadership position on interest rates, the Bank was
able to significantly ramp up the business volumes. The Home Loan business showed a growth on volumes, despite of almost
negligible business in the first half of the FY 2020-21.

In the previous year, Kotak saw a Growth in Home Loan and Loan Against Property portfolio of 12.8%

MARKETING MIX OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

Marketing Mix of the Bank analyses the companies 4Ps which covers Product, Price, Place, Promotion and explains their
marketing strategy. It explains what strategy is implemented by the company. So let us go over the 4Ps of Kotak Mahindra Bank
in the coming section.

PRODUCT STRATEGY OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

It offers a varied financial service to retail as well as corporate customers. It has a unique program that matches the needs of the
customers. Following are some of the product services which the bank offers into different segments.
Personal Loans
• Home loans
• Gold loans
• Education loans
• Home improvement loan
• Loan against property
Kotak Mahindra Cards
• Credit Card
• Debit card
• Best compliment card
• Multi-currency world travel card.
Deposit Account
• Saving account
• Current account
• Term deposit
• Kotak 3 in 1 account
Insurance and investment
• Mutual funds
 • Life insurance
• National pension system
Convenience Banking
• Cash deposit machine
• SMS banking
• Net banking
• Phone banking
• Hashtag banking
• ATM network
These are some of the products offered by Kotak Mahindra bank in various segments.

PRICE STRATEGY OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

The company has a unique way of pricing because it depends upon both low and high rates depending upon the customer’s type
and need of products or service. It also adopts an affordable pricing strategy that is useful for both corporates as well as
customers. They also offer loans to the customers by charging them flexible EMI repayment.

PLACE & DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY OF KOTAK MAHINDRA B ANK

Kotak Mahindra’s origin is present in Mumbai Maharashtra. It also has a global presence in countries like Singapore, Dubai, New
York, and many other international countries. Its ATMs are spread all over India making it easy for the users. It offers service to
many clients with its efficient workforce. Its distribution channel includes offices and franchises present in both urban and rural
markets.
PROMOTION STRATEGY OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK
It offers feasible, convenient, options for its clients as their tagline says to make money simple. They turned twenty-five years
old in 2010, on the occasion it launched a ‘youthful 25 years’ campaign. It had launched a ten-second high-impact television
commercial and print advertisements. The campaign talked about how money can build self-esteem and provide security.
It was a quick ad but created a strong impact on the users. It promotes its firm through television channels, YouTube, radio, and
many other platforms. They also try promoting through various hoardings which are set on popular places to grab user’s
attention. It is also accessible through mobile phones as it launches its app called Kotak Bharat banking app.

Hence, this concludes the marketing mix of Kotak Mahindra bank. Since Kotak Mahindra Bank is a private Bank, now let’s
compare the top competition in the market.

COMPETITORS OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

Kotak Mahindra Bank is known as one of the leading banks of India. It faces huge competition in the market. One of the major
competitions is from the first leading bank in India which is as follows.
Its chief competitors also include
• Bandhan Bank
• Axis Bank
• HDFC Bank
 • ICICI Bank
• State Bank of India
Bandhan Bank is seen as one of the top competitors. HDFC is one of Kotak Mahindra’s top rivals as it is one of the largest
private-sector banks in India.
Therefore, Kotak Mahindra bank has to be consistent and should come up with innovative schemes to beat its competitors.

MARKETING STRATEGY OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

Marketing Strategy is the process of making sure you are getting relevant messages out to customers in a way that would lead
them to do something about your business, product or service. This can involve generating leads, nurturing them, and building
long term relationships with these leads.
We all know that Kotak Mahindra Bank is in a sector that is already highly competitive. However, the bank has undertaken
various measures and marketing activities to attract new customers and also maintain long term relationships with the existing
ones. So let us see some of the marketing strategies implemented by Kotak Mahindra Bank

LAUNCH OF KOTAK 811 ACCOUNTS

Previously, somewhere around 2016, customers of most of the popular banks in the country were asked to maintain a healthy
minimum balance. So not many in the country used to go with these banks due to these hefty minimum balance requirements.
As one of the largest banks in India, Kotak Mahindra Bank saw an opportunity and offered a zero-balance digital bank account
under the name, “Kotak 811” in March 2017.

The process of opening 811 accounts was a five-minute task sitting at home since everything is done online. It also provided the
Kotak 811 account holder with a virtual debit card.
With the Digital India initiative and UPIs on the rise, this strategy of Kotak Mahindra Bank helped it rake in millions of customers
in less than a year’s time and it still continues to do so.

BRAND AMBASSADORS & BRAND MASCOTS OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

It is not just about business offerings but also about creating brand awareness. In the simplest terms, it’s the brand identity and
awareness that people associate with the business. Without it, a business would be just another company fighting to survive in
an overwhelmed market.
Here, brand ambassadors are the friends who can help a brand take its business to the next level by building healthy brand
awareness and customer engagements.
Kotak Mahindra Bank has signed Ranveer Singh as its brand ambassador. It also had signed Vinay Pathak, as the brand mascot of
the company.
MARKETING AND ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK
The bank has taken initiative to create brand awareness on various social media platforms. It promotes its bank through various
marketing campaigns. It does aggressive marketing and thus ensures that the advertising attracts customers. Ranveer Singh is
the brand ambassador of the bank. The agency creates such marketing campaigns through electronic, print, and digital
mediums. Following are some of the marketing campaigns by Kotak Mahindra.

ENTER SHUBU – A MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

The company came up with the benefit of getting 6% on your savings account. It also rolled out various ads on these campaigns
in the form of advertisement and print advertising.
This ad shows how Vinayak Patkar has been portrayed and he speaks about the financial decisions one needs to make in their
life.
HASHTAG BANKING – A MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK
In this ad campaign the bank came up with the Jifi zero balance hashtag banking campaign wherein they promoted through their
service called Jifi saver through social media accounts.

Here the customers could sign up for the Jifi saver account through their Facebook or Twitter account credentials. This was one
of the innovative campaigns done by the brand.

KONA KONA KOTAK – A MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

The bank presented this opportunity with a wide distribution of networks as their ad name also portrays the same. This
campaign highlighted that the Kotak Mahindra bank is also present in remote areas all over India having a huge presence.

These were some of the popular campaigns released by BPCL to promote its new offerings and services. Let us now understand
what it is doing in terms of its digital presence in the next section.

PHONE PHONE PE KOTAK – A MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

After the successful campaign of Kona Kona Kotak, the bank came up with this ad campaign driving the message as time changes
banking service also evolves.

BANK FROM HOME – A MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

In this ad campaign, the brand ambassador Ranveer Singh has been portrayed following is the image and youtube link for the ad.

Kotak took this opportunity during this Covid-19 time to deliver their customer’s service from home wherein they introduced
zero contact video KYC 811 savings account urging users to #bank from home.
Therefore, with this, we come to the end of the marketing campaigns of Kotak. Now let us have a look further.

DIGITAL PRESENCE OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

It has been a pioneer in the digital transformation space. Jifi and KayPay were a huge success for the bank. They were the first
player in the banking industry to create a payment platform.

KAY PAY BY KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

They launched KayPay which is an easy money transfer application that enables you to transfer money to your Facebook friends,
both of them should have an account with Kotak.
Later they extended it to Google+. But now they have further increased their outreach. Today we can use Kay Pay with our email
id or mobile number.

JIFI SAVER BY KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

Jifi is a new-age digital account that offers anytime access and on-the-go transactions. The product won many global innovation
awards.
They also launched Jifi Saver, a social savings bank account that can be seamlessly managed through Twitter and Facebook.

One of the digital products, Kotak Rewards was launched when they tapped into customer insight. They learned that customers
are using eCommerce sites to shop. So they engaged with more than 100 large e-commerce merchants like Amazon, Flipkart,
Myntra, eBay, and others to create a Kotak Reward Portal. They also launched a mobile store to integrate eCommerce with the
mobile app.
Thus Kotak bank has taken various innovative initiatives to keep engaging with their customers.

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE OF KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

Social media is rapidly growing and consumer interest plays a major role in it. Through social media, the bank will reach a larger
segment which will help them create a huge awareness about various schemes and offers. Following is the social media
presence of the bank.
CONCLUSION
Kotak Mahindra Bank has positioned itself as ‘the bank of the future. They have ensured that they serve the customer with the
best deals and offers. They also have a presence in rural areas, therefore, creating a strong base in the market. The bank also
plays a major role in marketing and advertising and therefore it has achieved a strong base in the market.