Brand Owners' Summit: "By 2010, we were clear that the time for 'brand puffery' was over": Karthi Marshan, Kotak Mahindra Group

At the afaqs! Brand Owners' Summit held in Mumbai on December 9, Karthi Marshan, senior executive vice-president and head-marketing, Kotak Group, took the audience through Kotak's journey as a brand over the last 30 years.

He said that with 200 banks in its kitty, the company needed to focus on being unique and specialised. Though the campaigns helped underline its niche positioning, the brand was perceived more as an investment option, rather than for basic banking.

"And, unless we were with the customer for the latter, the chances that we would be preferred for the non-banking stuff, were getting slimmer," said Marshan.

So, the next strategy for the company was to broaden its scope with the 'Let's make money simple' campaign which realigned its positioning as 'money experts', and not just investment experts. Marshan further revealed that these messages did a decent job, but didn't really make one sit up and notice.

The turning point for the NBFC's (Non-Banking Finance Company) came with its silver jubilee anniversary. Although the bank license was only seven years old then, its age was a big factor in this category. Having turned 25, the bank launched a campaign which underlined the Group's milestones.

"It was a cheery set of creatives in which we didn't talk about our achievements, because by 2010, we were clear that the time for 'brand puffery' was over. The ideas mainly came from street vox-pops that we had collected from all over the country. People started thinking we were cool, and the gift we received was the tag of 'youthful maturity'," said Marshan.

The year 2011, was yet another historic one for the bank. With the Reserve Bank of India's deregulation of interest rates for savings accounts, following which the bank changed its interest rate from 4 per cent to 6 per cent.

"Marketers usually want to play the 'premium' game and not the 'price' game, but the company took it up with the 'at the heart of it, we are a bank' reality and brought out it out in the 'Subbu sab jaanta hai' campaign, which apparently worked very well for the brand," said Marshan. He added, "There was nothing sexy about what we said in the creative, but the fact that our sales guy was able to use lines like 'get 50 per cent more interest' from the creative very effectively with customers, made us think that the obvious also works sometime."

Marshan cited yet another campaign which again had neither the logo, nor any mention of Kotak Mahindra Bank, jokingly adding that agencies are always happy to make the logo smaller and smaller. "To have no logo is a big risk, but we were lucky, and brand attribution here again was krackerjack. The marketer's jannat is when the ad or message itself is the brand," he said.

The next step for the company was segmentation, and a couple of campaigns mentioned by Marshan included one that centred on the 'child and parent in partnership' theme, and one that looked at the 'social bank account' where prospective customers could open an account through platforms like Twitter and Facebook. "Going disproportionately digital also helped to tackle the handicap of having lesser number of branches and ATMs, even though we had a great product suite," explained Marshan.

The bank's merger with ING Vysya Bank also provided them with another opportunity to address the above issue. "A customer has a very nebulous idea in his/her head about the number of branches he/she wants, and needs to be reassured of the bank's accessibility. Our message was to say we have 'enough branches for you', without using quantitative benchmarks," added Marshan, recalling the 'Kona Kona Kotak' campaign that highlighted the bank's presence in all corners of the country. The particular campaign worked not just as a tagline, but as a headline as well, because it carried the company's name.

In the course of the session, Marshan also talked about early 2015 when there were some murmurs and signals of intolerance. "At the time, our campaign looked at inclusivity and being part of a diverse India," said Marshan.

He also defended the company's decision of not changing its tagline for long periods citing his favourite example of longstanding successful advertising of Nirma Washing Powder. "The mere mention of the brand name immediately invokes the jingle in people minds," said Marshan.

Marshan concluded his talk calling Kotak a challenger brand. "And like Facebook, our job is only 1 per cent done. Our market share is around 1-2 per cent in banking, but we are definitely punching above our weight, with a mobile market share of roughly 8 per cent," he said. "The one insight I will like both brands and agencies to takeaway is to find something that is unique for their brands, something which is true as well. And, to say it memorably, loudly and for as long as they can".

The ninth edition of the afaqs! Brand Owners' Summit in Mumbai was powered by Amagi, with Wall Street as the outdoor partner, Kairali as the wellness partner, Furlenco as the furniture rental partner, and GainBuzz as its reach partner.