A Report on ICICI and Technology

Role of Technology in Marketing

Marketing is important because marketing drives the sales of the products or services of a company. Without these marketing ploys, sales would not follow. Or, if sales do occur it would be minimal compared to using marketing strategies. Marketing of products and services are made easier by todays technology particularly the internet. Companies currently make use of one of the greatest resource in our generation the internet phenomenon. Technology has certainly made things easier for people to communicate, transact business anywhere in the world. Marketing mix is definitely affected by internet technology. Benefits from online access are reaped by both the customer and organization. Transactions are being carried out in the internet, making it easier to both buy and sell goods and services. So how does technology affect the 4 Ps of Marketing? Product - with the aid of internet technology, determining the products or services that would most likely sell or not among customers is becoming easier. Clients can also check the products being offered by a particular firm. At the same time, firms can readily make available the list of products or services they offer through the internet. Pricing - another important element of marketing. Marketing strategies should include the proper pricing of products. Affordable and reasonably-priced products often attract attention. For companies that do the bulk of their marketing online, it is easier to reduce the price of their commodities or services because advertising expenses are effectively lessened by technology. Place - this is the marketing aspect where probably companies see the most benefit using internet technology. Selling is no longer constrained to a physical place such as stores or in malls; the internet marketing of these companies allows the customer to do transaction online. The internet makes transfer of information faster and easier. Orders are made in real-time. The internet stores are open 24/7 even if the physical stores are closed. Therefore, the opportunities for increase in sales and profit are greater. Promotion - since more and more people are using the internet, a wider base of audience is being reached by internet promotions. There is no limit on the scope of their promotions since there are no physical barriers to be content with. All businesses can offer their products and services to a broader range of audiences from different countries. The convenience offered by the internet makes products and services readily available without exerting a lot of physical effort such as driving to the store. Therefore, internet technology greatly facilitates the purchase of goods or service both for the customers and the business.

How did ICICI employ technology for customer acquisition?

ICICI Bank has been an early adopter of IT, a factor that helped the bank to be No 2 in the country within a short span of time. ICICI Bank is a technology-driven global bank delivering a wide range of corporate and personal banking products and services under one umbrella. While its corporate customers are offered an array of products and services including commercial banking, investment banking, treasury products, insurance products, venture funding and consulting services, its retail banking customers have the options to select from personal banking, home loans, car loans, mutual funds, bonds, investment and tax planning and other products and services. The bank is leveraging high-end technologies to understand and analyze customers requirements and offer virtually tailored services to cater to individual needs. Its technology platforms offer the highest levels of reliability, availability and scalability. Apart from its prowess in using technology to meet the operational requirements, the bank makes extensive use of technology for its customer management programs

with the intention to offer more value and improve its varied services. Two major initiatives of the bank in its technology induction efforts are its business intelligence system and an enterprise wide reporting system. The system is mainly used in its marketing and customer relations functions. The system is capable of developing tailored campaigns targeting millions of unique subscribers. The bank has a single enterprise wide data warehouse, which holds information from various legacy and transaction system, integrating data from multiple sources. It provides users with information about customers, accounts, transactions, credit cards and other functions of the bank. It also uses data on customer accounts and ATM transactions to measure the customers channel use. The system covers operational systems of the bank such as retail banking, bonds, fixed deposits, retail consumer loans, credit cards, custodial services, online share trading and ATM. The banks staff can make use of the data in product development and marketing campaigns. RURAL OPERATIONS: The bank has a significant presence in the rural sector and it is an active player in micro-finance. The bank had incubated Financial Information Network & Operations Ltd, or FINO, a technology setup that provides core banking solutions to agencies like microfinance institutions, cooperative banks and banks catering to the low income households, especially in the rural areas. The financial services company has allied itself with a number of other companies in order to offer innovative services. They have partnered with Orange and Airtel to provide WAP-based m-commerce (mobile/telephone banking), with Compaq to develop a payment gateway, with Yahoo! to provide online financial information, and with Satyam Infoway to offer retail financial products over the Internet. ICICI and its subsidiaries have portals that allow its customers to access accounts and products online, offering cutting-edge web-based tools. ICICI was the first of the Indian financial services firms to aggressively pursue an e-commerce strategy and has established a reputation as the leader in this area. The firm has invested in the development of its e-commerce group and has dedicated resources to using their technological advantage to great better customer service and increased internal efficiencies. ICICIs electronic services are of the highest calibre, giving its customers access to their accounts 24hours a day, seven days a week. ICICI has been able to guide its clients away from uniquely branchbased banking to using the more efficient and less costly computer-based banking. In some rural areas the banks ATMs are the only branches to which customers have access, allowing it to expand into these markets without prohibitive investments in infrastructure. ICICI has been very successful in expanding its non-branch banking channels, reporting in 2002 that only 35% of customer-initiated transactions were branch based. ICICI has also created a multilingual ATM network that is highly compatible with those of other banks, accepting Master, Cirrus and Maestro cards, thus giving its customers (and other users, i.e., potential customers) a high degree of ease-of-use. In addition to traditional banking functions, ICICIs ATMs are set up for paying bills and even for recharging pre-paid mobile telephones. ICICI has also utilized the technology of call-centres to enhance its customer service. The company has the largest call-centre in the industry and it can be accessed by customers in over one hundred cities. The service integrates automated and customer service technician services, serving a complete range of products. ICICI uses the most advanced technology at the call-centre, i.e., bleeding-edge voice-over Internet-protocol technology and the most advanced desktop applications, to cross-sell products from its various subsidiaries and to facilitate the customers banking experience. In addition, ICICI offers mobile banking services, allowing its customers to use mobile devices to perform some of their banking functions, e.g., checking balances, paying bills and ordering cheque books. Finally, ICICI offers fully comprehensive on-line trading services at www.ICICIdirect.com. CO Branding Initiatives: Alliance with Amway India for the launch of the international credit card. The card will enable Amway distributors to purchase Amway products and earn and redeem reward points. Indian Railways Catering And Tourism Development Corporation, in conjunction with ICICI Bank, announced the launch of mobile payments and ticketing system, offering IRCTC

customers to book railway tickets via SMS and make payments through their ICICI Bank accounts. Cross brand associations - acquiring databases of high net worth clientele of lifestyle products: Tie-up with Woven Hues. Young Stars Account Promotion through tie-up with Cartoon Network and in-series promotion through Tom & Jerry. In-film promotions - Baghban and Seminars in partnership with media channels .

CRM and ICICI:

CRM at ICICI involves increased communication between the virtual universal bank and its customers and prospects, as well as within the group itself. The underlying idea is to enhance every instance of contact with the customer. ICICI believes that a true customer-centric relationship can only be accomplished by considering the unique perspectives of every single customer of the organization. CRM, at ICICI, is viewed as a discipline as well as a set of discrete software technologies, which will focus on automating and improving the business processes associated with managing customer relationships in the areas of sales, marketing, customer service and support. Hence the pressing need is to put in place a technology enabled CRM solution. The organization aims to achieve the end goal of one-to-one marketing.

The CRM software applications will not only facilitate the coordination of multiple business functions but also coordinate multiple channels of communication with the customer-face to face, call center, ATM, web, telephone, kiosk, bank, branch, sales associates, etc so as to enable ICICI carry out cradle-to-grave customer management more efficiently. It should allow ICICI to engage in one-to-one marketing by tracking complete customer life-cycle history. To begin with, it will automate processflow tracking in the product sales process, and be able to generate customized reports and promote cross selling. It will also enable efficient campaign management by providing a software interface for definition, tracking, execution and analysis of campaigns.

CRM Business Cycle

OBSERVATIONS:
A survey was done to analyse how ICICI has used technology to increase its customer base. The survey was done on various parameters that use technology as its base. The medium used for communication

Print media TV Ads Word of mouth Banners/hoardings

20 37% 14 26% 10 17% 11 20%

Frequency of using net banking

0-2 1-5 6-10 never 11 20% 25 45% 18 33% 1 2%

Ease of using net banking

Easy Medium Complex

25 45% 20 36% 10 18%

Feeling of security while transacting through internet

Yes No 34 62% 21 38%

Benefits associated with internet banking

1 2 3 20 36% 26 47% 9 16%

Frequency of using phone

0-2 1-5 6-10 never 19 35% 15 27% 7 13% 14 25%

Awareness about various offerings by ICICI

ANALYSIS
All the communication media i.e. print media, television ads and word of mouth played a significant role in marketing ICICI which brought them numerous customers. The multi pronged approach of ICICI of TV ads, Print ads and hoardings have had an excellent impact on the companys growth.

o TV Ads: Endorsements by celebrities strengthened the brand image. Also the

advertisements show numerous aspects of beneficial technology that would cater to the needs to the people.

o Print Ads: The print media has contributed favourably to ICICIs soaring popularity.
The strategy is to impart information by being very rational. The Jeetey raho campaign was a huge success and let to soaring sales. The focus is always on building trust.

o Banners/Hoardings: The hoardings have been kept in busy areas where it catches
the eyes of the customers thus creating awareness.

o Word of mouth: ICICI bank has also leveraged on the good will spread by its existing
customers.

The introduction of internet banking has revolutionised the banking sector.

o Frequency of using internet banking: The customers were asked to rate their usage of
net banking and close to 50% of the customers surveyed used it at least 1-5 times a month. 33% of the people surveyed used it 6-10 times a month. Internet banking forms the core of the technology that ICICI promises and the survey also proved that the customers use net banking to save time, effort and they are also comfortable enough to use it time and again.

o Ease of use (internet banking): Of the customers surveyed 81% of them found it
easy/medium to use Internet banking. The bank ensures that customers do get their utilities received as fast as possible. This medium is highly cost-effective as it userfriendly with an effective GUI.

o Secure Transactions: 62% of the public surveyed strongly felt that the transactions
were secure and hence feel very safe to continue using ICICI. ICICI has invested a lot on the security front. It has worked towards providing secure transactions by using Verisign technology, grid based debit cards and virtual keyboard.

o Advantages: Close to 50% of them chose internet banking as it saves time. Earlier
customers had to wait in long queues and thus technology helped win customers hearts.

Phone banking: 75% customers surveyed use phone banking and are satisfied with the time taken for their queries to be resolved. Awareness about various services: Around 77% of the customers are aware of the various kinds of services provided by ICICI. Be it the online services, trading services, manual services, security services, loan services, the customer is aware of it and are rapidly utilising them to improve their effectiveness. Hence ICICI has been successful in marketing the various enhancements and innovations and have brought customers closer to them. Mobile Banking: This medium of marketing has taken the people by storm. Now people can transact even though they are mobile with no other resources at their disposal. Numerous alerts, notifications, launch activities, introduction of new schemes etc are received within no time.

Customers Perspective The Conclusion:

Though technology has taken a fore front and revolutionised the banking world, it has still left customers demanding in some arenas. Internet banking, mobile banking, TV banking, Opti-Q and all the other services have hugely benefited the customers. They have mobilised the economy to a great extent. People prefer sitting at their workplaces and performing transactions rather than visiting the branches. All the necessary services are available through internet or phone or mobile. Be it payment of bills, booking movie tickets, railway or airline tickets for travel, performing trading, mutual funds, securities, insurance, loans, inter and intra transfer between accounts of various other banks, easy cash at hand, issue of credit cards and debit cards, ATMs tech nology has just made it so simple for the customers that indeed it has been become an inseparable part of them. But still there remain some fields where ICICI needs to progress. Survey showed us that people have expressed dissatisfaction regarding the loans issuance, the document processing time and the interest rates levied which are higher than the competitive banks. Much also needs to be done in order to make people aware of the various services being offered as not many people are aware of them. On the other hand the rural initiatives have benefited the rural sector to a great extent.