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History & Marketing Strategies of Axis Bank
Company name: Axis Bank
Founded by – Unit Trust of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation of India along with its four subsidiaries.
Axis bank is a private banking company and is the 3rd largest private sector Bank in India with its head office in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It offers an array of financial services and products and has a pan-India presence. Currently, Axis bank has 9 international offices, 3703 branches and 13, 814 ATM's in India. Axis bank was previously known as UTI bank.
How it all started:
UTI bank opened its first registered office at Ahmedabad and then in Mumbai in 1993 which was inaugurated by Dr. Manmohan Singh in 1994. UTI began to operate after the government of India allowed new banks to be established. The bank was later adjoined by many administrators such as Unit Trust of India, Life Corporation of India, National Insurance Company, The New India Assurance Company, The Oriental Insurance Corporation, and United India Insurance Company.
In 2001, the RBI withheld the approval of UTI merging with the Global trust bank. In 2004, the RBI put Global trust into a moratorium and supervised its merger with the Oriental Bank of Commerce. From here, UTI opened many international branches throughout the year and changed its identity as Axis bank on 30th July 2007.
Launching:
After merging with several insurance companies, and appealing to RBI to merge with Global bank, launched the future of Axis bank. Then known as UTI, it became the first ever Indian bank to launch a travel currency card and furthermore, it got launched in the London market and got listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The first overseas bank was opened in Singapore in 2006 followed by many representative offices in Shanghai, China, and Dubai in 2007. UTI, seeing the blossoming revenue, decided to begin branch operation in Hong Kong.
After changing its name from UTI to Axis bank, it opened a branch in Colombia in October 2011 supervised by Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Not only Sri Lanka, but the branch was also opened in Abu Dhabi. After the opening of the representative offices overseas, in 2011 the Axis house was inaugurated as the new corporate office in Mumbai. In 2013, Axis bank started operating in the UK market and has a branch in London.
Axis bank's Marketing strategy and interesting reasons behind its grand success:
According to Global Banking 500 rankings, Axis bank is the bank that every other bank should feel cautious about, mainly because of its popularity and the scheme and advantages it provides to its customer. It can be safely said that the marketing strategy of Axis bank is so safely constructed that it is helping it to get ahead of banks like HDFC or ICICI.
One of the main marketing strategies of Axis bank is the way it chooses to operate in the technical era. Axis bank has increased the use of electronic banking channels. With this, they have used many other innovative strategies like choosing your account number, real-time video banking, the first multi-social payment app in PingPay and the first integrated mobile money platform through LIME is unique in its field.
Having one of the largest footprints of branches under its belt and a huge ATM spread across the country gave its customer the sense of easiness which many fails to do. Axis bank operates to suit the purpose of their customers, mainly because the customers of axis bank come from a highly professional class of working people from the upper and middle-class income group.
In the banking industry where the main motive of the public and private sector of the bank is to maintain a profitable balance sheet, in order to do that many banks are trying to up their game by using many methods as the innovations will be the main source of income in the coming days.
Many banks like Axis, HDFC, ICICI, Kotak are using many social media channels to promote themselves. They are providing unique services like balance through a Twitter tweet, Choose you're a/c No, Video banking which is taking them ahead in the game.
Axis bank's Campaign:
Axis bank's latest campaign 'experience axis' showcases what real advantage should be. The campaign was launched in 2018 and features its brand ambassador Deepika Padukone. The theme of the campaign is having monochromic and Uber experience. The video ends with a message showing saves up to 20% off on more than 4000+ restaurants using Axis Bank cards.
In 2017 axis bank launched another campaign that showcases the lifetime of efforts undertaken by a mother.
It speaks about all the hardship a mother goes through to make her children's life perfect, be it opting to walk rather than taking a vehicle or choosing the least expensive dishes of the menu so that her family can enjoy, saving pennies to help the family grow in a financially secured atmosphere is something that is common between both a bank and a mother and shows off the emotional relationship with money.
Axis bank takes care of the financial insecurity so that its customer can be free from this burden.
In 2016, Axis Bank launched another campaign named 'Active' fitness band in partnership with GoQii. It allows the customers to make payments in NFC outlets, track their fitness level and earn points which they can cash in in their bank.
In February 2016, another campaign was launched for its mobile business banking solutions, conceptualized by Lowe Lintas. The main viewpoint of this campaign was the involvement of several individuals engaging in banking through their mobiles at unlikely times. It introduces 'Complete Business Banking Solutions' from Axis bank.
The campaign highlights that whenever one needs money, no matter how much the amount or when the time is, it will be presented. The tag line says – As 'a businessman who is on, needs a bank that is always on'.
As the business dynamic is changing, the strategy of the bank to make itself one of the leading banks in the banking world is also changing. The introduction of many methods such as internet banking, social banking and using many platforms to boost the performance and to maintain a perfect balance of profit can be learned by the tactics of Axis bank. At the speed it is going, it will definitely cross over other private banking options such as HDFC, ICICI, Kotak, Mahindra and many more.
Whatever idea Axis bank came up with, it became a hit because it handled the issues of its customer as a sensitive matter and tended to it professionally and came up with many campaigns to suit the purpose of its customer. Throughout the year, axis bank has achieved excellence and will continue to achieve more.