Veetika Deoras, Head, Brand Marketing, Tata Capital Limited, talks about using the world of kids as a core part of the brand’s visual imagery, but advises against overdoing the emotional quotient in communication in a bid to connect with consumers more effectively. She also roots for taking a long term view of social media
Q] The brand has completed five years. What are some of the cornerstones of this journey and what are the plans moving forward?
When we began, our aim was to introduce the brand. We have the honour of the Tata name as a prefix, which symbolizes trust and credibility. However, we needed to carve a niche for ourselves in the financial sector. Our first two commercials were brand campaigns, to talk about the brand philosophy without actually mentioning any product. After introducing the brand successfully, we are now talking of products. Last year, our first product campaign was around home loans; the upcoming one is also a product campaign. We have crafted our brand promise of ‘We only do what is right for you’. We have tried to build and communicate this both internally and externally. Delivering on the brand promise, be it in terms of the CRM practice or IT systems we are putting in place, has been the core. The next five years will be a constant reiteration of this. When we began our journey, our total awareness score stood at 15-20%. After three campaigns, our scores today are at 60- 90%. We will continue communicating the brand promise aggressively to employees for internal brand engagement; brand communication will become quicker and increase as well.
Q] Tata Capital uses the world of kids in its communication. What are the insights behind this?
A lot of research was done on the brand promise, brand colours and different elements of the brand. The visual imagery is where we went with our gut feel. We decided that it felt right. Our first communication went out in 2008, when the stock market was doing aggressively well and everyone wanted to become rich real quick. Suddenly in this momentum, to say that we are going to use the world of kids and not go with the visible aggression, not promise returns like everyone else, but build our brand around the promise of doing what is right, was difficult. We did face a lot of challenges as to whether the brand would be perceived as juvenile for using the world of kids. But we took a stand on this. The child is the fulcrum of society; we as a brand are not going to show kids doing fake stuff. For example, we will never show kids dressed in black business suits just because it is investment banking. It was a big leap of faith that has worked beautifully for us. We have chosen the world of kids not to exploit them or use them as influencers, but because our brand promise is, like them, very simple, humane and honest. Our B2B businesses, which are supposedly hardnosed, have been successfully communicated using the world of kids. Our ad diagnostics show not a single B2B or B2C customer says ‘I don’t think the ad works for me’.
Q] The financial sector often uses an emotional angle to connect with its target audience. What is Tata Capital’s standpoint on this?
All brands need to build a connect with the customer; while building this connect, we need to keep in mind what sounds right for the brand. In a bid to connect with the audience, we cannot risk category dissonance. We have taken care not to get ultra-emotional and teary-eyed because ultimately we operate in the financial sector.
Q] How do you arrive at the choice of media?
We have a five-year plan, which gets revisited by business priorities, and how ready the business is for reaping the benefits of our mass media campaigns. Besides TV and Print, OOH and online work beautifully; the creative thought is fairly distinct from what goes into a TV campaign. Social media is modelled on what will work for the audience to suit their habits and preferences. Our brand campaign typically is more TV-heavy, 20-25% goes to Outdoor and online.
Q] What are the digital initiatives undertaken by the brand?
We had a campaign with two Sardar boys, we took the concept of ‘pehle aap’ and birthdays. We married the two into an application called happier birthdays. The premise behind the online application was when it is your birthday, we as Tata Capital will give a gift to an underprivileged child. We make your birthday happier, the child is immensely happy and you have a ‘feel good factor’ as well on your birthday. This was a concept taken from our brand campaign and tweaked for the online medium. We had a good number of people registering their birthdays with us. When we did the home loan campaign, we asked people to upload their perception of ‘khul ke jeeyo’. We got a huge response to this.
Q] What is the brand’s approach to the social medium? Are there specific challenges you face with regard to this medium?
It is a bigger challenge to convince people internally. If our Facebook page is constantly talking only business, people will tune out. We have built our social media piece on three pegs: firstly, engagement; secondly, corporate sustainability and then business, in that order. Leads are bound to happen. It would be very strange for a human being to warm up to a brand on social media and not consider it in an offline purchase. We also have metrics that measure our online initiatives. We look at ‘likes’ and participation rates; we have a participation rate of 1-2%, which is phenomenal. We have a customer service stamp which indicates the number of compliments and complaints we get. We have an idea forum where we see how many new ideas we are getting and we also have a metrics to measure our leads and referrals. We need to adopt a more long-term perspective of social media.
Q] What is the brand’s standing and activity in Tier II and Tier III markets?
Tier II and Tier III markets are quite critical for us, also because we are the latest entrants in the sector. Our messaging and language are customized to regional languages. We have worked with Kannada, Telugu and Tamil and have seen numbers significantly go up in these markets. We would be among the top five financial brands in those markets now. That the Tata name is accepted at a mass level has helped us greatly as well.
Q] What are the challenges faced by the brand?
Getting our spontaneous awareness levels up.
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