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Marketing in the times of COVID-19: DBS Bank
DBS Bank India's Shoma Narayanan shares a few key learnings that she has picked on her way in these unprecedented days...
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Marketing in the times of COVID-19: DBS Bank

DBS Bank India's Shoma Narayanan shares a few key learnings that she has picked on her way in these unprecedented days...
  • In our latest interview series, we talk to brands to understand how they are coping with the new normal and their strategies towards navigating these difficult times.
  • In today’s interview, Shoma Narayanan, Executive Director- Strategic Marketing & Communications, DBS Bank India, tells us about their key learnings from the Covid-19 experience so far, a few tips on how to help consumers deal with today’s challenges, and how they are becoming digital-first to connect with their audience.
After the COVID-19 outbreak came to India and slowly started spreading across the country, banks were forced to work at limited capacities, while trying to cater to the essential needs of their customers.

However, as market forces and consumer behaviour continue to evolve and unemployment increases day-by-day, it is important for marketers to be agile and keep recalibrating their strategy.

Applying a few learning from its fellow markets in Asia, DBS Bank was quick to see the writing on the wall. Earlier, it was using an integrated approach to marketing its brand communications. Albeit, in light of the spreading virus, it has shifted all its marketing monies to digital and is replugging some of its old content to keep engaging with its consumers.

There is a lot of uncertainty and anxiety around -- the safety of one's family, public health care, and long-term economic impact are some of the key concerns in people's minds. DBS bank is, therefore, using its communications tools to help its audience navigate these challenges.

We caught up with Shoma Narayanan, Executive Director- Strategic Marketing & Communications, DBS Bank India to further understand how they are building a connect with their consumers at a time they are scared to step out of their homes, how is the brand doing its bit to help the society and a few learnings that she has picked on her way in these unprecedented days.

Excerpts:

Q) How have the past few weeks been for the brand, considering the country has been in a lockdown?


These are extremely challenging times and with banking being an essential service, our top priority as an organization is to safeguard customers and colleagues while continuing to fully support client needs. We have a wide range of digital solutions that allow both retail and corporate customers to bank from the comfort and safety of their homes. Our branches remain open with extensive safety measures in place to support physical transactions. DBS has also partnered with Bharti AXA to roll out a health insurance plan covering medical conditions including Covid-19. Additionally, we have launched a series of Covid-19 relief measures to help strengthen healthcare infrastructure and support vulnerable communities such as daily wage earners.

Q) What is your marketing strategy right now? How have you been trying to continue building a connect with your audience?

Consumers are facing more uncertainty today than ever before. Their family's safety and overall public health are primary concerns and there are worries around long-term economic impact. Our marketing strategy therefore focuses on reassuring customers of our support, sharing relevant and useful content and encouraging them to use digital modes of banking as much as possible. While speaking to customers, we found that many of them were keen on helping people less fortunate than themselves, and were not sure how they could do this during a lockdown. We partnered with The Akshaya Patra Foundation to run a programme under which our customers could donate meals to daily wage earners who have been severely impacted. For every donation made by a customer, DBS is making a matching contribution of double the amount, thereby tripling the impact. We have received a higher than expected response to this campaign, and it has helped us strengthen our connect with customers as well as a wider audience.

Q) If the lockdown is further extended, will you be tweaking your marketing strategy further?

We follow an agile approach, and our marketing strategy will evolve to meet the needs of the situation at hand.

Q) How is your brand making a difference in spreading awareness/contributing in whichever way you can?

DBS recently launched the ‘DBS Stronger Together Fund’ to provide help to Covid-19 affected communities across its six key markets, namely Singapore, Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia and Taiwan. In India, DBS is partnering with United Way, Metropolis Labs and others to help scale up public health infrastructure, provide medical supplies and equipment, and sponsor free testing for the underprivileged. DBS is also working with organisations such as Pratham, Akshaya Patra and United Way to provide the equivalent of 2 million meals (in the form of food supplies and pre-packaged meals) to daily wage earners whose earnings have been affected by the temporary closure of factories and workplaces. We plan to roll out more such initiatives in the coming months.

Q) TV viewership and digital engagement continue to increase, where are you betting your money?

In normal circumstances, we have found that an integrated approach across TV, outdoor and digital gives us the best results. Right now, most of our spends are focused on digital and social media as that is where we are able to best connect with our audiences. We are seeing increased traction on digital even on slightly older content. Earlier this year, around International Women’s Day, we had launched a new episode of our mini-series, SPARKS, featuring our brand ambassador Sachin Tendulkar. The episode traces the journey of a social enterprise that is supported by DBS and is helping women become delivery agents, a profession that was traditionally inaccessible to them. As there is a heightened demand for online content as well as increased interest in cause-related material, we have seen a recent spike in views.

Q) What are a few key learnings for you as a brand in the last few weeks?

The importance of agility was brought home to us, and we pivoted some of our campaigns really quickly to make sure they were relevant in the current context. DBS is present in multiple countries across Asia, and we had important learnings from our colleagues in Singapore, China and Hong Kong who had faced similar situations in their markets some months/weeks before we did. Our key learnings are around being digital-first, staying true to our brand ethos of ‘Live More, Bank Less’ in everything we do, and ensuring we understand evolving consumer sentiment and respond appropriately.