Marketing in the times of COVID-19: Tata Capital

• 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, Abonty Banerjee, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer, Tata Capital, shares how investing in digital marketing early on has enabled them to deal with this transition to the new normal smoothly and the challenges the brand has faced in these unprecedented days.

The COVID-19 lockdown has created a negative sentiment in the environment. Tata Capital is therefore using its digital media’s power to remind people that we are in this together and help rejuvenate the sentiments of its customers.

From launching a Voice Bot to a wealth management app called Moneyfy, Tata Capital is exploring different facets of digital media to help its consumer navigate the challenges posed today.

In its latest social media campaign #WeCountOnYou with comedian Atul Khatri, fitness guru Gunjan Shouts and a tech teacher Pranav Sapra, it teaches senior citizens how to remind positive, the importance of being fit and helping society.

View this post on Instagram

Pranav Sapra (@pranavsapra), Atul Khatri (@one_by_two), and Gunjan Taneja (@gunjanshouts) are doing their bit during this lockdown to help society. Tell us what we can count on you to do. Share your stories with us through your posts, videos, and stories on Facebook and Instagram. Don't forget to tag @tatacapital and use #WeCountOnYou!

A post shared by Tata Capital (@tatacapital) on May 1, 2020 at 4:24am PDT

We caught up with Abonty Banerjee, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer, Tata Capital to further understand how the brand has adapted to the new normal and tweaked its marketing strategy.

Excerpts:

Q. How have the past few weeks been for the brand, considering the country has been in a lockdown?
It’s a tough situation for the entire country and we are also part of that. We have tried to stay relevant to the customers and respond to their servicing needs in the given situation. Most of our services are available online, and we are ensuring that customers are made aware of these.

Q. How have you been trying to continue building a connect with your audience? Has there been a change in your media mix?

As a financial services brand, the customer connect will remain high even in this situation. So there is no key shift in strategy except to remain empathetic to customer needs and ensure that our services are available to the extent possible. As far as media is concerned, most options other than outdoor remain available and consumption is naturally increased. We are largely using social and digital media at the moment. This is not a big departure from our regular strategy, where we use social and digital as medium for continuous engagement, and other media for larger campaigns.

Q. How do you think you as a brand, have been making a difference in terms of spreading awareness?
We have used our digital channels to spread awareness. We have done campaigns around social distancing on our social handles as well as on email and sms channels. Further, we have placed a robust communication strategy internally, which means our employees who are also customers for various products have accurate and real time information on the developments of the situation.

Q. What are a few key learnings for you as a brand in the last few weeks?
The main learning is around the importance of digital assets, platforms and digital media. Fortunately, as an organisation we had always stayed invested in digital platforms and in use of digital and social media. So that enabled us to deal with this transition to the new normal. Given that the concept of social distancing and use of digital journeys, platforms and media will remain relevant for some time to come, we will further fine-tune and enhance our offerings.

Q. If the lockdown is further extended after May 18, will you be tweaking your marketing strategy further?
The current norms have accelerated consumption of digital media and use of digital platforms. We will continue to stay invested in these, and build our brand and market the products online. Social Media will also play a key role.