A Case Study on the Effect of Branding on Marketing of Banking Services In India |

ABSTRACT:

Marketing of service firms require the development ofbrand experiences and unique imagery leading to the critical role of brandbuilding in service firms. A strong brand scores high on brand awareness, brandservice quality perceptions, and customer satisfaction. Brands communicatetheir brand name, functional benefits, inherent values and cues on brandexperiences to customers which lead to strong customer based brand equity forthe firm. The external orientation in branding focuses on building strong brandequity among customers. Developing employee based brand equity has gainedmomentum in service branding literature as employees play crucial role infacilitating brand experiences, perceptions and relationships that customersmay have with the firm. The internal brand orientation focuses on building astrong brand orientation enabling employees to understand and imbibe the brandvalues of the firm. Competitors can copy the performance of the service brandbut the intangible values such as employees‘ attachment, trust and commitmenttowards the brand, customers‘ trust and loyalty and the unique, favorableassociation towards the brand cannot be copied. This thesis outlines howservice brand strength can be measured by assessing the internal brand strength(employee perspective) and the external brand strength (the customerperspective) individually and provides a methodology for the same byundertaking a study on banks in India. A strong service brand enjoys strongexternal as well as internal brand equity. India was selected for the study asit is an emerging market economy where the growth opportunities are consideredto be large (Jin etal., 2010). Moreover the Indian service sector has grownconsiderably during the last few years and has been globally recognized for itshigh growth and development.