Digital Branding - Differentiation & Positioning Strategy

How we can afford being same on marketing strategy and creative front which will decide brand positioning and differentiation.  In the digital marketing space every brand has tried to come up with so aggressive on digital creative front to approach TG. I have been associated couple of year with big BFSI brands and their digital acquisition strategy. Throughout the digital branding execution I came to know that how important is creative differentiation while approaching same TG.

In my recent research on Personal Finance Space, I have studied top notch players integrated digital marketing strategy. Yesterday I have received bunch of mails from all leading players along with their offer.  Within offers and creative front I have noticed top industry players have been used same product message, same creative, same approach & same deliverables.

I am wondering how big banking brands like HDFC & ICICI chosen same white label partner, same creative agency, which results in the same sales ripple.  

At this stage we need to define where and how a brand should be active online with creative differentiation. This needs to be balanced against the findings that came from mapping out the brand culture and more specifically.

• Where the audience is online
• What kind of creative content will being produced 
• The resources available

Through the digital channels a brand has the possibility to move into loyalty phase. Here you can explore the possibility of your brand delivering high level of engagement by providing top notch digital creatives for their customers that are either driven from the core of the brand or taking opportunities from the peripheral edges.

Digital Marketing for Indian Financial Services

Most of the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BSFI) companies in India still practicing traditional marketing channel to spread financial awareness of their products or services. Marketing paws of Indian financial giants are still hesitating to enter into digital space without knowing its strength and future prospects. Digital marketing for financial services in India still consider as no man’s land.

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance company’s marketers have been slow to adapt to new Web 2.0 techniques. All leading equity broking firms in India concentrate on their product enhancement and push their services through traditional sales channel. Indian Banking services are far behind as compare to international banking firms in terms of Digital Marketing tactics adoptions. I have been observed Indian insurance companies are early adopter of digital marketing tactics perhaps they haven’t utilized this channel except Google ad words or display advertising.

Few financial content publishing firms like India Infoline, MoneyControl.com and DSIJ.in has successfully established their digital business model. Few mutual funds like DSP Black Rock and Reliance Mutual Fund smartly promote their services by facebook. In insurance segment Reliance Life Insurance and SBI Life really doing well in the social media front. What about the rest, their target audiences adopting digital media furiously and started consuming financial content enormously, where are they?

The financial content publishing firms like India Infoline, MoneyControl.com has crack the success code and enjoying early digital adopter benefits. Money Control is the best example how one should design and develop their online financial content publishing business model and engage financial consumers on digital platform. Few portals for loan and insurance services provide comparisons and recommendations have been fetching good traffic. Dalal Street Investment Journal’s Stock Market Simulation Game is the best example of creating awareness and engaging financial target audience smartly on digital platform.

Given the challenges now faced within financial services, it’s crucial that companies rethink and adjust the way they acquire new customers and retain current ones.  Banking and Financial Services and Insurance companies need to be thinking about how they are creating brand advocates within the customer base. The biggest challenge in front Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BSFI) companies are lack of experience with new digital marketing platforms.

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BSFI) companies marketing head should adopt experimentation with other digital tools rather than just Ad word or display. Digital tools such as social networks, viral video, and blogs, and moving toward relationship-marketing activities that build and maintain long customer relationships-and this require investment in digital front. While working on Dalal Street Investment Journal digital channel, I have been analyzed the concentrated digital marketing efforts and long term planning definitely reward handsome returns on investment.

Digital Branding to GEN next

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The consumption of media has evolved over the past two decades with the onset of World Wide Web: people now preferred to read news online, download music from web has pushed CDs/DVDs market down and operate their financial transactions online. People communicate with friends and family over the Facebook, Skype or chatting instead of picking up the phone. Technological advancement will surely drive more changes in near future. Today’s teenager or younger, as they grow up to be paying consumers more tech-savvy and demanding more speedy and action oriented services. Their preferences will affect how information is consumed and paid for.

The research found 11 key trends in today’s teenager:

• Print media and radio are in crisis
• Internet is all pervasive and convergence is here
• Teenagers are mobile centric
• They do not use email much
• Those in developed market are more cautious on spending
• They do not want to pay and they hate advertisements
• Gender stereotypes are reinforced in media consuming habits
• The younger generation is time constrained
• The world is indeed flat
• They trust their parents the most
• They care about the environment

Internet has had a major effect on media consumption, the consumption media has been evolving especially since the advent of the internet. Being a brand manager’s one should take this point into considerations while writing story board for upcoming brands.

Generation next will drive the second change. Today’s teenagers will be tomorrow’s paying consumers as they start earnings. Their habits, attitude, preferences will have a profound effect on how media is consumed and paid for. This generation without doubts are the major driving forces to change brand consumption and brand engagement. They are technologically more literate and are the forefront of the on-going digital revolutions. As gen next will change as they grow older (wiser) and start their work life, their present behaviors are strong indicators how things could evolve over the next 10 years. The world is becoming flatter and globalized, their remains strong socio-cultural and political difference between countries and genders (a risk of stereotyping?) that shape behaviors and attitude, which are reflected in the consumption of media, preferences for BRANDS.

It’s so difficult to say what might survive and what might not in this rat race. Trust is supremely subjective. Let see how brands react to trust factor, Digitally.

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Digital Hawk

The theme of D-HAWK (Online Branding Blog | Digital Branding and Internet Marketing Strategy) is based on Special Military Mission. The Creative Kida (Instinct) has never allowed me to settle for an ordinary and regular work. I am on a Mission, A Mission to face off Digital Branding Concepts, Lateral Thinking, Usability and it’s Applications to Strategic Online Marketing. The D stands for Digital and Hawk is stand for (a person) - Hunt game with a trained HAWK. D - HAWK is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot and manifestation of the various memes running around my brain, and as such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not the same, nor even similar, to those I may hold today.

Armed with the right digital marketing weapons, digital & online marketer need to work on digital brand engagement mission. Digital brand engagement is brand engagement with a key focus on communication via the web, digital brand positioning and brand extension strategy play an important role in strategic internet marketing. Everyone from individual to Fortune 500 corporate continue to communicate to their markets (the people they wish to interact with) in a push marketing or broadcast manner. The digital age has evolved and people/consumers can now be very selective about which brands they choose to interact with. Such mediums on the internet including blogs, micro-blogs, forums, social networks, groups within social networks, bookmarking sites, imagery and video sites can all be utilized by consumers; and they are doing just this in their thousands.


Digital Brands agents can take notice of what is being said about them, their product or service by monitoring chit chat taking place outside of their own website, through "buzz monitoring" tools. The value of the digital information provided is proportional to the time and expertise dedicated to configuring and analyzing the data provided. This value can be increased further when the buzz monitoring data is correlated with on site web analytic data. It's important to listen and observe the buzz, and analyze its impact prior to digital branding & engaging.

D - HAWK undertake following secret mission:

• Marketing Intelligence & Competitor Analysis
• Website and Brand Audit
• Guerrilla Marketing Action Plan
• Affiliate Marketing Business Setup
• Digital Branding (Inception to Engagement)