About Axis Bank:

What is known as Axis Bank today has started its journey in 1993 as UTI bank after the
government of India allowed the establishment of private sector banks, in its attempts of
liberalization. It is promoted group of insurance companies - LIC, Oriental Insurance, Unit
Trust of India, GIC, NIC, The New India assurance company and United India insurance
company. UTI bank changed its name to Axis Bank in 2007 and it did a lot of rebranding
exercise to do this. Ms. Shikha Sharma is the current MD & CEO of the Axis Bank. Head
quartered in Mumbai, Axis Bank is listed in NSE, BSE and London Stock Exchange also. It is
now the third largest private sector bank in India. Axis Bank is also performing international
operations in nine offices located in places like Singapore, Shanghai, Dubai and Colombo.

Marketing Mix of Axis Bank analyses the brand/company which covers 4Ps (Product, Price,
Place, Promotion) and explains the Axis Bank marketing strategy. The article elaborates the
pricing, advertising & distribution strategies used by the company.

Let us start the Axis Bank Marketing Mix:

The Marketing Mix

The tools available to a business to gain the reaction it is seeking from its target market in
relation to its marketing objectives 7Ps - Price, Product, Promotion, Place, People, Process,
Physical Environment products the product in service marketing mix is intangible in nature.
Like physical products such as a soap or a detergent, service products cannot be measured.
Tourism industry or the education industry can be an excellent example. At the same time
service products are heterogenous, perishable and cannot be owned

The service product thus has to be designed with care

Product:

The product strategy and mix in Axis Bank marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Axis Bank is one of the leading banks in the world. Being in a very competitive environment
Axis Bank is offering a plethora of products/services to its customers. Axis Bank services the
customers in Large, Mid and MSME segments. It also caters to customers in Retail business
and Agriculture. Axis Bank offer many financial services under its marketing mix product
strategy. Let us look into Axis Bank’s product offerings: Accounts – savings, current, salary
accounts, bank lockers; Deposits – Fixed and recurring; Loans – home, personal, vehicle,
educational and gold; Cards- debit, credit and travel cards; Forex - Forex Card, International
fund transfer, foreign currency cash, cheques and DD; Investments – mutual funds; Insurance-
Life, health and general insurance. These Axis Bank products/ services are just an indicative
and not exhaustive. All these services can be accessed through direct Axis Bank branches,
internet, mobile and telephone banking channels established by the bank.

Price:

Below is the pricing strategy in Axis Bank marketing strategy:

Axis Bank pricing decisions should follow the regulations set by RBI. The main sources
include Interest rates, commission charges and consulting fees. The interest rates should reflect
the interest rates established by the central bank. Commission rates are monitored by the Indian
Banks’ association. These pricing policies set by the banks have immediate impact in attracting
the customers and the volume of transactions they do. Also, Axis Bank, like the other banks,
should follow the suggestions and regulations by Government of India to serve and help the
economically backward class and senior citizens through their plans. So, all this makes the
pricing a very complex and critical part of marketing mix. Currently the interest rates for Fixed
deposits are at 7% for amounts less than 1 crore and 6.25% for amounts between 1-5 crores.
For loans the interest rates are as follows- Home:9.45% p.a. (MCLR+0.15%), personal loans
costs about 15.5% -24%. This covers the Axis Bank marketing mix pricing strategy.

Place:

Following is the distribution strategy of Axis Bank:

Axis bank is now present in 2900+ branches in India and also working in 9 international offices.
One of the most important places for the banks where customers go to apart from their branches
is ATM. This where most of the customers take their money and Axis Bank is having 12,000+
of them across the length and breadth of our country. This shows the strong place strategy in
the marketing mix of Axis Bank. With the emergence of new technology Banks are embracing
it for the convenience of customers, these include internet and mobile banking services where
customers can transact without ever going to a bank. This also helps banks in reducing costs.
Axis bank has setup a strong It infrastructure for its internet and mobile banking services.

Promotion:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Axis Bank marketing strategy is as follows:

Axis bank is promoting its offers and products aggressively through different channels. These
include print advertisements, TVC, and digital marketing channels. Axis Bank also gives
discounts and offers to its customers on interest rates and gift hampers in lucky draws for those
who take loans. Wheels of fortune is one such lucky draw for loan holders, winners of this
draw would receive gifts and prizes. Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone is the brand
ambassador for Axis bank in its promotional activities. Recently their digital campaigns are
also featuring models and actors. Axis Bank also uses direct marketing to attract corporate
employees and students.

Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing
mix of Axis Bank.

People:

Axis Bank is a people centric company, whether it is employees or customers. People, a very
important piece in the whole scheme of operations in service industry. They decide the fate of
the company. As the representatives of the Axis Bank they directly interact with the customers
and other stake holders. They help in realizing the companies dream. Axis bank employs a little
more than 50,000 employees. Axis Bank values the contributions of these employees and focus
on their training and development activities for further enhancing their capabilities which in
turn reflect in company’s performance and customer satisfaction.

Process:

All the processes initiated by Axis bank are best in the industry. These processes result in the
customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Every day operations like dealing with
customers, cash and other transactions are designed to derive optimum results. The flow of
customers/ operations in the bank are standardized for quick turnaround time. Also, the Axis
Bank counters are segregated for different operations they perform. Some counters are
customized for special requirements/plans required by the customers. Also, technology is used
to Axis Bank’s advantage where simple transactions like withdrawal and deposits are done
through machines without any employee interaction.

Physical Evidence:

The logo of Axis bank is designed when it changed its name in 2007. The Axis Bank logo
suggests strong base and going to develop in future. Axis Bank releases financial stamens every
year for investors and customers. The website and Apps are also designed user friendly. It
significantly reduced its paper usage with software’s helping the staff to perform all the daily
activities. Axis Bank also uses billboards at busy places and near junctions for promotions with
its tagline “Badthi ka Naam Zindagi” suggesting company’s philosophy of progress in life.
Hence, this covers the marketing mix of Axis Bank.

Product life Cycle:

Its strategies are divided in Four stages according to life of product.

Introduction stage of Product life cycle

First stage of plc is called introduction stage. In this stage, product is newly developed and
launched in the market. Because, consumer does not know about this product earlier, so its
marketing is very difficult. Marketer has to teach the consumers about its benefits and its
advance facilities . For new product's introductory stage, marketer can take the market with
marketing skimming strategy or marketing penetration strategy. One more feature of this
stage that company sale will be low.

Growth stage of Product life cycle

In this stage, consumer knows the product because he has taken past experience after
purchasing it at introductory stage. So, sale will increase. In this stage, company can increase
the price for getting old promotion and advertising cost. Company can pay more on
advertising for developing product brand image in the minds of consumers. In this stage
company's profit will also rise.

Maturity

At this stage product life cycle, our sale reaches at highest level. Product is become well known
in the market. In this stage, we have to decrease our price for taking maximum part of product
and defeating market competitors. Company can offer special discount to dealer for selling fast
before reaching it declining stage.
Decline Stage

At this stage, sales fall very sharply. No more new customer wants to buy it . At this stage,
company can offer public to switch to his new advance product. Company can take milk from
brand name without any new advertising cost.

Conclusion:

The service marketing mix of Axis bank discusses the7 P’s of Axis bank and how the bank is
using an effective marketing mix to increase its customer base and rise in the banking industry.
They are implementing changes in their product, place, price, promotion, physical evidence,
process and people to increase more no of customers.

As the business dynamic is changing, the strategy of the bank to make itself one of the leading
banks in the banking world is also changing. The introduction of many methods such as internet
banking, social banking and using many platforms to boost the performance and to maintain a
perfect balance of profit can be learned by the tactics of Axis bank. At the speed it is going, it
will definitely cross over other private banking options such as HDFC, ICICI, Kotak, Mahindra
and many more.

Whatever idea Axis bank came up with, it became a hit because it handled the issues of its
customer as a sensitive matter and tended to it professionally and came up with many
campaigns to suit the purpose of its customer. Throughout the year, axis bank has achieved
excellence and will continue to achieve more.