Surprising Bank of India

Public sector banking giant SBI is advertising itself as Surprisingly SBI. Singapore had also gone had also gone of a similar Surprisingly Singapore campaign few years go. The responses for this ad should be surprising to SBI. Sucheta Dalalwrites about this in Financial Express:

Pic Courtesy: Harshad Sharma (via)

State Bank of India (SBI), often described as a banking behemoth or the Big Daddy of Indian banking or banker to the government is clearly feeling very insecure. Its ‘‘Surprisingly SBI’’ campaign is itself evoking surprise and anger at the suggestion that people are unaware of its size and reach. We learn that the campaign is based on a survey conducted over FM radio and is targeted at yuppies in the 20 to 35 age bracket. But few are willing to buy its findings. It is difficult to believe that India’s educated, upwardly-mobile youth is so ignorant. It is however possible that this target group cares less about numerical supremacy than quality of service. And there, SBI indeed has a long way to go before catching up with its private sector rivals. But SBI investors are not amused at the public admission of ‘‘inferiority and diffidence’’ coming through in its advertisements.