DISTRIBUTION BACKBONE OF ECONOMY MADE BY DEVANSH KARNANI ROLL NO. 114 ROOM NO.

34 BBA 2 YEAR
nd

THE THE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the support and guidance to complete this project. I want to thank the ST XAVIERS COLLEGE, Department of BBA, for giving me the opportunity to go ahead with my project. I furthermore thank the Vice principal Prof. Dominic Savio and Dean Prof. Amitava Roy who gave me an opportunity to make this project and enrich my knowledge base furthermore. I am deeply indebted to my project guide Prof. Dibyendu Sen for his unending support, direction and guidance throughout the course of the research of material for the project as well as for the final compilation. I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to Prof. Avik Mukherjee and Prof. Shivaji Bannerjee who assisted me to carry out the necessary research for my project. It would not be possible to complete this project without their help and cooperation. My sincere thanks to all the faculty members, whose teachings have greatly influenced my style of thinking and analysing information.
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Last but not the least I would like to thank my parents and friends who directly or indirectly helped me during the course of project without which project would have been a Herculean task.

ABSTRACT
Distribution i.e. Place is one of the Ps of the marketing mix . The Distribution Channels and strategies plays significant role in creating niche for the company in the market. . The mobilization of product and services to the customer at the right place and the right time is very crucial and the right distribution strategy gives firm an advantage over its competitors. The project has been undertaken to understand the role of the distribution channel , the evolution of distribution overtime and the different levels of distribution required to reach different category of customer and also to analyze the importance of distribution in this modern marketing era and how a company like Industrial Credit and
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Investment Corporation of India has taken over large portion of market through their distribution strategy for providing financial services. Distribution is the backbone of marketing era and this project has helped to explain why it has become very important component for marketers.

INDEX
Sl. No. Objective of the Study 1. 2. Introduction Literature Survey 2.1 Distribution 5 6-13 6 6 7 8 8 9 9 9 10 11 12 12 Contents Pg. No.

2.1.1 Distribution Strategy 2.2 Intermediary

2.2.1 Types of Intermediaries 2.3 Distribution Channel

2.3.1 Role of Distribution Channel 2.3.2 Different Channel levels 2.3.3 Reverse Flow Channel 2.3.4 Service Sector Channels 2.3.5 Distribution Channel Strategy 2.4 2.5 Channel Integration and System Rediscovering Distribution: Going the E Tailing Way

3. 4.

Methodology Analysis Case Study Of Distribution Of Financial Services INDUSTRIAL CREDIT AND INVESTEMENT CORPORATION OF INDIA (ICICI BANK)

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16-42 42

5.

Conclusion

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
The main objective of the project is to get the full knowledge of the distribution and distribution network and how multinational and private companies are using distribution network as key differentiating factor from its competitors. The project has the following objective:

To understand the distribution network of Industrial credit and investment corporation of India

Different financial products offering How distribution of services is different from goods The different marketing channels required to reach customers

1. INTRODUCTION
What if for buying a bar of soap we had to go all the way to Gujarat from Kolkata? What if for buying a bottle of shampoo we have to travel to Mumbai? What if for buying the products we use daily we have to travel to different states? We never thought of it as for us whatever product we need is easily available either in kirana stores or the supermarkets. But if it was not easily available then our travelling bill would be more than the cost of the products and every time the soaps, shampoo etc were about to get over we would be thinking of making a schedule of travelling all across India for buying the product. Distribution network and strategy used by different firms has made our life easy. To buy a product of daily use we just have to go to the nearby retail shop. Had there been no distribution channels we would have been living primitive life where the daily used goods could only be affordable by rich elite class. Thus distribution plays the very important role of reaching consumers, provide them the value created by the firms and satisfy their needs. In todays era consumer has all the power he is the ultimate king and each and every company is trying to woe them which has left consumers with explosion of choices, so the brand would not create much difference because may be the consumer will not be able to rationalize why he is using X brand or why not Y? In this situation distribution plays a very important role, how fast and how easily the product or service is available at the beck and call of customer would determine the success of the company. Most producers do not sell their goods directly to final users. They design a multi-channel system to reach them. The design of marketing channel, that acts, as a strong interface, can provide competitive advantage to a firm in the industry. By contrast the absence of a good distribution network can also be a major fiasco in todays cutthroat competitive world. Marketing channel decisions are the most critical ones facing the marketing management today. It is complex and the complexity further gets compounded by the fact that the channel system take time to build usually years. Channel partners are not owned by the company in most cases. Sales force too plays a crucial role in getting the best out of marketing channel. Integrating the efforts of channel partners and sales efforts within the whole marketing effort becomes crucial towards achieving organizational goals. Distribution network also helps in penetrating the potential market as well as strengthen the present market. How well the company has entered the market through its distribution channel will decide its success over its competitors. HUL the leader in Fast Moving Consumer Good has strong hold in the market because of its distribution channel which has penetrated both rural and urban market. Even companies like P&G, ITC, COLGATE-PALMOLIVE etc are trying to strengthen its distribution strategy. Today companies like SONY, ASIAN PAINTS, LG, VIDEOCON etc too have created niche through their distribution channel as it makes their good and services easily available to consumers. Hence it has become important to study and analyze the distribution channels and strategy to understand the role it is playing in todays marketing environment.

2. LITERATURE SURVEY
2.1

DISTRIBUTION

Distribution is one of the traditional element of marketing mix also known as PLACE. The other three elements are Product, Price and Promotion. It is the mechanism by which goods and/or services are moved from manufacture or service provider to the consumer. The organization must distribute the product to the user at the right place at the right time. Efficient and effective distribution is important if the organization is to meet its overall objective. 2.1.1 DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY Depending on the type of product being distributed there are three common distribution strategies available: 1. Intensive distribution: Used commonly to distribute low priced or impulse purchase products eg chocolates, soft drinks. 2. Exclusive distribution: Involves limiting distribution to a single outlet. The product is usually highly priced, and requires the intermediary to place much detail in its sell. An example of would be the sale of vehicles through exclusive dealers. 3. Selective Distribution: A small number of retail outlets are chosen to distribute the product. Selective distribution is common with products such as computers, televisions household appliances, where consumers are willing to shop around and where manufacturers want a large geographical spread. If a manufacturer decides to adopt an exclusive or selective strategy they should select a intermediary which has experience of handling similar products, is credible and is known by the target audience. 2.2 INTERMEDIARY An entity which is involved in making the product available to the consumer is known as intermediary. Many producers do not sell products or services directly to consumers and instead use intermediary to execute an assortment of necessary functions to get the product to the final user. Companies use intermediaries when they lack the financial resources to carry out direct marketing, when direct marketing is not feasible, and when they can earn more money by doing so. The most important function performed by intermediaries are information, promotion, negotiation, ordering, financing, risk taking, physical possession, payment and title.

2.2.1 TYPES OF INTERMEDIARIES MERCHANT: An intermediary who buys, takes title to, and resells the product. Merchants can be either of two types: WHOLESALER: An intermediary that sells product to those who buy for resale or business use. Wholesalers stock a range of products from several producers. The role of the wholesaler is to sell onto retailers, they break down bulk into smaller packages for resale by retailers. Wholesalers usually specialize in particular products. RETAILER: An intermediary that sells product to the final customer for his/her person use or non business use. They have much stronger relationship with the consumer. Retailers may have wide variety of product range. Retailers often have a strong 'brand' themselves e.g. Ross and Wall-Mart in the USA.

DISTRIBUTORS AND DEALERS: Distributors or dealers have a similar role to wholesalers that of taking products from producers and selling them on. However, they often sell onto the end customer rather than a retailer. They also usually have a much narrower product range. Distributors and dealers are often involved in providing after-sales service.

AGENTS: An intermediary who searches for customer and negotiates on producers behalf or vice versa but does not take title to the product. They get commission for selling the product.

FRANCHISES: Franchises are independent businesses that operate a branded product (usually a service) in exchange for a license fee and a share of sales.

INTERNET: Internet is gaining importance in todays marketing scenario. The internet has a geographically disperse market. The main benefit of the Internet is that niche products reach a wider audience .Use of e-commerce technology (for payment, shopping software, etc) has gain popularity .Amazon.com , ebay.com are few of the commercial sites which has gained popularity among the internet users.

2.3 DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL Most producers do not sell goods directly to final users. Between producers and final users stands one or more marketing channels, a host of marketing intermediaries performing a variety of functions. Marketing channels or Distribution channels are set of independent organizations involved in the process of making the product or service available for use or consumption. They are the set of pathways a product or service follows after production , culminating in purchase and use by the final end user.(Marketing management ,Philip kotler and Kevin Lane Kellar; Twelfth
edition;pg432;ISBN 81-7758-690-4)

2.3.1 ROLE OF DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL Why would a producer delegate some of the selling job to intermediaries? Delegation means relinquishing some control over how and to whom the products are sold. Producer do gain several advantages by using intermediaries: Many producers lack financial resources to carry out direct marketing .For example, General Motors sells its cars through more than 8,000 dealer outlets in North America alone. Even general motors would be hard-pressed to raise the cash to buy out its dealers. Producers who do establish their own channels can often earn a greater return by increasing investment in their main business. If a company earns twenty percent rate of return on manufacturing and a ten percent return on retailing, it does not make sense to do its own retailing. In some cases direct marketing is simply not feasible. The William Wrigely Jr. company would not find it practical to establish small retail gum shops throughout the world or to sell by mail order. Intermediaries normally achieve superior efficiency in making goods widely available and accessible to target markets. Through their contacts, experience, specialization and scale of operation .Intermediaries usually offer the firm more than it can achieve on its own.

Figure 1 and 2 (M=manufacturer, C=customer, D=distributor) shows one major source of cost saving using intermediaries. Figure 1 shows three producers, each using direct marketing to reach three customers. This system requires nine different contacts Figure 2 shows the three producers working through one distributor who contacts three customers. This system requires only six contacts. In this way intermediaries reduce the number of contacts and the work. According to Stern and his colleagues: Intermediaries smooth the flow of goods and services....This procedure is necessary in order to bridge the discrepancy between the assortment of goods and services generated by the producer and the assortment demanded by the consumer. The discrepancy results from the fact that manufacturers typically produce typically a large quantity of goods, whereas consumers usually desire only a limited quantity of a wide variety of goods. (Marketing management ,Philip kotler and Kevin Lane Kellar; Twelfth edition;pg436;SBN 817758-690-4)

2.3.2 DIFFERENT CHANNEL LEVELS The producer and final customer are part of every channel. The different levels of marketing channel is determined by number of bulk breaking taking place while the good moves from producer to ultimate consumer. ZERO LEVEL CHANNEL : Consists of manufacturer selling directly to the final customer. Generally for industrial goods but zero level also takes place in door to door selling, telemarketing ,TV selling and Internet selling. Avon and Tupperware sells kitchen goods through home parties . ONE LEVEL CHANNEL : Consists of one selling intermediary, such as retailer. We see this kind of level in supermarkets where they have direct contacts with manufacturer and customer like Walmart, Reliance Fresh. TWO LEVEL CHANNEL: Consists of two intermediaries, these are typically wholesalers and retailers. This type of channel is typically seen for consumer durables like TV, refrigerators etc THREE LEVEL CHANNEL : Contains three intermediaries .In the meatpacking industry, wholesalers ell to jobbers, who sell to small retailers. The distribution of some products may involve more than three intermediaries, it depends upon the type of product, its demand and availability of it in the market. A business (industrial) good manufacturer can use its sales force to sell directly to
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industrial customers or it can sell to industrial distributor, who sell to the industrial customer or it can sell through manufacturers representative. The above level of channels are quite common in selling industrial goods. 2.3.3 REVERSE FLOW CHANNEL Reverse flow channel are important in the following cases: first, to reuse products or containers(such as refillable chemical carrying drums); second, to refurbish products (such as circuit borads or computers for resale);to recycle products (such as paper) ;lastly, to dispose off products and packaging(waste products).Several intermediaries play a role in reverse flow channels, Including manufacturers , retailers, redemption centers etc. . 2.3.4 SERVICE SECTOR CHANNELS Marketing channels are not limited to the distribution of physical goods .Producers of services and ideas also face the problem of making their output available and accessible to target population .As internet and other technology advance, service industries such as banking, insurance, travel, stock buying and selling are operating through new channels. Distribution strategy and the blend of different customer segment target was a stated objective of the merger between Citigroup and Travelers corp. Citigroup was one of the worlds largest banks while travelers focused on insurance, mutual funds and investment banking business. One of the major stated goals of the merger was cross sell each others product to its customers and to exploit the two organizations distribution channels to maximise the penetration of the merged companies product throughout the world.(Marketing management ,Philip kotler and
Kevin Lane Kellar; Twelfth edition;pg440;ISBN 81-7758-690-4)

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(http://ww2.nscc.edu/gerth_d/MKT2220000/Lecture_Notes/unit13_files/image002.jpg)

The above figure showing different channel levels 2.3.5 DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL STRATEGY Designing a distribution channel system involves few factors they are as following ANALYZING CUSTOMER NEEDS: In designing the marketing channel, the marketer must understand the service output levels desired by target customers. Channels produce five service outputs; lot size-the number of units the channel permits a typical customer to purchase on one occasion, waiting and delivery time the average time customer of that channel wait for receipt of the goods, spatial convenience- the degree to which the marketing channel makes it easy for customer to purchase the product, product varietythe assortment breadth provided by the marketing channel and service back up- the add on services provided by the channel.

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 ESTABLISHING CHANNEL OBJECTIVE: Channel objectives should be stated in terms of targeted service output levels. Under competitive condition, channel institutions should arrange their functional task to minimise total channel cost and still provide desired level of service output .Channel objective vary with product characteristics .Perishable products require more direct marketing. Bulky products, such as building materials requires channel that minimise the shipping distance and the amount of handling.

IDENTIFYING MAJOR CHANNEL ALTERNATIVES: A channel alternative is described by three elements the type of available business intermediaries, the number of intermediaries needed and the terms and responsibilities of each channel member. Companies can choose from a wide variety of channels for reaching customers from sales forces to agents, distributors, direct mails, telemarketing and the internet. Most companies now use mix of channels. Each channel hopefully reaches a different segment of buyers and delivers the right product to each at the lowest possible cost. When it does not happen there is usually channel conflict and excessive cost.

EVALUATING MAJOR CHANNEL ALTERNATIVE: Each channel needs to be evaluated against economic criteria-as each channel alternative will produce a different level of sales and costs. Control and adaptive criteria-to develop a channel, members must make some degree of commitment to each other for specified period of time .Yet these commitment invariably lead to decrease in the producers ability to respond to a changing market place .In rapidly changing, volatile or uncertain product markets, the producer needs channel structure and policies that provide high adaptability .

2.4 CHANNEL INTEGRATION AND SYSTEM Distribution channel do not stand still. New wholesaling and retailing institutions emerge, and new channel system evolve. VERTICAL MARKETING SYSTEM One of the significant recent developments is the rise of vertical marketing systems. A vertical marketing systems, by contrast, comprises the producer, wholesaler(s) and retailers acting as unified system. One channel member , the channel captain, owns the others or franchises them or has so much power that they all cooperate . The channel captain can be producer, wholesaler or the retailer .Notable producer channel captains are coca cola with soft drinks, Gillette with shaving products, and Procter & Gamble with detergent.
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HORIZONTAL MARKETING SYSTEM In horizontal marketing system two or more unrelated companies put together resources or programs to exploit an emerging marketing opportunity. Many super market chains have arrangement with local banks to offer in-store banking. MULTICHANNEL MARKETING SYSTEM Today, with the proliferation of customer segments and channel possibilities, more companies have adopted multichannel marketing. Multichannel marketing occurs when a single firm uses two or more marketing channel to reach one or more customer segments. By adding more channels, companies can gain three important benefits. The first is increased market coverage. The second is lower channel cost and finally more customized selling.

2.5 REDISCOVERING DISTRIBUTION: GOING THE E-TAILING WAY Rediscovering of distribution means re-designing of distribution process in a better way. As the market grows need for efficiency and viability increases. Given an existing distribution process of a product, the need to rediscover it in e-tailing way would lead to man Need of e-tailing What would happen to current distribution process. Benefit among existing distribution or etailing. The need for e-tailing is to provide better entre to customer along with the instant order placement and convenience for the same. Traditional distribution process can even exist after rediscovering as an alternative both the distribution model would exist in the product market adding to higher sale by company.
TRADITIONAL DISTRIBUTION

Traditional distribution process normally consists of manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer reaching towards final consumers. Such type of distribution was essential due to lack of technology, better connectivity and wide reach. With the increasing consumer base the need for e-tailing starts generating more income to the organization. Manufacturer Wholesaler Retailer Consumers

There are certain advantages in Traditional distribution Reduction in setup cost as company can use the retailers to sell the product. Understanding customer demand and behavior in a better way with the help of retailer. Easy access to rural areas with the help of small retailers located there. Consumers have easy availability of product with the help of retailers.

E-TAILING E-tailing means selling of goods and service through online process with the use of internet. Its an advanced version of distribution. E-tailing basically deals with retailing that takes place on internet. For example, Dell succeeded fully in on line distribution channel. Model of E-Tailing:
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Manufacturer

Internet

Consumer

There are many advantages in E- tailing. An e-tailing does not have to wait for customers because it virtually operates globally. Companies have cost leadership with the elimination of middlemen. Products can be ordered all-round the clock. Chances of product shortage are minimized. In the current scenario where the market is growing and world is shrinking due to better connectivity, need of e-tailing is highly looked upon. There is huge potential in the world market as the spending of consumer is increasing.

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4.2 CASE STUDY OF DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

INDUSTRIAL CREDIT AND INVESTEMENT CORPORATION OF INDIA

(ICICI BANK)
SERVICE Services form major part of day to day life. Today services sector is the fastest growing sector in almost every countries economy. In India services contribute 63 percent to its GDP. Services are the intangible product which are attached to either the provider that is producer or the service receiver i.e. the customer who buys it to enjoy the benefits of the services. DEFINITION: Any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product. THE MARKETING MIX OF SERVICES: The 4 basic Ps of the service sector happens to be PRODUCT PRICE PROMOTION PLACE But these Ps were not sufficient for the service sector thus three more Ps were added seeing the peculiarity of the service sector they were: PEOPLE PROCESS PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

THE IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING IN THE SERVICE SECTOR: Marketing was not that popular in services-industries as it was with manufacturing firms. Many service businesses were small and were not using management techniques such as marketing which they thought would be expensive or irrelevant. There were also service businesses like law and accounting firms which believed that it is unprofessional to resort to marketing. They relied more on their knowledge and efficiency than marketing their services. In India services sector has grown significantly. Its growth is also quite important for India. The employment elasticity [to GDP growth] in the services sector is higher than as in the case of both agriculture and manufacturing sector. Secondly, the services sector by providing complementary services to agriculture and industry, acts as a catalyst in the growth of the entire economy. Thirdly, with its greater flexibility in location, low capital intensity and personal nature is ideally suited for the small sector, which is the most important sector for overall development of Indian economy. Accordingly, the services sector has grown faster than the commodity sector.

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BANK: A bank is a financial institution licensed by a government. Its primary activities including borrowing and lending money. Many other financial services are now provided by banks. MARKETING MIX IN BANKING INDUSTRY: PRODUCT: The business has to produce product that people want to buy. They have to decide which market segment they are aiming at-age, income, geographical location etc. Today banks are not mere suppliers of money but they have become providers of services such as selling insurance, mutual funds, investment opportunities etc. PRICE: The price must be high enough to cover costs and make a profit but low enough to attract customers. There are a number of possible pricing strategies. PLACE: Banks need to take into consideration the place factor i.e. the distribution strategy for its financial services as it decides the volume of business for them. PROMOTION: Promotion mix includes advertising, publicity, sales promotion, word-ofmouth promotion, personal selling and telemarketing. PEOPLE: Sophisticated technologies no doubt, inject life and strength to a banks efficiency but the moment there is a lack of productive human resource even the new generation of information technologies would hardly produce the desired results. PROCESS: All the major activities of banks follow RBI guidelines. There has to be adherence to certain rules and principles in the banking operations. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: The physical evidences include the logo, the layout of the branch, the passbooks, cheque books, the furniture, the reports, punch lines, other tangibles, employees dress code etc.

BANKING SECTOR IN INDIA: The banking sector reforms undertaken in India from 1992 onwards were aimed at ensuring the safety and soundness of financial institutions and at the same time at making the banking system strong, efficient, functionally diverse and competitive. The financial sector reforms have provided the necessary platform for the banking sector to operate on the basis of operational flexibility and functional autonomy, thereby enhancing efficiency, productivity and profitability. The reforms also brought about structural changes in the financial sector and succeeded in easing external constraints on its operation, introducing transparency in reporting procedures, restructuring and recapitalizing banks and enhancing the competitive element in the market through the entry of new banks. Indian banks now hvae a gigantic task of striking of appropriate balance between banking operations of international standard and commitment and social welfare.
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OVERVIEW OF ICICI BANK

ICICI was formed in 1955 at the initiative of the World Bank, the government of India and Indian industry representatives. The principal objective was to create a development financial institution for providing medium-term and long-term project financing to Indian businesses. Until the late 1980s, ICICI primarily focused its activities on Project finance, providing longterm funds to a variety of industrial projects. ICICI Bank was incorporated in 1994 as a part of the ICICI group. ICICI Bank's initial equity capital was contributed for 75.0% by ICICI and for 25.0% by SCICI Limited, a diversified finance and shipping finance lender of which ICICI owned 19.9% at December 1996. Pursuant to the merger of SCICI into ICICI, ICICI Bank became wholly-owned subsidiary of ICICI. Effective March 10, 2001, ICICI Bank acquired Bank of Madura, an old private sector bank, in an all-stock merger. Over the last few years, the ICICI Bank has taken rapid strides in developing new businesses in line with its proposition to offer complete financial services to both corporate and retail customers. With the recent addition of insurance, the proposition of ICICI Bank was fulfilled. Going forward, the challenge for ICICI is to continue innovating to improve market shares and maintain its competitive edge. The speed with which it has been able to transform the organization and successfully start so many new businesses is almost singularly owing to the skills, enterprise and the depth of its human resources. ICICI Bank is committed to enriching its valuable resource which in turn allows it to bring innovative practices to the world of financial services in India. With technology playing the key role now the vision of the bank is to develop itself into an organization that is empowered by bright and talented individuals, working in teams and riding on the backbone of world class technology. Today ICICI Bank is India's second-largest bank with total assets of Rs. 3,562.28 billion (US$ 77 billion) at December 31, 2009 and profit after tax Rs. 30.19 billion (US$ 648.8 million) for the nine months ended December 31, 2009. The Bank has a network of 1,670 branches and about 4,883 ATMs in India and presence in 18 countries. ICICI Bank offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its specialised subsidiaries and affiliates in the areas of investment banking, life and non-life insurance, venture capital and asset management. The Bank currently has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Russia and Canada, branches in United States, Singapore, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Qatar and Dubai International Finance Centre and representative offices in United Arab Emirates, China, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Our UK subsidiary has established branches in Belgium and Germany.

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IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE IN ICICI BANK

Bank is a commercial institution of outfit marketing financial products. Service performances, production and consumption of services occurs simultaneously. Therefore, the frontline people and their interaction with customers, thus everyday postures, gestures, actions, reactions, emotions, activities and impressions contribute significantly in projecting a particular image of the bank distinguishing it from the rest of the field. Further customer service has a tremendous retention-value. If they cannot retain a customer, all their efforts in terms of time and money in creating and winning a customer would be a sheer waste. Besides, it is found that retaining customer is often cheaper than finding a new customer. In addition to that satisfied customers recommended the business to others. Thus a customer is viewed as a long term relationship rather than a party to a stray single transaction. The initial transaction is taken as the starting point and opportunity to establish a relationship through providing total customer satisfaction, which in turn will ensure further business, from him. This is what they term as relationship banking. Qualitative customer service and total satisfaction forms the edifice of Relationship Banking. ICICI has given stressed in providing best services to consumers. To make its services easily available to consumer it has developed distribution strategy according to its product as well as consumer requirement. This is the reason why ICICI has greater market share than its competitors. The services are sold through the branches. The two important decision making areas are: making available the promised services to the ultimate users and selecting a suitable place for bank branches.

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PRODUCT MIX OF ICICI BANK AND ITS DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

1.) DEPOSITS: ICICI Bank offers wide variety of Deposit Products to suit customer requirements. Coupled with convenience of networked branches, over 4883 ATMs and facility of E-channels like Internet and Mobile Banking, ICICI Bank brings banking at the doorstep. SAVING ACCOUNT: The bank offers a power packed Savings Account with a host of convenient features and banking channels to transact through. Customers can bank at their convenience, without the stress of waiting in queues. ICICI Bank provides its customers with various types of savings accounts keeping in mind different needs of different people. CHANNEL STRATEGY: The bank has 1670 branches through which customers can directly open account. Customer enjoys the power of banking at any of the branches throughout India. Internet banking is offered free of cost so that consumers can conveniently check the status of their account. ATM service is provided. SENIOR CITIZEN SERVICES: ICICI understands that a Savings Account needs to do more after one reaches the age of seniority. They have an ideal Savings Bank Service for those who are 60 years and above. CHANNEL STRATEGY: Anywhere banking, the bank has 1670 branches through which customers can directly open account. Customer enjoys the power of banking at any of the branches throughout India. Internet banking is offered free of cost so that consumers can conveniently check the status of their account. ATM service is provided YOUNG STARS: Young Stars is a banking service for children, aged 1day -18 years, it helps the parents meet the present and future aspirations that they hold for their child. It offers various savings and investment options to the parent along with teaching the child to manage his/her personal finance in a more responsible and independent manner. CHANNEL STRATEGY: Anywhere banking, the bank has 1670 branches through which customers can directly open account. Customer enjoys the power of banking at any of the branches throughout India. Internet banking is offered free of cost so that consumers can conveniently check the status of their account. ATM service is provided
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 FIXED DEPOSITS: ICICI provides its customers with various kinds of Fixed deposit facilities that are flexible and cater to customers who have different needs and wants in their fixed deposits. CHANNEL STRATEGY: Anywhere banking, the bank has 1670 branches through which customers can directly open account. Customer enjoys the power of banking at any of the branches throughout India. Internet banking is offered free of cost so that consumers can conveniently check the status of their account. ATM service is provided

RECCURING DEPOSIT: ICICI Bank's Recurring Deposits are the ideal way to invest small amounts of money every month and end up with a large saving on maturity. It aims to encourage savings without putting any stress on customers finances by making them to put a lump sum amount in fixed deposit in one go. The recurring deposit also attracts high rate of return that are identical to the fixed deposit rates. CHANNEL STRATEGY Anywhere banking which provides the consumer to benefit by making the services easily available through its branches. Internet banking too helps check the account regularly 4883 ATMs are spread all around India and other countries.

CURRENT ACCOUNT: Every business requires efficient banking facilities to support its business activities. ICICI Bank offers premium quality service, unfolding a wide array of class products. With technology leadership and service the bank is able to meet some of the most challenging financial needs of clients. CHANNEL STRATEGY Anywhere banking which provides the consumer to benefit by making the services easily available through its branches. Internet banking too helps check the account regularly 4883 ATMs are spread all around India and other countries.

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2.) INVESTMENT: Along with Deposit products and Loan offerings, ICICI Bank assists you to manage your finances by providing various investment options such as: ICICI Bank Tax Saving Bonds Government of India Bonds Investment in Mutual Funds Initial Public Offers by Corporate Investment in "Pure Gold" Foreign Exchange Services Senior Citizens Savings Scheme, 2004 CHANNEL STRATEGY Anywhere banking Internet banking

3.) LOAN Home Loans Personal Loans Car Loans Two Wheeler Loans Commercial Vehicle Loans Loans against Securities Farm Equipment Loans Construction Equipment Loans Office Equipment Loans Medical Equipment Loans CHANNEL STRATEGY Anywhere banking Internet banking 4.) CARDS Credit Card Debit cum ATM Card Travel Card

CHANNEL STRATEGY 4883 ATMs are spread all around India .

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5.) DEMAT SERVICES: ICICI Bank Demat Services boasts of an ever-growing customer base of over 7 lakhs account holders. In their continuous endeavor to offer best of the class services to their customers they provide the following feature to the customer CHANNEL STRATEGY Digitally signed transaction statement by e-mail. Corporate benefit tracking. e-Instruction facility - facility to transfer securities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through Internet Interactive Voice Response (IVR) at a lower cost. Dedicated specially trained customer care executives at their call centre, to handle all queries. ICICI Bank 24-hour Customer Care Centre: The ICICI Bank 24-hour Customer Care Centre is equipped with a state-of-the-art system that ensures customers queries being handled efficiently and promptly.

6.) MUTUAL FUNDS: Mutual Funds pool money of various investors to purchase a wide variety of securities while pursuing a specific goal. Selection of Securities for the purpose is done by specialists from the field. Returns generated are distributed to the Investors. CHANNEL STRATEGY ICICI Bank Branches ICICI Bank ATMs ICICI Direct.Com Dedicated workforce to serve clients.

ANYWHERE BANKING: ICICI Bank is the second largest bank in the country. It services a customer base of more than 5 million customer accounts through a multi channel access network. This includes more than 1600 branches and 4000 ATMs in India itself, it also has its branches in 18 other countries (United Kingdom, Russia and Canada, branches in United States, Singapore, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Qatar and Dubai International Finance Centre and representative offices in United Arab Emirates, China, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia).Thus, one can access the various services provided by bank anytime, anywhere and from any place. MOBILE BANKING With ICICI Bank, banking is no longer what it used to be. ICICI Bank offers Mobile Banking facility to all its Bank, Credit Card and Demat customers. ICICI Bank Mobile
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Banking enables its customer to bank while being on the move. ICICI Bank Mobile Banking can be divided into two categories of facilities, alert facility. The ICICI Bank Mobile Banking Alert facility informs customer promptly of the significant transactions taken place through his accounts. It keeps the customer updated wherever he goes. Banking has never been so convenient before. Now customer can use the phone to make Balance enquiries for cheque book, stop payment and more. INTERNET BANKING It was the first bank in India to launch Internet banking services through its product branded as "Infinity", much before the other foreign banks could do so. It calls itself the "virtual universal bank", which is a reflection of the fact that most of its products are available in the net as well. These include account views and reconciliations, funds transfers, bill payments, mutual funds and bond applications, e-shopping and loan applications. Transfer securities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through Internet & Interactive Voice Response (IVR) at a lower cost.

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EVOLUTION OF DISTRIBUTION MODEL OF ICICI BANK

To increase the foothold in the banking sector and financial services ICICI bank followed the traditional method of building branches closer Io the customer habitation in an effort to distribute their services. This approach had seen the mushrooming of branches at residential and commercial centers. While this distribution model has had a fair degree of success so long, it has also been an expensive route, because of the real estate costs and the manpower costs. More branches mean more rentals, renovation, maintenance, administration and salary costs. But even alter spending so much, distributed branches were not been able to fully address the consumer's need for anytime-anywhere banking. The consumers still need to come to the bank to withdraw or deposit cash or for other banking services like overdrafts or payment instruments. The problem with this model is that it confines the payment mechanism, by and large, to the four walls of the branch. It does not make funds available at the point of sale, which is the ultimate convenience that the customer is seeking. The bank tried to reach the target market for client account acquisition and service delivery capabilities beyond the branch network by using alternative delivery channels for sales and servicing of their customers. The re-engineered supply chain of ICICI banks now had six main components as follows: Branch Acquisition Remote Acquisition Branch Servicing Remote Servicing Centralized Operations Facility Vendors and suppliers Branch Acquisition Branch acquisition or sales are restricted to customers who walk-in to the branch to open an account or apply for a loan. Such customers are serviced by Customer Service Stations; manned by front-office staff. They facilitate the process of explaining different products and helping the customer fill up the necessary forms. Once the customer interaction is over, the documentation for setting up a new account or disbursing a new loan moves to the centralized processing site, which takes over the rest of the processing. Remote Acquisition To augment the capacity of the branches to act as catchment areas, banks set up outsourcing channels, alliances and franchisees to reconfigure the distribution network and improve the variable/fixed cost ratio, These include deploying new sales channel by Direct Selling Agents
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(DSA's) who are mobile franchise agents (like insurance-agents) selling the products of the bank door-to-door. These mobile franchise agents source business on a commission basis, depending on the volume of business they are able to generate. These days, for a few select banks, it is possible to open a bank account or apply for an automobile loan or credit card, by just calling up any of these agents on the phone, without having to ever step into a branch. In this fashion, it is possible to achieve greater penetration at a fraction of the cost of setting up an extensive branch network by outsourcing the sales force. Most of these agents work on a retaining basis, and are cheaper in the long run than having own sales employees on the bank's rolls. The emphasis therefore needs to shift tram waiting to get business in the branches to aggressively going out and acquiring business at a much reduced cost. Branch Servicing The branches maintain some infrastructure to service customers to transact on their account. Only the following activities require a large amount of customer interaction, for which the branch needs to provide teller stations: encash/deposit cheques request for payorders/remittances opening/closing of accounts and fixed deposits loans and overdrafts trade finance transactions

All other transactions, which do not require customer interaction, are shifted to a centralized facility, which can service multiple branches. Remote Servicing This is the area where technology is playing a big role in reducing transaction costs and giving customer convenience at the same time. ATMs at shopping centers, airports, railway stations, busy office localities, full service phone banking (either automated or operator assisted) are revolulionizing the way customers are using banking services and accessing their money while saving time. The bank also has strategic alliances with other banks to distribute products or services, by leveraging each other's infrastructure. Thus, they are sharing ATM networks, allowing cash advances on credit cards of member banks of Mastercard/VlSA. Apart from technology driven products, bank is also offering customers the convenience of being able to order for cash pickup/ delivery, dial-a-draft l courier services, so that these items are delivered at their doorsteps, without their having to move. Centralized Operations

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This centralized operations facility services multiple branches and does all back-room driven processing activities, which do not require direct customer face-to-face interaction. It issues chequebooks, ATM cards, fixed deposit receipts or loan disbursal payments, processes clearing checks and trade finance or treasury operations, reconciliation/accounting etc. The branches thus reduce the floor space required by eliminating duplicate infrastructure at each branch therefore cut down on unnecessary rentals. These centralized backrooms are never on prime real estate, but at remote locations with low rental costs, so that further economies are available to the bank.

Vendors and Suppliers This facility in turn outsources processing work to cheap data processing agencies, either on-site or off-site. Most of low value added activities like statement printing and mailing, cheque book printing and mailing, ATM card embossing, even some low risk data entry jobs are outsourced to external vendors and suppliers, thus further bringing costs down. The prerequisite of such an operation is bank computerization, which can link branches and the central processing unit through wide area networks to make distributed processing possible. The encouraging sign is that bank computerization has acquired a substantial momentum in banks in India. In India, with competition heating up in the banking industry and the increase in the number of private and foreign banks in the post liberalization era, all players in this market are gearing up their supply chain management processes for better customer acquisition and retention. Most of these new private sector banks and the foreign banks are handicapped by the lack of a strong branch network as compared to their public sector counterparts to distribute their products or services. In the absence of such a network, the market place has seen the emergence of a lot of innovative services by the players to increase their market share and reduce their cost of service delivery through direct distribution strategies of Non-Branch Delivery. All these are using "homebanking" as the key "pull" factor to wean customers away from the well-entrenched public sector bank. The traditional model of branch based banking was slowly changing. This is primarily because of the fact that over the years, the consumer profile has changed. The fast pace of modern lifestyle has started pulling a premium on the consumer's time. They want flexible and conveniently situated distribution channels available all time and places to suit them and not the bank. They no longer have the time to find a separate time slot to do their banking. Instead, they prefer banks which come to their doorsteps to enable them to do their banking. . The earlier brick-and-mortar branch is no longer sufficient, technology is now taking banks to the homes and offices, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through ATMs, phone banking and PC banking. The trend of Non-Branch-Service Delivery in banking started with the growing popularity of electronic payment services. It started with Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT). Then came credit cards. ATMs and smart cards were next in the evolutionary history.
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Gradually, with the advance of computing technology, telephone banking and Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) became a powerful medium of delivering banking services. The latest product is Internet banking, where the technology and other issues are still under evolution. ICICI Bank has actively pursued a 'click and brick' distribution strategy, with products offered through an optimum mix of physical branches and electronic delivery channels, to maximize customer reach and convenience. Having pioneered Internet banking the Bank has consistently upgraded its offerings to offer utility bill payments, funds transfer (own and third party) etc. ICICI Bank also became the first bank in India to offer online account opening facility for NRIs and a web based easy remittance product 'Money2India'. The Bank launched India's first web-enabled credit card in association with VISA International. Credit cardholders can access any ICICI Bank credit card related information with the option to actually carry out certain transactions on their cards through the Internet. The Bank has enhanced its Utility Bills payment product to provide electronic bills presentment and payment facility to its customers. Other initiatives include student accounts, Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer payments.

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES: RURAL, URBAN AND GLOBAL ICICI BANK STRATEGY IN RURAL INDIA ICICI Bank's commitment to the rural is based on the vision and strategic opportunity to reach the large number of Indians lacking access to financial services today. By focusing on three key enablers partnerships, technology, and process & product innovation ICICI Bank has built the foundation for scaling the delivery of financial services to the poor. Through a wide range of micro-credit and micro-savings offerings, ICICI Bank already touches the lives of millions of low-income households across India, and is looking ahead to expand its services in the future.

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ICICI reaches the rural sector through three basic areas : AGRI CORPORATES: ICICI Bank recognises the role of prompt finance, and stable
cashflows for a business. It offers a range of products tailored for unique needs of farmers and villagers.

AGRI TRADERS AND PROCESSORS: ICICI Bank recognizes the key role in the
Agricultural supply chain. ICICI Bank offers financing options designed to service specific requirements of the rural working group. Be it overdrafts or loans, icicis approvals are localised, speedy and hassle free. MICROBANKING: ICICI Bank has created products that are simple, convenient and locally accessible so as to maximise the benefits to rural sector.

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Some of the products provided by ICICI BANK are: FARMER FINANCE: Providing finance to the farmer for his various needs of inputs and consumption in the form of crop loans, dairy loans and loans for allied activities to agriculture activities like irrigation etc. also for input needs and auto loans (two, three and four wheeler) and personal loans for consumption needs. The customer can also avail of working capital term loan for setting up a poultry project. Flexible repayment pattern and tenure to align to the cash flow of the customers. RURAL EDUCATION LOAN: ICICI Bank Rural Educational Institution Finance (REI) caters to the need of privately runs Educational Institution based out of Rural, Semi Urban and outside city limit locations. The product is designed to cater to the specific needs of the education institutions. New products and features in the existing product are introduced based on regular customer feedback.

FARMER EQUIPMENT LOAN: ICICI is the preferred financier for almost all leading tractor manufacturers in the country. ICICI finances farm equipments in over 381 locations spread across the country. It Provides fast processing of files with easy documentation. Flexible repayment options in tandem with the farmer's seasonal liquidity. It provides monthly, quarterly and half-yearly repayment patterns to choose from. Comfortable repayment tenures from 1 year to 6 years.

ICICI bank adopted new technology and strategy to harness the consumer markets through some of its products it also built branches in rural setup for easy mobilization of funds and investments
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of the rural people and to cater to their dire needs by helping out through giving loans for longer term and lesser interest. The bank adopted a multi prolonged rural strategy to penetrate and tap the rural market and for the mobilization of fund. For this a strong integration of supply chain was needed so that they could reach the market properly .It also created new delivery channels as per customers convenience and to increase the customer base .The bank used technology is this sector to curb its cost as much as possible it also focused on innovating new products and thus aiming at satisfaction of the customer.

PROBLEM OF RURAL SECTOR There is high risk involved in production, storage and transportation of agriculture products as there are many loopholes in the supply chain management of the agriculture product thus the efficiency is affected because of the high risk, ICICI bank through its risk handling strategy via its financial services may help in increasing the efficiency of the rural sector. Associated benefits of integration of bank with rural sector Reduction in product losses in transportation & storage Interlinking farmers with markets through corporate tie ups, allied financial activities and warehouse finance. Increase in sales Tracking and tracing to the source Better control on quality Shared risks among players in the chain
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SPECIAL SERVICES LAUNCHED BY ICICI FOR RURAL SECTOR THE KAMDHENU CATTLE LOAN CAMPAIGN: The Kamdhenu cattle loan campaign was a joint campaign by ICICI Banks Rural and Microbanking and Agri Business Group (RMAG) and ICICI Lombard General Insurance. This campaign was launched with the aim of generating awareness about loans for cattle purchase and cattle insurance in rural areas. The Kamdhenu initiative was aimed at creating awareness among rural consumers about protecting their assets and hedging their economic loss in the event of injury to the cattle due to illness or other perils. The project ran for 150-days across five states, touching around 10,000 potential customers with an objective to promote rural marketing.

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 ICICI BANK STRATEGY IN URBAN INDIA 1.) UNIVERSAL BANKING MARKET STRATEGY In universal banking, large banks operate extensively in networks of branches, provide many different services, hold several claims on firms (including equity and debt), and participate directly in the corporate governance of firms that rely on the banks for funding or as insurance underwriters. It means the ability to offer i.e. sell and underwrite all the types of products and services to any set of clients, either through a single or through a group of companies. The practice of Universal Banking varies across several countries. India faces a very high regulatory burden although now a conglomerate structure of the universal banking has already been permitted .Many international players like ABN-AMRO, Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers have realized the benefits of Universal Banking. The ICICI Bank has also joined these international players. The ICICI Bank functions as a universal bank through itself and its associate companies in the areas of corporate finance, commercial banking, personal banking, investment banking, asset management, investor services and insurance. The Universal Banking provides competitive advantage in the current scenario through large product suite, diversified resource base, Economies of scale and scope, Optimization of human and financial capital. In a span of just four years of accepting this strategy, the ICICI Bank has emerged as a consumer banking behemoth. With a retail book of over Rs 56,000 crores (Rs 560 billion) and a market share that is the envy of competition -- it has a share of over 30 per cent The ICICI Bank today has reached a commanding position. In 2001 ICICI acquired the Bank of Madura (est. In 1943). The Bank of Madura was a Chettiar bank, and had acquired the Chettinad Mercantile Bank (est. In 1933) and the Illanji Bank (est. in1904) in the 1960s. In 2007 ICICI amalgamated the Sangli Bank, which was headquartered in Sangli, in Maharashtra State, and which had 158 branches in Maharashtra state and another 31 in Karnataka State.. In 2008 the ICICI Bank launched iMobile, a comprehensive Mobile banking solution. iMobile is considered to be a breakthrough innovation in the Indian Banking which allows a customer to do all possible transactions through a GPRS-enabled mobile phone easily and conveniently.

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2.) RETAIL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Retail Business Development (RBD) as the name suggest is the task of cross selling and up selling vested on the shoulders of the retail branches itself rather than the call centers calling up customers. The model gives emphasis that the retail branches of ICICI are the customer interface, when a customer walks in the branch with the mood to resolve his banking issues that is actually the time when probably will be willing to listen to what the executives have to say, all other sales channels may approach a customer at a time when he is not in a mood to listen and buy a bank product. The model also goes with the old saying that no sales without good service the retail branches provide the customers with the services, a customer whose service issues are solved at the branch is more susceptible to purchase a product, thus there is a need for good and quality service to be rendered at the retail branch. Customers anyways connect better with an employee calling from the branch rather than a sales executive who he has never known, the model therefore also gives importance to building a good rapport with the customers on a an individual basis. To conclude the new model Retail Business Development (RBD) has put across a very important and a major responsibility on retail branches to act as lead generators whose main aim is to increase retention of existing customers and at the same time try to net in new customers. However Retail Business Development (RBD) has a very different approach to that of Enhancing Relationship Value (ERV). Retail Business Development (RBD) looks at selling
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banking products not only to existing customers but also to new customers by proactively making them aware of the products offered by the bank. CHANNELS OF RBD: TELE-SELLING: Tele selling is basically when the employees profile the customers over the phone and then try to cross sell or up sell their products according to the needs of the customer. Tele selling is of two types 1. Inbound calling 2. Outbound Calling Outbound calling is basically proactive as the bank takes the initiative and call up customers on their own whereas outbound is when customers call up on their own, customers maybe existing customers, referrals, or new customers. The employees act as a relationship manager for the customers and this is the quickest and the most convenient way to establish contact with customers, immediate response of the customer is taken and is also considered the most efficient way of offering products and services to customers one by one. However, many times in practical life people do not show immediate trust with the person over the phone. WALK-IN AND FOOT-FALL: This is a very traditional way of selling services and products as the bank has to wait for customers to take the initiative rather than reaching out to them on their own. Many customers walk in with a query and are therefore not interested in listening to various new products that they could be offered however many times walk-ins and footfalls are a good source as customers may come to the branch with a mood to buy a product or service an during this he/she will be in a mood to talk about his/her other needs and listen to what the bank has to offer them. CAMPAIGNS-Campaigns are one of the best way of attracting the target customers, although campaigns mainly aim at increasing the awareness level of customers regarding the products, services offered and their features they act as major lead generators because people interested in the products/ services are the ones who are generally attracted to such campaigns people at the campaigns can take down contact details of interested customers and the leads can be passed on to the branch. DIRECT MAILER: Direct mailers can be sent out to almost all customers with the features of the product / service that the bank wants to offer them, however the response is not immediate.

The model identifies that the customers needs are of two types Material: The material needs include required quality, required quantity, reasonable price, quick decision, safety, and performance as per claim. Emotional: The emotional needs require attention, respect, politeness, importance, following up, fairness

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3.) BANK@HOME Over the years ICICI has been finding out ways to simplify banking for the people at large. ICICI always try to adapt to the ever changing situation in order to serve people best and maintain the trust that the people have showed. ICICI is the only bank that allows people to use their services from 8 am to 8 pm. ICICI now take their services one step further and change the present traditional way of banking by its The Bank@home service, it allows the customers to use the banking service without having to visit the branch and wait in long queues. ICICI Bank understood the paucity of time of their customers. The Bank therefore introduced their service Bank@Home that allows customers to use their service 24x7, so even if the customers have not been able to take care of their issues during the banking hours ICICI is still there to take care of their issues. The main aim behind introducing the two services was to make banking more convenient for clients and also try to reduce the foot fall at the branch, it was estimated a client coming to the branch costs the bank around Rs.54 whereas the client using the Bank@Home service costs a mere 10-20Rs.Moreover with the heavy traffic at the branch the employees are unable to take out time for cross selling and up selling products. However this service did not taken off too well. This service that has been authorized to ICICI Bank exclusively by the RBI has two models to it. RSD Service Cash On Tap Service

Bank@Home (RSD) is a service that has been structured in a simple way, the bank will be putting up request drop boxes throughout the city, many of the banking issues can be handled by this box 24x7.The customers will have to enroll with the bank for the service (there is no enrollment fee), on enrollment they would be given an identification number. Once the customer has got enrolled with the branch he can start using the service. All that the customers have to do is fill up the request form that is available at the request drop boxes. The request form contain various issues that can be handled by the service and the customers can choose any one request per form. The request drop boxes are cleared on a daily basis, and the request reach the respective branches the next day and the processing for the request start. Therefore effectively the bank would only take a day extra for the request to be handled. The processing time however will be the same for the request. For example, a customer visiting the branch with the request for a cheque book issue, the processing time for which is 5days, the customers may use the Bank@Home service for the same and the processing time will be 6days. Bank@Home (COT) allows its customers to call the phone banking assistance and ask for cash to be delivered to him/her or ask someone to pick up cash for depositing it into his account. Calls made on a working day between 8 am to 6 pm will be served within the next 2hrs. Calls made after 6 pm or on a non working day will be served within 2hrs of the branch opening on the next
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day. Customers however have the option to request the time of delivery/pickup of cash however 2hrs is the minimum time for the bank to serve the request. Incase customer wants to withdraw /deposit cash through Bank@Home (RSD) then the cash will only be delivered/picked up the next working day from the day the request has been made. The customer while using the cash on tap service will be asked to provide a cheque number against which the cash will be delivered. The cheque will be a self drawn cheque for the amount to be withdrawn. At the same time the customer will provided with a transaction id over the phone. In order to receive the cash, the cheque number told by the customer over the phone must match with the cheque presented to the representative also the transaction id must match.

ICICI BANK STRATEGY FOR GLOBAL MARKET In the United Kingdom the ICICI bank have a partnership with Lloyds Bank and are present in 30 branches there, promoting joint products, and they get new customers. In the United States the ICICI bank have a tie-up with Wells Fargo and their customers can start a remittance into India from any channel. ICICI also received permission from the government of Qatar to open a branch in Doha and from the US Federal Reserve to open a branch in New York city. ICICI Bank Eurasia opened a second branch in St. Petersburg

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The Bank currently has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Russia and Canada, branches in United States, Singapore, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Qatar and Dubai International Finance Centre and representative offices in United Arab Emirates, China, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Our UK subsidiary has established branches in Belgium and Germany.

The NRI (people living abroad) is a great customer and the other is the Indian corporate who is globalising -- either in the trade business or is setting up businesses abroad. Banks USP (unique selling proposition) is a unique technology; it can get customers to talk to his constituents online. The NRI is an interesting link because today he has tremendous needs in India; he wants to remit money, purchase a commodity, buy a home, especially the H1 visa Wherever people may be, in India or abroad, ICICI Bank has created a wide range of products and services that provide customers complete financial solutions. Helping them to make the right decisions at the right time and can be rest assured that they are in the safe and trustworthy hands of ICICI bank. ONLINE MONEY TRANSFER: facility www.money2India.com at the click of a button! available to NRIs worldwide through

FREE Money transfers into accounts with over 30 banks in India Demand Drafts issued and payable at over 1250 locations in India Online Tracking of the status of your funds Superior Exchange rates Offline money transfer facility is also available across geographies through the local branches and in association with partner banks/ exchange houses. The online methods that ICICI Bank provide is powered by their service Money2India that allows NRI account holders to transfer money into an ICICI Bank account free of cost. It also allows transfers into bank accounts with over 30 other banks in India free of costs. Demand drafts above USD 1,000 or equivalent issued and payable at over 1250 locations in India are absolutely free. The customers enjoy online tracking of the status of the funds. Home Point: A NRI account holder of ICICI Bank in India can send money from Canada in as little as 2hrs into an ICICI Bank account by walking into the any of the 960 Bank Of Montreal branches with the filled in deposit slip.

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ICICI BANK AND ITS COMPETITORS

ICICI bank envisaged retail banking as a key area of strategic emphasis for it with the share of the retail business (both on the funding and asset sides) growing strongly year after year in the share of retail business and particularly retail assets. Its nearest competitors in the private banking sector are HDFC Bank and AXIS (UTI) Bank As compared to ICICI Bank HDFC is frenetically seeking to shrug off the image of being a one product company (home loans), by using synergies that exist with its bank to foray into various areas like e-broking, mutual funds, and insurance. For ICICI Bank, it is imperative that it moves away from the high-risk, low-return business of project finance.

In the case of Axis Bank, retail loans have declined from 30 per cent of the total loan book of Rs 25,800 crores in June 2006 to around 23 per cent of loan book of Rs.41,280 crore (as of June 2007). Even over a longer period, while the overall asset growth for Axis Bank has been quite high and has matched that of the other banks, retail exposures grew at a much slower pace. ICICI appears to be following a business strategy that is quite different from the high-volume and commodity-style approach of AXIS Bank and HDFC Bank. That strategy also has its pluses in terms of the relatively higher margins in some segments of the retail business and the in-built credit risk diversification (and mitigation) achieved through a widely dispersed retail credit portfolio. ICICI Bank has been able to maintain the quality of its loan portfolio for a decent time period now.

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SWOT ANALYSIS OF ICICI BANK

STRENGHTS: 1) Online Services: ICICI Bank provides online services of all its banking facilities. It also provides D-Mart account facilities on-line, so a person can access his account from anywhere he is. [DEMAT is a dematerialized account opened by a salaried person for purchase & sale of shares of different companies.] 2) Advanced Infrastructure: Branches of ICICI Bank are well equipped with advanced technology to provide the customers with taster banking services. All the computerized machines are located in suitable manner & are very useful to the customers & staff of the bank. 3) Friendly Staff: The staff of ICICI Bank in all branches is very friendly & help the customers in all cases. They provide faster services along with bonding & personal relationship with the customers. 4) 12 hrs. Banking services: Compared to other bank ICICI bank provides long hrs. of services i.e. 8-8 services to the customers. This service is one of its kind & is very helpful for the customers who are in urgent need of money. 5) Other Facilities to the Customers & Employees: ICICI Bank also provides other facilities like drinking water facilities, proper sitting arrangements to the customers. And there are also proper Ventilation & sanitary facilities for the employees of the bank. 6) Late night ATM services: ICICI bank provides late night ATM services to the customers. The ATM centers of ICICI bank works even after 11:00pm at night in certain branches.

WEAKNESS: 1) High Bank Service Charges: ICICI bank charges highly to customers for the services provided by them when compared to other bank & that is why it is only in the reach of higher class of society.

2) Less Credit Period: ICICI bank provides credit facilities but only upto a limited period. Even when the credit period is not over it sends reminder letters to the customers which may annoy them.

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OPPORTUNITIES: 1) Bank Insurance services: The bank should also provide insurance services. That means the bank can have a tie-up with a insurance company. The bank will advertise & promote the different policies introduced by the insurance company & convince their customers to buy insurance policies.

2) Increase in percentage of Returns on increase: The bank should provide higher returns on deposits in comparison of the present situation. This will also help the bank earn profits & popularity.

3) Recruit professionally guided students: Bank & Insurance is a special non-aid course where the students specialize in the functioning & services of the bank & also are knowledge about various tax policies. The bank can recruit these students through tie-ups with colleges. Such students will surely prove as an asset to the bank.

4) Associate with social cause: The bank can also associate itself with social causes like providing relief aid patients, funding towards natural calamities. But this falls in the 4 th quadrant so the bank should neglect it.

THREATS 1) Competition: ICICI Bank is facing tight competition locally as well as internationally. Bank like CITI Bank, HSBC, ABM, Standard Chartered, HDFC also provide equivalent facilities like ICICI do and also ICICI do not have consistency in its international operation.

2) Net Services: ICICI Bank provides all kind of services on-line. There can be easy access to the e-mail ids of the customers through wrong people. The confidential information of the customers can be leaked easily through the e-mail ids.

3) Decentralized Management: Each branch manager is given the authority of taking decisions in their respective branches. The decisions made by different managers are diverse and any one wrong decision can laid to heavy losses to the bank.

4) No Proper Facilities To Uneducated customers: ICICI Bank provides all services through electronic computerized machines. This creates problems to the less educated people.

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CONCLUSION
Thus, ICICI has been able to use technology to provide value-added service to its customers during the last few years. For ICICI, technology is an integral part of their business. E-banking has become a necessary survival weapon and is fundamentally changing the banking industry worldwide. To day, the click of the mouse offers customers banking services at a much lower cost and also empowers them with unprecedented freedom in choosing vendors for their financial service needs. No country today has a choice- whether to implement E-banking or not given the global and competitive nature of the economy. ICICI constantly thinks of new innovative customized packages and services to remain competitive. The invasion of banking by technology has created an information age and commoditization of banking services. ICICI have come to realize that survival in the new e-economy depends on delivering some or all of their banking services on the Internet while continuing to support their traditional infrastructure. The rise of E-banking is redefining business relationships and the most successful banks will be those that can truly strengthen their relationship with their customers. Without any doubt, the international scope of E-banking provides new growth perspectives and Internet business is a catalyst for new technologies and new business processes. As can be noted from above a distribution channel is critical all kinds of businesses because they use these distribution channels to meet their marketing and business objectives by providing and delivering products and/or services that generate profit and increase their customer base. While some businesses can handle all factors and aspects of its own distribution, others require some level of distribution partnership. Choosing the right distribution channel to move products or services to the end user is a long-term strategic decision and varies according to the product, service, and market. When choosing a distribution strategy, a marketer must determine what value a channel member adds to the firms products and/or service. A well-chosen channel is necessary because it constitutes a significant competitive advantage and is designed to save on cost, improve and increase efficiency, provide routinization of transactions, provide a larger customer base, and allows businesses to focus on other aspects of the organization. It is important that the channel also provide businesses with strategic promotion, brand strategy, and provide convenience for customers while bridging the gap between the assortment of goods and services generated by producers and those in demand from consumers. Poorly chosen channels can have long-term consequences and can ultimately lead to a superior product or services failure in the market. Thus, having access to good distribution is fundamental to good marketing.

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