Oriental Bank of Commerce Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Published in Services category by MBA Skool Team

Marketing Strategy of Oriental Bank of Commerce analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Oriental Bank of Commerce marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Oriental Bank of Commerce Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Oriental Bank of Commerce Product Strategy:

The product strategy and mix in Oriental Bank of Commerce marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Oriental Bank of Commerce or OBC is one of the most prominent India public sector banks. The service portfolio in its marketing mix is broadly divided into 4 segments that are Deposit Schemes, Loan Schemes, Services, Customer care and services. The deposit schemes has a lot of variety of offerings which are various types of salary accounts catering to different income groups, accounts for pensioners, youth accounts, current accounts, merchant accounts and other saving accounts. Oriental Bank of Commerce also has various types deposit schemes such as tax saving deposit schemes, term deposits, flexi deposits, progressive deposit schemes and other types of fixed and recurring deposit accounts.

The loan schemes of OBC are further divided into 4 segments that are retail schemes, minority loans, SME loans, and other loans catering to agriculture and small enterprises and individuals. The services of OBC consists of mediclaim, NRI services, financial inclusion, online services such as tax payment, NEFT, RTGS, internet banking and other services such as demat services, payment gateway, cash management services, foreign remittances and ASBA. There are also other support services for Oriental Bank of Commerce customers to help them through the service experiences and customer complaints.


Image: company website


Oriental Bank of Commerce Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Oriental Bank of Commerce marketing strategy:

Oriental Bank of Commerce has got a competition driven pricing. The pricing in its marketing mix are kept competitive as other public sector banks to keep their services to attract customers as others do.

The charges vary from the service offerings and amount of the balance maintained in the savings account the amount of credit taken from the bank. It also depends on the number of transactions as well as proper maintenance of satisfactory records. The service charges of Oriental Bank of Commerce are also set and are lower than major public sector banks. For normal savings bank account the charges are nil and other bank account charges are as low as Rs.50 per month. There are also charges by OBC for delayed payments, transfer charges, card withdrawal charges, demand draft charges and locker charges. The loans which are of longer terms and are more popular have lesser interest rates. The current MCLR rate for the bank is 8.4% added to which the loans interest amount is set. The personal loan charges are higher because of less quantum. The SME loans by OBC are higher than other public sector banks and is tagged as high as 14.75%. The financial inclusion schemes are all done on a free of cost charge as it is a mandate set by the government.

Read more about Oriental Bank of Commerce

Oriental Bank of Commerce Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Oriental Bank of Commerce marketing mix:

Oriental Bank of Commerce is quite smaller as compared to the major state-owned banks and is standing with 2300+ domestic branches and 2500+ ATMs. The OBC branches are grouped into rural, semi-urban, urban and metropolitan branches. The strong rural presence has helped OBC develop many agriculture focused schemes. The equal distribution of branches has helped maintain equity in requirements. It has tied up with third parties to extend its insurance products and asset management. The life insurance scheme is again a tie up between Canara Bank, OBC and HSBC. Oriental Bank of Commerce has also tied up with various mutual funds to cater to mutual funds needs of customer. OBC has also got demat services which is both available online and in the branches. It also has venues which lead to e-commerce websites. It also has now able to reach more customer through unified payment interface and its own mobile apps for internet banking services as well mobile banking services.

OBC also has separate channels to address to the customer complaints and for grievance redressals as well as help the customers in various transactions as well as clarify various queries.


Oriental Bank of Commerce Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Oriental Bank of Commerce marketing strategy is as follows:

Oriental Bank of Commerce does major of its advertisements through TV commercials. It also takes help of print advertisements by putting bill boards on its branches and making the customers aware of its products. OBC also uses newspapers for putting up its news and releases various communication which is a way of promotion indirectly to other customers for whom the message was not meant for. Even the recruitments messages are done through online and newspapers. Oriental Bank of Commerce also has its unified interface and internet banking app which helps its consumers and also create relationship with consumers. The other method of promotion is done through a variety of CSR initiatives taken by the OBC bank which helps it serve the community as well as itself by creating the required reputation. The various CSR activities ranges from simple donations to creation of toilets in various areas to sponsorship for various treatments.


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


People:

Oriental Bank of Commerce is focusing on creating relationship with customers by expanding its human capacity. It currently has more than 11000 officers, more than 7000 non-subordinates and around 3000 subordinates. After the selection they go through training after which they are absorbed so that they can present their best self and can perform at enhanced standards. The employees also undergo timely trainings to stay updated with regularly changing policies and standards. To provide trainings Oriental Bank of Commerce has dedicated staff training colleges which are placed at various locations in the country. It enhanced the use of Hindi in bank which has enhanced the customer comfort level. The bank believes in formations of unions and participation from employees and a grievance redressal system is in place take care of the grievances. OBC has got a very structured organisational structure which ranks to the chairman and appraisals and remunerations happen on a timely basis through examinations. The remunerations provided are in line with other public sector banks as per the policies.


Process:

As Oriental Bank of Commerce is a state-owned bank it has a very detailed working guidelines. The KYC norms and other money laundering avoidance policies are example of the strict norms which government has imposed on the banks. OBC is currently using an MIS system to run its core banking system which simultaneously operates its all the branches. As compared to the past now with innovation and automation in various processes it has been able to complete account opening loan approval and other services within three days which earlier used to take a lot of time. There are also instant loan approvals for housing and car loans. Oriental Bank of Commerce has also made many of its processes online and on phone so that customer can access them at his convenience rather than going to the branches to get serviced. OBC has a customer complaints redressal system and also a hotline number to help the customers through.


Physical Evidence:

Oriental Bank of Commerce branches provide a well-defined setting to the customers with a reception counter and relationship manager in the front and other branch manager in the back of the office. The OBC customers also get timely SMS updates for various transaction done on their accounts. With every accounts debit cards are provided for conducting transactions at various point of sales as well as cash withdrawals and balance enquiries. They also get various poofs for transactions in the form receipts, slips and certificates. Customers get mobile apps and online sites to access their accounts and various online transactions including various recharges and bill payments. They can also transfer money to other bank accounts through NEFT, RTGS, IMPS and UPI payments services. They can also open various online deposits and payment schemes through these online venues for investment purposes as well as trade in stock markets through the demat accounts services. Also various new schemes are also available through these online platforms as well as in bank branches. All these cover the marketing mix of Oriental Bank of Commerce.


About Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC):

Oriental Bank of Commerce is a public sector commercial bank which was founded in then Lahore, Pakistan by Rai Bahadur Lala Sohan Lal, the then chairman in 1943. Oriental Bank of Commerce had to shift its operations after partition and had to face a lot of rough patches. It was nationalised in 1980 and is currently having its headquarters in Gurgaon, Haryana. OBC acquired Punjab Cooperative Bank and Bari Doab Bank. It also has brought in the Global Trust Bank a leading private bank which has helped it to expand widely over across the country. OBC has an operating profit of Rs.917.09 crores in the 1st quarter of FY 2016-17 and business mix of the company stands at Rs.3.5 lac crores in June 2016. Currently it is headed by Mr. Animesh Chauhan who is the MD & CEO.

Oriental Bank of Commerce currently is controlled by the majority of shares held by Government of India i.e. 58.38%.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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