© Asia-Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi 87 Comparative Study of Promotional Strategies adopted by Public and Private Sector Banks in India S L Gupta* and Arun Mittal** Marketing strategies become more crucial when they are executed to design, distribute and promote banking services. The present study is descriptive in nature and takes out significant differences in the promotional strategies adopted by private and public sector banks in India. The study shows noteworthy results and opinions of customers, which can be very useful for designing effective promotional strategies for banks. The study reveals remarkable facts connected with customers’ perception about promotional tools of both sectors’ banks and also about the most effective tools to promote banking services. Keywords: Indian Banking Sector, Promotional Strategies, Customer Satisfaction. Birla Institute of Technology, Sector–1, Noida–201301, U.P., India *E-mail: slgupta_1965@yahoo.co.in, **E-mail: arunmittal1985@gmail.com Introduction In financial services, people are primarily bothered about security of their funds and default risks. After the year 1969, the deposits of banks increased more than 80 times as a result of the nationalisation of banks. Paul Cox, (2007) revealed a fact that financial service providers are not perceived highly trusted, so that they might have difficulty in selling risk-based products. The effort to promote banking business is quite distinguished affair. At present, it has become very tricky due to the changing trends of industry, increasing competition and efficiency of regulatory environment, and the financial system. The complexity in the banking services is also an issue of vital importance. This is the time when banks are offering new and innovative services, frequently in the market. The content of promotional tools should help the customer in making most valuable decision. This can be firmly said that well-designed promotional strategies are very important to promote banking services effectively. In marketing any product or service, customer satisfaction has been given the prime importance. The most frustrating aspect of bank marketing are lack of management support, lack of inter-departmental cooperation, crisis management, government intrusion and advertising & media problems (Berry & Lindgreen, 1980). Sarin & Anil (2007) recommended that manpower in service organisations must work with the focus of satisfying the customer. Banking should bring out the areas requiring improvement and which further throw light on the measures to improve the quality of services. Promotional packages are very important for financial service industry (Ananda & Murugaiah, 2003). Thus the orientation of banks should be with a much wider focus in relation to consumer and market needs, and the consequent marketing strategies. The challenges put forth by the changing environment have to be effectively tackled to identify the consumer needs and providing valuable services through product innovation (Nair Raman, 2006). In banking the temporal and spatial dimensions are perceived as more important than traditional dimensions based on outcome and process elements (Kristina Heinonen, 2006). Tokunbo Simbowale (2005) examined the usage of marketing concepts & techniques and recommended that a well- structured marketing department in banks is essential for profitability & effectiveness. A study by Krishna, Suryanarayana & Srikant (2005) recommended that promotional strategies should be designed as per the nature of the services to be promoted. The advertisers should seek a narrative approach to communicate the service experience rather than a logical, argumentative approach. Narrative approach involves storytelling methodology using sequence of events (Sehgal Roli, 2004). Location convenience, speed of service, competence and friendliness of bank personnel are also the most important points with maximum value in banking services (Laroche, & Manning, 1986). Meidan (1976) revealed that about 90% of the respondents banked at the branch nearest to their home place and place of work. Convenience, in terms of location, was also found to be the single most important factor for selecting a branch. It has been generalized in the studies that services marketing advertisement is more challenging than the advertising of tangible products (Ray and Bose, 2006). Winning new customers costs 10 times more than simply holding onto existing ones. The case should be taken in the marketing of financial Asia-Pacific Business Review Vol. IV, No.3, July - September 2008 pp. 87-93. ISSN: 0973-2470