Angle of Elevation tilted on an AXIS

Country's third largest private lender, a thirteen year old financial services brand, boasting of a customer base of 6.5 million and a new acquisition pace of 2 lakhs every month – still they say “What’s in a name”(“Whatsinaname.in”).

Incidentally AC Nielsen had recently tabulated country’s “Most Valued Brands”, where in a bouquet of brands from all sectors UTI made it to rank 41. This shows that it has found some attention. The recent re-branding has brought about a lot of discussion among my friends & many others. Especially the TVC; has caught eye-balls almost everywhere.

I remember talking to Arka this morning. In verbatim he said, “Kolkatta mein, agarr tere paas UTI ka debit card hai, toh samajh le tere paas paise hain….Har 5 minute …10 minute ke baad you will find an UTI ATM. They provide the best banking service solution”. Well obviously the best which he said was a kind of vox populi.

I traveled the western line by Mumbai local, during my summer internship everyday. I had stepped down on almost every station on the western line & always used to find an UTI ATM on the eastern or western side. Accessibility is what, I think that have capitalized on. The corporate lingua franca speaks of an ambitious plan to diversify into non banking financial sector. The bank, with a customer base of six million, is planning inorganic growth for its ventures dealing with new areas. It is also overhauling its corporate banking with the involvement of McKinsey.

“We had to change our name to have our own brand and identity. We had to give up the UTI name after using it for 13 years as we were not prepared to accept terms and conditions (including royalty) from UTI AMC to use the name,” explained PJ Nayak, chairman & CEO, Axis Bank, adding that the new name was chosen considering the bank’s pan-Indian as well as international presence. The reason for changing the name UTI to AXIS, what I found was rather an attempt to shed the “public sector connotation”.

The need arose with the fact that the board felt the existence of several shareholder-unrelated entities using the UTI brand, and the consequent brand confusion that the UTI brand generates. Brand UTI is wholly owned by UTI Asset Management Company, which is owned by shareholders who have nothing to do with UTI Bank’s shareholder, SUTI. UTI Bank was authorised to use the UTI name for five years, a covenant that expired in January. In 2002, UTI was split into two — the MF and the special purpose vehicle. A decision was taken then that, the brand name will go to the mutual fund. The shareholding in the bank is with the special purpose vehicle. Other entities will be allowed to use the name till January 2008. Today because of synergies, the brand was as much associated with the bank as it was associated with the mutual fund. Most people think about the bank, when they think of the brand. UTI Bank was always a private sector bank. The RBI has certified it with a private license & out of 11 directors on the board, seven are independent directors. There was always confusion among many of us that UTI Bank meant Unit Trust of India, which gave a perception of the bank's brand name belonged to the government. This confusion will speak no more, as expected after the re-branding.

(Will be coming up with the rebranding strategy of UTI Bank to AXIS in the next post so that the bigger picture comes out after the reasons stated here. This post took me quite a long time -- may be because Banking & Financial Sector is not in my interest but what was exiciting was to find the reasons as why after all this happened --- was there a latent need -- or was it just another marketing & communication gimmick, hope you will find the substance stated worth the effort & attempt behind it...

Mrutyunjay)