New York Life Insurance swims against the tide

New York Life Insurance swims against the tide

At a time when most financial services organisations are seeking to not only generate leads, but also to actually conclude sales online, providing the quickest possible online quote is considered de rigeur for any Insurance website.

Not so, says New York Life Insurance. Swimming against the tide, NYLI proudly announces that it does not provide online life insurance quotes. It goes on to explain that Life Insurance solutions need to be customised for each individual's needs and is best left to its well-trained advisors. The landing page then goes on to collect the customary lead.






It is a well known fact that while internet users are getting more comfortable transacting online, an significant number prefers to use a combination of online as well as physical interaction in high-value, high-involvement purchases. A slightly dated Forrester Research report found that of all US households that bought financial products, while a significant portion researched online, only a few consummated the transaction online (see chart below).



Certainly makes a case for measuring online initiatives not just basis online leads generated, but also tracking those that conclude offline.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Reserve Bank of India launches Financial Education Site for Children

Alootechie reports:

Reserve Bank of India has launched a financial education site RBI.org.in/FinancialEducation that aims to teach basics of banking, finance and central banking to children. According to RBI, the website will soon have information useful to other target groups, such as, women, rural and urban poor, defence personnel and senior citizens.



To explain complexities of banking, finance and central banking in a simple and interesting way, Reserve Bank of India has created two special characters Raju and Money Kumar. While Raju tries to learn all about banking, Money Kumar attempts to explain subjects dealt with by RBI, such as monetary policy, bank regulations and currency notes.

The website uses comic books format to make the learning process easy and fun for children. The Reserve Bank has already launched two comic books ‘Raju and the Money Tree’ and ‘Money Kumar and Monetary Policy’ on the site. While the former deals with basic banking the latter explains the role and relevance of RBI’s monetary policy for the common man.



The website also has films on security features of currency notes of different denominations and an educative film to persuade citizens to not to staple notes. The site also has games especially designed to familiarise school children with India’s various currency notes.

According to RBI, its financial education site will soon be made available in Hindi as well as in 11 regional languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, besides English.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Advanta launches into social media with Ideablob

In among the best marketing applications of Web2.0 we have seen, Advanta, a large issuer of business credit cards in the US, recently launched Ideablob.com. Its a site where anyone can post a business idea and others can vote and comment on it. Igniting the fires is the $10000 prize every month for the best idea.




The site itself is built around the Digg concept - view posts, comment on them, vote for them, the highest rated ones come up tops. Adding relevance and value is an "advise" section that allows users to ask (business and business lifestyle related) questions which others can answer.

What we loved is the execution. Beautiful interface, complete with a "dashboard" which includes a daily graph showing how many votes the idea has received over the last week.



One month after launch, the site is generating a fair amount of activity. The eight October finalists showcased on the homepage have received the following:

* 691 total votes (must be registered to vote, can vote on more than one idea)
* 216 total comments (must be registered to comment)
* 10,300 total views (anyone can view the idea)

What's in it for Advanta?

• Initiating and associating with such a Web2.0 initiatives immediately makes it hip.
• At least some of the contributors and participants could be prospective leads.
• Sheer word-of-mouth that this could generate (helped in generous doses by $10k) would be worth it.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Are you a Super Parent? asks Max New York Life Insurance

Max New York Life Insurance has recently launched a new interactive campaign on their website that targets parents. Taking a lighter route to planning your children's future, the campaign, christened Super Parents, features a simple game that positions you as a "Super Parent" out on a mission to secure your child's future. To do that, you have to fly across the urban skyline to collect salaries, bonuses and other treats, while avoiding the dark clouds of inflation, impulse purchases, and other losses. The game is in multiple levels so the difficulty keeps increasing as the savings target goes up.




Its quite interesting and fun to play - you can select your avataar (mom or dad) and the increasing difficulty level keeps you challenged and engaged. The site also features information that helps plan your child's future, including a needs calculator.

We only wish the game itself had more educational value. Right now it only keeps you entertained. For instance, could the needs calculator and the game have been linked so the targets for the game are actually based on what your needs are? Similarly, certain items of profit and loss could be left to chance (random factors) - e.g. inflation, stock market dip, or windfalls, thereby making the challenge more realistic. It would also help if the banner on the MNYL home page is more catchy and engaging.



All in all, however, it is certainly an innovative and more approachable look at insurance planning and utilises the strength of the internet as an interactive medium.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Most Visited Financial Websites

Alexa.com can throw up some interesting stats. We did a look up to see which were the most visited financial websites in India. Here is a summary:

At 15 is Moneycontrol – everyone is interested in the stock markets.
At 25 is ICICI Bank – ICICI bank has a strong Internet presence and advertises strongly via the net.
At 31 is ICICI Direct - arguably the most popular stock trading site in India.
At 48 is HDFC Bank - no other bank website made it to the top 100.

BSE follows at number 50.

Here is the big surprise - when we searched the top banking sites worldwide ICICI Bank came out at number 5.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Australia Leads India - in Hindi language banking too!

Australia's Commonwealth Bank has always had a fresh approach towards their marketing, including their beautifully designed website. We recently discovered they are now showing us the way in addressing the banking needs of migrants coming into the country.

Their (sub)site Moving to Australia provides help on organising your finances before moving. So it comprises information on relevant products and services, as well as useful links that would be relevant to an immigrant. However, what is interesting is that this information is available in five languages - Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean and apna very own Hindi.





Although the content is relatively basic, it does acknowledge the increasing importance of the migrant Asian population. Their Press Release says that approximately 50% of Australia's population growth comes from immigrants, and as many as 1 in 4 Australians are born overseas.

The quality of (Hindi) translation is not bad, with the only concern being that some of lead-on pages (like specific product information or account opening) have been left in English.

However, the attempt to attract non-English-speaking audiences doesn't stop at the website. The Bank actually employs multi-lingual sales and service representatives, and even provide toll-free numbers from several countries including India.

In India, while some banks have started providing sites in Hindi, multi-lingual sites targetting NRIs are still not in common. In fact, we haven't come across a single banking website addressing NRIs in a vernacular language.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Bajaj Allianz Launches New Website

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has revamped its website and launched a friendlier and more accessible site.



The new launch has lighter colours and on first look seems clutter-free. The main product propositions are well laid out in the main content body, allowing users to quickly choose their area of interest. The Right Hand Side is well structured towards calls-to-action including a prominent invitation to buy online/get a quote.

The inner (product) pages though seem a bit disappointing - too "texty" with very little graphic relief or illustrations. Highlights of key policy benefits and icons for key next steps would have made these pages more user-friendly.

The "sales" orientation of the site is reinforced with a live chat functionality allowing users to "discuss" their needs here and now with a sales agent - a useful feature that could have been better highlighted on the site.

The primary navigation menu could also have been a bit bolder.

All in all, it seems like a well structured, no-nonsense, functional interface which should give users what they need pretty easily.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Cyber Attack on Bank of India Website

Alootechie reports:

"The Bank of India website, bankofindia.com, has reportedly suffered a cyber attack that dumps malware onto a visitor’s system. Although it is believed that fully patched IE and Firefox browsers should be safe from the corrupted Bank of India website, “it’s probably best to avoid the site until a massive malware problem has been corrected,” writes WebProNews.

Alex Eckelberry, president, Sunbelt Software, has told WebProNews that his company has found more than 20 pieces of malware being delivered through an IFRAME on the Bank of India’s website."

End of report.

For those interested in digging deeper into the technicalities of preventing a cyber attack on your website, here's a decent take.

http://www.sheshunoff.com/ideanet/index.php?itemid=488

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Comparison of Loan Supermarkets

Online Loan comparison has got a step up in India. A new site www.ecompare.co.in has set its sights on giving the consumer a fair picture of the financial products in the market. The concept is not new in the market since Apnaloan.com has been around for some time now. In addition, other Loan Origination sites like loanmela.com, loanraja.com and deals4loans.com have also sprung up (see cashcow.in's previous post on this)




We decided to do a quick comparison between the two sites (Apnaloan.com and ecompare.co.in).

• The home page of apnaloan.com is well designed and attractive. Ecompare has a simpler look though not unattractive, it is without frills.

• The load time of apnaloan.com is longer that than that of ecompare. Ecompare was exceptionally fast with a comparison loading in barely 5-8 second….impressive.

• Apnaloan covers only the borrowing side of the business whereas ecompare takes a swig at the investments side as well.

• Apnaloan.com has plenty of content by way of articles, tips etc, ecompare definitely lacks there.

• Now to down to the actual rates. When we put in some figure to churn out home loan rates, we got a better choice of loans with ecompare than apnaloan. However, apnaloan has taken into account a very important aspect of the Indian market – negotiation. It gives you a benchmark rate and tells you have much leeway you can get by way of negotiating it down. It claims to help you with the negotiations too.

The real test of the effectiveness of the sites will lie in the quality and quantity of leads they are able to deliver. Apnaloan is a seasoned player, having weathered the dotcom storm, and presumably ironed out many rough edges. Ecompare on the other hand has the advantage of hindsight wisdom and leapfrogging the learning curve. However, funnily, the ecompare site did not give any clue as to who the promoters are, despite a google search.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

ICICI Bank "first round winner" in "World's Best Internet Banks"

Global Finance magazine has announced the First Round winners in the “World’s Best Internet Banks” competition in Asia and ICICI Bank has emerged the "First Round" winner from India. First Round winners include Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Banks and Best Consumer Internet Banks at the country level. The Regional and Global winners for these categories will be announced at an Awards Ceremony in New York City in November and published in the December issue of Global Finance.

Besides being the winner in the country category, ICICI Bank also takes the bow for best Bill Payment and Presentment category. In Asia, the presence of HSBC and Citigroup looms larger than life. Many of the country-wise winners in the best banks category are the local branches of these two stalwarts. Cashcow had recently reported the possible imminent redesign of the ICICI Bank website.

This is the 8th year Global Finance has named the World’s Best Internet Banks. Details on all First Round winners will be published in the September issue. The Regional and Global winners for these categories will be announced at an Awards Ceremony in New York City in November and published in the December issue of Global Finance.

Winners were chosen among entries evaluated by a world-class judging panel consisting of representatives from Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. Global Finance editors were responsible for the final selection of winners in the First Round. Only banks that entered the competition were considered for awards, and awards were only given in those regions, countries and categories in which there were entries.

Winning banks were selected based on the following criteria: strength of strategy for attracting and servicing online customers, success in getting clients to use web offerings, growth of online customers, breadth of product offerings, evidence of tangible benefits gained from Internet initiatives, and web site design and functionality. Category winners, such as “best online cash management” were selected based on the relative strength and success of those web products and services.

Source: IndiaPRWire.com

Thursday, July 19, 2007

ICICI Bank Redesigns Home Page

In an interesting and innovative twist to banking websites, ICICI Bank has recently replaced its earlier home page (see image 1) with a new one (see image 2). The agenda of the new home page is to specifically draw the visitors' attention to current priority communications. At the moment, these include account safety, transparency and customer care - perhaps reflective of their ongoing offline campaigns. Users are also given the option of going to the old home page, in case they feel lost, which we thought is a very user-friendly move.



What we like about the new home page is its simple and uncluttered approach. Its refreshing to see that 200 things are not screaming out at you for attention and the user can pick where he/she wants to dig deeper into. From the bank's point of view, we believe it also makes the communication more effective with better chances of OTS and clickthrough.



What we didn't like (apart from the aesthetics) was the lack of internet banking access on the home page. It requires customers to click once more before they can get on to the log in page.

Having said that, this is clearly a temporary move (in fact, the copy clearly calls it a "special edition" home page), perhaps in advance of a site revamp. Yet, with a bit of fine tuning, this could be an interesting new trend for banking websites. Have a look at ING Direct's home page if you really dig minimalism.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Centurion Bank of Punjab launches innovative integrated campaign.

In a bid to break the clutter, Centurion Bank of Punjab and Arc Worldwide, the integrated marketing services agency of Leo Burnett, came together for a novel approach to promote the bank’s new branch. The agency used outdoor, direct marketing, activation, ambient, SMS and retail for this initiative at Mumbai’s Marine Drive.

Elaborating more on the initiative, C V S Sharma, Senior VP and Director, Arc Worldwide, said, “Even traditional media was used judiciously to support this unique integrated promotion. At the two points of entry to Marine Drive (JJ flyover and Choupatty) hoardings and banners were put up. Direct mail was sent to select housing localities announcing the treasure hunt. We set up the website www.banknextdoor.co.in, integrated mobile engine and launched the programme.”


With a shoe-string budget of Rs 2 lakh-Rs 3 lakh, about 60 per cent of morning walkers were given the keys and about 30 per cent of these key recipients visited the bank. About 70 per cent people logged on to the website, while 75 per cent sent SMSes. The bank also saw a significant number of new customers walking into the branch, and several of them ended up opening not only the treasure chests, but also an account with the bank.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Funds launches redesigned website

DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Funds has recently launched a redesigned web presence. In terms of content the site carries standard information that would be required for any mutual fund website. The site also features an interesting layout with secondary navigation sandwiched as a second column between the main navigation on the left and the content pane on the right. It takes one by a bit of a surprise at first but as it turns out, its pretty easy to use, and in fact makes for an interesting change.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Website targets NRIs investing in India

Yet another report from the Times of India today talks about a new website launched by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry. The website at www.oifc.in targets persons of Indian origin seeking to invest in India.



"The Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) would act as an one-stop-shop for enhancing partnership with the Indians residing abroad by giving authentic and real time information," Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said while the launching the centre.

Besides providing a data base of investment opportunities, the centre would also offer advisory services to Non-resident Indians like consular issues, financial services and their stay in India, he said.

There are about 25 million Indians living abroad and according to Ravi India received about US$23 billion in remittances in 2005, much below the potential.

Read the full article here.

NRI's have always been a significant target group for marketing financial services products. This move by the MOIA may just provide a boost to their efforts.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Use of Rich Media in Retirement Planning

We have long heard the predictions of the huge marketing challenges and opportunities to be posed by convergence of TV and the Internet. With broadband and IPTV now upon us it, is high time we cracked it. Here are two award-winning, envelope-pushing campaigns from the US that, in our opinion, well nearly do.

Wachovia Securities, the securities and investment arm of Wachovia Bank, launched a Retirement Planning microsite that features a video host who guides users through an experience that enables them to choose how they want to live in retirement and provides tips for getting there. The users’ experience is centered on three building blocks of preparing for retirement: Design, Build and Live. Users can view several web shows that provide helpful information about planning for retirement, accumulating assets toward retirement and living on income once in retirement. Users also have the opportunity to use engaging interactive tools to help them learn more about preparing for retirement.




The other campaign, from Genworth Financial (a personal finance company), is also about retirement planning and speaks to the boomer generation’s need to think about financial security in later stages of life. Using rich video and animation, the microsite communicates the experiences of actual Americans that are 100 or older. The site enables visitors to navigate through the lives of people like Roberta Smith, 100 who helped Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz when they built their hotel in Palm Desert, California. Or hear how Leonard “Rosie” Ross, 100, still goes out dancing once a month. In true Web2.0 style, it also invites users to post their 100+ stories, thus starting a conversation.




A critical feature of both campaigns is that they take the discussion away from finance and money, and focus on the quality of life. With only an estimated 11% of India's working population having any kind of old age social security, some high-quality, interactive dialogue of this kind is perhaps in order for the many insurance and personal finance companies setting up shop here.

Both microsites are a must-see.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

ICICI Bank Goes Green, Promotes E-Statements

In an effort to promote e-statements and go the green banking way, ICICI Bank has come up with an interesting promotion in collaboration with The Bombay Natural History Society. As part of the campaign, a website called Go Green has been launched. On this website, customers of ICICI Bank can sign up for receiving their bank statements by email in lieu of which ICICI Bank will plant a tree in lieu of the savings they make by not having to send you printed paper through the mail.




Not only does the customer receive a Go Green certificate from ICICI Bank and BNHS, but the customer's name is also featured on the Roll of Honour on the site - a nice way to publicly acknowledge the customer's initiative.

It is an attractive site which also includes some interesting tree facts thrown in for good measure.

The idea itself, however is not unique. In 2005, SBC (now part of AT&T) had launched a similar campaign to promote e-statements among its telecom customers. The campaign was even featured on the Marketing Sherpa Hall of Fame 2006, and featured a very interactive microsite where you could actually explore virtual trees planted by various people.




Most banks promote e-statements and online banking as a part of cost saving campaigns. This takes it a step further and gives a feel good factor to the customer by encouraging him to do the right thing and save the planet. Green Banking has taken many forms worldwide…from e-statements to reducing carbon emissions from servers in banks.
According to an MSNBC Report, Citibank has recently stepped up its green banking efforts. As part of the group-wide plan, Citigroup's markets and banking group expects to invest in and to finance more than $30bn in clean energy and alternative technology during the next 10 years, with current commitments already approaching $7.5bn.

This is one call that hopefully should not hassle customers.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

UTI Bank launches redesigned website, sees surge in leads

UTI Bank recently launched its revamped website at www.utibank.com.

The website features a completely new user interface as well as an XML-based backend which makes the site easy to maintain. According to the Bank, the new site has resulted in a huge jump in traffic and leads.



With a majority of bank website visitors logging directly on to their accounts, most banks are faced with the challenge of cross-selling and promoting products and generating leads. In such a scenario it has often been observed that critically examining and redesigning the navigation and user experience often allow visitors to get a better understanding of the bank's products/value propositions, resulting in increased leads.

Of course, simplified and user friendly application procedures, straight-through processing (read our previous post on STP here), and decision making tools are must-haves in any successful financial services website.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Website Development is a Business Expense

In a recent order in favour of a tax assessee (indipreneurs.com), the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has ruled that expenses incurred for developing websites are revenue expenses in the normal course of business, and not capital expenditure. (Source: M Padmakshan, Page 13, The Economic Times Mumbai Edition, 16 Apr 2007)

This means that websites are not assets that need to be part of a company's balance sheet, and all expenses incurred for their development and maintenance can be included in the income and expense account of the business.

Although this may seem obvious to most, the Income Tax Department did not think so. The ITAT upheld the appeal of indipreneurs.com and observed that "a common sense approach to the Web site expenses is that they are in the nature of revenue expenditure, particularly as the expenses do not result in the creation of a permanent asset. A website is basically a means to disseminate information. The only thing permanent here is the unique address".

The ITAT's differentiation between a website and a web address is significant. The web address or domain name is of course an asset for any business, but the website at that address is just a dynamic medium that helps the business interact with all its stakeholders.

Over to the Tax Department.