Early in 2010, Piyush Gupta, the then newly-appointed chief executive officer of DBS Bank, brought together his management brass on a three-day offsite meeting to work out the future positioning of Singapore’s largest bank.
By the end of the year, DBS had announced the launch of a S$30 million strategic brand campaign that sought to strengthen its presence in six key growth areas across Asia — India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and, of course, Singapore.
At the heart of these efforts was DBS’ intention to grow outside of Singapore, which accounts for almost 60 per cent of its revenues. Its second largest market is Hong Kong, with a contribution of about 20 per cent.
India, surprisingly, stands third, accounting for between 7-8 per cent of revenues. The rest comes from China, Taiwan and Indonesia. Quite evidently, the action for DBS was in Asia.
“We wanted to say that we know Asia best and we want to be known for banking the Asian way,” explains Karen Ngui, DBS’ managing director and head, group strategic marketing and communications.
AN ASIAN CAMPAIGN
“We see ourselves at the crossroads of Asia and, I think, that’s one of Singapore’s biggest advantages. We might not be very large as an island, but are really at the crossroads; India, China and Indonesia, those three markets alone form almost half of the world’s population,” Ngui says.
The test for DBS, though, was to craft a campaign that had to connect and convince audiences across six economically, socially and politically diverse regions.
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“We wanted an overarching regional message that could resonate in each of the markets,” she says.
Although unprecedented in size, scale and spend, she also admits that it wasn’t creatively so. The present campaign, in fact, effectively takes forward an existing brand paradigm, first evolved when the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank met here in 2006.
It was then that DBS was first positioned as ‘Living, Breathing Asia’, but Ngui acknowledges that many of the values from the previous regional advertising campaign continue to be utilised.
Tellingly then, DBS’ new campaign declares: “This is Asia’s time. This is our time.”
CAPITALISING ON THE CRISIS
Indeed, such optimism is unlikely to find much traction elsewhere in the world.
While the Western, developed economies barely began pulling out of the global financial crisis, DBS’ home market, Singapore, recorded gross domestic product growth of 14.5 per cent last year. Other economies in the region, too, exhibited similar tendencies.
Asia has remained at the centre of the global recovery, a fact that not only further reinforced the bank’s new campaign since it was announced in December 2010, but also added weight to its singular focus on the region.
The financial crisis has resulted in exceptional scrutiny into how the banking industry functions and rewards, and that too at a time when consumer sentiment has taken a beating. Perfect timing, Ngui claims, for DBS to publicise its trophy cupboard.
“The fact that we are Asia’s safest and Singapore’s best is something which we are very proud of, and coupled with the fact that this is Asia’s time, our time, we felt the two messages would go well together,” Ngui adds.
The first “burst” of the campaign, as Ngui describes it, was focused around the first quarter of the year and the second “burst” can be expected towards the third quarter.
INDIAN INTENTIONS
While the intricately planned campaign across Asia has not failed with its timing, it may stand to deliver unexpected dividends in India, where the central bank earlier this year opened discussions on allowing foreign banks greater presence through a wholly-owned subsidiary route.
DBS, currently led by IIM-Ahmedabad alumni Gupta, is keen to expand further in its third largest market, where it has been present since 1995 and now has 12 branches. The subsidiary option, if implemented in India, will be almost certainly utilised.
“If the subsidiary (route) happens, we will definitely start expanding our footprint aggressively. And at the same time, grow our consumer banking business. Commensurate with that, we will hopefully be able to strengthen our brand presence and increase brand awareness,” says Ngui.
In India, she explains, the bank is unlikely to go mass market, instead focusing on clients “who would want to benefit from DBS’ regional connectivity.”
At the same time, DBS will also look to grow its wealth management business because, as Ngui puts it lightly, “when you meet millionaires these days, they either come from China or India”.
“Nowhere in the world are millionaires being created faster than in Asia,” she adds on a more serious note.
But then, that should be no surprise. After all, if DBS is to be believed, it is indeed Asia’s time.