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Why Canara bank is rebranding itself after a century of operations?

A young, twenty-something woman asks her colleague the difference between a googly and a doosra. She takes her passion for cricket home, setting the field on her dining table with tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables substituting for players. She devours newspapers to learn more about India's favourite game.

After the theory, it is time for a round of practice. Now the young woman is acting as umpire in a neighbourhood cricket match. The fielding team appeals to her to raise a finger, declaring the batsman out. As the team rejoices, she raises not one, but both hands "" signalling a sixer.

Clearly needing to learn more, she is now seen leafing through a cricket magazine and keenly listening to the crowd outside a shop, where they exult at the fall of a wicket. Not that she is completely converted to the cause. Trying on the Indian team's blue jersey in a store, she asks the speechless storeowner whether she can get the same shirt in pink.

With her training behind her, the newbie cricket fan makes a casual remark when her husband is engrossed in a match. "Should have played a square slice," she says.

The man is clearly shocked and asks her when she started following the game he loves. "Just recently," she replies. They break into smiles when he corrects her: it's a square cut, not slice. The next visual shows an old Canara Bank signboard being replaced with a new, radically different one. The voiceover adds, "We all change for our loved ones."

After having been around for over a century, Canara Bank is reinventing itself to meet the needs of the new, younger and more demanding Indian consumer.

The new advertising campaign is part of a larger strategy to defend its turf from both the existing private banks and the foreign banks that are waiting to enter India after regulations are relaxed in 2009.

"Over half the consumers in India are 25 years and below. We wish to communicate the new initiatives we have undertaken and position Canara Bank as modern and contemporary," explains M B N Rao, chairman and managing director, Canara Bank.

In the past two years, the nationalised bank has kicked off a series of new initiatives such as investing in smarter technology, developing new delivery channels, newer products and better service initiatives to address the growing demands of the changing Indian consumer.

The bank tied up with IBM and i-flex solutions in 2006 to introduce a series of new technology-driven services for its consumers. Last year, it also tied up with HSBC and investment management company Robeco to offer insurance and mutual fund products to its consumers.

The bank has also undertaken a series of HR initiatives such as changing its organisation structure to a three-tier structure from the earlier four-tier structure to reduce turnaround time. Turnaround time has been reduced by 25 per cent, saving almost a week in some cases.

Canara Bank also conducted training programmes for all its employees to scale up their skill levels and improve their motivation to meet the new challenges. These HR initiatives won the bank the Golden Peacock Award for training, conferred by the Institute of Directors, last year.

A rebranding exercise was the final stage of the transformation process. "The campaign aims to build a young and vibrant image of the bank," says Rao.

Before repositioning itself, Canara Bank undertook extensive market research. A cross section of its stakeholders strongly suggested that the bank needed to change with time and also adopt a collaborative relationship with its customers rather than a give-and-take relationship.

For instance, based on customer feedback, Canara Bank has introduced Net banking and 150 new ATMs. The bank's new logo, which has two interlocking triangles in blue and yellow, has been designed keeping the "collaborative" aspect in mind.

"The new logo is a simple symbol of a strong link. The colours have also been carefully chosen to portray stability and warmth. We have purposely kept it simple because today's customers have very little patience and besides, there is a lot of visual clutter. Hence, to stand out, symbols need to be simple," says Arvind Hegde, consulting director, Ray+Keshavan, the brand consulting firm that's designed Canara Bank's new look.

Hegde adds that the earlier logo had a poor brand recall: in the past, banks deliberately chose complex symbols and logos to avoid easy duplication. Hegde should know: Ray+Keshavan has been involved in the transformation of three Indian banks over the past two or three years "" Bank of Baroda, Jammu and Kashmir Bank and now, Canara Bank.

"Most Indian public sector banks have lost ground in metros as they have failed to capture the imagination of urban youngsters. Many are now trying to re-invent themselves to win back lost territory," says Hegde.

After firming up its new look, Canara Bank executives chose ad agency Ogilvy & Mather from its panel of agencies to create the new campaign. The brief was simple: highlight the fact that Canara Bank had changed.

The agency and client agreed that people changing in relationships would be the perfect metaphor for Canara Bank's new identity. The second advertisement reflects the same thought. A middle-aged South Indian woman is learning Punjabi.

She listens to language tapes and practises on everybody: wishing the surprised vegetable vendor "Sat Sri Akal", complimenting her husband on the badi changi coffee, and so on. At the airport to welcome her son and his new, obviously North Indian, wife, the older woman greets her daughter-in-law in chaste Punjabi: the family rejoices.

"We are trying to reach out to the next generation by telling them that Canara Bank is changing for them," says Amit Akali, group creative director, O&M.

But it's not banking on television alone. Print and outdoor campaigns continue the theme with visuals of a man trying to learn to cook, a father listening to music on his daughters i-Pod and a woman trying to learn golf for her husband's sake.

More than 30 channels, especially youth-oriented channels like MTV, National Geographic and Sony TV are airing the two TVCs. Currently, both ads are 45-second films that will soon be replaced with 30-second edits. The bank has also advertised on more than 100 hoardings in each of the top 30-32 cities with a focus on the metros.

"Since we are targeting both existing customers as well as potential young customers, we are using multiple media," says Rao.

Apart from a radio commercial to link with the youth, the bank will soon target its primary target audience of working professionals in the 23- to 28-year age group with an Internet campaign as well. Will consumers click through?