Can you bank on Juhi Chawla?

RESEARCH: Not really! This study shows how ineffective celebrity endorsement is for PSU banks

Banks in India, especially public sector units (PSUs), have not done too well with celebrity endorsement as an advertising ploy.

According to recent findings of a quantitative study on the public perception of PSU banks, conducted in India's four metros by Synovate, a global market research firm, it appears that celebrities and banks do not a good pairing make.

The Synovate study, involving 600 SEC AB respondents in the 25-50 age group, finds that just over a fourth of the people in the afore-defined audience are spontaneously aware of celebrities endorsing PSU banks.

On prompting, only a small fraction of respondents are aware that Rahul Dravid endorses a PSU bank, while even fewer know of Hema Malini's endorsing one. Overall, only a minuscule 6 per cent associate Juhi Chawla with Dena Bank.

Among those who are aware of Dravid's endorsement of a bank, though, a sizeable fraction can name the entity accurately (Bank of Baroda, or BoB). However, among those claiming to be aware of Juhi Chawla's endorsing a bank, only half associate her correctly with Dena Bank.

What's interesting, however, is that the banks do not suffer in any way from this apparent celeb-apathy. Respondents continue to consider PSU banks trustworthy. And that's not all that PSU banks can take heart from.

These banks are seen to have improved over the past five years. Over a third claim there is a significant improvement in their performance during this period, while another two-fifths think they have improved to some extent.

The biggest cause for cheer comes with the fact that a negligible proportion of survey respondents feel that PSU banks have changed for the worse.

The improvement perception spans a wide range of parameters like technological advancement, customer focus, service offerings, professionalism, growth, and all of this without any drop in trustworthiness. The banks command strong loyalty too: most respondents banking with PSU banks intend to continue banking with them. However, people who do not bank with PSU banks have no intention of banking with them in the future. Though close to half say they would "consider" banking with PSU banks, over a fourth are completely closed to the option.

In all, the survey throws up rather few surprises, though the low celebrity salience might stun those involved in the campaigns. But then, these things vary enormously. For every TV watcher who remembers the shirt Rahul Dravid wore in the BoB football commercial, many more are completely clueless about the connection.