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ICICI BANK: COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
ROLE & DURATION
Lead UX Designer
Team of 2
Competitive Research, Market Research, UX Audit, UI Design, Project Management
Sept - Oct 2023
OVERVIEW
ICICI Bank asked ZEUX to audit their mailers and compare their communication strategy with top competitors. Leveraging my expertise in UX Design and Communication Strategy, I crafted a clear presentation highlighting their strengths and areas for improvement. Additionally, I designed optimised mailer templates based on our recommendations to enhance their communication approach.
CLIENT
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The challenge was to evaluate an existing email communication strategy and benchmark it against top industry competitors. The goal was to identify strengths and weaknesses in the current approach, then provide actionable insights and design optimized templates to improve overall effectiveness and engagement.
PROJECT BRIEF
To assess and enhance the current email communication strategy, ensuring it stands strong in today’s competitive market.
Scope:
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Conduct a thorough audit of existing email communications.
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Benchmark against top industry competitors to identify strengths and weaknesses.
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Develop a comprehensive presentation with clear insights on what is working and what needs improvement.
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Design optimised email templates aligned with best practices to improve overall communication effectiveness.
CURRENT ISSUES & EXPECTATIONS
We assessed the current designs and recognised the most pressing issues:
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Bottom part of mailer not well designed; features are going unnoticed. The idea is to let people know these functions exist.
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Open rates are at a low- 3-4%. Nobody is clicking the CTAs at the bottom.
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Optimise template of mailer as per current trends. Current design is dated, not sure of effectiveness of communication
Fig 1 : Current Issues & Expectations for an improved communication strategy
COMMUNICATION: ENGAGE vs INFORM
Mailers come into play for two major purposes: to engage the users or to inform the users. Some of the examples of both types of use cases would be as follows:
Engage:
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Product upsell, cross sell
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Referral
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New Features or product promotion
Inform:
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Transaction status & reminders
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Prompt for actions – KYC updation, documents required
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Inactive user, incomplete applications, document not uploaded
EXISTING ICICI MAILERS
Fig 2 : Existing ICICI Mailers designs
WHAT WORKS & WHAT DOESN’T
A detailed analysis of the existing mailers allowed us to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of the current designs. This clarity guided us in defining the strategic direction and focus for future improvements.
Fig 3 : An audit of the existing ICICI mailers design
COMPETITIVE BENCHMARKING
We leveraged competitive benchmarking to assess ICICI Bank's communication strategy relative to top competitors in today’s market. This involved a detailed analysis of industry leaders like Kotak, HDFC, SBI, American Express, Jupiter, and others.
We judged them based on:
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Design Consistency: Evaluated visual coherence across competitors' mailers to identify gaps in ICICI's branding and aesthetic consistency.
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Content Clarity: Compared the effectiveness of messaging, including tone, brevity, and call-to-action clarity, to determine areas for enhancement.
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User Engagement: Analysed competitor mailers' interactive elements, such as clickable content, personalisation, and responsiveness, to gauge user engagement levels.
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Best Practices Adoption: Identified industry-leading design practices, such as layout optimisation and mobile compatibility, to inform improvements.
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Performance Metrics: Reviewed competitors’ email performance data (open rates, click-through rates) to benchmark ICICI's effectiveness and set actionable goals.
BEST PRACTICES & RECOMMENDATIONS
We conducted a thorough study of today's communication trends and market and realised there are few proven best practices which work towards effective and efficient outcomes.
Fig 4 : Best practices and recommendations for an optimised communication strategy
BEFORE & AFTER
Mailers for User Engagement
Mailers for Informing the User
DESIGNS
Engage: Home Loan Top-Up
Inform: Account Statement
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