Marketing leaders in financial services are trying to hit two targets at once: performance budgets that show returns this quarter and brand investments that pay out over years. That tension was the focus of an ETBrandEquity roundtable, held in association with Mastercard, on “The Growth Paradox: Building for Long-term Growth While Delivering Short-Term Impact”.
Across banking, fintech and travel services, participants described the same squeeze. Nachiketh Premraj of Poonawalla Fincorp said budgets have remained relatively constrained, even as marketers now manage traditional media, performance, social, content, AI and data-driven marketing. Deepesh Chhabra of IndusInd Bank added that the cost of acquisition is becoming more expensive on digital as everyone bids for the same inventory.
Performance fills today, brand fills tomorrow
Performance marketing is strong at capturing existing demand, but it cannot sustain long-term growth on its own. Its effects tend to weaken once spending stops. Brand building operates over a longer horizon by creating familiarity, associations and memories that keep influencing consumer choice.
Puneeth Bekal of HDFC Securities gave the roundtable’s clearest distinction: “The brand tells consumers, ‘why us?’, while performance tells them, ‘why now?'” He offered a 60:40 brand-to-performance split as a personal reference point, while saying the right balance depends on category, brand maturity and business objective.
Discovery is changing
Pratik Kumar of ICICI Bank said AI and new digital behaviours are challenging the traditional marketing funnel. Deep Sharma of CSB Bank argued that as journeys fragment, brands cannot rely on a single message or channel. Relevance has to be built across the environments where consumers discover, evaluate and experience a brand.
For Mastercard, Joan Kang said the company has shifted from observing cultural moments to actively participating in the experiences and passions that matter to consumers, including sport, music, dining, racing and marathons. She said Mastercard has measured around 6,000 campaigns to learn what works and to answer the ROI question, looking at effectiveness and the uplift in consumer spending a strategy can generate.
Experience is brand building
Abhilasha Mathur of HDFC Bank broadened the definition of brand building: “It’s every interaction with your customer that adds to building your brand.” For financial services, that includes branch, relationship manager, call centre, app and digital experience. A campaign makes a promise; the customer experience determines whether that promise is credible.
Mohit Gosain of HDFC Bank said trust develops through repeated interactions with products, service, technology and people. Abraham Alapatt of Thomas Cook advised using technology to make employees more effective, not to distance people from people.
What marketers can do
- Set different measurement timelines for brand and performance instead of forcing both onto one dashboard.
- Treat every customer touchpoint as a brand moment, from the app to the call centre.
- Use AI for personalisation and faster execution, but keep human connection in the experience.
- Pick the brand-performance split by category, maturity and business objective, not by default.
The roundtable’s underlying message is that short-term performance is necessary but insufficient. Marketers need a system that captures demand now while giving consumers lasting reasons to choose and recommend the brand. For BFSI and beyond, the task is to link immediate response with durable trust across every channel and interaction.
Source: Brand Connect Initiative
