ATM Case study

ATMs have become much more than cash withdrawal machines. The most sophisticated units are now full-service banking channels, offering enormous potential for enhanced service delivery. They are also a much under-used marketing channel. As revenues from interchange and transaction fees decline in many markets, ATM advertising is opening up a potential new revenue stream .ATMs still represent the largest investment by banks in self-service financial distribution so there is an obvious need to generate as a high a return from this investment as possible. At the same time, many Independent ATM Deployers (IADs) face additional cost challenges as a result of high site rentals and a lack of high-profit locations in some markets.
Banks are likely to make the most of the time you spend in front of their ATMs. They may use the ATM screens for advertising. The Finance Ministry has issued a notification allowing them to advertise either their own products and services or those of broking firms, mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds on the ATM screen. Going by the notification, banks can squeeze in an advertisement during the seconds (after keying in the amount to be withdrawn, the machine takes a few seconds — 10-20 seconds — to process the request) you wait before the ATM to withdraw cash.
“Banks may soon begin charging customers for ATM usage”- The Hindu Business line. This really puts a big question mark on the usage of ATM by Indian customers. India is a place where a small increase in price of consumption can seriously put your product under scrutiny especially if it is a financial product. We Indians already think twice before going to some ATM and withdraw money. Safety is one such reason that is at the top-of-mind of any ATM user. There have been issues with respect to usage of ATM. Often we come across news of increase in theft at ATM and this is why banks have been forced to think of charging customers to counter the increase in costs owing to the increased security at ATM.

Banks, while deciding the fees, should not dispel the power which the substitutes of ATM have. Most of the corporate people or even the college going students carry credit and debit cards to pay whenever they are short of money. This prevents their visit to the nearest ATM. So it’s a serious time for banks to think whether their ATMs are just cash dispensing machines or machines with plenty of surprises for customers? Banks need to put their ATMs as an effective way of increasing the “ROI”. So ATMs, though present in a small room, is really a plethora of opportunities. One need to know the ability to capitalize that opportunity

1. Do you think this could be a good opportunity to advertise? How far it will help in branding?
2. What kind of advertisements could be on the ATM screen?
3. What precautions do you think the bank should take while advertising on the ATM screen?