ING Groep N.V. (ING): Marketing Mix Analysis [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're trying to get a clear, actionable view of where a major European bank stands right now, past the mid-year reports but before the full year close. Honestly, as someone who's spent two decades mapping financial giants, I can tell you that looking past the headline numbers at the Marketing Mix-the four P's-is where the real strategy shows itself. For ING Groep N.V., this means seeing how their digital-first 'Place' and 'Product' innovations, like rewarding green mortgages, are backed by solid results, such as that 13.0% Return on Equity in H1 2025 and a €1,787 million Net Result in Q3 2025. Let's break down exactly how their 'Price,' 'Promotion,' and everything else lines up for late 2025; you'll want to see this defintely strategic map below.

ING Groep N.V. (ING) - Marketing Mix: Product

The product portfolio of ING Groep N.V. (ING) is fundamentally structured around its two core business segments: Retail Banking and Wholesale Banking. This structure supports a massive operation, with ING reporting total assets of approximately €1.1 trillion as of the third quarter of 2025. The bank's product offerings are broad, covering everything from daily banking services to specialized corporate finance solutions across its global footprint.

ING maintains a strong, demonstrable focus on digital banking and strategic innovation, which is central to its product delivery. By the second quarter of 2025, ING had reached 14.9 million mobile primary customers. These digitally engaged customers drive significant interaction, logging into the app more than 5.5 million times daily. Furthermore, the bank gained 1.1 million mobile primary customers year-on-year by the third quarter of 2025, keeping pace with its annual growth target of 1 million. To support this digital push, ING is investing in its technological backbone, including the launch of a new technology hub in Madrid, Spain, planning to generate around 1,000 specialized jobs over four years.

Key offerings across the business lines reflect a focus on high-value, relationship-driven products. In Retail Banking, this centers on mortgages, lending, and investment products. For instance, residential mortgages accounted for €13.2 billion of the net core lending growth in the first half of 2025. Wholesale Banking's product strength is seen in its lending and transaction services, with corporate loan demand picking up to drive lending growth of €5.7 billion in the third quarter of 2025. The growth in fee income, a key diversification metric, is heavily supported by these products; Retail fee income rose 14% year-on-year by Q3 2025, largely from investment products as more customers started investing digitally.

ING is actively using product design to drive sustainability goals, particularly in the Dutch mortgage market. A new mortgage pricing model was implemented on April 30, 2025, which directly rewards high energy efficiency. This model applies tiered interest rate discounts based on the property's energy label, moving beyond the previous requirement of only A or better labels.

Here is the specific structure of the energy label-based mortgage pricing model as of late 2025:

The product line is also expanding to capture younger demographics, reflecting the digital-first strategy. ING launched a digital bank account specifically for teenagers in Spain, broadening its product offerings in that market. This aligns with the overall growth seen in Spain, where ING gained almost 200,000 mobile primary customers in the third quarter of 2025 alone.

The performance of these products contributed to a solid financial showing for the bank in the first half of 2025:

• Net result attributable to shareholders (H1 2025): €3,130 million.
• Retail lending growth (Q3 2025): €8.6 billion.
• Wholesale Banking net core lending growth (Q3 2025): €5.7 billion.
• Retail fee income growth (YoY Q3 2025): 14%.
• Total mobile primary customers (Q2 2025): 14.9 million.

ING Groep N.V. (ING) - Marketing Mix: Place

You're looking at how ING Groep N.V. gets its financial products and services into the hands of its customers, which is heavily weighted toward digital access as of late 2025.

Primary Channel Dominance: Digital Reach

The distribution backbone for ING Groep N.V. is undeniably digital. As of the second quarter of 2025, the bank reported a primary customer base utilizing mobile channels reaching over 14.9 million individuals. This reflects a sustained, aggressive push into digital engagement. For instance, in the first half of 2025, the bank added 646,000 new customers overall, maintaining an accelerated pace. Specifically, the mobile primary customer base grew by 1.1 million, or 8%, year-on-year, by the third quarter of 2025, which was in line with the target of one million mobile primary customers per year.

The growth in this digital footprint is geographically broad within the core European markets:

• Growth in mobile primary customers was led by Germany, Spain, Italy, and Romania.
• The Q2 2025 addition of over 300,000 mobile primary customers was significantly fueled by these specific markets.

Multi-Channel Footprint Across Europe and Beyond

While digital is primary, ING Groep N.V. maintains a multi-channel strategy across a geographically diverse network. ING Bank's employees offer retail and wholesale banking services to customers in over 100 countries. However, the core focus for the retail distribution network remains concentrated in key European territories. The Wholesale Banking segment specifically operates with offices in 35+ countries across key global markets, ensuring local expertise supports international ambitions.

Here is a snapshot of the scale and focus areas relevant to distribution:

Centralized Support for Channel Operations

ING Groep N.V. supports its extensive branch and digital channels through centralized operations. A key strategic focus area involves optimizing the bank's branch network as part of ongoing cost management initiatives. This centralization helps ensure consistency and efficiency across the various customer touchpoints, whether a customer interacts via the mobile app or a physical location. The bank is also deploying Artificial Intelligence across processes, including KYC (Know Your Customer), which feeds into the efficiency of service delivery across all channels.

Wholesale Banking: Strategic Deposit Gathering

For the Wholesale Banking division, the distribution strategy on the liability side centers on strategic deposit gathering to fund lending activities. In the second quarter of 2025, Wholesale Banking saw core deposits increase by more than €6,000,000,000, driven by momentum in Payments & Cash Management and in their cash pooling business. However, this is managed carefully; in the third quarter of 2025, core deposits actually fell by €200M due to seasonal factors and the conclusion of successful promotions, showing a tactical approach to deposit acquisition rather than a purely volume-driven one. This division also saw net core lending growth of €4.1 billion in the first half of 2025.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

ING Groep N.V. (ING) - Marketing Mix: Promotion

You're looking at how ING Groep N.V. communicates its value proposition in late 2025. The core of their external messaging remains the long-running global brand tagline, 'Do your thing.'. This phrase is central to a strategy that aims to empower customers to stay a step ahead in life and business. It's about encouraging people to pursue what drives them, assuring them that ING is there to support that journey. This empowerment theme is also mirrored internally, extending the belief in autonomy to their own people.

Digital marketing is definitely a major focus area for staying known in this environment. ING has been rolling out AI to enhance areas like hyper-personalised marketing. A key deployment is the launch of generative AI chatbots for retail markets, developed in partnership with Google. They established a standardized approach for scaling these GenAI chatbots across multiple countries-including the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany, Romania, and Australia-during 2024 and 2025.

The impact of these digital tools is measurable. Within the first seven weeks of deployment, the AI tool assisted 20% more customers compared to the classic chatbot, which directly reduces the need for live agent interaction and lowers wait times. Looking ahead, the plan is to scale this chatbot to ten additional markets, which is projected to impact 37 million customers globally. This focus on digital efficiency supports the broader strategy to simplify the perception of banking for the customer.

The financial results from Q2 2025 clearly show the commercial momentum underpinning these marketing investments. Fee income growth is a bright spot, which helps fund these strategic marketing pushes.

The strategic financial goal tied to this revenue diversification is ambitious. ING is targeting €5 billion in fee income by 2027. The growth in digital customer numbers is also significant, with over 300,000 mobile primary customers added in Q2 2025 alone, meaning 37% of their over 40 million customers are now mobile primary.

The promotional activities are supported by specific digital engagement metrics and strategic focus areas:

• Global brand tagline: 'Do your thing.'
• GenAI Chatbot Scaling: Standardized approach across Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany, Romania, and Australia in 2024 and 2025
• Projected Chatbot Impact: Potentially 37 million customers across ten markets
• Fee Income Target: €5 billion by 2027
• Q2 2025 Fee Income Growth: 12% year-on-year

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

ING Groep N.V. (ING) - Marketing Mix: Price

The realization of value through pricing policies is evidenced by the reported profitability metrics. ING Groep N.V. posted a Q3 2025 Net Result of €1,787 million. For the first half of 2025, the Return on Equity (ROE) was 13.0%.

The strategy to derive revenue from services, rather than solely interest margins, shows progress toward its goal. Fee income is targeting €5 billion by 2027. In the first half of 2025, Net fee and commission income reached €2,216 million, representing approximately 19.5% of the Total income of €11,339 million for the same period.

Operational efficiency, which underpins sustainable pricing, is reflected in the Cost/income ratio, which stood at 55.0% in the first half of 2025. Reflecting the realized earnings, an interim cash dividend of €0.35 per ordinary share was announced, payable in August 2025 for the first six months of 2025.

Key financial outcomes supporting the pricing power and value proposition include:

Further statistical data points relevant to the financial realization of the pricing strategy include:

• Fee income growth year-on-year in Q3 2025 was 15%.
• The four-quarter rolling average Return on Equity was 12.6%.
• The full-year 2025 ROE outlook was upgraded to over 12.5%.
• Total distribution announced following Q3 2025 results was €1.6 billion.
• The 2024-2027 target for annual total income growth is 4% to 5%.
• The CET1 ratio as of Q3 2025 was 13.4%.
• Net core deposit growth in H1 2025 was €28.8 billion.