This week provided me with a rare example that two competing marketing channels can actually work together to create marketing synergy.
I’m shocked that a marketing person would agree that the word “nothing” packs the same punch as “free” in a headline.
A newspaper headline in the local Saturday edition caused some old memories to surface.
Years ago, I wrote advertising copy in the home office of a large insurance company. It was then that banks wanted to offer insurance products to their customers. The powerful insurance lobby hammered Congress with dire warnings claiming if banks were allowed to sell insurance it would surely bring about the Apocalypse.
The headline that started this recollection is the opposite of the old arguments I heard during my insurance years.
20,000 Consumers Share Their Ideas About Banks’ Overdraft Programs and NSF Fees
February 15, 2010
Lincoln, NE – The Federal Reserve Bank projects that banks could lose nearly half of their overdraft protection customers after banks’ compliance with the Fed’s Regulation E. But Brian Beach, CEO of financial marketing firm ACTON Marketing, LLC, believes that such dire forecasts do not necessarily apply to the savvy bank marketer.
“If the future of the banks’ overdraft programs are dependent on the will of the consumer, we thought someone should study that will,” says Beach. “And that’s what we have our research division doing. From in-depth market understanding and concepts developed from the study, we can construct a marketing playbook for banks — strategies that optimize both response and positive opt-ins.”
It’s an example of excellent timing but very poor judgment.
The March 1, 2010 issue of Newsweek magazine arrived in my mailbox yesterday.
In case you missed it, Phase 2 of the recent credit card legislation becomes effective today – Monday, February 22, 2010.
A woman rushes into a supermarket to buy a few last-minute items for dinner. She’s in a hurry because she has other errands to run. She swipes her debit card at the checkout, but finds her card is declined.
She doesn’t have enough money in her checking account for the transaction. She ignored the opt-in form her financial institution sent, so she didn’t agree to overdraft protection for her debit card purchases.
The devil’s in the details as you’ll see below.
The double-window envelope promoting something for women arrived in my mailbox yesterday.
It’s probably standard procedure at your institution to send out a welcome letter to new customers within one week of their account opening.
It’s an opportunity to thank the customer for her new relationship and a chance to remind the new customer of other benefits you offer.
Makes perfect sense.
By the way, have you heard about the overdraft opt-in that’s coming?
From the loud noise at your end, I’ll assume you have.Training, credit union marketing, Direct Mail, email notification, Federal Reserve Reg E, Financial marketing, marketing campaign, NSF, Opt-In, Overdraft, Overdraft coverage, Overdraft Fees, overdraft opt-in, overdraft options, Overdraft Protection, overdraft research, Reg E, Regulation E
What do you think is the biggest obstacle your financial institution faces as you try to get your customers to opt-in so their debit cards continue to be covered by overdraft protection?
Having been a senior for approximately 15 years now – depending on the qualifying age – I pay more attention to bank and credit union promotions directed at me.
Claude Hopkins is called one of the greatest copywriters of all time. He invented risk-free trials, money-back guarantees, and market testing, among other then-imaginative advertising techniques.
In 1923, Hopkins wrote Scientific Advertising. You’d think with all the advances and changes in the market and in advertising since then that his book would be obviously dated, like the difference between a black and white silent film and today’s effects-heavy blockbusters.
“LAYOFFS ARE BAD FOR BUSINESS” screams the headline on the front page of the February 15 issue of Newsweek magazine.
I don’t often get a mail piece that makes me laugh…unintentionally…but that happened this week.
It didn’t start out funny. If you’re like me, when you see an Attempted Delivery Notice in the mailbox you probably have the same reaction I did, “Oh, no, now I have to find time to get to the post office when it’s open.”
Sitting on top of the stack of mail in the box was what looked like one of those delivery notices. I had that “oh, no” feeling.
Would it shock you to know that companies with high customer satisfaction scores enjoy higher stock prices than those delivering poor service?
Back in the Middle Ages, the guilds (organizations of craftsmen) developed the apprenticeship system so master craftsmen could teach the new generation of practitioners the skills they’d need to carry on the trade. Those guilds are long gone, but there’s still a need to teach professionals the “secrets” they need to perform successfully.
Today, instead of masters, we call them mentors. While a less formal practice today, these mentors are just as important and influential in professions as their counterparts were in the guilds.
I found myself wondering this morning if local banks and credit unions would be aggressively marketing checking accounts right now if the media was suddenly full of bad news about the big four – Wells, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and B of A.
Don’t be fooled into believing that just because the big banks are doing it that it makes sense or is what the majority of consumers want or need.
