The number of consumers switching banks and credit unions could increase significantly.
Until now, it never occurred to me that I might have a good reason to consider choosing a new bank or credit union.
I’m not planning on moving, switching jobs, or changing my marital status. And I’m very happy with my local credit union.
Banking executives and financial marketers could learn something from a small security software company. The company, Webroot, changed its advertising approach after a startling discovery from a consumer poll.
Webroot makes antivirus software. It’s running a new marketing campaign across various media because of the responses made by security software users when they were asked an admitted “throwaway question” in an 18-statement questionnaire.
When I read Dennis Flack’s blog post last week where he talked about the sales culture in branches, I thought about the motivation program an insurance company used to spur its sales staff to reach greater sales plateaus. As a financial services marketing professional, this is another area where you can help your own organization open more accounts.
In the agency system of insurance sales, a general manager recruits new sales people, trains them, and offers support, workspace and advice. The sales people earn money from sales commissions paid by the home office.
Confused about the status of the free checking account? If so, read on.
The predicted death of the ubiquitous free checking account has been the subject of numerous articles over the past year. This ominous prediction was based on the fallout from the recent Regulation Q Overdraft Opt-In legislation that went into effect in July and August of this year.
A number of fear-mongers were predicting that banks would have to kill free checking and begin charging more and higher fees for checking accounts to offset the billions of dollars in lost overdraft fees.
Confusion is high on the list of the worst results you can generate with your marketing promotions. The prospects simply don’t understand what you’re offering or how they can take advantage of your offer. It’s like comparing pumpkins to cherry pies.
Confused? Let me explain.
If your financial organization has a mission statement, I could confidently bet you it uses the phrase, “We’re committed to,” and the odds would be with me.
“We’re committed” has been used so often it’s become another of the mistrusted corporate-speak phrases that should be eliminated. Never use it for any of your marketing copy.
My dislike for this phrase was prodded again by a small ad in the local newspaper from a real estate salesman who used “Committed to Your Success” as the headline of the ad.
I’m curious why so many banks and credit unions that have a tagline fail to use it consistently.
I rarely see a tagline as part of the corporate name and logo at the bottom of a newspaper ad. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I came across one.
Another place the tagline goes missing is on the website. One of the first things I look for when landing on a homepage is the tagline. Again, I rarely encounter a tagline on any page of a bank or credit union website.
There is probably not a topic discussed more in financial institutions that pertains to training and to marketing than that of building a sales culture. I personally have worked in the financial institution industry for more than 25 years and it was a major point of emphasis very early in my career. There have also been countless number of books and articles written about the subject through the years. With that in mind, I want to take a slightly different angle in our sales culture development thinking.
It goes without saying that athletics and athletic competition play a large part in our culture today. We are exposed to it via the media virtually 24/7 and athletic analogies have become a very recognizable and accepted part of our vocabulary. Therefore, let’s talk about developing a “winning” sales culture in your shop and compare it to athletics.
In both your work and your private life, you sometimes give people reminders to get them to do what you want. It often works the same for advertising.
Omaha Steaks, a prolific nationwide marketer, made a big push for a recent weekend sales event. I found two promotions for the sale in my mailbox the same day.
As I describe the mail pieces, imagine how you can enhance your banking campaigns with a one-two punch.
As a blogger on bank marketing topics, I depend on a constant stream of bank and credit union marketing to provide me with fodder for my blogs. Unfortunately, this fodder has gotten very scarce lately.
It wasn’t that long ago that I could depend on a constant diet of billboards, direct mail, radio spots, newspaper ads, TV commercials, and local magazine ads to keep me nourished.
I read about a Ford Motor Company bilingual mail piece and thought I’d pass along some information that might be valuable if your financial institution has large percentages of ethnic populations in your market.
First, about the Ford piece. They took the original English-only version and converted it into a bilingual version, as a Ford spokesman said, “culturally relevant to our target.” Plainly speaking, it’s not a straight English-to-Spanish translation. They tried to accommodate cultural differences into the copy. Photos and colors changed, too.
Why is it so difficult to find a good bank or credit union ad in the newspaper these days? Most of these ads are lacking in some way. And some are simply downright terrible.
Case in point is the Union Bank ad I encountered a couple of days ago in the October 8, 2010 edition of the Sacramento Business Journal.
Let’s start at the top.
Awkward. That was the situation I found myself in as I stood at the front desk of a high-class hotel. It was many years ago and I was there with my then-boss because we were attending a business conference.
My boss had a company credit card. Since she and I were checking out at the same time, it was easier to put our two room charges on her card.
You never know what you might find if you keep your eyes opened. I proved that again the other day. While I searched for something in a file of old ACTON Marketing mail pieces, I came across a bank’s sale promotion.
That’s right. The bank was running a sale. A Weekend Money Sale.
One of the most difficult tasks known to man is convincing consumers to change their behavior. If this were possible, people would no longer be smoking, eating at fast food restaurants, using cell phones while driving, or talking in movie theaters.
Yet, changing consumer behavior is exactly what the Chase marketing folks hope to accomplish with their latest ad campaign.
A consistent marketing message is important so consumers recognize your corporate name while your message also becomes firmly planted in their minds. But what happens when circumstances and consumer attitudes change?
You adapt your message.
In Monday’s post, I used a quote from an advertising agency executive to warn you about the dangers of creative-by-committee and micromanagement of marketing projects to the point where you have a lifeless, ineffective promotion.
Today, I’ll give you an example to show you how ugly it can get, both literally and figuratively. Knowing what someone else did to ruin a marketing project can help readers recognize what might be going on within your own organizations.
You’re probably familiar with the old maxim that “a camel is a horse designed by a committee.”
Too often, this camel turns out to be a flawed direct mail package that was tweaked to death by a parade of folks empowered to add their two-cents worth of advice and expertise.
The end result is a direct mail package that usually fails to produce the desired response results. Its muddled offer, disjointed copy, confusing graphics, multiple offers, dreaded disclosure copy, and hideous colors fail to make a quick connection with consumers.
What factors determine which bank or credit union a consumer uses as his or her primary banking institution?
There’s a new report that can tell you what consumers say has the most influence on them. It’s “The Primary Banking Decision: A Nationwide Study of Bank Customers.”
The report breaks down the responses by age, gender, income, and, most importantly for you, by census region. You can see what consumers in your own part of the country believe, which could be different from other areas of the nation.
ING Direct
“Save your money”
As a typical consumer, if you came across this company name and tagline, you’d most likely have zero idea what this company does for its customers. In fact, you’d have no idea as to this company’s line of business.
Since the company name provides absolutely no clue as what the company does, it’s up to the tagline to provide this information. Unfortunately, “Save your money” is worthless here.
