I’ve seen and read thousands of billboard messages over the years and the one I encountered a few days ago immediately leaped to the top of my list as the best use of a billboard ever.
The message screamed “SIMPLICITY” as loudly as possible.
Last week, I wrote about the car dealership that claimed it had leftover advertising money so it was giving away the cash to get rid of it.
Now, there’s a news story about a company whose advertising is too successful, so it killed off its popular spokesman.
Don’t you wish you had problems like these?
Is this a case of being penny wise and pound foolish?
I’m perplexed why the marketing folks at Chase Bank would use a newspaper ad announcing a new branch opening and include a special $125 offer that was good only at the one new branch.
After all, isn’t the reason for opening an expensive new branch to quickly grow market share in the local community?
How important is language to your marketing promotions? I think you agree your promotions need language, written or recorded, to make the point, to attract the prospect, to highlight your offer.
That’s all true, but most marketers use language to put the focus in the wrong place.
When you have too much money in your marketing budget, what do you do? Staff pizza party? Super Bowl bet? Spend it on advertising?
One local auto dealership has a unique answer. Give away the surplus advertising dollars to lucky members of the general public.
I don’t know what the general public thinks when they see this promotion, but as a marketer, I smiled. And laughed. It’s a sales angle I don’t remember seeing before.
I was both shocked and dismayed Tuesday morning when a short article in my local Sacramento newspaper informed me about Chase’s latest plans to open about 175 new branches nationwide - 80 of which are planned for California.
According to the article, “the bank hopes plain-vanilla lending will fuel its future growth.” While the term “plain-vanilla lending” wasn’t clarified, I assume it means making mortgage, auto, equity, and credit card loans to millions of the state’s residents.
In hindsight, it’s probably a good thing that bank marketers weren’t in charge of the military on Tuesday, June 6, 1944.
Instead of concentrating a majority of their resources on the Normandy invasion, small units of troops would have been mounting assaults on a multitude of fronts scattered across Europe.
I’ve come to this conclusion based on the results of a recent study by The Financial Brand, “2012 Bank & Credit Union Marketing Survey.”
I’ve been called a lot of things, but never a Scherzberg, whatever that might be.
In Tuesday’s mail I found a #10 envelope package from a local Allstate Insurance agent’s office.
Killing sacred cows is tough and suggesting it rarely earns you many friends. It can often lead to an outpouring of caustic comments and concerns about one’s sanity.
Every business has its share of sacred cows and in the consumer banking business branches are still considered sacred cows by the majority.
I find this belief dripping with irony given all the efforts since the installation of the first through-the-wall ATM to keep consumers out of the branches.
There seems to be a new minor trend in financial services promotions. The promotions make an offer — which is always important to success — but the restrictions make it difficult to get the offer.
It’s not much better than no offer at all and can be counter-productive.
I’ve never been much of a fan of general media agencies - big or small.
Most of them stay busy cranking out expensive “branding” ads” that leave the consumer scratching his or her head over the message being delivered.
This was reinforced the other day after encountering the most recent full-page magazine ad from Ally Bank.
People need motivation to do most anything. When it comes to marketing, your promotions must motivate people to act. Not only must you nudge them into action, you also need to motivate them specifically to come to your financial institution.
Many marketers I talk with, and many executives, don’t understand the value of incenting a prospect or customer. They’re so proud of their products that they believe it’s all they need to entice people through their doors. (Or, some don’t want to spend money on an incentive offer.)
Banks and credit unions would love nothing more than to persuade, or perhaps force, all checking customers to accept online statements.
I suspect that the day is not far off when the paper statement sent through the mail goes the way of paper checks returned in your monthly statements.
While banks and credit unions will definitely save money by eliminating the cost of paper statements, they’ll be surrendering a valuable marketing opportunity in the process.
The bank featured in last Thursday’s blog ran another newspaper ad in yesterday’s edition of The Sacramento Bee. Fortunately, yesterday’s ad is much different than last week’s ad.
Here’s my question for you.
Have you found a practical use for QR Codes in your bank or credit union advertising?
More important than adapting the new promotional technique is finding an idea that offers an advantage to both your financial institution and your prospects.
Taco Bell seems to have good ideas when it comes to QR Code promotions. The latest was found on the restaurant’s 12-pack boxes and it coincided with Taco Bell’s college Bowl Championship Series sponsorship.
If actor Sean Connery just announced that he’d won his 32nd academy award, would you or anybody else really care?
Most likely it would be a yawner - a “who cares” response.
That’s how I felt Monday morning upon encountering the newspaper ad from a small community bank with a few branches scattered around the greater Sacramento area.
The purpose of the ad is to announce that the bank received an “Exceptional Performance Award” from some obscure company in Florida - Bauer Financial, Inc. But here’s the kicker, in smaller type we learn that the award was “For continuously earning a five-star SUPERIOR rating for 74 consecutive quarters.”
The February issue of Consumer Reports magazine shows a boxing glove below the headline, “Fight Back Against Your Bank.”
Inside, readers find a four-page report titled, “Take on your bank,” with the subhead, “More fees are coming. How to fight back — or flee.”
While those headlines sound confrontational, I see the article as balanced and factual. Yes, it shows the increases in average fees, but the writer also gives the banks’ side of the story. Many new and higher fees, the article says, are the result of reduced fee income from government regulations.
We begin 2012 with a question.
As a marketing person for a bank or credit union, what would you do in this situation?
Your bank or credit union has long-term contracts for a significant number of prime-space billboards throughout your local market area.
Would you place the same message on every board and reword it periodically or would you use these boards to communicate an assortment of marketing messages at the same time - also rotating them periodically?
As financial institutions meet consumer opposition to their attempts to increase income, management tries cost-cutting measures that may include layoffs. Now it’s said, even if you survive the layoffs you may experience worse effects than those who lose their jobs.
The nation’s current financial troubles began in the banking industry and affected financial institutions of all sizes. In general, those problems are still around as we begin this new year.
You know how great it smells when you walk into a home where there’s a meal in the oven or the smell of freshly baked cookies. Then there are the pleasant aromas of newly cut lawns, the freshness after a spring rain, a rose.
Have you ever thought you could use scents to market your products and services?
