I’d like to invite you to my upcoming webinar, “The 7 Laws that Govern Your Brand.”
Per the title, I’ll be discussing seven principles that underlie strong brands, and a new branding model derived from them. It’s a quick 30 minutes, free, and geared toward bank marketers. Here’s the lowdown:
The 7 Laws that Govern Your Brand
Wednesday, March 24th at 2:30 pm EST
To register, contact Marci Grzelecki:
248-643-6431 ext 221 or mgrzelecki@michaelflora.com
Hope you can make it.
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Bank Competitors, Bank Marketing, Branding, Customer Relationships, community banks | Tagged: Tom Brzezina, banks, financial services, banking, community banks, regional banks, bank customers, Bank Branding, Bank Competitors, Bank Marketers | 
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Posted by tombrzezina
I haven’t posted in awhile, and I apologize for that. Other bloggers with hectic schedules seem to be able to post regularly. I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time with it.
Anyway, I was preparing for a webinar a couple of weeks ago, and I Googled the phrase, “I hate banks.”
Google returned over 54 million responses.
We’re not talking about frustration, anger, or even disgust here. We’re talking hatred, and lots of it. Even if three quarters of those responses aren’t relevant, you still have about 14 million left.
Have you thought about how all this generalized hatred is affecting your brand?
Is it only about the too-big-to-fail boys? Or is it, “a high tide raises all ships,” in reverse?
Leave a Comment » | Attitudes, Bank Marketing, Banking Trends, Branding, community banks | Tagged: banks, Bank Marketing, banking, community banks, regional banks, Attitudes, bank customers, Bank Marketers | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
The topic of innovation seems to be heating up in banking circles recently. Normally, I would be excited about this. Instead, I have mixed feelings.
My biggest concern is that the enthusiasm over innovation is simply a reaction to recent regulatory actions that have constricted profitable revenue streams. If so, the “innovations” will be nothing more than workarounds designed to return profitability to these same streams.
My fondest hope is that there are real innovations on the horizon. New ways of connecting customers and banks. Technology and processes to make banking more convenient and useful for the customer. And creating competition around customer benefits that customers really want.
The true future of banking lies not in optimizing customers, but in optimizing customers’ lives.
1 Comment | Bank Competitors, Banking Trends, Customer Relationships, Customer Retention, community banks | Tagged: banks, Customer Retention, financial services, banking, community banks, regional banks, bank customers, Bank Branding, Bank Competitors | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” — Joseph Campbell
I mentioned the hero’s journey in my last post, without any explanation or context. I’ll remedy that here.
The context is mythology. Specifically, brand mythology.
Bank marketers typically keep their distance from this end of the branding spectrum, because mythology seems too ethereal. It’s anything but. Many of the most successful brands in the world are built on carefully cultivated mythologies. Harley Davidson (outsider), Apple (creator), and Campbell’s Soup (mother) come to mind.
Joseph Campbell, quoted above and no relation to Campbell’s Soup, was a scholar who spent his life identifying common structures in mythologies from around the world. Primary among these structures is the monomyth, also known as the hero’s journey.
Here’s the basic monomyth structure:
If this sounds familiar, it should. The monomyth is the basis for a significant percentage of Hollywood movies—Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, The Lion King, The Matrix, Gladiator, Groundhog Day, Casablanca, Titanic, Ben Hur, and When Harry Met Sally, to name a few. A current example is Crazy Heart, the Jeff Bridges vehicle.
Here’s how it plays out in the current Domino’s campaign:
Any bank could employ the monomyth structure that Domino’s used so adroitly. Which is not to say that a bank would need to expose its shortcomings. A bank could tell the story of fulfilling a mission, overcoming a challenge, or self-transformation. The main point is to dramatize a change process—a heroic journey—that benefits the customer.
Leave a Comment » | Attitudes, Bank Marketing, Branding, bank advertising, community banks | Tagged: advertising, Attitudes, bank advertising, Bank Branding, bank customers, Bank Marketers, Bank Marketing, banking, banks, financial services | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
One of the effects of social media has been the grassroots movement-on-steroids phenomenon. For example, it’s been less than a month since the birth of Arianna Huffington’s Move Your Money initiative, and it’s already building big momentum. Here are a few quotes from followers:
“I applaud the efforts of the people of this nation. This effort is a ‘human’ one…not a left, right, religious or non-religious. Real Change starts when the American people rise up and say…Enough is Enough. Move Your Money from these GREEDY banks Today!”
“I can’t remember the last time something has come along that truly and equally succeeds in motivating people to drop their red and blue team colors…in favor of pitchforks, torches and a hill.”
“I am so encouraged by this idea! I finally feel like we can do something that will impact our nation for good.”
“I very much appreciate this encouragement to say, “no!” to a wrong-headed worldview that bails out rich bankers and sends the bill to citizens. You can count on my money being moved to our local First Commercial Bank! Peace, and keep up the good work!”
“This is a fabulous idea, and the video is wonderfully compelling. I will share the link and move my money.”
Move your Money has given an angry America more than a voice. It’s providing the public with a weapon that could do considerable damage.
This, of course, is not great news for the big banks, but I doubt they consider it a game-changer. They are, after all, too big to fail.
For credit unions and community banks, however, it’s an unbelievable growth opportunity.
If ever there was a time to pull out all the stops, marketing-wise, this is it.
Jump into social media with both feet. Take advantage of PR opportunities. And, if you’ve got rates or some other advantage worth talking about, advertise.
As soul legend Howard Tate once implored:
“Get it while you can.”
1 Comment | Attitudes, Bank Marketing, Banking Trends, Social Media, bank advertising, community banks | Tagged: banks, Bank Marketing, financial services, banking, community banks, Attitudes, bank customers, bank advertising, advertising, Bank Branding, Social Media, Bank Marketers | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
The public outrage over bank bonuses has returned with a vengeance. Right or wrong, it’s a threat to your bank’s brand.
The only question is, what are you going to do about it?
The public is in no mood to be educated about variable compensation. And, as far as consumers are concerned, banks are all guilty by association. Battening down the hatches and hoping to ride it out isn’t going to help either.
Here are three strategies you can use to protect—and even improve—your brand:
Obviously, the object here is to focus on empirical evidence that your bank is different.
The more local you get, the less national issues will reflect on your brand. The more that customers identify with you, the less likely they’ll be to lump you in with other banks. And the easier you are to work with, the more they’ll be inspired to spread the word.
The amazing thing is, as you put these three strategies into practice, you’ll realize—along with your customers—that you actually are different.
Leave a Comment » | Bank Competitors, Bank Marketing, Branding, Customer Relationships, Customer Retention, community banks | Tagged: bank advertising, Bank Branding, Bank Competitors, bank customers, Bank Marketers, Bank Marketing, banking, banks, community banks, regional banks, Trust | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
Yesterday, I found this cartoon at Calculated Risk:
It’s a good reminder that—regardless of what the government, economists, or the media say—the bottom 98% of Americans will decide when the recession is over.
Which means that, until employment heads toward pre-recession levels, until there is reasonable access to credit, and until there are day-to-day proofs that the worst is behind us, most Americans will remain in a recession mindset.
What can banks do to scatter the clouds? Here are a couple of suggestions:
I just pulled these out of the air, so feel free to dismiss them.
It’s not specific suggestions I’m pushing—it’s the process of developing ideas that will:
Despite the seemingly contradictory nature of the two goals, the process does work. A great resource is The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin. It’s about not abandoning either 1 or 2 (or settling for compromise), but coming up with a third solution that gives you the best of both worlds.
The process requires some serious out-of-the-bank thinking—you may even need to bring in outside brain power—but the returns will be worth it.
For most Americans, claims that the recession is over prompt either rage or derisive laughter.
By acknowledging their reality and doing something about it at the community level, you’ll earn their trust in the most fundamental way—by doing instead of talking.
Cartoon from Eric G. Lewis
1 Comment | Attitudes, Bank Marketing, Banking Trends, Customer Relationships, Recession, community banks | Tagged: banks, banking, financial crisis, community banks, Recession, Trust, bank customers, Bank Marketers | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
According to J.D. Power, image now trumps proximity when it comes to selecting a bank.
I’ve seen a lot of bank surveys over the years, and branch location has always been the foremost factor in consumer choice. Now it’s the brand. I can only speculate here, but with so much bank business moving online, the branch may have already lost more of its value than we know.
In a previous post, I wrote about new technologies infringing on branch territory. Now there’s this:
Digital innovation—intentionally or not—continues to siphon value from the branch.
This concerns me because, as the branch goeth, so goeth the community bank.
A community bank, by definition, serves a specific community. Where is there room for the community bank in our (seemingly inevitable) digital future? A digital bank is rootless; it exists, for all intents and purposes, in abstraction. And, in that ethereal realm, it’s all about the brand (technology too quickly becomes a commodity). I’m not sure how a community bank could hold off a juggernaut like BofA in such an environment.
Which is a shame because, if we lose community banks, we lose bankers like Ken Fergeson—bankers who care about the people living and doing business around them.
This isn’t nostalgia. I thrill to new technology as much as the next humanoid. But in the digitization of banking, we just may lose more than we gain.
I’d love to know what you think about this. Are community banks doomed to obsolescence or will they survive by redefining community banking, much as social media has redefined community?
1 Comment | Attitudes, Mobile Banking, community banks | Tagged: Attitudes, banking, community banks, regional banks, Tom Brzezina | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
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Welcome to Outside-In Banking, a blog for bank marketers and anyone else involved in financial services. I believe that many banks are way too internally focused for their own good, so I try to provide an outside-in perspective. Expect a lot of opinions, raves, rants, and unsolicited advice. I hope to get the same from you. 
