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
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
In recent years, the definition of a brand as a promise has dominated all others. I can understand why. It’s easy to understand, it sounds manageable, and it terminates any further need for exploration.
In other words, it’s convenient. Which is a long way from saying it works.
Bank of America, for example, can make all the promises they like, but few people are going to believe them. You might say it’s because they’re not delivering on their promises. Fair enough. But is that all there is to it?
I believe it’s because their brand carries meaning that overrides their promises.
One obvious current meaning is that, to much of the general public, the BofA brand represents unbridled greed. The myth goes something like this: “They caused the recession. Regardless, we bailed them out. Then they put the money in their own pockets instead of using it to help the economy.”
It doesn’t matter if the myth is true or not. It constricts the power of any promise BofA can make. This is a big, big problem, and it’s going to require a lot more than “reputation management.” It’s going to require the creation of a whole new brand meaning—a whole new mythology.
Not quite as convenient as making promises, is it?
To demonstrate the kind of work that needs to be done, let’s look outside the banking industry at the new Domino’s Pizza campaign. Over the years, the Domino’s brand had come to represent poor quality, and—by extension—doing the bare minimum, and simply not caring. Here’s what Domino’s did about it:
The campaign shows that Domino’s is not only willing to face reality, but to be transparent about it. Not only willing to rise to the challenge, but to be excited about it. Finally—and this is the genius part—to be openly proud of what they’ve accomplished.
Talk about a change in meaning—this is a near-perfect execution of the hero’s myth:
This new meaning is what makes the product improvements—the promise—credible. Without meaning, the promise would just be another “new and improved’ claim. With it, the promise has real power.
And the moral of the story? Don’t let convenience limit your brand. Meaning is where the action is.
I’ll have more to say on brand meaning in a future post.
Leave a Comment » | Attitudes, Bank Marketing, Branding, Customer Relationships, bank advertising | Tagged: advertising, Attitudes, bank advertising, Bank Branding, bank customers, Bank Marketers, Bank Marketing, banking, banks | 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
A recent post from Cashcow features two ad campaigns promising to make banking simpler. It’s a worthy goal, but I tend to agree with Jeff Pilcher’s comment that—at least historically—such campaigns reflect bank-think rather than how customers think.
What stuck with me about the post, though, was the tagline for an Australian bank’s campaign: “We live in your world.”
In the U.S. it’s become increasingly apparent that banks don’t live in our world. They live in a world where any thought of truly serving their customers begins and ends in a 30-second spot. A world where shareholders are kings and everyone else is a goldmine. Where any deception is OK as long as it’s profitable.
Is this an unfair assessment? It doesn’t matter because, if you’re a bank of any size, This is your brand in the world where your customers live.
It doesn’t matter what you think your brand is or what you want it to be. You’re stuck with the brand your customers give you. This is the crux of Outside-In Banking.:
So, if you want your brand to change, you have to change. And that doesn’t mean changing your tagline. It means changing your world.
How’s that for making banking simple?
Leave a Comment » | Attitudes, Bank Marketing, Branding, Customer Relationships, bank advertising | Tagged: advertising, Attitudes, bank advertising, Bank Branding, bank customers, Bank Marketers, Bank Marketing, banking, banks, financial services, 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
Watch this little film, then think about how you can apply its lesson to your bank.
Leave a Comment » | Bank Marketing, Customer Relationships, Uncategorized | Tagged: banks, Bank Marketing, financial services, banking, bank customers, Bank Marketers, changing behavior, captology | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
A post on Psst! caught my eye this morning.
First Direct has a brilliant new microsite. With it, the bank is getting real-time outside-insight—both good and bad—and simultaneously sharing it with anyone who cares to look. Here, from the post, is a description of how it works :
“The microsite gathers mentions of the First Direct brand from social media feeds, blogs and message boards, and displays them for all to see. Visitors can also post their comments directly on the site in the Talking Point area.”
This is an extremely clever piece of marketing. By sharing the negative mentions along with the positive, the microsite builds credibility, making the positive comments that much more persuasive.
It’s also a first-rate example of social media marketing. It not only makes the bank look honest, it makes the bank genuinely honest.
Most important, though, it gives the bank a level of customer insight that all the research in the world couldn’t give them. Go to the microsite and check out the fluid, real-time dashboard:
It’s not just good-to-know information, it’s a flight correction device.
Kudos to First Direct for having the guts to do this. It’s the best piece of bank marketing—maybe the best piece of marketing, period—I’ve seen in a long, long while.
Leave a Comment » | Bank Marketing, Banking Trends, Customer Relationships, Social Media, bank advertising | Tagged: Bank Marketing, Trust, Bank Marketers | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
That’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it? If you’re not helping your customers, you’re just in the way. And what do people do if something is in their way? Obviously, the shortcut model is the way to go. The shortcut model means you give value to your customers before you give it to yourself. It means you become part of their plan before you can make them part of yours. So which one are you? Roadblock or shortcut? There is no neutral position.
Leave a Comment » | Customer Relationships, Customer Retention | Tagged: bank customers, Customer Retention, reduce defections | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
Even if you despise Michael Moore and everything he stands for, you need to see Capitalism: A Love Story.
Leave your politics, ideology, and industry pride at the door, and try to view the film as an outside-in exercise. Watch it to gather intelligence about how people feel toward big banks and why they feel that way.
If you’re a community bank, watch closely for strategic clues.
This is a dispatch from the real world. The overdraft rage we’re currently experiencing is the tip of an immense iceberg.
Pay attention.
Leave a Comment » | Attitudes, Customer Relationships, Recession | Tagged: Attitudes, bank customers, banking, banks, Recession, Trust | Permalink
Posted by tombrzezina
You are currently browsing the archives for the Customer Relationships category.
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. 
