Positive Image

Thursday 30th October 2008

Stuart Maister, MD at web TV company Broadview, is in agreement with me that the web will provide an invaluable means for finance brands to change their image: "Interactive programmes can involve customers and show the bank as an organisation wanting to listen to its customers, to help them with their challenges and engage with them," he says.

The article in B2B Marketing magazine continues: "Maister believes that by transmitting content featuring people discussing and tackling issues of real relevance to finance businesses and their target markets, some of the negative image association, more prevalent than ever in these challenging times, can begin to be overcome."

Beware Cyber-Squatters

Tuesday 28th October 2008

The following report from VNUNet highlights the concern that speculators have been snapping up the potential domain names of merging banks.               

“Domain  name speculators are buying up  internet addresses relating to banks  at the heart of  recent acquisition speculation with  a view to selling  them  on  or  monetising  them  through  online  advertising, according to reports. Names  such as lloydstsbhbos.com and hboslloydstsb.com  were bought up soon  after speculation of  a merger between  Lloyds and HBOS  became public. Bank  of America's  acquisition of  Merrill Lynch,  meanwhile, led  to bankofamericamerrilllynch.com  and bofaml.com being snapped  up by the speculators.”

You can read the full story at VNUNet here: http://www.vnunet.com/2226413

These are salutory lessons for all financial institutions, whether undertaking mergers and acquisitions or not. I have learned of at least one finance company this year who found that they did not actually own any of their domains (they were originally purchased by an ex-employee in a personal capacity), together with a number of organisations who found that their domains had expired, after cyber-squatters had acquired them and tried to sell them back!

Domain management has become a critical part of brand stewardship. Guard those valuable domains from cyber-squatters with care – your business and your brand may be at stake.

Financial Viral Videos

Friday 24th October 2008

Financial Marketing TV has assembled a new series of hilarious and often deeply disturbing financial viral videos which you can view at http://www.financialmarketing.tv.

Normally, we're such a serious bunch here at Strand Financial but we thought that right now you'd appreciate something a little lighter on a Friday as an antidote to the depressing diet of mainstream media. The footage includes the latest TV commercial to run from AIG.  The ad, which had TV spots as recently as two week's ago signs off with the familiar "The AIG Companies - The Strength To Be There".  Time has a way of changing audience response. Ouch!

The webcam-like sequence of a remarkably mature little baby describing the ease-of-use of E*Trade's services is unmissable. The high-tech lip-synching is a thing of wonder! There’s another chance to see CNBC's Mad Money Man having a total meltdown following the stock market slide. With a personal worth of $100 million, we think he'll be ok (sometime soon). Yes Jim, we hear you.

So proud of merging with MBNA, the Bank of America employees caught on video take it a step too far. Hard to believe that this didn't come from The Office. Painful to watch, so I suggest you do just that.

Pride of place goes to  the two guys "consoling" one another as a prank as employees leave the failing Lehman Bros company live on CNN. Extraordinary that the presenter was oblivious to what was happening just behind him.

Credit Crunch Bingo

Thursday 23rd October 2008

A new craze is sweeping financial marketing departments worldwide as a reaction to the emotive language being used by journalists – Credit Crunch Bingo!

Spot the following phrases and see just how full your card looks by the end of the day:

Carnage
Crisis
Collapse
Panic
Chaos
Disaster
Armageddon
Meltdown
Death Spiral
Freefall
Unprecedented
Toxic Debt

Have you noticed this sensationalist, tabloid-style approach creeping into corporate communications? I have several points on this here:

Firstly, since everyone is writing about the credit crunch – headlines that contain the phrase no longer stand out in any way as we start to filter them out naturally. Second, we know that we are in recession by now, so no-one needs to paint the background, “In these uncertain times, etc”. Third, think of some good news business stories to counter the economic gloom. Unless you are Robert Peston, associate your own personal and corporate brand with positive attributes. Otherwise, it will be carnage. HOUSE!

Real-World Wiki

Wednesday 22nd October 2008

Social networking has become an increasingly important part of many peoples’ online lives. The bottom line is that banks have yet to seriously crack it. Little wonder, really -  we don’t exactly think of a bank as a community where we go to meet people, network or share stuff, do we?  Above all, the messages that banks give out in their forays into Web 2.0 need to be both authentic and credible – otherwise they run the risk of looking like my elderly uncle dancing to a hip-hop track at a wedding – deeply embarrassing for all concerned.  

William Azaroff blogs (with a heavy dose of keyword density) about a true-life Wiki success story: “I am so pleased to announce the new wiki Vancity has launched. It is for the Microfinance community in Canada, and lives at http://www.microfinance.ca. Why did we launch a wiki? Well, in short, we are a longtime Microfinance practitioner wanting to expand knowledge amongst those who are involved with Microfinance in Canada. We have a product called Circle lending, in which a peer group takes out very small loans together, and help each other to succeed in what are usually home-based businesses to repay their loans together. It is an amazingly transformational product, designed to help lift people out of poverty and give them a new chance. Additionally, we have a Microcredit Toolkit, which is an open source peer lending model so any institution can replicate it. We were incredibly honoured that Muhammad Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding Grameen Bank, personally endorsed our toolkit a couple of years ago.

As you can see, we are deeply involved with the Microfinance model in Canada, and wanted to create a place where we could take the open source concept a little further. So we created and are hosting a wiki where anyone can add information as a practitioner, researcher or follower of Microfinance in Canada, with the aim of growing and evolving a central knowledge repository about the subject. I think it's a great example of a very inexpensive solution to create affinity within a specific community. Now let's see if people find it useful.”

I, for one, hope they do, not least because of the very cool, intuitive tag cloud navigation!

"The Economist Climate"

Tuesday 21st October 2008

 I do love The Economist – always have done. It champions intelligent journalism, has given us some of the best poster advertising that the world has ever seen and has always been genuinely supportive of brands that I work closely with. Ultimately, it lives up to its mission, which its Contents page states is to participate in "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy timid ignorance obstructing our progress".

It is perhaps fitting that this week it focuses on some straplines which, with either the irreverence of hindsight or the prescience of the banking community itself, take on new meaning.

“From American International Group, a collapsed insurer (“the strength to be there”), through to Lehman Brothers (“where vision gets built”) and IndyMac, a failed bank (“you can count on us”), boastful institutions snapped, crackled and popped under pressure,” it claims.

Whilst I feel that the comments are meant to be tongue-in-cheek and more than a little harsh, I do agree with the assertion that “no one comes close to Washington Mutual, whose slogan (“Whoo hoo”) should have given investors a clear warning about its risk appetite.” As The Economist says, “Hello Boys! Wasn’t it obvious?”

Redefining Standards?

Wednesday 15th October 2008

In the past week, we’ve learned that AXA is to launch a £4m marketing campaign through Saatchi & Saatchi and Team Saatchi, highlighting how consumers deserve the highest standards of customer service from financial services companies. This uses the global brand promise and strapline, ‘Redefining Standards’ and features the core visual brand asset of the ‘Switch’ red line as a ‘creative differentiator’.

The insurer says: "Recognising that consumer faith in financial services is at an all time low, AXA is putting its efforts into redefining standards in the financial services industry. The current volatile economic climate has further eroded consumer confidence in the industry, with the crisis in the banking and financial sector also impacting on consumers’ perceptions of insurance and other financial products."

"Bucking the current trend, AXA aims to rebuild trust between a customer and its financial provider through changing the way it does business and truly meeting their needs. These include commitments to improved delivery, tailored and dedicated claims handling and investment in adapting internal procedures to provide a gold standard customer service."

Whilst I would applaud AXA for actively marketing in this way and putting their heads above the parapet, I am not convinced that simply by doing things that they should be doing anyway, such as meeting needs, delivering promises, investing in better procedures and providing a more individual service are strong enough differentiators. Or have competitive offerings become so weak that just by doing what you say you will these days is now a source of advantage or even a revelation? Maybe that is their point?

I’m not sure I buy it as a true differentiator. As Ann Livermore of Hewlett-Packard said: "These days, building the best server isn't enough. That's the price of entry."

Credit Crunch Fatigue

Tuesday 14th October 2008

A word of caution - this is also a great time for realism, so resist the temptation for hyperbole! Is your new product or service going to prove “absolutely critical to your client’s business survival”? However good it is, I really very much doubt it’s the difference between life and death! Too many financial brands are stretching their credibility by such exaggerated claims and run the very real danger of turning their prospects away from their key messages. Keep it real.

Sorry, Wrong Numbers

Monday 13th October 2008

Northern Rock Building Society was formed in 1965. Lehman Brothers was established in 1850. Bradford Equitable Building Society and the Bingley Building Society, both established in 1851, merged in 1964. Washington Mutual was founded on September 25, 1889. To see the downfall of any institution with a lengthy history is tragic but, as we have seen, market conditions do not respect the age of any of these organisations.

Clients no longer care that XYZ Bank was established in 1871 or ABC Accountants was founded in 1980. It says nothing about the quality of the organisation or its competitive advantage and it takes up valuable mind space. Space that should be reserved for the core essence of your brand and your unique value propositions in the context of how these help your client.

Why then are financial organisations (particularly accountancy firms) so keen to put the number of years they have been trading as the first thing we see on their web sites? This is weak, bland and uninteresting and is wholly irrelevant to their marketing effort.

Have your brand take a lead over the bland. Focus on the numbers that really matter - your proof points. Such as the number of years clients stay with your firm, the the percentage of clients that refer you new business opportunities. The real challenge today is to challenge everything. Take this shake-up as an opportunity to truly stand out.

Hero Statements

Friday 10th October 2008

We live in the world of the sound bite. Yet, how can politicians on both sides of the pond have got the positioning of their role in the banking crisis so very wrong.

It doesn’t take much to work out that the word “bailout” has negative connotations. It smacks of disaster, of failure – and Americans just don’t take to that positioning. 

I agree wholeheartedly with our clients Euro RSCG who said, “What if this had been called a ‘rescue’ from the beginning?  Or the ‘Save our Homes Act’? Supporting a ‘rescue’ is a bear of an entirely different species. It is not only a redemptive act, restoring things to their rightful order - it is heroic. Today consumers choose brands that share their values.  Supporting a rescue says something important about our values and our personal character to those around us. It says I care.  It says I am a good person.  It says I am a hero too.”  

It’s true, everyone loves a hero – and heroic positioning is just what we need right now as we support the rescue wholeheartedly.

Short Marketing

Thursday 09th October 2008

The Global Brand Index

Friday 03rd October 2008

Google, Apple, Amazon.com, Zara and Nintendo are among this year’s top gainers in Interbrand's annual ranking of The Best Global Brands, and not surprisingly, financial services giants Merrill Lynch, Citi and Morgan Stanley are among the companies that have slipped dramatically down the list.

Coca-Cola (No.1) remains the best global brand for the eighth year in a row. Yet, a notable shift in this year’s rankings was made by IBM, which took over the No. 2 position from Microsoft (No. 3). Google also moved into the top 10 brands, at No. 10, after ranking at No. 20 in 2007.

Movement in the Best Global Brands 2008 ranking confirms that the tumultuous credit markets are affecting leading financial services brands, including Merrill Lynch (No. 34) and Citi (No. 19). However, some strong industry leaders have survived such as HSBC (No. 27) and credit card companies Visa (a new entrant to the list at No. 100) and American Express (No. 15), which have all been able to transcend the credit crisis due to their trusted brands.

There are few surprises here and the survey would seem to reflect the dynamics of the global economy, not least the credit crisis in the U.S., the growth of emerging markets and the emphasis on sustainability. Understanding how your brand creates value will enable you to emerge from this economy stronger and better poised to compete.

Proud to be Different?

Thursday 02nd October 2008

In the midst of market turmoil, the Nationwide, whose strapline is “Proud to be Different”, is flying high with 50% market share and rising. This substantial mutual has now stepped in to take ownership of two smaller societies, Cheshire and Derbyshire.

Uniquely in its sector, the Nationwide has the capital resources to take the banks on at a national level. However, it seems to be getting away with marketing positioning that seems surprisingly short term and tactical in outlook. Far be it from me to knock a success story, I’m normally the first to celebrate them, I simply wonder how long it can sustain its current strategy.

The building society’s “Buzz” rating as measured by YouGov’s BrandIndex, which reflects whether people have heard positive or negative statements about a brand, reached a high of 7.4 at the end of June. It is now down to 5.4, according to the latest figure. There is no doubt that its amusing ad campaign has helped to soften the Nationwide’s “heads above the parapet” PR position as the harbinger of doom regarding the plight of the UK housing market.

Its positioning, exemplified by the Mark Benton comic routines in Leagas Delaney's advertisements, is based on an entirely negative campaign. To emphasise such differences as free cash machine use abroad and new products being available to existing, as well as "brand new" customers is perfectly acceptable. However, whilst the ads only hint at the warmth and friendliness of a mutual, this is effectively knocking copy directed at the cold impersonality and poorly perceived service of the high street banks. Mark Benton, who gives a winning comic performance as the incompetent, uncaring bank manager, makes it somehow seem warm and fuzzy. I’m not convinced. 

There are four risks associated with this negative positioning strategy:
1. The longer it continues the more people will subconsciously associate bad business practice with Nationwide.
2. The public will tire of the campaign, which has run its course and has not evolved.
3.  People will see the direct conflict between the “Proud to be Different” brand promise and the “not so proud that we can’t help knocking the competition” reality.
4.  The claim ,“Proud to be different”, is tempered by being framed as “different from people who are absolutely useless”, which isn’t exactly a resounding commendation.

I have a lot of time for Nationwide as a much-loved Mutual and want to see it living the “Proud to Be Different” promise with renewed resolve.  After this blog, I also hope the feeling’s mutual!