On a Mission
A day with Mike Harris
Stand for Something
Building trusted brands
The Upside of the Downturn
Ten Management Strategies
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Little Black Book, Whatever Next?Thursday 29th January 2009 HSBC-owned telephone and internet bank First Direct has just launched an online social network to “help generate a sense of community and allow the sharing of recommendations amongst its UK customer base”. Wahoo, that’s what we’ve all been waiting for (if we only but knew it!) a social networking site from our online bankers! Hmmm. 'Little Black Book' will be offered to all of First Direct's UK customers, those lucky, lucky people. The blurb says that “customers who use the site will be invited to share tips on topics such as day trip ideas and favourite restaurants, and will be able to find recommendations relevant to them by searching via postcode”. I didn’t know I needed that from my bank. Now you come to mention it... Look, I have several issues with this. First, I cannot fathom what members have in common simply by virtue of being First Direct customers? What possible sense of community could ever be engendered by this site? If I want day trip advice, would I think about asking my bank or sharing information with the members of any bank? Personal banking is ostensibly a private activity, why oh why would I open myself up to online relationships there? Second and tied in with the first point, I do not see what “new and bold” social networking need this solves that isn’t done far better by more focused sites. Apparently, the user-generated online hub - www.firstdirect.com/littleblackbook - has been trialed by 20,000 of the bank's most online savvy customers. How on earth did they qualify that they are online-savvy, other than through completion of an Internet poll and that they have a photograph posted on Facebook? If they are online savvy, why would they use this site? Guy Marson, CEO of Mailtrack comments: "Social networks offer brands an innovative and refreshing way of generating long lasting customer loyalty and goodwill. Offering valuable and useful customer generated information, First Direct's Little Black Book is a genuinely new and bold step for the financial sector and a great example of what I'm sure will become one of the leading branded community based websites around." Wow, we must all have soooo much in common. Beryl in Barnsley can check her salary has come through and recommend a beautiful hotel in Burnley to Pete from Portsmouth who is just about to pay his water rates and then drive off to stay near his Gran. There is NO community established here. A concierge service is one thing, a social networking experiment without obvious community quite another. Did they not wonder at any point why they may have been first to launch a web 2.0 site with such a low degree of natural community involvement? The only thing about this site that is remarkable is that First Direct has actually launched this. Is it just me or is this Web 2.0 Emperor standing before us stark naked? Financial Brands Must Reinvent TrustWednesday 28th January 2009 Rebuilding trust among consumers and institutions is no longer enough - trust has to be reinvented, according to a recent article in Marketing magazine. “US President Obama has capitalised on the current urge for reinvention with his ‘change agenda'. And of course reinvention rewrites all the rules. New market entrants have an opportunity to sweep away the fallen giants; the giants (maybe) have a once in a lifetime chance to reboot themselves. Those that don't will be the British Leylands of the future. Business brands simply must reinvent themselves around their customers - or die.”
However, in creating that trust, financial organisations would do well to recognise that possibly this is not the right time to expose the customer to uber-glossy Hollywood style commercials. Maybe someone should have mentioned that to Norwich Union, one of Britain’s most trusted insurance brands, before announcing its name change to Aviva with the most expensive TV commercial in the world - standing at a cool $13.4 million price tag.
There is a clear case to be made for financial brand reinvention right now. It pays to remember that what is a time of challenge and imposed change can stimulate focus on marketing effectiveness and result in a highly energising period of creativity. High levels of service innovation and differentiation that add real value to the customer experience, coupled with social responsibility must underpin the process of reinvention. The Case for the UVPFriday 23rd January 2009 Brands and asset based lending have clear similarities – the key is to understand the underlying sources of value intimately and manage them closely like any tangible asset. Here we plunder our case files for two companies in two distinct segments that have avoided the worn product route and have used the core essence of their brands as the key differentiator to create their own space. Litmus Advisory Can Software Form the Basis of a UVP?Thursday 22nd January 2009 There’s no doubt that technology has levelled the playing field, enabling independent firms to automate efficiency throughout their organisations. Paperless discounting, for example, is now practically a reality for all but the smallest players and will become the norm in the short to medium term. Whilst software can enhance the customer experience and improve risk management, unless highly customised the benefits of implementation are highly unlikely to be “Unique” by definition, wherever there is universal adoption of a particular technology. Early adopters can steal a march on the competition but this is not sustainable without robust market entry and exit barriers.
However, every now and again there comes a new technology that is set to change the way in which financiers think . Today, to find b2b suppliers, most companies use a search engine and react to ‘natural’ or ‘paid-for’ served responses that catch their attention, with little certainty that the supplier can serve their need or at what cost. This has limited the scope for lenders, as companies are less likely to make time to search for suppliers for repeated or apparently complex financial services. Better to buy again from a supplier that has helped you in the past than go to the trouble of searching and hoping to get lucky. Fi-Wi™, from Vision Critical, solves this problem by indexing all changes made to the general ledgers of a company as they happen (account payable and account receivables), triggering a requirement for the supply of services such as insurance or a higher availability of finance. This is brought about by matching the business activity harvested by Fi-Wi™ with a matching application waiting on the company’s desktop or intranet, which triggers the quotation and business process.
The latest generation combines desktop visibility with effortless transparency to deliver true Web 2.0 functionality for lenders. The ‘What If?’ possibilities are endless and the benefits in terms of customer satisfaction, loyalty, up-sell, cross-sell and product development are far reaching for the entire commercial finance community. With suppressed market activity in these current market conditions, early adopters have everything to gain.
Combining UVPsWednesday 21st January 2009 To map out the 'brandscape', I have outlined a few key categories of UVPs below to help stimulate thinking and debate in your organisation (consider bundling these together in different and hopefully unique combinations!):
- Sector Knowledge / Specialisation (e.g. Steel sector) - Segment Knowledge / Specialisation (e.g. Size of business targeted) - Global / International - Regional / Local - Parentage – Clearer, Independent - Innovation / Creativity - Style / Image - Market Share / Size (within segment) - Pioneer / Pathfinder - Quality / Reliability - Service / Responsiveness - Flexibility / Agility - Relationship / Channel Partners - Prestige / Exclusivity - Technical Expertise - Bargain / Cheapest - Value / Superior Cost Benefit Establishing a USP / UVPTuesday 20th January 2009 Ralph Waldo Emerson has been quoted as saying, “What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” It would be fair to say that many financial institutions focus simply on the product benefits level, which is unlikely to be a differentiator unless it impacts on service.
The difference between finance companies is therefore not ‘what you do’ but ‘who you are’ and ‘how you do your business differently.’ In this climate, particularly, the way things are done inevitably becomes far more important than price alone, as well as having an open cheque book! Service delivery in line with your core brand essence is the real and sustainable source of competitive advantage.
USP or UVP?Monday 19th January 2009 I was interviewed today by a niche financial web site regarding the USP and its significance. This week, I will serialise the results of our discussions, starting with the USP / UVP debate!
What exactly is the USP?
Rosser Reeves coined the phrase USP as an acronym for the Unique Selling Proposition in the 1950s, when features based advertising was the norm. Today, the term USP is used casually, predominantly by non-marketers, to describe or focus on any differentiated attribute. Is its significance over-rated? It is not over-rated, simply out-moded as a marketing concept. Today, rather than having a single USP, sustainable differentiation in the invoice finance markets comes through redefining or "re-imagining" the customer experience based on a central idea or core essence. Subsequently, a series of Unique Value Propositions will be determined.
Agency Focus 2009Thursday 15th January 2009 Leslie Bland, ex MD of Close Invoice Finance once said to me: "Keep working on the business, not just in the business." Our own plans at Strand Financial will reflect this theme: It's Good for Good Financial MarketersWednesday 14th January 2009 Whilst, none of us could have legislated for financial clients in the 'disappearing' category, we have genuinely not seen evidence of slashed budgets. If anything, clients who do have a commercial appetite and are ready, willing and able to lend, have agreed that this is the time to grab market share at the expense of their competitors who won't or can't raise their heads above the parapet. Think Lewis Hamilton - those institutions that accelerate their marketing activity as others brake will prevail over the distance and emerge stronger as a result.
I believe that this market is good for good marketers, since it instills in all of us the importance of managing scarce resources to gain measurable results. This may change the prevailing view that some institutions have about marketing being regarded as a cost centre, rather than the profit centre it clearly should be. That senior marketers find themselves in closer discussions with FDs should also be seen as an opportunity for mutual understanding and education. P is also for ProsumerFriday 09th January 2009 The future of marketing including the 4 Ps will be redefined by users (and by those who recognise the power of the prosumer). Their potential role as creators, promoters, marketers and buyers - all wrapped into one – is growing. The impact of the prosumer on the 4Ps in the past three years has been astonishing: Promotion = Viral, Word of Mouth, Mobile Marketing, Social Media The opportunity and the difficulty is that of sustainable monetisation. This is a major challenge for 2009, which will require stakeholders to change their thinking. Financial Marketing ResolutionsThursday 08th January 2009 1. Stop spending on tactical initiatives that are either not working or not measurable to free up valuable budget
2. Attack competitors that have either stopped spending on marketing or are in disarray, by directly targeting their clients with a switch campaign 3. Ensure your data is accurate and up to date and focus on direct marketing approaches where targets are clearly known
4. Explore new channel and media opportunities, particularly online
5. Raise your profile – become known as a guru by starting a blog, publishing an e-book, video or podcast
6. Conduct client loyalty and referral campaigns
7. Research prospects’ reactions to recession – do they perceive themselves as recession-proof, solution-seekers, security-seekers or vulnerable? – adapt your messages accordingly 8. Communicate regularly with your target audiences and announce your successes through testimonials and case studies – it is all too easy to fall off their radar
9. Crowdsource using social networking to build an interest base and invite members of your 'tribe' to an event, telephone seminar or webcast
10. Become more creative and bold in your marketing campaigns and stand out from the crowd – Create Your Own Space. Differentiation will reign supremeWednesday 07th January 2009 "Financial businesses that fail to create their own space in 2009 through developing a unique value proposition, risk falling by the wayside or failing completely. Those that do stand out through remarkable and relevant brand positioning will prevail." Crowdsourcing will become immenseTuesday 06th January 2009 "Financial organisations will leverage low-cost and free social marketing tools to build onlinecommunities that connect with decision-makers and key business introducers." Search will become even more criticalMonday 05th January 2009 "Smart financial marketers will seek to exploit an explosion in local search due to the recent geo-targeting plays by the major search engines and GPS-toting smart phone apps providers." Technology will add value to experienceFriday 02nd January 2009 "Technology will be harnessed to personalise the user's online experience - with 'individual pathways' and 'decision trees' based on live customer preferences and online behaviours." |
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