Next, base your budgeting plans on the following straightforward steps:
An analysis of marketing spend and results from the previous year with a critique of strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken.
A workshop with senior management to hare the above and the business plan - discuss the strategic goals, brand differentiation, unique value propositions, challenges and opportunities and how these can be realised most effectively.
Assess which tactical marketing tools will be deployed to meet these goals, applying criteria such as strategic fit, speed to market, impact, value and degree of management involvement.
Agree a headline marketing plan in principle based on the above. Then, cost it with your marketing agency. Set realistic metrics and follow up with a formal budgetary presentation to senior management with timelines and budgets, demonstrating an approach to budget management that the board should expect of its marketing team. If this is rejected, don’t lose heart, ask why. If they stick to their guns, return with a lower budget and show the board what can be achieved for that, showing them what they are missing out on and handling their expectations on results. Then deliver what you’ve promised!

There are several advantages to outsourcing specific marketing responsibilities. The main one is that outsourcing provides the exact expertise that a business needs, when it needs it most.

Some of the specific tasks that are ideally suited to marketing outsourcing include:

Writing marketing plans
Planning and implementing new product development
Branding and rebranding projects
Internal communications programmes
Customer and introducer surveys
Development of online marketing plans
Implementation of customer referral programmes

Brandophrenia
Inconsistency between core essence and brand messages delivered. A brand workshop brings together the strands of each marketing and branding element

Clinical Sameness Syndrome
Totally undifferentiated, looking  and feeling just like everyone else. Treatment - as above.

Cultural Identity Disorder
The message is not being lived by the team. Create a brand vocabulary and elevator pitch individually for each department with common themes. Interpret the core essence for each business line and involve relevant people in the process.

Commitment Phobia
Lack of support by senior management whether in terms of budgetary commitment, time or priority. Link your marketing plans to organisational goals and get senior management onside by your professionalism, enthusiasm, action and your own commitment.

Budgetary Amnesia
Forgetting the mistakes you made last year (and the year before). A formal review process that you set yourself will focus your mind on what worked and what didn’t.

Metricism
Intense fear of all measurement. Link measurement to your ability to prove your marketing successes, making appraisals and pay reviews a doddle even in the toughest markets.

http://www.aboutschwab.com/advertising/talk-to-chuck/advertising-video.php

Now, I’m not knocking the other forms of conversation out there, I just find that the most useful Twitter posts are designed to whet your appetite to read detailed blogs by posting those perfectly shrink-wrapped under 140 character summaries.  I think It’s a great way to build a bigger blog audience. Where did I read all this? Firstly, a personal email from a marketing agency head asking what I think, then a Twitter post highlighting a blog! Hold on, Twitter has its own blog too!!

You can see an explanatory video on Twitter here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

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."

“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.

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.

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!

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!

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?”

The article concludes: “Its data shows a strong correlation between market share and the level of 'bonding’ – an aggregate measure of multiple brand–consumer relationship metrics. The clear implication being that if budget cutting results in a decline in ‘bonding’, then market share can be expected to decline. Crucially, further data demonstrates that two key constituent brand relationship metrics – brand usage and brand image – suffered considerably (13% and 6% declines respectively) when brands ‘went dark’ (i.e. ceased to spend on communications) for a period of six months or more. More broadly, 60% of brands ‘going dark’ see decline in at least one key relationship metric after just six months.”

I have seen evidence first-hand that suggests that brands that cut their budget relative to competitors are at greater risk of share loss. It’s time to shine out in the financial media blackout.

You’ve probably heard the phrase "Web 2.0". You may even have a good understanding at what it means but definitions are constantly changing to reflect and anticipate our needs. It would be fair to say that definitions abound from “the web as platform”, “giving people the flexibility to find, organise, share and create information in a locally meaningful fashion that is globally accessible", “action-at-a-distance interactions and ad hoc integration.” These are all true as far as they go, however, the real meaning of Web 2.0 to the commercial finance community runs far deeper than the user-created blogs, wikis and podcasts we have seen to date.

Here’s a marketing case study you may find of direct interest. We have been working with Vision Critical on a naming strategy for their unique brand of web services. Fi-Wi is the name we have given to Financial Widget technology, powered by information sourced and extracted automatically from the users’ accounting packages. At Fi-Wi’s core is Vision Critical’s widely distributed OSMO technology.

Developed to satisfy the demands of the £173bn UK asset based lending industry, OSMO solves the problems associated with automating business processes, previously one step removed from financial information stored in accounting packages. These include the management of debt purchase agreements, credit checking buyers, foreign exchange movements, VAT management, monitoring trade insurance covenants and much more.
Fi-Wi gives you a real-time view of all of the information you need automatically, drilling down from territory to group, debtor and invoice levels.  This allows you to monitor exposure levels, view exposure risk by status agency banding and automatically cross-check the correct legal entity to ensure that the correct insurance cover is in place.

Fi-Wi as a ‘Find Engine’
Here’s the really clever stuff. 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. The future is Fi-Wi.

Being carbon neutral - we do not travel regularly to an office, opting to use convergent technologies for our communications with clients, partners and suppliers. We use public transport whenever possible. And yes, we've even been known to walk around the Capital.

Using ethical products and services - unless an ethical alternative simply doesn't exist.

Re-cycling all consumables and waste and encourage others to adopt more ethical and environmental practices.

Treating people fairly and with respect and never exploiting them.

Never working on any financial account that has links with the defence industry or any other 'war account'.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Perhaps surprisingly, the opening line of the much-loved children’s classic, Winnie the Pooh, offers a very clear message to financial marketers right now. After the past few days frenetic, jarring market activity, NOW is the time to find a place to sit and think – to take time out to plan effectively, consider alternatives objectively and then act decisively on your marketing approach for the remainder of this year and for 2009.

Leslie Bland, previous Managing Director of Close Invoice Finance, said something to me a few years ago that I have never forgotten: “Take time to work ON your business, rather than just in your business.” It’s something that we have taken to heart both with our agency and our clients' approaches to their marketing.

2009 is almost upon us, so jump (not bump) several steps ahead of your competitors and start the planning process now. Gain the benefit of our independent perspective, using us as your marketing sounding board. Visualise the marketing achievements you most want to see by the end of this year to make your financial brand even stronger for next. Re-define your marketing. Then, e-define it! Think about ways in which the Internet can enhance your customer experience and set realistic, tangible goals for continuous marketing improvement.

Why just bump along? Doing nothing may seem an easy option right now, the reality is that it’s not the most comfortable option for your business long-term.

This is the time for leadership, not the time to shut up shop.

John Quelch, writing on Harvard Business Online, agrees: “This is not the time to cut advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain consumers need the reassurance of known brands…”

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.

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!

Here is what Seth has to say: “People and brands and organisations that stand for something benefit as a result. Standing for something helps you build trust, makes it easier to manage expectations and aids in daily decision making.”

Failure to do so, means that you and your thoughts are blowing with the wind, trying to please everyone all the time. As I wrote yesterday, this is a time for leadership.

Seth riffs: “You can't be the low-price, high-value, wide-selection, convenient, green, all-in-one corner market. Sorry.
You also can't be the high-ethics CEO who just this one time lets an accounting fraud slide. "Because it's urgent."
You can't be the big-government-fighting, low-taxes-for-everyone, high-services-for-everyone, safety-net, pro-science, faith-based, anti-deficit candidate either.
You can't be the work-smart, life-in-balance, available-at-all-hours, high-output, do-what-you're-told employee.

To really stand for something, you must make difficult decisions, mostly about what you don't do. We don't ship products like that, we don't stand for employees like that, we don't fix problems like that.”

You need to stand for something, have values and beliefs that really matter to you and to your customers and deliver your promises consistently. Stand for something, live your brand every day.

“In the banks category, there were 692 ad campaigns launched between Sept. 18, 2007 and Sept. 18, 2008 that mentioned themes such as safety, security and stability. The year before, there were 391 campaigns with similar messages.”

Anne Brueckner, research director at Guideline, commented, "Smaller banks love the fact that they've been handed this opportunity to comfort consumers with localised services, as larger banks face turmoil."

This is all very well, but how far is the customer to believe any claims of security and peace of mind from banks in this post-Lehman world? And, if banks are all making such similar claims, where is the much-needed focus on individual brand differentiation and thought-leadership?

I’d like to leave the last word on this to the original brand man, Jack Trout: "When there is something in the news, taking over the news, you need to find a way to explain it in your marketing and I have to wonder why no one has come forth and really addressed it with some kind of campaign. Why have we not heard from Bank of America telling us why it bought Merrill Lynch?"

1. Black Hole: only the brand of the acquiring bank survives.
2. Harvest: The equity in one brand is extracted until customers transfer their loyalty resulting in the surviving brand commanding a potential price premium.   
3. Marriage: Both brands seek to create meaningful and relevant differentiation in the minds of the customers as JPMorgan / Chase succeeded in doing.
4. New Beginnings: Merging banks see that their brands have little or no brand equity so elect to launch a new brand.

To increase spending on marketing at this time may seem counter-intuitive, but this is exactly what businesses should be doing right now. Brands with sustained marketing expenditure will create strong competitive advantage by stealing share of voice.

Four ingredients need to be in place to steal share of voice: 

Calendar – Put deadlines and milestones against every element of your programme and monitor and measure progress.

The commercial in question features a small boy who bursts into his parent’s bedroom. “Did you have a nightmare?”, asks his mum concernedly.

“I’m worried about this family’s financial future,” claims the precocious little lad. “Does your retirement plan provide predictability of  income and protection against market risk...”

“Buddy, we’re with AIG”, says his Dad reassuringly.

The ad signs off with the familiar “The AIG Companies – The Strength To Be There”.

Watch the ad on YouTube. You really couldn’t make this up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VvGW98D3XA

I remember a time in the not so distant past, where “my word is my bond” (dictum meum pactum) meant something. To my mind and to many of my peers it still does.  Advertising should be iconic, not ironic. Branding is about truth, not hollow illusion. Customers deserve our respect, level with them. This is a time for the facts and for straight-talking.

Exordium – Big Intro
Follow up a bold statement with a big intro that captures your target audiences’ attention and imagination. Mix Ethos with Logos to establish credibility.

Narratio – Empathy
Show the audience you really identify with them and that you feel their pain.

Partitio – Contents
Outline to your audience what you’re just about to tell them in a way that heightens anticipation and helps them remember the key points.

Confirmatio – The Solution
Outline your solution. Use case studies featuring similar organisations or demographics to that of your audience, together with facts to support your case.

Refutatio – Competitive Advantage
Take the opportunity to position the strengths of your organisation, based on key attributes where your competitors are weakest.

Peroratio –  Call to Action
After a headline summary of your business case, use a strong Call to Action to close, with the emphasis on keeping a strong emotional appeal.

Think Ansoff, Covey, Kotler, Levitt, Mintzberg and Porter, rolled into one brilliantly be-robed and bearded package. Aristotle still has a lot to teach us.

1. Teleology - A Sense of Purpose
Teleology (Greek: telos: end, purpose) is summed up by the ancient Greek philosopher as follows: “First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” Always relate your communication to your purpose. Never, ever lose sight of that. It sounds obvious but I seldom see it applied consistently.

2. Ethos - Become the Authority
Ethos is authority and credibility personified - achieved by the cultivation of a distinctive character, knowledge and experience.

3. Pathos - Engage the Emotions
Pathos describes what’s in it for your audience, with a set of compelling benefits, values and beliefs.