Greetings...
As spring is in full bloom, it reminds me of several things...one is directly tied to a new book that I am co-authoring with Nick Vaglio. It is called Shift Happens!
Spring is about new life, changing seasons, fresh air, warmer weather...all the great things we love to see after a tough winter (remember, I live in Ohio, so the seasons are the best part!!)
The changes that Spring brings reflects the same changes in our Shift Happens book. In early June, you will have the opportunity to read it for yourself, but here is a brief overview of the Shift that is occuring in financial services:
* Shift in the nature and definition of our competitors
* Generation shift from the Matures and Boomers to Boomers and Millennials
* Shift to "I" Expectations of our customer
* Shift to the importance of branding and the customer experience
* Shift in communication channel preferences
* Shift within the industry of competitve dynamics
* Shift of access demands, product needs, and delivery expectations
* And many more...
I know that you see shifts in your region, state, market, and within the walls of your institution. However, much like spring, until we get "knee deep" into looking at it, we miss the gradual changes and one day it simply arrives.
The point of my post today...make sure you are seeing "everything" that is shifting around you...see it, understand it, evaluate it, measure it, and determine its impact to you and your institution. It is much easier to evaluate as it changes versus trying make a large adjustment once the shift occurs...
Be ready for spring, as summer is quickly arriving. Be ready for changes as the shifts in our industry are coming rapid fire succession!
Cheers!
Bruce
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Is this happening in your neck of the woods?
I will share my thoughts in a future post, but it begs the question--is it really a bad thing that some theatre companies are closing their doors? is this a "market adjustment" to equalize supply and demand?
From this Wednesday's Washington Post:
More Shows, Fewer Showgoers
Helen Hayes Group Cites Increase of 402 Performances, Decrease of 36,000 Patrons
By Jane Horwitz
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, April 23, 2008; Page C05
The number of stage performances and theater companies in and around Washington went up last year, while overall attendance dropped 1.9 percent, according to statistics from the Helen Hayes Awards organization.
Despite that dip, 2007 was the busiest year since the first tally in 1985, the Hayes group said, with 67 professional companies presenting 8,050 performances of 454 shows. That is an increase from 2006 of three companies, 402 performances and 20 shows. (These figures represent all area professional theaters, not just those eligible for Hayes Awards, but do not include attendance for the Capital Fringe Festival, which drew 19,000 people.) Metropolitan Washington is a busier theater district than the Chicago area, according to Hayes Executive Director Linda Levy Grossman. Though Chicago has more theater companies, "the D.C. area still does more work," she noted via e-mail.
Even so, derrieres in seats numbered about 36,000 fewer in 2007, the Hayes staff reported, with 1,908,557 people attending shows. The dip in comparison with 2006 adds more weight to the conventional wisdom that the audience isn't quite keeping up with the burgeoning theater community. Attendance also dipped by about 1.2 percent from 2005 to 2006, much less than the 8.5 percent drop the previous year.
From this Wednesday's Washington Post:
More Shows, Fewer Showgoers
Helen Hayes Group Cites Increase of 402 Performances, Decrease of 36,000 Patrons
By Jane Horwitz
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, April 23, 2008; Page C05
The number of stage performances and theater companies in and around Washington went up last year, while overall attendance dropped 1.9 percent, according to statistics from the Helen Hayes Awards organization.
Despite that dip, 2007 was the busiest year since the first tally in 1985, the Hayes group said, with 67 professional companies presenting 8,050 performances of 454 shows. That is an increase from 2006 of three companies, 402 performances and 20 shows. (These figures represent all area professional theaters, not just those eligible for Hayes Awards, but do not include attendance for the Capital Fringe Festival, which drew 19,000 people.) Metropolitan Washington is a busier theater district than the Chicago area, according to Hayes Executive Director Linda Levy Grossman. Though Chicago has more theater companies, "the D.C. area still does more work," she noted via e-mail.
Even so, derrieres in seats numbered about 36,000 fewer in 2007, the Hayes staff reported, with 1,908,557 people attending shows. The dip in comparison with 2006 adds more weight to the conventional wisdom that the audience isn't quite keeping up with the burgeoning theater community. Attendance also dipped by about 1.2 percent from 2005 to 2006, much less than the 8.5 percent drop the previous year.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The end of the critic?
The Los Angeles Times ran an article on Tuesday, April 8 about the possible demise of the cultural critic. In the article, they cited numerous high profile critics which have recently left their posts, begging the question whether or not they are a dieing breed.
As many major newspapers continue to lose large numbers of readers, the impact of reviews and critics is beginning to shift. I myself blogged about this experience in a previous post. This is the first time that I have read an acknowledgement of this trend in a major daily newspaper. With the rise of many online, "citizen" review sites such as Yelp.com, more and more people are looking to common lay folks for their opinions on cultural attractions. Fewer and fewer people are turning to what Mr. Goldstein refers to as the "arbiters of culture." In fact, Mr. Goldstein's son hits it right on the head when he said "I trust my friends more than I trust that guy writing the review." This highlights the power of social media--it provides a context and an opportunity for friends to share their personal opinions of your product. With this ongoing paradigm shift, we as marketers and publicists are going to need to start paying more and more attention to our online reviews as we do to the major daily writers.
Part of what that means is being consistently on our game. No longer can we invite the major reviewers in for one specific night where we all dress up and put out the good china--we have to constantly have the good china on display because every performance is going to be reviewed by someone.
Just a couple of days ago, Arena Stage hosted a panel of professional theater reviewers who volunteered to speak to the participants of our Young Critics Program (a program that invites students to attend shows and review them). On the panel was Peter Marks (chief theater reviewer for the Washington Post). One particularly smart student asked Peter about how he perceived the power of his positive and negative reviews. And although I am paraphrasing, Peter acknowledged there was a time when a reviewer could make or break a show, but he feels this is no longer the case. I can attest that the Washington Post and Mr. Marks in particular still has a very large following, but I would tend to agree with him.
And let's not forget that even though we might get the occasional bad review (and let's admit, sometimes it is deserved), critics are providing us a service by writing about us. The loss of the critic is tragic. Fewer critics = less coverage. Less coverage = less public knowledge.
As many major newspapers continue to lose large numbers of readers, the impact of reviews and critics is beginning to shift. I myself blogged about this experience in a previous post. This is the first time that I have read an acknowledgement of this trend in a major daily newspaper. With the rise of many online, "citizen" review sites such as Yelp.com, more and more people are looking to common lay folks for their opinions on cultural attractions. Fewer and fewer people are turning to what Mr. Goldstein refers to as the "arbiters of culture." In fact, Mr. Goldstein's son hits it right on the head when he said "I trust my friends more than I trust that guy writing the review." This highlights the power of social media--it provides a context and an opportunity for friends to share their personal opinions of your product. With this ongoing paradigm shift, we as marketers and publicists are going to need to start paying more and more attention to our online reviews as we do to the major daily writers.
Part of what that means is being consistently on our game. No longer can we invite the major reviewers in for one specific night where we all dress up and put out the good china--we have to constantly have the good china on display because every performance is going to be reviewed by someone.
Just a couple of days ago, Arena Stage hosted a panel of professional theater reviewers who volunteered to speak to the participants of our Young Critics Program (a program that invites students to attend shows and review them). On the panel was Peter Marks (chief theater reviewer for the Washington Post). One particularly smart student asked Peter about how he perceived the power of his positive and negative reviews. And although I am paraphrasing, Peter acknowledged there was a time when a reviewer could make or break a show, but he feels this is no longer the case. I can attest that the Washington Post and Mr. Marks in particular still has a very large following, but I would tend to agree with him.
And let's not forget that even though we might get the occasional bad review (and let's admit, sometimes it is deserved), critics are providing us a service by writing about us. The loss of the critic is tragic. Fewer critics = less coverage. Less coverage = less public knowledge.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Blue Raspberry
Over the weekend a new outdoor mall area near my home celebrated its grand opening. There were giveaways, clowns, food, prizes and all of the other typical things you would expect from a grand opening celebration.
While perusing the new shops I stopped to buy a snow cone. I am still a kid at heart, what can I say?! So I chose the blue raspberry flavor to see how blue my teeth could get. That's when I realized that I had paid for a snow cone that would turn my teeth blue (just 'cuz I could) rather than choosing one of my favorites like grape or cherry.
So what is a blue raspberry anyway? Well, according to Wikipedia, "The blue raspberry flavor, originally derived from the blue whitebark raspberry fruit juice, became an artificial designer product in the late 1950's."
Seth Godin wrote a book about the Purple Cow. Is the blue-raspberry flavor the purple cow of candy (or snow cones in this instance)? Maybe.
The point is that we, as bank marketers need to start thinking differently. The banking industry is a little sluggish right now. But if you are reading this, I would argue that you are collecting a pay check and have a checking account...both of which make you a potential customer for all of the banks and some credit unions in your town.
Does your bank offer the blue raspberry checking account? Do you provide the Purple Cow of mortgages? If you haven't read the book, you should. But beware of the Meatball Sundae... Google it...you will be glad you did! Or take a shortcut and watch the summary from the blog, Church of the Customer.
What makes YOU different (the question is rhetorical...but if you thought to yourself "our customer service makes us different" you need to ask the other bankers who read this blog what their answer was. I'll bet dollars to donuts they said the same thing!)?
Jenna
While perusing the new shops I stopped to buy a snow cone. I am still a kid at heart, what can I say?! So I chose the blue raspberry flavor to see how blue my teeth could get. That's when I realized that I had paid for a snow cone that would turn my teeth blue (just 'cuz I could) rather than choosing one of my favorites like grape or cherry.
So what is a blue raspberry anyway? Well, according to Wikipedia, "The blue raspberry flavor, originally derived from the blue whitebark raspberry fruit juice, became an artificial designer product in the late 1950's."
Seth Godin wrote a book about the Purple Cow. Is the blue-raspberry flavor the purple cow of candy (or snow cones in this instance)? Maybe.
The point is that we, as bank marketers need to start thinking differently. The banking industry is a little sluggish right now. But if you are reading this, I would argue that you are collecting a pay check and have a checking account...both of which make you a potential customer for all of the banks and some credit unions in your town.
Does your bank offer the blue raspberry checking account? Do you provide the Purple Cow of mortgages? If you haven't read the book, you should. But beware of the Meatball Sundae... Google it...you will be glad you did! Or take a shortcut and watch the summary from the blog, Church of the Customer.
What makes YOU different (the question is rhetorical...but if you thought to yourself "our customer service makes us different" you need to ask the other bankers who read this blog what their answer was. I'll bet dollars to donuts they said the same thing!)?
Jenna
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Village Tavern Menu and Marketing
So, by now you all know that I live in Broomfield, CO. My home is about 10 minutes from a fabulous mall that several amazing restaurants call home.
This week, I felt at a loss for words. If you know me well, you are LOL right now..."a loss for words, Jenna...HAHAHAHAHA!!!" That changed today when I had a revelation while enjoying my birthday lunch with my husband at my favorite tavern-not-bar restaurant. The Village Tavern. Some of the best French Onion soup I've had.
On this fine birthday, I noticed something on the menu that I hadn't noticed in the past. It was a bacon and gruyere cheese flatbread. Bacon, cheese, bread...we have a winner!!! I ordered it, ate it and LOVED it. Officially, this flatbread slice of yumminess goes in the craveable category for me.
I asked my server how long it has been on the menu. She replied with, "forever." Really, forever? "Well, for as long as I have worked here, and I have been here for 3 years." WOW. I have been coming here a few times a month for the last 2 years and have never noticed this cheesy perfection before.
That's when she said it..."Oh, well if you come at lunch time you wouldn't have seen it because it has only been on the dinner menu. It sells really well as an appetizer for the dinner crowd so the chef thought he would offer it to the lunch crowd too."
I asked for a copy of the dinner menu. For the most part the lunch and dinner menus were nearly identical...with a few exceptions like prime rib, big steaks, etc. But everything else was the same. I will cut slack to the heavy hitters like beef...but a flatbread! Good grief.
So, forgetting about the steaks for a minute, and relating this to banking...what if you promoted your HELOC product through statement stuffers? Or, better yet, what if you only told your customers about your HELOC product if they asked.
I can try really hard to relate this, and when I started typing I had a couple of really good points. And they are still VERY important, but not be totally related to my flatbread. I think I just wanted you all to know how awesome it was!!!
So, the point:
1. Know your audience
You would have better luck selling ice to a penguin than you would have selling a HELOC to a 20-year old college kid with a zero balance in his free checking account. When you are marketing your products, utilize the tools available to you. Many MCIF systems have a predictive modeling tool that can help you. And if you aren't that lucky, use common sense. Market your HELOCs right after a mortgage gets approved (within your lending standards of course).
If you want to work on deposits, look at your pool of customers and how many have direct deposit coming in. Those with direct deposit are the most likely to (or at least the most eligible to) have the desire to establish a longer-term savings program.
2. Communication
Tell the world how awesome you are. Don't make your customers work to figure out whether or not you offer a certain product. Many customers will go with what they know and trust...or, if there isn't a strong relationship, whoever asks first. Do you buy Thin Mints to the first girl scout who asks politely or do you hold out hoping that your niece decided to stay in the scouts for one more year? Unfortunately, many decisions are made this way...in the absence of a strong relationship and knowledge of products, decisions are made with the first person who brings you an offer you know you love.
Build those relationships. Communicate with your customers, frequently, consistently, accurately, and lovingly. Without them you have nothing.
Have a great week!!
Jenna
This week, I felt at a loss for words. If you know me well, you are LOL right now..."a loss for words, Jenna...HAHAHAHAHA!!!" That changed today when I had a revelation while enjoying my birthday lunch with my husband at my favorite tavern-not-bar restaurant. The Village Tavern. Some of the best French Onion soup I've had.
On this fine birthday, I noticed something on the menu that I hadn't noticed in the past. It was a bacon and gruyere cheese flatbread. Bacon, cheese, bread...we have a winner!!! I ordered it, ate it and LOVED it. Officially, this flatbread slice of yumminess goes in the craveable category for me.
I asked my server how long it has been on the menu. She replied with, "forever." Really, forever? "Well, for as long as I have worked here, and I have been here for 3 years." WOW. I have been coming here a few times a month for the last 2 years and have never noticed this cheesy perfection before.
That's when she said it..."Oh, well if you come at lunch time you wouldn't have seen it because it has only been on the dinner menu. It sells really well as an appetizer for the dinner crowd so the chef thought he would offer it to the lunch crowd too."
I asked for a copy of the dinner menu. For the most part the lunch and dinner menus were nearly identical...with a few exceptions like prime rib, big steaks, etc. But everything else was the same. I will cut slack to the heavy hitters like beef...but a flatbread! Good grief.
So, forgetting about the steaks for a minute, and relating this to banking...what if you promoted your HELOC product through statement stuffers? Or, better yet, what if you only told your customers about your HELOC product if they asked.
I can try really hard to relate this, and when I started typing I had a couple of really good points. And they are still VERY important, but not be totally related to my flatbread. I think I just wanted you all to know how awesome it was!!!
So, the point:
1. Know your audience
You would have better luck selling ice to a penguin than you would have selling a HELOC to a 20-year old college kid with a zero balance in his free checking account. When you are marketing your products, utilize the tools available to you. Many MCIF systems have a predictive modeling tool that can help you. And if you aren't that lucky, use common sense. Market your HELOCs right after a mortgage gets approved (within your lending standards of course).
If you want to work on deposits, look at your pool of customers and how many have direct deposit coming in. Those with direct deposit are the most likely to (or at least the most eligible to) have the desire to establish a longer-term savings program.
2. Communication
Tell the world how awesome you are. Don't make your customers work to figure out whether or not you offer a certain product. Many customers will go with what they know and trust...or, if there isn't a strong relationship, whoever asks first. Do you buy Thin Mints to the first girl scout who asks politely or do you hold out hoping that your niece decided to stay in the scouts for one more year? Unfortunately, many decisions are made this way...in the absence of a strong relationship and knowledge of products, decisions are made with the first person who brings you an offer you know you love.
Build those relationships. Communicate with your customers, frequently, consistently, accurately, and lovingly. Without them you have nothing.
Have a great week!!
Jenna
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