What it takes to be Carnac the Magnificent.

As marketers, we are always looking into our crystal ball, reading the tealeaves and flipping the tarots. 

Whatever it takes to be the industry's Carnac the Magnificent.

"Who needs our product?  Who will buy?  What will they buy?  When?"  

As we discussed on August 12, a great deal of focus in the magical, mystical world behind the marketing curtain is spent in segmentation. The scientific and not-quite-so-scientific methods of running human being's through a filter to better manage our time and monitory resources.

Recent blogs have yakked about segmentation from topics like: 8 life stages that you should market to and Mirror Modeling and Birds of a Feather methodologies. These are all great ways to plan for today and the near future. (And they're absolutely brilliant prose!)

But how can you look a bit further out? Elementary, my dear Marketer ... watch the schools.

The 2004 NEA research paper, K–12 Education inThe U.S. Economy: Its Impact on Economic Development,Earnings, and Housing Values, discussed these findings:

"With regard to effects on economic development, one statistical study found that cutting statewide public K–12 expenditures by $1 per $1,000 of state personal income would reduce the state’s personal income by about 0.3 percent in the short run and by 3.2 percent in the long run. They also note that another study found that such a cut would reduce the state’s manufacturing investment in the long run by 0.9 percent and manufacturing employment by 0.4 percent. Similarly, another researcher found that a decline in educational quality, as measured by a 10 percent drop in standardized test scores, would lead to a 2 to 10 percent reduction in home values.They also cite a study that found a 10 percent reduction in school expenditures could yield, in the long run, to a 1 to 2 percent drop in post school annual earnings."

My simplistic, "If-Then" interpretation: When schools are managed poorly and/or necessary levies are routinely voted down - the level of education suffers. When the education suffers - people choose to move other places. When people move other places - so do business. When businesses move - so do jobs ... then the community truly can't afford the levies to fix the schools and the snowball gets bigger.

So, when you're trying to decide where to build a branch, or what region of your footprint should demand your attention, or where the future opportunity is ... of course, look at the current demographics, employment and economy ... but also look at the schools. They hold the key to every city's future.

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too. Contact us to see how.

With more than 255,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues. Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker. Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

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Weave the Web ... Draw the Flies

A lone spider in a swarm of flies, but no web, starves.

We had the pleasure of spending part of our week with a new client.  In many of our new engagements, we start with a “Discovery Phase,” where we analyze the client’s financials, product usage, branch experience, corporate culture, competition and markets.  This particular client was not uncommon.

As marketers, conventional wisdom says that it is our job to drive traffic.  That’s because we are the “great communicators.”  And to be honest, I can’t disagree.

But, because we are the great communicators, it is also our job to manage internal communication.

While we have a ton of data yet to collect and analyze for our new client before seeing the whole picture, it is obvious that, given their corporate culture, the focus should be on internal communication before we pursue external initiatives.  In short … weave the web BEFORE we draw the flies.

Holes in the web allow prey to fly right by.  Here's what you can do.

Connect the parts: Like a spider web, your corporate structure needs to be tightly woven together.  If you have gaps in your branch network or between business units, you’ll miss opportunities. 

Look at all of your branches.  Do any of them feel forgotten or on an island?  If your corporate location is the “main office,” what are the rest of your branches … minor?

Do your business units have the best interest of the entire organization at heart or are they focused on their individual goals.  Do you have “mortgage customers” or “bank customers / credit union members”?  There is a HUGE difference.  How about referrals?  Can your tellers identify a proper Wealth Management prospect, for instance?  Do they know what to ask in order to qualify them?  Do they want to?

I don’t care if it takes a truckload of TNT … blow up the silos!  Get every corporate entity reading from the same playbook, looking out for each other’s interests and communicating.  An employee doesn’t need to be proficient in every product from every business line, but they should have a basic knowledge of what each product is, who would benefit from them and who they can contact quickly to get help.

Consistency:  A successful web is evenly disbursed from top to bottom.  And the fly will get treated the same no matter which part they fall into.

Think about it.  McDonald's didn’t become the world’s largest food chain because they are gourmet.  They are successful because you know what to expect.  A Big Mac tastes the same in Ohio, Florida or Florence, Italy.

The same should be said of your branches.  I should get treated the same at the corporate location as I do at your smallest, most rural branch – or your largest, busiest branch. 

You can accomplish this through tight, consistent hiring standards and a well communicated and demonstrated corporate culture.  You can also assure consistency with ongoing training and uniform sales tools across the institution.  Set service standards that become the backbone of your culture and that every employee must live up to.

Review, Repair, Rebuild: For the last month or so, I’ve been watching a spider on my back porch.  Every 2-3 days, this little sucker is repairing or completely rebuilding her web. 

It’s basic nature that things change.  Through market conditions or internal factors, gaps may open in your web.  Create a process to review the web periodically to determine if areas need to be reconnected or if changes are so great that we need to reconfigure the whole darn thing to catch the most opportunities.

If you focus on drawing flies before the web is sound, you’re going to miss a lot of opportunity and experience wasted effort, resources and budget. 

First, weave the web – then draw the flies.

For a case study from a community bank in Lawrenceburg, KY, click here.

With more than 130,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

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MarketMatch is a marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

It's Complicated

Is it just me, or is it getting harder and harder to give folks your money now adays?!?!

As financial institutions, we say that the benefit of debit cards is to speed up and ease the process of making purchases. That is, of course, until the retailers screw it up!

• No, I don't want cash...
• Here's my zip code...
• Yes, I know about your pharmacy...

It seems like we've taken a tool that was meant to make life faster and easier and added so many bells and whistles that you have to take 5-6 steps to complete a transaction.

My point for all of you financial marketers? Take an objective look at your processes.

Many of us in bank or credit union management take steps to make our personal banking transactions easier because we can. Don't lose touch with your customer's experience:

• Complete a teller transaction
• Call your call center with an issue
• Sit at a new accounts desk to open a new account
• Use online banking, bill pay and e-statements
• Walk into each and every branch
• Use your ATMs
• Have friends and family bank with you and report what they see
• Grab a clip-board and do branch intercepts
• Get regular feedback from your sales staff

Does your electronic access ask for unnecessary information? Are your processes streamlined? Are you easy to do business with?

Is it Spring Yet??

Greetings...

By the calendar, it is March and spring should be right around the corner. However, if you ask those on the east coast (the recipients of 8-12 inches of snow yesterday) they would swear it is mid-winter! Baseball is beginning and the temperatures just are not cooperating!

The point? Ahh, yes. The point is that "shifts" are happening everywhere. Shifts in the weather, shifts in the competition, and shifts in the economy. Some are slow to occur, some are swift and breathtaking, others occur and we only realize it after the fact! We need to have our customer contact points ready to act and react to the shifts and secure confidence from our customers!

Last week, we conducted 7 focus groups and 26 competitive shops for a client. The one word to describe the banking situation. WOW....and not in a good way! 50% of the 26 competitors did not even respond to our phone request for information, another 20% simply referred us to their website. I thought the in person shops would be better....not the case. In 70% of the shops, we were simply handed a brochure with no questions other than "what type of account are you interested in", 90% of the checking account discussions started and ended with Free checking!

With spring around the corner (hopefully) and the economy struggling, customers needing help, and money in motion everywhere...I think it is time for a Spring Inspection! Take a day and:

• visit ALL of your branches
• call your call center
• scour your website
• review all materials that are mailed from the institution

Do each of these with your "customer eyes" on...does your call center convey competence? Is your website truly easy to navigate, are your branches user friendly and promoting confidence in the bank/cu?

I think you may be surprised what you find! However, if YOU find it...and correct it...then it won't impact the customer negatively. Do a Spring Inspection THIS WEEK.

You will be surprised what you find...and you may also be pleasantly surprised! The key is that everyone KNOWS that they will be inspected to check on your expectations. That is an old Marty Cohen (from Cohen/Brown) saying that still resonates and has power.

Inspect...share expectations...and make sure you are ready for the current and future shifts by having your customer contact points ready to shine!

Cheers!

Bruce Clapp