Apathy: The Traditional Bank’s Biggest Threat January 6, 2010
Posted by nichebanking in Niche banking, Problems with traditional banking, The Long Tail of Banking.trackback
I always tell my banking colleagues that any bank or credit union’s number one competitor is not another bank or credit union. It’s apathy. It’s the fact that consumers just don’t give a damn about their banking. It’s weird: people care about almost nothing as much as money, but couldn’t care less about the banking services that support that money.
So how do you break through the apathy? You create an experience that engages people on their turf–the playgrounds of their lives. Engages their existing interests, their passions, their hobbies. You give them an experience that’s first and foremost about those things they love, and let the banking part come in where it fits naturally. It’s the difference between a bank having a sales culture, and having an engagement culture.
That’s niche banking.
Niche banking is the apathy killer. Think of it this way: traditional banking strategies and marketing are about taking banking, and decorating it in a way that attempts to encourage people to care. This rarely works, though, which is evidenced by the undeniable apathy consumers have for their banks. Niche banking is the opposite–it takes something people already care about, and just adds banking services as an unforced extension of that thing they already care about.
Wow! Apathy. Who would have “thunk” it. It’s sad. It should not be this way but it is. Look at how many people complain about banking but do nothing.
You said “So how do you break through the apathy? You create an experience that engages people on their turf–the playgrounds of their lives.” – I think this is both really hard and actually very easy to accomplish for bankers. It’s hard because we need to change the way we think about providing banking products and services and we need to change the way we market them. How many banks and credit unions still plan their marketing on the tried and true bankers marketing calendar?
It is easy because bankers are people too and engaging with our customers and prospects around what we are passionate about will, like you said, “let the banking part come in where it fits naturally.”
Imagine a teller or platform employee reacting the sports team logo – Hey I love the (sport team name). That (position player’s name) is just great. Is this the type of interaction you are alluding too?
Or are you saying, I need to target all my customers who love to plant WordPress Roses and send them a direct mail piece about WordPress Roses and show how a (my bank) debit card is the best way to buy new bulbs?
@dmgerbino
David, thank you for your thoughtful comment.
In banking we (unfortunately) have a really strong need to see an extremely direct correlation between our efforts and our results–ROI. It’s exactly why so many financial institutions only half-heartedly participate in social media: because “we can’t see how this is bringing customers through the door.” Financial institutions have a very hard time “joining the conversation” that is social media, without stepping into a conversation and over-promoting. This bull-dog approach doesn’t work in social media, though. They don’t get that joining that conversation is not about direct, forced calls to action, it’s about connecting with people.
Your latter example about the WordPress Roses is closer to what we mean. To clarify further, our approach would be like this: “We love roses–it’s our passion. If it’s your passion, too, come by and introduce yourself. We’ll talk shop about roses, and hook you up with other people who love roses. If you need banking services, too, that’s great and we can help you like we help the other rose lovers. If not, that’s cool too–let’s just talk roses. By the way, if you don’t like roses, that’s OK–go somewhere else. We are only trying to connect with people who are excited about roses like we are.”
Just wanted to point out to [both of] you readers that there is a similar conversation going on over at Ron Shevlin’s Marketing Tea Party–check it out at http://marketingteaparty.com/2010/01/28/credit-unions-biggest-enemy/