In Brief: Cheers for Beers, Inside Job, Sword & Shield
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Here are the articles, blog posts and other links from around the web that caught The Financial Brand’s attention this week. Click on hotlinks to read the full story.
Cheers! Vietnamese bank gives beer to new depositors
Coming Soon: ‘Inside Job,’ a blistering documentary of Goldman Sachs
Sword & Shield: How banks can play offense and defense in social media
Unintentionally Left Blank: Empty emails from Mint.com undermine users’ confidence
The Great Debate: First Direct’s CEO says banks can’t ignore the value of social media
Follow-Up Q&A: First Direct’s CEO responds to questions about his social media article
Flawed Foreclosure Fraud: It’s worse than you think…
Fighting Foreclosures: Labor union launches a “show-me-the-paperwork” campaign
The Battle for PFM: Why Wesabe lost to Mint (according the the CEO of Wesabe)
Raising Limits: NCUA campaign with Suze Orman promotes $250,000 deposit insurance
Prepare to Jibe Mate: Aussie banks change tack on PFM
Online Banking Report: 2011 Guide to Online & Mobile Products, Pricing & Strategy
Internet-Only Checking Accounts: Ally vs. ING DIRECT
Fix & Switch: Barclays new home loan lets customers switch from variable to fixed
Direct Mail: For financial institutions, it’s more effective than email or social media
New New Logo Final Version 2b: BNZ dumps “pig tail,” brings back cross of stars
This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.
More stories about: Briefs, Ally, Australia, Barclays, BNZ, First Direct, foreclosures, Goldman Sachs, ING Direct, Mint, NCUA, PFM, Wesabe 
Can you even consider articles, like the one about Direct Mail, to be unbiased when they are selling…direct mailing services?
No Terrell, I can’t say I’ve ever seen any research that was unbiased. Even research firms that purport to be neutral almost always let their point of view impact their studies.
The study mentioning direct mail comes from the Direct Marketing Association. This outfit isn’t actually “selling” direct mail services. It’s a trade organization. (It’s worth pointing out that DMA doesn’t stand for “Direct Mail Association.” Check out their website and you’ll see they represent direct marketers of all sorts and flavors.) It isn’t much different than CUNA or NAFCU coming out with a study saying how high demand is for member business lending. Is there an agenda? As with any research study, the answer is almost always “yes.”
Perhaps you were confusing “DMA” with Rich Weissman’s Database Marketing Agency? He’s a big matrix mail vendor in the CU industry.
Anecdotally, data from the DMA study reflects my experiences as a marketer, namely that direct mail still works well vs. other forms of direct-response/direct-to-consumer marketing. That is not to say that things like email marketing should be dismissed.