“Building a financial brand is very, very hard.”
— The Brand Show podcast
A blog entitled The Brand Show has turned its attention to branding financial services in its latest podcast installment.
The 30-minute segment starts with some sobering reflections from the hosts about how financial branding is “not an exciting industry niche,” and “it’s hard to get excited about it.”
Yippee… only 28 more minutes to go.
The podcast is primarily focused on investments and financial planning, but includes heavy doses of common sense that any financial brander should find relevant:
- Listen more.
- Build trust.
- Be understanding.
- Show appreciation.
- Don’t make people feel stupid (even though they won’t admit what they don’t know).
- Don’t make people feel like they need a bunch of money to get good service and good advice.
There’s about a 10-minute interview with Jean Hughes, VP/Marketing and Employee Development at CommunityAmerica Credit Union. She says the CommunityAmerica brand stands out because it is funny, comfortable and casual. She also confesses that rebranding the credit union in this direction was “something a little scary for CommunityAmerica because you expect your financial institution to be very buttoned-up.”
You can listen to the whole podcast here. It flirts around some meaty issues, but the most salient points could have probably been squeezed down to 15 minutes instead of 30. Still, it’s worth a listen if “building financial brands is what excites you.” After all, when was the last time you heard a podcast on the subject?