Call Me Back: Fury over ING “missed call” phone marketing

In The Absence of Branding… Rates, fees and price is all they care about

Coast to Coast “Credit Union”: Canadians to expand charters nationally?

The Debate Rages On: Banker rips credit union tax breaks

Wells Fargo: “With You When…” When what? When you’re confused?

You Get What You Pay For: Credit unions scrape the bottom for a cheap logo

Social Media: Don’t waste people’s time with holiday greetings

eStatement Advertising: McDonald’s, Macys jump on board

American History: BofA’s innovative ad arrangement with the History Channel

Geolocation: Do 1 in 4 consumers even have a GPS capable phone??

MyMo: Stanford FCU deploys PFM called MyMo. See demo here.

Branches: 5 solid ways to improve them

Maverick Moment: PNC’s “Virtual Wallet”

Q&A: Interview with credit union CEO who shares top-level insights

10 Hot Banking Ideas: You had better know about these already…

A new, free web-tool from ING, INGCompareMe.com, uses peer data to let people see where they stand on a wide range financial matters including savings, spending, investing, debt and planning. (See screenshots below.)

When you’re done answering questions, you can ask ING to generate a PDF report with your results (shown right). If you answer all the questions, your report will be about 10 pages, including graphs showing how you compare. You can see a sample report here.

ING’s CompareMe was initially populated with data from a survey conducted by ING. The survey polled over 5,000 adults who participated in workplace retirement savings plans. These individuals were asked more than 150 questions on various financial matters. The goal was to identify characteristics that might affect personal savings behavior, and find patterns about why some do better or worse than their peers.

The CompareMe tool should become more powerful over time as more visitors have their information incorporated into the database. ING will remove older data so that user comparisons remain current.

Some people have suggested a more accurate way for consumers to do peer-to-peer comparisons is to use Mint, because Mint compares data only from real users. However, one would have to have to sign-up and enter their data into Mint in order to make the comparisons worthwhile. ING’s tool is accessible to anyone anonymously at any time.

ING also created a special Twitter account dedicated to the CompareMe tool (although the background image in the account profile includes a confusing, non-functioning echo of the Twitter interface).

Besides just merely satisfying one’s curiosity, the tool does offer users a chance to take action. If someone wants to ask a question or simply discuss their unique circumstances, they can call or e-mail ING specialists.

“Ultimately, we want to help more Americans save for their retirement,” said Richard Mason, president of corporate markets for ING U.S. Retirement Services. “If visitors are encouraged to do that through this tool, then we’re getting them one step closer to their goals.”

The CompareMe homepage.

Users who log onto INGCompareMe.com create a profile by entering some simple background
information, along with optional details, such as their hobbies and interests. No names, email
addresses or identification is requested, so the process is completely anonymous.

“Approximately how much do you think you will need for retirement?”
One of the many questions you can use to compare yourself with others.

Here are this week’s stories of interest from around the web.
Click hotlinks for the complete story.

Money for Guns: Chase gives away prepaid debit cards for unregistered guns

Credit Score: Consumer Reports’ 12 best and 3 worst credit cards

Duel: Comparing ING vs. E-Trade click-through rates

Essay Contest: Credit union holds $1,500 ‘What Do You Want’ contest

Image Problems: Aussie credit unions in the same situation as U.S. peers

Pedal Pushing: 7.99% bike loans up to $2,500

Q&A Interview: Barclays sees how sponsorships can open doors in the U.S.

More Gas: DFCU-style gas promo from a Montana credit union

Online Media: Citibank’s exclusive sponsorship of popular Aussie website ‘The Fix’

Going Swimmingly: Visa happy with Phelps endorsement

Up for Review: ING’s £4 million direct mail account

Va Va Voom: Female employees pose in bank’s pinup calendar

That’s an Outhouse! But the sign says “Future home of Auburn-U FCU”

Consider yourself on notice: If you are a bank or credit union using anything resembling this orange dot…

…look out. Orange circles may be enough for ING to take you to court next.

Last Wednesday, ING filed a trademark-infringement complaint in U.S. District Court against PNC Bank over use of orange balls.

Earlier this year, PNC launced a Gen-Y program called Virtual Wallet. The Virtual Wallet website uses orange circles for its main interface.

In its complaint, ING asserts that “a significant segment of the website prominently utilizes the color orange and orange-ball designs that are confusingly similar to ING Direct’s orange ball.” ING is seeking damages of greater than three times the amount that PNC has made using the orange ball logo, including interest.

ING filed for trademark protection on its orange ball design back in November, 2000. ING’s trademark application is specifically for orange circles “that are totally or partially shaded.” Since then, orange has become the predominant color of its Web site, retail banking locations and advertisements, according to the complaint.

PNC filed trademark applications for 9 different orange circle designs back in June, and two more in August.The last one was filed August 12, 2008, one day before ING filed its lawsuit.

PNC’s most recent trademark application is for “Punch the Pig,” a creative savings game. It says the mark “consists of a stylized orange circle with a stylized white piggy bank in the center and two blue concentric circles in the center of the stylized piggy bank.”

Key Question: Is ING Direct entitled to exclusive use of orange circles – used in any capacity – within the financial industry?

What do you think?

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