Recent research from professors at Nanyang Technological University and the University of British Columbia about word-of-mouth recommendations should be of interest to bank marketers. According to the study: Consumers are more likely to provide WOM for products that are relevant to self-concept than for more utilitarian products. There was some indication that…consumers exaggerated the benefits […] Read More
Not “about” IT… but “from” IT. It’s not news that marketers are under the gun to demonstrate ROI. CIOs are laughing under their breaths — they’ve been dealing with this for 25 years. And they’ve learned a few things about how to deal with the issue. (But they’re not going to tell you, because, hey […] Read More
A series of ads on BankerSpank.com parodies the PC/Mac ads, this time with Bank and Credit Union. They’re cute ads…but they won’t drive any business a credit union’s way. One reason why Apple fanatics are devoted to the brand is that they see themselves as different from the stuff-shirted, boring business types who use PCs. […] Read More
Relevance is the mantra for today’s email marketers. But it shouldn’t be the only consideration. The emotional level of the interaction or transaction that an email message pertains to is an important factor in understanding how an email message will impact a customer’s relationship with a product, brand, or company. Irrelevant email about things a […] Read More
According to an article on uwnews.org, researchers from three [state of] Washington universities found that: Consumers who are skeptical about the truth of advertising claims are more responsive to emotionally appealing ads than ones peppered with information.” Emotional ads were characterized as “providing an emotional experience that is relevant to the use of the brand; […] Read More
Here’s how [I imagine] this came about. Overheard at the Management Committee meeting: CEO: We need to increase deposits. Any ideas? Marketing guy: We could give away iPods. Finance guy: Too expensive. Retail banking guy: My brother-in-law has a chicken farm. We could give those away. IT guy [mumbling about an email he read on […] Read More
A brilliant idea. Here’s who should advertise there (and their message): Handi Wipes. “Cuz’ God knows what’s been put in these bins.” Banks. “Bank with us. Our lines are shorter than this one.” Amtrak. “If you rode the train you wouldn’t need this bin [well, not yet].” Cialis. “By the time you get through this […] Read More
I spoke recently to a senior finance exec in a large organization about measuring marketing’s return on investment. He said: We know it’s hard to calculate the ROI on all expenditures, and we’re not looking for Marketing to do that. We know that they have to invest in brand equity and market research — and […] Read More
A number of observers have eloquently weighed in on the weaknesses of Fred Reichheld’s Net Promoter Score (for an excellent discussion go to Adelino de Almeida’s Profitable Marketing blog). I’ll go one step further. Firms should stop measuring their NPS. Why? Because the NPS: Doesn’t help explain WHY a customer would recommend the firm. Let’s […] Read More
Gary Hamel was the first management thinker to write about the concept of core competencies. It’s too bad this concept has fallen out of favor. For all the talk about new marketing approaches like search engine optimization, social networking, and the like, few marketing execs can really (let alone honestly) answer the question: What is […] Read More
Smart firms often deploy email practices like: 1) integrating email campaigns across channels; 2) following up on abandoned shopping carts; and 3) communicating special rewards through email. But sometimes these practices have unintended consequences. Example #1: The Integrated Campaign Email DogFoodCo sent an email to a customer who registered online after viewing a television ad. […] Read More
I’ve recently seen calls for the creation of a Chief Customer Experience Officer (one from Forrester Research and one at E-Volve-or-Die.com). This is a terrible idea. Why? Because creating a CCEO position: Is superfluous. Although the experts may have different definitions for what a “customer experience” is, I would hope that they would agree that […] Read More
There’s a lot of good stuff out there about marketing scorecards (see MarketingNPV.com for a number of good articles). I’m not sure too many CMOs are reading these articles, however. Too often, marketing scorecards are overloaded with historical sales and marketing statistics, presented in mind-numbing detail. Effective marketing scorecards strike a balance between measuring marketing […] Read More
A Wall Street Journal from a few months ago suggested that the “pesky piles of credit card offers that clog mailboxes may taper off a bit.” (Hasn’t happened in my mailbox, that’s for sure). Citing statistics from market research firm Synovate, the article stated that: Direct mail repsonse rates has declined. Since 1992, the number […] Read More
In an article on Chief Marketer‘s web site, Robert Passikoff, President of Brand Keys, called [customer] engagement 2006’s “holy grail and favorite buzzword”. In a previous article, Bob predicted that engagement would: Continue to insert itself between traditional marketing activities and an increasing demand for return-on-investment assessments, and will occupy a good deal of marketers’ […] Read More
Inbound marketing is a hot topic. Fifty-eight percent of the firms Forrester Research surveyed in 2005 said they practice inbound marketing, while another 27% planned to do so by the end of 2006. But what are these firms really doing under the banner of inbound marketing? One man’s inbound marketing message may very well be […] Read More
The marketing department at a large firm (with a strong sales-driven culture) was trying to get sales’ support to launch a customer segmentation effort. In one meeting, the market research consultant presented her psychographic analysis of consumers, outlining seven segments. She recommended, based on the company’s “brand positioning”, that the firm disregard three of the […] Read More
In an article on MarketingProfs.com, Jeff Mucci writes: “More and more companies are attempting to become “marketing focused/led” rather than sales or financially driven….A bona fide, world-class marketing-led organization has a clear long-term focus on core items such as retention, customer satisfaction, customer experience management, and lifetime value of a customer. Conversely, a sales- or […] Read More
In the October 2004 issue of the Journal of Marketing, Roland Rust and colleagues wrote that: “Marketers are under pressure to show how marketing investments add to shareholder value…[and] must identify the assets in which they invest and how those assets contribute to profits.” Marketing executives know this all too well. But, in practice, few […] Read More