Going Green to the Extreme!

“All of the materials used in the construction are either recycled or highly sustainable materials. The building also makes use of low-water use landscape plants and a gray-water system for irrigation.”
“All regular tellers serve both lobby and drive up members via live video feeds. The drive up is a stacked design to allow for faster service and less idling time.”
“Employees have formed a Green Team, which examines ways to make daily work at MFCU more efficient and environmentally responsible.”

The last one is especially interesting. It’s not important whether that initiative was their own, or they were strongly suggested to do so, the image counts – our employees care.
Missoula Federal Credit Union

Marketing makeovers for tough times

“…here are some highlights for marketing to young adults:
Anchorage: Consumers of all ages are looking for balance and security. This is in the same vein as the “nesting” that was so popular after 9/11. Here, however, Getty sees popular searches like “balance,” leading to images of yoga, spas and balancing rocks. “Fun,” the most popular search word five years ago, has given way to “dream,” still aspirational, but slightly more serious.
Guru Joe: Corporate execs are out; relatable experts are in. Getty sees a move toward personas and faces that are believable, empathetic and “quietly aspirational.” A parallel trend is in raw visuals—essentially well-framed snapshots that connote a company’s authenticity.
Women: Not just a target but a symbol. Fully 36% of advertising tearsheets surveyed featured single women, while only 5% featured single men. This could be further proof that both women and men enjoy seeing women, but guys don’t catch each others’ eyes. Getty says, “Women are coming to represent in a wider way ideas of collaboration and cooperation. The age of the single white male hero is taking a cultural time out.” That’s not good news for this white male, but I’ll roll with it.”

It’s always hard to get to the young people. Interesting point, with greater highlight putted on ‘dream’ than fun. More mature? Hardly, maybe more realistic. I do agree that financial institutions should use more of the so-called ‘independent’ experts and professionals to gain credibility.

Is Saving a Game of Chance? Nope.

”…Save to Win just launched at eight Michigan credit unions* in a pilot project testing consumer response to prize-linked savings.”
“…credit union members compete for monthly and grand prizes by making deposits into one-year, federally-insured certificate accounts. At the end of the pilot, one fortunate credit union member will take home the $100,000 grand prize. Others will share in just under $40,000 in monthly cash prizes.”
“…account holders earn an entry with each $25 deposit, up to ten entries per month. One emergency withdrawal is allowed during the certificate’s term, but if the depositor closes the account, all entries disappear.”
“The state’s economy is even worse off than the rest of the country, increasing consumers’ need for savings.”
“Save to Win aligns perfectly with the credit union mantra, people helping people, and this is what sets credit unions apart from other financial providers.”
“For many consumers, the need to save gets short shrift when good intentions meet unexpected expenses.”
““Perhaps the lack of savings in America can be attributed to the fact that savings is simply not fun, and the motivation to save has been stripped away,” observes Denise Gabel, chief innovation officer at the Filene Research Institute. “What kinds of motivation are financial institutions providing to consumers?” Interest is posted in nickels and dimes, and consumers often don’t perceive tangible rewards from saving money.”
“Prized-link savings programs use the thrill of the chance to win a meaningful prize to encourage the development of regular savings habits and the accumulation of wealth, especially among lower-income households.”
““One of the biggest tests that remains to be seen about prize-linked savings – … – is whether it will inspire non-savers to start saving.””
“In researching prize-linked savings programs, he’s observed how the appeal of gambling can be channeled into a desire to accumulate savings. People often overestimate their chances in low-probability events, Dr. Tufano says, which explains why playing the lottery has become a popular, yet ineffective, investment strategy. In all probability, money spent on lottery tickets will be entirely lost. With Save to Win, funds remain intact, federally insured, and earning interest, even if the depositor fails to win a prize.“

Banks are well familiar with promoting their products with a lottery system. It’s impossible to say in definitive matters whether it is good or bad solution. When properly designed, it can become beneficial, but it can be as well a waste of money. I’m a supporter of the solution based on fewer prizes, but of the greater value. Clients will not decide to choose us, only because we’ll give them a calendar, bag or an umbrella when making i.e. a deposit. What really matters is the opportunity to win the BIG prize.
I must agree that in terms of communication as stated above, Clients often don’t perceive interest as they should. That’s why a strategy of showing examples exists, like we’ll rather promote a deposit with yearly interest of 5% by i.e. ‘on every 10 000 deposited in our institution, you’ll earn 500’. There are ways to sell it in a more attractive way.

Virtual Finance and CU Island: In it for the long haul
I’ve also been once excited with the whole Second Life in finance industry deal, but examples which I’ve seen were having a rather minor success. Still, the virtual reality is a platform of communication with a great potential, but for now I believe it will evolve into interaction on the level of social networking websites.

10 Financial Commandments for Your 20s

Finally, financial literacy that’s effective AND fun

“The game is called Celebrity Calamity, and it gets through tricky subjects like universal default and introductory APRs, while forcing you, the manager of a budding ingenue’s finances, to make quick choices between buying what they want and keeping them out of debt.”
“The game needed to be effective and fun to overcome the perception that personal finance education can be difficult, scary, and boring. The preliminary results from experience and efficacy testing show:
50-70% improvement in financial knowledge
15-30% confidence increase in key areas”

I do like the concept, and its cartoonish style, but I’ve mixed feelings about the deep and quality of this education. Still, I prefer the way how traditional banks educate, i.e. with a partnership with schools. But yes, this can be boring ;-).Doorways to Dreams (D2D) Fund

Q&A: Youth marketing for financial institutions

“I don’t see anyone helping kids and teens deal with financial peer pressure. I think this should be a standard part of any financial literacy outreach program.”
“a fantastic documentary on HBO a few months ago called Kids + Money that illustrates the role money plays in the lives of young people. After I viewed it, all I could think about was the immense pressure kids and teens have to spend money on clothes and the next “cool thing.” In many instances, a teen will spend hundreds of dollars needlessly on things like purses and shoes, just so they won’t be ostracized at their school”
“…if you offer a youth section on your website, don’t lump the kids club with the teen club. Teens don’t want to be associated with kids…”
“…companies trying too hard to be cool and cutting edge.”
” I constantly hear things like, “my mom opened my account,” or “my dad had an account at the bank, so I opened an account there.” Targeting parents must be at the forefront of any youth marketing initiative.”
“we never market financial products to kids under 13 years old. For kids under 13, it should be about education.”
“…hen dealing with the youth market: fun and humor. Although kids and teens love money, learning about financial concepts can be a bit dry. ”
“…kids retain more information when it’s delivered through storytelling.”

Quite a lot of interesting points out there, mostly ok. The idea of targeting parents in the youth initiatives is a real eye opener. It’s true, that in most cases, especially when we are not interest in the subject, are not researching by ourselves, we go for an advice to our close ones. Young people are financially dependant on their parents, so their opinion is crucial. That’s why the ‘family’ accounts should have a significant place in the bank offer.
I do not see how a financial institution could help kids to deal with the social pressure to be trendy. It’s not their job. The only thing they can do is to learn kids to manage their finances, but this will not eliminate the need to become a Paris Hilton lookalike. We can create a habit of saving, but other issues should be solved by the parents or school. Subcat Marketing

How Can Online Banking Develop its Own Black Card?

“But we continue to believe that financial institutions are missing a revenue opportunity to provide premium fee-based services to certain segments.”
“If American Express can command $2500 per year for its black Centurion Card and Barclays $495 per year (see note 1) for its slightly more pedestrian Black Card launched in December (see note 2), why can’t banks get $10/mo for a similar premium version of online and mobile banking? The short answer: They haven’t tried“

It’s true, that online banking is immediately associated with the low profile services for the masses. One of the reasons is that when you’re having a traditional ‘marble’ bank, it is easy to segment Clients, separate affluent from the rest, make them feel special (leather couches, greater space, separate entries etc.). But when it comes to the basic online banking, we all are equal. Can a rich person browse faster the online banking service? I do not think so.
Online banking was and will be a way to reduce costs of service. Additionally on the early stage marketers chosen this channel to sell services to the price-aware Clients, so onlynie banking become a synonym of cheapness. You have to act carefully, as it is really easy to create an internal competition for your services. Selling premium services there is a challenges, as the Client got used that here he can got things cheaper than at branch, or for free. You may say, we can make him feel special by adding a bunch of additional features, or extend the traditional ones. This may work, but as well it may only confuse him. I’d love to read more on this subject.

Eye-tracking studies: more than meets the eye

“Our User Experience Research team has found that people evaluate the search results page so quickly that they make most of their decisions unconsciously. To help us get some insight into this split-second decision-making process, we use eye-tracking equipment in our usability labs. This lets us see how our study participants scan the search results page, and is the next best thing to actually being able to read their minds. Of course, eye-tracking does not really tell us what they are thinking, but it gives us a good idea of which parts of the page they are thinking about.”
“The heatmap below shows the activity of 34 usability study participants scanning a typical Google results page. The darker the pattern, the more time they spent looking at that part of the page.”

Such perception was created by the websites designs standards/trends. I just wonder if it applies only to the ‘Latin” world, or is it also true in countries like Israel where the right to left scripting method is used.

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