On December 31, 2007, once the New Year’s Ball has descended in Time Square and millions of people have finished singing Auld Lang Syne, each of us will make some New Year’s resolutions--a promise to improve our lives in some fashion over the next year.
2008 is a time for change. The world is changing, consumers are changing, which means the strategic game of marketing is also changing.
As we roll into the New Year, we really should reflect on the marketing campaigns of 2007, and evaluate what has worked and what we can do to better our marketing efforts in the years to come.
Here are five marketing resolutions to help ring in the 2008 in the right way:
New Year’s Resolution #1: Know your market
Too many times we see companies either not targeting a specific market or advertising anywhere that seems relevant to their business, which dilutes their campaign efforts. Many financial institutions tend to target a broad general audience; however, by concentrating their advertising on specific niche markets, they might not get everyone that could potentially be a customer, but they will receive a better response and have a greater retention rate if they truly understand the demographics and utilize their marketing dollars for that specific market.
One of the newest financial institutions in the US market has been ING DIRECT®, who offers no brick and mortar locations, but is an extension of the traditional bank offering higher rates and lower, if not no fees, on its products. Their target market of 35–55 year olds with $75,000+ household income understands the value and empowerment of having money in the bank and more so than just simply sitting in a checking account, their money earns interest from the moment it’s deposited.
As a highly recognized brand in the financial industry for their insurance and investment products, John Hancock appealed to the optimism of the “Baby Boomer Plus” (40–70 year olds) demographic. Although this does not mean that they won’t sell their products to anyone under the age of 40 years, they have discovered that the “Baby Boomer Plus” generation has specific wants and needs that John Hancock specifies their products to. The marketing is then developed around their feedback and the publications, radio, and websites that they enjoy.
New Year’s Resolution #2: Research to create an Integrated Marketing Plan
In the past several years, financial marketing has been focused on playing to consumers’ fears. Oftentimes ads would show a scenario that the consumer will not have enough money put aside to survive retirement or unexpected costs. This fear-based advertising has worked on most consumers; however, there are several marketing campaigns in 2006-2007 that have shown a more positive light on the benefits of saving your money, as well as, financial planning to achieve life-long hopes, dreams, and aspirations.
ING DIRECT believes that consumers have a certain positive mindset when they see money in the bank. Utilizing this knowledge, they created their “Adventures on the Road to Happiness” marketing campaign that features consumers that are saving for a goal. Jurie Pieterse, Vice President of Marketing for ING DIRECT has found that there is a “strong correlations between happiness and people who save money.”
According to Mr. Pieterse, “People have shown to be happier when they save”, so campaigns like “Adventures on the Road to Happiness” illustrate savings. Through research, they had discovered that their target market’s biggest saving issue is that they tend to spend money on unnecessary luxury items—such as high fashion purses or spa treatments—instead of investing it. That’s why their new advertising features a spokesperson that steps in and tells them about how investing their money could make them happier.
These marketing advertisements were reinforced with an online contest whereas consumer wrote an essay on what they are saving for and would take a photo of themselves illustrating something that relates to the essay. The cash prizes would then be deposited into their ING DIRECT Savings account. This allowed ING DIRECT to hear from their customers as to their personal level of savings and aspirations from the essays, which could further be used in next year’s marketing campaigns.
Additionally, having a unique business structure of being online lends itself to skepticism, which is why ING DIRECT has created several physical locations called Cafes in major cities like Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Wilmington to allow a face-to-face interaction, advertising and brand experience, similarly to the Apple® stores. These cafes reinforce the ING DIRECT marketing message and allow for a more interactive marketing through seminars and customer service.
Utilizing an integrated marketing campaign that features TV ads, print, direct mail, online ads, billboards, interactive cafes, and themed contests, this 2007 integrated marketing campaign was successful because of the research and targeted advertising venues used to provide an entertaining and emotional campaign that highlights the unique features of the ING DIRECT accounts.
Another major marketing initiative that was nominated for the American Business Awards’ 2007 Stevie Awards for Best Mixed Media Campaign was John Hancock’s “Future Promises”
ad campaign. This multi-million dollar marketing mix began in the fall of 2006, after their merger with Manulife Financial , with an internal review of their products and the brand. The review included a look at their consumers and financial intermediaries to discover what exactly their clients’ needs were. The ads focused on the “Baby Boomer Plus” demographic and the promises that they had made to themselves regarding their aspirations for the future. Then they utilized more than just TV commercials on specifically targeted niche-market channels, by reinforcing the message with pay per listen radios (XM®, Sirius®), large print ads in very targeted magazines (Money Magazine,, Conde Nast Traveler), and other publications, like Wall Street Journal’s Personal Journal section and online advertising on Yahoo! Finance’s “Opening Bell”
Like both ING DIRECT and John Hancock, when developing an integrated marketing campaign for 2008 and beyond, keep in mind that most publications have both print and online advertising and that taking on both does not necessarily mean that it is duplicated efforts. Sometimes the demographics can be the same for the printed version, other times they may be vastly different. Implementing both print and online ads will reinforce the message, but may also reach a different demographic. Be sure to examine the publication’s media kit for both venues before making a decision.
Finally, before committing to the new integrated marketing plan, it is important to get buy-in from all departments internally. This idea has always been practiced between the marketing department and the executive team, but now companies, such as John Hancock, are extending the message to all departments like community relations, recruiting, and human resources so that everyone can reinforce the message through integration of their daily tasks so that the organization moves forward like a well oiled machine.
New Year’s Resolution #3: Believe in viral marketing
One of the hottest trends that over the past year that has grown significantly is viral marketing. In its infancy, most companies started a blog and created a MySpace® page as well as offering del.icio.us bookmarks on their websites, but now that viral marketing has really taken root, companies are beginning to target their efforts more efficiently.
There have been several articles and information regarding the measurability of viral marketing, in fact there’s entire organizations like the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) that are dedicated to helping spread the word. However, still till this day, we are unable to measure viral marketing past the initial contact.
Given that viral marketing does take away money and time from the marketing budget and isn’t fully measurable, it is difficult to allocate resources for a viral marketing campaign. So why do it? Because for that illusive 20–30 year old generation, it really is the only way to reach them since they primarily are online and are unaffected by traditional media advertising. Additionally, technology has advanced to the point where everyday items like a TiVo®, or a DVR box from the cable company allows viewers to easily fast forward, if not skip through commercials so that messages aren’t being watched. Given these new technologies, it’s important not to rely solely on traditional advertising and to add viral marketing to the marketing media mix.
According to Jurie Pieterse, Vice President of Marketing for ING DIRECT, for anyone to create a viral marketing campaign as part of their media mix, you truly “must be a believer in the medium.” Which is why ING DIRECT has launched the Move out Move up! website (www.moveoutmoveup.com) targeted at first time homebuyers. It’s a life stage-based targeted website that is not only entertaining in its real life look and feel, but also features scenarios that the generation can relate to like a noisy apartment buildings above a restaurant, needing more room because of a new addition to the family, bad neighbors, and couples moving in together. It illustrates how people tolerate living conditions that aren’t ideal because they feel that they cannot afford anything else, or maybe haven’t thought about owning. ING DIRECT illustrates how they can help couples save for their first home.
Although word-of-mouth (WOM) is difficult to measure, there are some tangible measurements that companies can examine to know how successful their viral campaign is. Unique websites like ING DIRECT’s www.roadtohappinesscontest.com and www.moveoutmoveup.com have unique URLs that aren’t simply an extension of their traditional www.ingdirect.com website, so statistics on unique hits per day, week, or month are easily available. Additionally, ING DIRECT utilizes YouTube® to promote several videos, including their President and CEO discussing ING DIRECT’s products, as shown below.
These initiatives can easily measure the quantity of users that are accessing the video, but not necessarily its success in converting customer.
In 2008, viral marketing will continue to be a marketing objective. Marketers should allocate time and resources to create blogs and viral advertising campaigns as if they were general branding efforts. Additionally, with the advent of mobile advertising, there will be a new medium for reaching consumers, which will have enormous affects in the field of viral marketing.
New Year’s Resolution #4: Differentiate and refresh
Many financial companies watch their competitors to see what they are doing as far as advertising and promotions. Once they see an incentive, for example, when banks have sign up a friend and you both receive $25 with qualifying direct deposit; they too will try to match, if not create a better incentive. This can become a marketing quagmire because if a company matches what their competitors are offering, than there’s no differentiation between the two and people will most like resort to who is more convenient or has a better reputation. However, if a company chooses not to compete directly with their competitor then they will lose out. In 2007 and for several years prior, we have seen many of the most well known banks like Wachovia®, Bank of America®, PNC®, and other financial institutions go head-to-head with each other on incentives, which in the end, does not give anyone an advantage.
Financial institutions need to revive themselves by thinking more soundly about their message and differentiating their brand based on programs that play to the emotions and needs of their specific target market.
Too many times companies get into the routine of doing the same marketing plan as before, because it’s worked in the past. A marketing message can get stale or ads can lose their appeal. Constant research and feedback will let you know when it’s time to change your campaign. Despite the success of the initial launch of the “Future Promises” marketing campaign by John Hancock, three new ads were introduced in 2007 to strengthen the campaign and reinforce people’s emotions while the showing real-life struggles, and aspirations the “Baby Boomers Plus” generation are facing .
New Year’s Resolution #5: Be the FIRST to know
Because the canvas of the financial services industry is ever-changing, being the FIRST to know, or to at least be in the know can be crucial to an institution’s continued success. And one way to achieve this feat—read FIRST, the Financial Industry Report on Services and Trends by Marketwise. By reading FIRST you can obtain information relevant to your company’s marketing, technological, compliance and overall performance initiatives.
