Apple Advertising got its start as a bank advertising firm back in 1971, mentored by the late Jack Westall, President of Asheville Savings and Loan Association.  Our roots are deep in the banking industry. We have lived through a lot of industry turmoil and progress, stagnation and growth in those intervening 39 years.

One of the banking industry’s more active associations, the NC Bankers Association (NCBA) conducts the country’s oldest state association banking school. Held every August in Chapel Hill, the school is a four-year course of instruction, grooming ‘up-and-comers’ to take their place in the economy’s most vital industry, the banking sector. North Carolina is a solid financial center due largely to the first-class education many of its bankers have received at NC Bankers’ School of Banking.

Apple Advertising has always been a strong supporter of the banking industry in general and the NC Bankers in particular. This year we continued to put our money where our mouth is and enrolled Zack Self in the school as a freshman to attend the week course during August 8-13, 2010. We’re happy to report that he applied himself, studied hard and passed the final exam.  That means he can return to Chapel Hill next August as a sophomore.

Congratulations to Zack and the 180 or more students and graduates of the 2010 NC School of Banking. We wish all of you the very best.

The banking industry needs all the bright minds it can get.

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Bank Operations & Compliance by George Self
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Good marketing strategies, tried and true, are hard to pin down these days, perhaps because they are hard to articulate in few words.

However, there’s help, from the excellent book Kellogg on Marketing.  In the book you’ll find ten elements of a good marketing strategy.  These elements are receiving a lot of attention by smart people in business.  We’re including them in our client’s marketing plans – and we think you should including them in your plans, as well.  (Here’s the best part: they are easy to understand and measure.)

The table below came from research notes we did for a client back in 2002-3. It proved helpful in focusing the content of boardroom presentations and in preparing various communications.  The attributes are still in play and performing well. We hope this list (and the book) will be helpful to you, too, as you seek to innovate in today’s new market.

Look to see which ones your company has employed is or is working to employ. Which ones have you found to be most effective? Which ones haven’t you pursued that merit attention?  Let me know what you think: zself@appleadv.com.

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Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Business At Its Best, Marketing, Small Business Services by Zack Self
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“Being relevant”  determines everything about a business — what it sells, how it sells, how it prices what it sells — but especially should it impose a discipline on customer-facing communication.  So, how are you doing with your customers?

Here’s how you find out if you’re relevant – or not.

Evaluate your company’s communication.  A majority of companies large and small fall into three categories listed below, each with an example from actual Twitter and Facebook posts: (more…)

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Business At Its Best, Communication, Public Relations, Small Business Services, Social Media by Zack Self
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It almost never happens: the biggest competitor on the block stumbles and stops being an effective force in the market.  He is the subject of congressional investigations.  He gets pilloried in the media.  His customers actually become reluctant to admit they do business with him. The government calls him a bad guy in the media for days in a row over several months, AND, get this, shames him into not taking a salary!

And that’s not all.

Here’s the really interesting part: all of the smaller competitors have almost nothing to say.  Not a peep.  Almost none of them get out front with the message “Hey, now’s a good time to switch to me!”

Sound strange?  Well, this is what’s happening to community banking – at least in my small corner of the world. It beats anything I’ve ever seen in my 20+ years of watching.

Here’s why this matters. And what community bankers can do about it. (more…)

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising by Zack Self
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If the Fed has its way, your NSF income will disappear.  But, you can fight back — and win — if you get organized.  First things first: get the answers to four questions: (more…)

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Bank Operations & Compliance by George Self
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For sure, 2010 will be a challenging year.  But, it doesn’t have to be a bad year.  If you get started soon, you can make 2010 a better year, for you, your bank and your customers.  Here’s how:

Open deposit accounts online.  You can be up and running for less than $15,000 – not a full-auto program, but it will get you into the Online game in 15 days or less.  Unless you plan on opening accounts on a national or regional basis, or plan to open hundreds of accounts first year, this system will work very well for you.  We can make this work for you.

Reprice your Auto-Overdraft Program.  Customers are royally ticked off about these auto-NSF programs.  A clever re-pricing program can very likely ease a lot of the pain.  We can help you do that.

Position your business checking program for success.  Next year, much of your revenue will depend upon how well you market to small business.  Your bank will need the right kind of product, so you need to start working on re-formulating your product now.  We know how to do this.

Measuring your customer satisfaction.  Your advertising and promotion budget will go a lot farther if you use Customer Knowledge to maximize your message.  We have affordable programs that you can use.

Use the Internet to cut your advertising media costs. The web offers a great opportunity to effectively market your bank for less money.  We’re not talking about cutting all your ad costs, but we do know how to cut a big slice off that budget.

Here are two more projects, if you have a little more money, time and ambition to accomplish:

Do a SWOT project.   You can learn a lot from a SWOT.   How does it work?  You set up interviews and research among your competitors, your employees, directors and officers, plus your customers and non-customers plus the local advertising media.  From those sources you tabulate and score your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats  (threats may not be as obvious as you think).  When you’re done, you’re ready to prepare an Action Plan you can use to survive – and even, thrive.

Once you’ve gone to the trouble to do a SWOT, why not go ahead and REBRAND THE BANK?  This makes sense if your bank is relatively unknown (maybe because you are new in a market) or because your bank has suffered some bad publicity.   In these uncertain times, with banks taking a licking at every turn, re-branding can make good sense – and be a wise investment in your future.

All of the above is imminently do-able.  We can help you make this happen.  If you call us (800-521-0236) help will be in your office in 24 hours.  So, don’t wait.  Get cracking.  Make 2010 a better year.

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising by George Self
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I know it seems odd for an ad agency guy to be saying not to advertise. But, it’s true. Some banks should stop spending money in advertising. There are at least three things banks do that make it impossible for advertising to work. Are you guilty of one or more?

ONE: You don’t know how effective your current media buy is.

Is this you: “I’m spending money on the Friday Night High School Football Program because everybody in town listens to it.” Consider this, before you spend ad money, you absolutely must have a sound, audience measurement report for every media you are using – in my experience, the “everybody” above often turns out to be 39 people, or less. Believe me, if you haven’t measured your media effectiveness, you can’t be sure what you are getting – or not getting – for your investment. You may be unpleasantly surprised at the value you are getting. Try this: fill in the blanks below for every ad media you use. If you can’t do this, call me and I’ll help you. I might even do it for free – or at most, lunch.)

1. My advertising media investment is $ _________ in ______________(media name) every ________________ (month, week, whatever.)
2. I am buying _______ units every month (commercials or column inches.)
3. My primary audience demographic is ___________. (For example, adults 25-54.)
4. I am reaching ____________ % of my primary demographic every month. (50% would be nice.)
5. My target demographic sees/hears my message an average of ______ times per month. (Ten times a month would be good.)

If you can’t fill in the blanks above, you should stop advertising, because there’s an overwhelming probability you are not using your ad budget effectively. The data is out there; it is knowable. Don’t spend any more money until you get it. (An exception to this is that you stop calling what you are doing “advertising” and start calling it “donations.”)

TWO: You’re not spending enough.

Is this you: “I have $2,500 to spend, so, I’ll make it last all year, so I’m going to spend $200 a month and leave a $100 cushion.” Spending too little is the most common mistake bankers make. It the case above, the banker would have been far better off to spend nothing, keeping the entire $2,500 – maybe taking the staff out to lunch a few times. The golden rule of advertising is “spend what it takes to get at least a 50% hit-rate on your target demographic, for at least one month, generating, at least, an average frequency of 10 times.” If you don’t have the money to do that, then don’t do anything. And, if you can only do that for one month, then for heavens sake, don’t try spreading that over many months. It won’t work.

THREE: You don’t have a specific, quantifiable goal your advertising budget is to achieve.

Is this you: “I’m not looking for a specific result, I’m just trying to get my name out there.” If this IS you, please stop and consider this: it’s very important to make value judgments about your ad results. You should have some concrete goals: 100 new checking accounts, 50 new Remote Deposit accounts in 12 months, or some specific objective you can measure. Sometimes the measurement is subtle: you want to raise community awareness that you didn’t take TARP money. You should be able to quantify at least a dozen comments from your depositors and others that lets you know the message is being received. Somehow, some way you need to be satisfied you are getting results.

SUGGESTION: Spend a few hundred dollars (usually less than $500) and buy an Advertising Effectiveness Report.

We’re an ad agency. We create advertising that WORKS. We can measure your spending so you will know if you’re getting your money’s worth. We know what works and what doesn’t. So, before you spend any more money on advertising, call us. It can’t hurt.

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising by George Self
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There’s a great opportunity to help hundreds of people in your market.  Some of them are likely your customers. What’s that?  Head off a mortgage loan scam in your market.

People who prey on the  uninformed are vile. There’s a simple, cheap way your bank can help: allocate prominent space on your website home page to (1) warn about mortgage loan scams, (2) link to a page where you clearly outline the dangers, (3) make available an email address and phone number to give more information, and finally, (4) link to government sites like the FDIC, FTC and similar pages where more help can be found. What an OUTSTANDING way to help customers, help yourself, and not spend very much money.

Once you’ve got your web page together, perhaps you could tweet your customers (and the media) every time you update the information. Make sure you let customers know about your page with statement notices and across the teller line hand outs – things you’re already doing, right?

Remember, it doesn’t always take a ‘grand gesture’ to do your customers some good. Often times, little things count just as much.

Here are some links to get you (or your compliance people) thinking:

Featured Articles from the FTC:http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/articles/naps03.pdf

FDIC Tips on Avoiding Mortgage Foreclosure Scams: http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/loans/prevention/rescue/watch.html

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Bank Operations & Compliance, Public Relations by George Self
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Maybe you didn’t see our tweet about Walmart’s “Project Impact”.  You may have missed something important. (Not that following our Twitter feed is worth your daily attention… yet.)

The important part is that the company who has kicked off their own “Project Impact” is the same company who operates a massive retail a store in just about every market in the country, who even now has an increasing “share of wallet” and who may just be your customers’ next bank.  Walmart thinks they know how to take ANY customer away from ANY company.  And you know, they’re on to something.

The Walmart strategy posits that winning the customer experience battle gains ground important in the war of corporate survival. As an idea, this isn’t new.  Big companies typically launch these “experience” campaigns that die from committee decisions and Corporate Attention Deficit Disorder (CADD).

But this time Walmart’s mission feels different.  This is a company that has proven it knows how to win.

My recommendation: while reviewing and scoping your company’s opportunities  think about just one segment that when executed properly will make other opportunities easier to realize.

The customer experience matters more  today than it did thanks to the internet.  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the other ‘people-power machines’ can make or break your opportunities — worse, your brand — faster than you can say “UNPLUG!”

The companies who take the customer experience seriously, and continue to innovate in delivering “surprise and delight” will win.  The companies who sit and stare at their computer screen all day will go the way of dinosaurs and Circuit City.

Stop working out the old stodgy marketing plan and get ready for the new economy.  Walmart gets it, and perhaps as important, they have the money to so muddle the market that it won’t matter if they screw it up in transition.

What are you doing to defend yourself against Walmart’s Project Impact? It’s a big deal.  I think you need to call me.  Today.  Or RT the tweet to get my attention.

A company empowered within its own local markets can win any customer experience battle. All that is needed is a passion to thrive and a good relationship with a marketing partner who gets it.  If I may suggest one that’s been in the same family and with the same ownership since 1972?  You get where this is going…

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Business At Its Best by Zack Self
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Recently, a Bank of America branch manager insisted that a man, Steve Valdez, born without arms and who wears prosthetic devices, provide a thumbprint before it would cash his proffered check.  He had two forms of identification, both with pictures; the check he wanted to cash was written by his wife.

Nevertheless, the bank still required Valdez to give up a thumbprint.

Why does this happen?  Three reasons, and every bank CEO, SVP and Board Member should think seriously about about how their bank stacks up:

Reason number one: the bank cut the training budget because they needed to generate as much profit as possible — likely to satisfy Wall Street.

Reason number two: the bank was preoccupied with other “more important stuff” so they simply were not paying attention to customer service.

Reason number three: most banks are “rule” oriented, not “people oriented”.  They train their staff that it is better to follow a rule to hell than stop, engage brain and think.

Now, you say, “No, no, this was just a happenstance.  Any bank can have a bad day.”

OK, you say that if it makes you feel better.  But, I don’t believe it.  I spend a big part of my life in and out of big banks, surveying and researching customer service.  Big banks don’t really believe in customer service.  Why? Because they don’t have to.  If they lose a customer, no big deal.  They’ve got plenty more.

What can your bank do to stay out of the paper with kind of disastrous publicity?

SWOT your bank’s customer service. Here’s how you do that: (1) Institute the changes your SWOT uncovers; (2) Set up mystery shops and customer surveys; (3) Incent your staff in a meaningful way for positive customer experience; take the incentives back for negative experiences.

This is simple ‘blocking and tackling”.  But, you’re probably busy, so call us.  We can help you get it going.

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Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Public Relations by George Self
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