Bananas go up in price when there is a major weather disaster or crop failure and that’s understandable as it’s all about supply and demand since we are on a remote island.

The banking sector is 100% responsible for the recent world recession, and their ill-thought out financial decisions have brought some of the most respected financial institutions in the world to their knees (RBS in the UK)! This rate rise will add a reported $235 million to Westpac’s multi-billion dollar profits this year. When will banks start caring about their customers and not just their shareholders? And why is it that home owners are the ones that have to foot the bill every time the government and the RBA want to control inflation?

The quote from one of Westpac’s senior execs yesterday that “Westpac is not the Jetstar of the banking world” outraged me even more than this direct marketing campaign crap, though I haven’t actually received it from them – I wonder why?

I have been in contact with other lenders to seek a better deal and I will take my business elsewhere, which I have told Westpac today. NAB is looking likely to get my vote since its increase was the lowest.

after some a brief bit of research apparently not…India takes the (banana) biscuit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana

Or was that ‘small’ island supposed to be a graphic representation of Australia – a relatively small banking market (island) by international standards in which they (man with watering can) control, along with the other 3, the majority of the market (the 2 x banana trees)…

I also think the popular assault on their 3.5bn proffit margin is misunderstood. Shareholders are only shareholders because the shares remain attractive. If they were a co-op instead of a company, their profits would be extremely low and customers would be better off in the short term, but they would attract no investment whatsoever. Nobody would buy into westpac if there was nothing in it for them, and soon enough there would be no westpac.

“but why do the profits have to be so high?”

Because that is what attracts from the market. To beat this poor stinking analogy to death: If you were buying a banana, would you rather a fresh bright yellow banana, or a spotted brown one? The bank needs to keep itself looking nice and appealing in order to avoid rotting.

Believe it or not, that IS better for all of us.

research studies conducted in the late 1990′s in the US by AT&T’s Public Relations research department suggest:

* when there is ‘normal’ news coverage, news and advertising work together, and incremental advertising has a positive impact on attitudes

* in times of widespread and extremely positive news coverage, the incremental positive impact of advertising is much less than in normal times

* in times of widespread and extremely negative news coverage, incremental advertising does not have a positive incremental impact, and may even have a negative effect

* advertising can, and should in some circumstances, be ‘turned up and down’ according to the level of unpaid news coverage

the lack of PR sensibility by the marketing people is astonishing and provides solid evidence as to why marketing should report to corporate communications within organisations

Of course Westpac expected to cop flak over the 20bps rise, but probably thought this would pass

What they didn’t expect is that marketing would ensure people remembered being shafted

The email video is a good way to make a direct point re moving in lock-step with official rate rises, because as Milorad said the target audience is unsophisticated

The problems are the banana smoothie analogy, which trivialises the importance of rate rises to the average mortgagor, and the timing – it comes at least 6 months too late in the cycle and right now it only highlights that the most recent rise is just greedy

Marketing may have assumed that the average punter won’t read the bourgeois press – but the extra 20bps story got carried everywhere in print and online

Does anyone here really believe that a similar over-simplified explanation is unwarranted? Perhaps it’s your own view of the world which is somewhat restricted by the people you deal with every day, because I can tell you, the world I see every day is packed full of some mighty simple people.

Some of them might feel slighted by the ‘play school story time’ nature of this video, but if you asked them to explain the concept prior to seeing it, I’m willing to bet mortgages to bananas that they couldn’t.

I wish for a minute that this site were frequented by the kind of person I’m talking about. The kind whose idea of financial planning is putting $40 aside for a slab on the weekend. You all would be in the extreme minority.

Is it a hit? was it well done? was it even particularly accurate? No… obviously not… but I do believe the occasional over-simplified message is necessary, as I think /most/ people glaze over between the sport and the weather forecast, when watching the news.

Most people are disengaged and therefore ignorant. I won’t say stupid, even though that’s the word that first comes to mind.