In a post royal commission world, can marketing even help banks win back trust?
Australia’s banks are facing an unprecedented marketing challenge. So where should they even start, asks The Content Division’s Kurt Sanders?
This morning as I knocked off my bacon and eggs – a luxury breakfast achievable only through my broker Dave securing me an extremely decent fee-free low fixed-rate home loan a few years back – a bank ad retargeted me on Twitter urging me to swap my loan to them.
With all the tactical nous of a cryptocurrency CEO dying with all of the passwords in his head, the ad came from my existing bank.
I get it. Marketing is hard.
I have worked extensively on brand and and communication strategy in the financial sector (much of that on one of the Big 4 banks) for the past 14yrs in Australia and the question i would also be asking is, do Australian consumers really care about having to trust a bank? The say it is important and it is true trust levels in the Big 4 have deteriorated over the past 10yrs. However, what consumer say and what they do are two very different things. This is evident in that the four major banks domination of the Australian banking market has not shifted over the past decade. They account for around three-quarters of deposits and assets and a larger share of home loans. They have average about 80% market share over the same period and the level of consideration for the Big 4 among consumers when looking for new products is also staying consistent. I am sure consumers do care about trust in their banks, but as long as there is an oligopoly in the Australian banking sector then these ‘bumps’ in consumer outrage will soon pass over and it will be back to business as normal so you put it. I know, I Know people will say Fin Tech will change all this, but I have been hearing this for the past few years and still not seen any significant impact – yet.
Totally agree, Colin. I’m pretty sure trust isn’t a huge consideration/worry for a lot of consumers in regards to the big banks. I do think fintech may have an impact on that but it may well be a while off. For what it’s worth I bank with a new fintech offering called Upbank – backed by Bendigo Bank and Bank of SA I believe. Well worth a look to see where they are taking things.
They do look interesting, thanks
Any suggestions on what the banks should do Kurt?(sorry if i missed them)
Hey Pete, yeah it’s a bloody good question. If marketing/advertising were to help the best example I can think of is NAB’s “Breaking up with the other banks” campaign from a few years back. A bold brand position and a big brand promise that they have to see through. That campaign is a combination of the things I mentioned in the paragraph in my story: “It was more a battle of visibility at scale, mentions, brand loyalty (read laziness), relationships, geography, deals, products and, nowadays, how far I can get through my business without having to speak to what I refer to as Dante’s Inferno but what you might simply call a bank’s call centre.”
Whether ad people liked that campaign or not to me is irrelevant, NAB reported it was hugely effective, and that’s the goal. The big difference though is that now they really need to mean it – they didn’t really break up with the banks, they led the charge into dishonesty and dodgy practices. The failed the brand promise. But putting all that aside, I’m not even sure they care that much. If the biggest scalps this commission takes is Ken Henry and the mortgage broking industry, then it has failed.
Trust comes when behaviour changes.