Why advertising for financial firms is so forgettable?

Its probably not fair - but its true - financial service companies make for very poor advertisements. No really, if there is one kid of advertising i really cant imagine doing, it's got to be this one. As a lay consumer most of the times i cant make out one advertisement for another - at a very basic level the ads do not seem to engage. (The only two exceptions to this are probably the State Bank of India banker to every indian campaign and the recent Union Bank 2010 campaign). Occasionally when banks do seem to hit upon something interesting - like ICICI bank, they dont seem to stick to it.

Maybe the big reason is that at their core - fin serv companies don't seem to think about branding - the approach seems to be more campaign specific or news specific rather than an effort to build a long term brand identity. This probably explains why there is no one thing you can remember a company by. for sometime i thought it could be the varied nature of their services under one roof - e.g. insurance to loan products which makes it tough for them to hold one essence - but then whats common between tata steel and tata tea, there is still a corporate brand.

These are but the symptoms, the core issue is a lack of clear positioning for the companies, this is where all campaigns and communications eventually flow from. There could be potentially many axis to differentiate starting with psycho graphic, the classic Mercedes approach, so also a philosophy that the company has towards financial products - like Nike has one which identifies the brand. Equally it maybe interesting to position along a key benefit that the consumer experiences when interacting with that company - for e.g the average indian has poor knowledge of finance - even basic banking, forget investments, so a positioning which delivers an answer to this fear, equally about prosperity which is the end result of prudent personal financial management - or of course many many more, best answered in consonance with the core strengths of the company.

And once the positioning is clear, building on it consistently without change - is what will carve it such that consumers can actually identify the company. After all positioning is what you do to the mind of the consumer.



By the way, the quote for today -
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
- Robert Frost

keep up some of the mystery - and important rule for brand you - not the brand, but buying the promise baby

A little bit of mystery goes a long way. Remember that girl in school you were really in awe of, and then somehow you got to know her and spend more time with her.. and then you were not in awe of her any longer. You may have turned great friends with her alright, but you certainly were not in awe of her any longer. Now if you met Pierce Brosnan often, eventually became someone on first name basis with him, saw him in his real avatar - unglamourous, available when you wanted him - would he still be as aspirational for you?

Not a chance. Exclusivity, Rarity, Scarcity .. magical words, they make you appreciate the same thing much more. Its true of people&relationships, true of food - and true of marketing as well.

At its start a mystery captures your mind, is incredibly appealing - it has to hit just the right balance.. revealing itself enough to keep you believing u can get it but still keeping its self under wraps enough to keep you interested. If not handled well then layer by layer as you see it unpeeling and you get closer to the simple truth, there is nothing to keep finding, the search is gone. the mission is achieved..

A little mystery a little exclusivity a little attitude - and that makes it desirable.. it works for brands, works for you.. something like a universal principle. And its been perhaps very well decoded by luxury brands - the advertising often is unled, unexplained - created in a manner that it can have multiple interpretations and you are welcome to find yours.

This principle - well understood for premium brands is rarely seen activated for the more mid to mass tier brands. The advertising is judged for being relatable - whereas premium or luxury advertising seems to be designed to be something for the moon.

Buying a product is buying into the promise of the brand and what it delivers. And this promise does need to be a bit larger than life, real but still far - because if just something easy can do the job then why buy the brand?

Betting on your company?

Would you put your money where you work? If you had a pot of money to invest would you invest it on your company? That's probably a great surrogate for how you see its future shaping. If the answer to this question is no, then should you really be spending your time there?

Make consumers co creators, really?

Social marketing gurus, social media consultants, designing a social marketing strategy - an orkut,a facebook and a twitter later - there is almost a whole new channel for marketing that seems to have emerged. And suddenly if you don't have a social marketing strategy - you're worried that your missing a trick in the game.

But i dont get it? Sure there is a whole new place to find consumers - but some consumers at that, especially in the india context - with limited internet penetration, huge age segmentation in play, its really a very niche set - and perhaps has not reached that tipping poing yet either. Besides, what does this platform really deliver? it does not match up to other channels where reach for advertising even in this niche target segment in concerned - (maybe it has some cost benefits since we know targeting niche is very expensive and the internet medium maybe cheap) - The big benefit attributed to this medium is "engaging"with consumers and co-creating - thats the one i am really uncomfortable with. I wonder if consumers really seek joy in co-creating, do they begin to care more for a brand as they go through the process of co-creating?, if they participate in this process does that make them more loyal? Maybe its just cashing in on the prize money, maybe they are bored - maybe its simply entertainment with nothing better to do right now. The only time i have seen consumers passionate about co-creating is when its about bad news, when there is a problem - then this forum really has consumers participating.

Not to say, its not a medium to be ignored - i think its a great place to have ears close to the door and pick up the kind of conversations consumers are having about your brand but not sure if its really become big enough to make material difference to the good fortunes of the brand - but can cause a down slide pretty fast. As Al ries says, its not really a strategy, it can be a tactic in the strategy but thats it. Lets not give it more importance than that.

The Luxury Prime

Luxury goods play the role of being status symbols of the owners - and are often bought as such for this purpose. They are indeed an expression of self interest & indulgence - most of us tend to think that those who have enough and more, would at least be as open to thinking about others as those who don't. But turns out, the more you have the less likely you are to think of others - that's what this wip research done by a professor duo from Harvard and London Business school says. (You can read it here http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-034.pdf) . In testing amongst those primed towards to luxury vs. those who were not, it shows that people exposed to it are more likely to be less considerate towards others.

Back home - its probably evidenced in the number of people in the top income bracket that pay tax. While there are many larger implications of this idea, the researchers are in particular looking at what it means for business. For starters it makes me question the weirdly high remuneration and kick backs that the finance industry personnel enjoy. (sour grapes ;)!) But from a business's point of view - the only thing that matters is creating shareholder value and less considerate towards society hardly means less effective right? Likely that they serve as an excellent incentive (think all the goodies that are bait for sales guys) As a build would be interesting to see the linkage of luxury with performance - so more luxury is less considerate, but does it also mean more focus on performance?