Articles: The Nine P's of Bank Marketing
November 2010
I'm pretty sure it's NOT a sign of age, but lately life just seems complicated. I can remember when the only decision I had to make about my morning coffee was decaf or regular, and you didn't need a user's manual with a phone. There were four easy steps: pick up receiver, listen for dial tone, yell at teenager to hang up, dial. Ah, those were the days.
Still, to be scrupulously honest, some complications are worth the bother. Extra shot nonfat vanilla lattes and recycling come to mind. Ditto some of the new thinking in marketing.
Thirty years or so ago there were four components universally acknowledged to be the foundation of marketing: Product, Price, Place (distribution), and Promotion. We called them the 4 P's.
Get those right, the thinking went, and the next stop on the trolley would be Easy Street.
So just when we thought we'd earned a nice lie-down in the La-Z-Boy, the marketing scientists get busy and discover more P's. A lot more P's. I just read an article claiming there were now 27 P's – yep, you read that right – with potentially more on the way.
It's all because of changes in the way we experience the world and how much wider our world has gotten as a result. In this new age, the customer is in control – and not afraid to let us know it.
What that means to us as bankers is that we now have to go above and beyond. Marketing is no longer catchy slogans and plush toy giveaways. Now it's about making sure that every element of the customer experience is aligned so the expectations you create match the actual experience of your customers – at every touch point.
Don't worry – I think the basic 4 P's are still the place to start and 27 are really over the top. So here are my votes for the next set of marketing P's for Bankers:
P #5: Purchaser. The center of your marketing should be defining your target customer; the segment of the population and or business community that you want to gain and keep as customers.
P # 6: People. A superior customer experience comes down to your employees, the people you have speaking to customers. Are they smart, professional and pleasant and can they really help your customers? And while you're hiring and training the right people, don't overlook how you motivate them. It's a basic tenet of psychology that you get the action you reward – so if you're rewarding for xxxxx, don't expect yyyyy.
P #7: Process. What do you make customers go through to open an account or fix a problem? Is it easy and painless, transparent and self-evident – or do they need an instruction manual? If they call you, how long does it take to reach the person who can actually help them, and how many recorded messages do they have to listen to first? Your customer is busy - and they want a simple process to get answers and help.
The "simple is good" mantra also applies to your employees. If it's torture to set up a new product or service, they'll find ways not to sell it.
P #8: Positioning. It's your brand, your reputation, what you're known for. In this brave new world, nobody can be all things to all people. Being equally good at everything means not being very good at anything. So you have to stake out a market niche and then meet those people's needs very, very well.
To determine your position, finish this sentence the way your customers would: My bank is the bank that ….
If you answered, "provides friendly service" - which is what many of your competitors say – then yikes! You should consider some marketing intervention to clarify what that means to your customers as well as make sure you are actually delivering on this promise. Or better yet, get help to develop a stronger and more unique message for your most important Purchasers – your 5th P.
P #9: Purpose. So why are you doing what you're doing – what messages are you communicating about why you are in business? And what do your employees think is most important? For many of you it could be survival --- - but is that the message you really want your customers to hear?
So that's my vote for the 9 P's of Bank Marketing. Let us know what you think, if you're interested in seeing the full list of 27 P's, or would like to discuss how to improve the effectiveness of your marketing P's. Lauren can be reached at lauren@oconnellconsultinggroup.com.
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