Mark this day down … the day a Marketer conducts treason, talks non-sense, spews blasphemy … the day a Marketer utters the concept of “over branding.”
The idea hit me while conducting the ol’ “Look through the customer’s eyes” exercise.
Mark this day down … the day a Marketer conducts treason, talks non-sense, spews blasphemy … the day a Marketer utters the concept of “over branding.”
Yep, that’s right, as banks and credit unions, I believe that we may be over branding.
The idea hit me last week when I was working on a creative concept for a client’s brand new home equity line of credit … one where you can lock in a rate during the course of the loan on the current balance. Now, for the bank, this is new … sort of a hybrid line of credit and equity loan. So, we jumped to what so many marketing professionals spend so much time doing … naming it…
It hit me while conducting the ol’ “Look through the customer’s eyes” exercise.
We can never over brand the institution. Building awareness and understanding is hard enough on its own. But branding products … Banks and credit unions can have 5 or more checking names, I’ve named and branded specific, “special” auto loans, mortgage products, and now this line of credit. Hours of time providing a series of names, subtracting, adding, editing, fine tuning, meetings – oh Lord, the meetings! And for what? Does the consumer REALLY care?
I honestly don’t have an answer yet. But I have theory.
I believe that consumers have a NEED. I believe that, to most people, financial products are a necessity. I believe that there is a certain amount of hocus-pocus to banking – consumers have a general understanding of the basics (checking, savings, home equity) and product brand names don’t necessarily de-mystify it. I believe that all consumers want is their need met.
I’ve also witnessed sub-brand, product names get in the way for staff. During secret shopping, it is not uncommon for a teller or CSR/MSR to use the product name as the sales point, “We have the Supercalifragilistic Checking.” No mention of what makes it so darn “expialidocious,” just the name. Like its supposed to mean something to me. Yes, this is a training issue. We need to make sure, product names or not, that our staff speak in terms of BENEFITS. Names and features won’t cut it!
Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have a variety of products – we absolutely should! I’m not saying that we should commoditize ourselves any more than we already have. But saying that we have a wide variety of checking or loan options may be enough. We, then, de-commoditize ourselves by LISTENING and providing TAILORED SOLUTIONS to each individual.
Am I crazy? Have you experienced some extraordinary spike in sales due to a clever product brand name? Please share … I need to know.
I know it can work. Corvette is an iconic sub-brand.
What I want to avoid is spinning wheels and spending resources on an “inside-out” viewpoint, when we should be totally focused on the “outside-in” perspective. Stop talking about what’s important to us and concern ourselves more with what’s important to customers. Every meeting, every new idea, every marketing effort should ALWAYS conduct the “Look through the customer’s eye’s” exercise.
