During the lead up to launch since the announcement earlier this year, the advertising for Apple iPhone has been relatively minimal. This is a strong case for new style marketing handled well. Marketing departments need not apply. Awareness of the product is high, and curiousity about it very high. Yet according to Piper Jaffray, sales of the device are approximately 500K over the weekend. Perhaps this is the best example yet of new marketing. – product quality – brand consistentcy – nurture the market conversation – let the advocates talk it up – deliver on expectations This photo of Patrick … Continue reading iPhone | The power of “word of mouth”

Moneysupermarket.com is planning an IPO, which apparently values the company at $2 Bn. Banknet360 This from the moneysupermarket site. The contents of the Share Offer Pages, which have been prepared and are the sole responsibility of the Company, have been approved by Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited (“Credit Suisse”), One Cabot Square, London E14 4QJ, solely for purposes of section 21(2)(b) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Credit Suisse, which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Services Authority, is acting for the Company and no-one else in connection with the initial public offering … Continue reading Moneysupermarket.com portends a new front in the provision of banking services

Forrester Forum: some final thoughts following the interesting panel that I was fortunate to be part of. Host was Benjamin Ensor from Forrester in London. Participants were Ed Terpening from Wells, and Jason Knight from Wesabe. Some key points that I took away that I will spend more time on, going forward: – social finance as a lever to provide scale: personal advice cannot be provided, one on one to the masses. By providing a forum for customers to help each other, with some employee participation, advice and guidance can be provided to everyone – why do Banks trust word … Continue reading Why Banks are vulnerable in the long run, to social networking

Gaston Legorburu, Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Sapient, gave a refreshingly simple and interesting talk on the importance of brands. his blog is at cmorants.com Notes: – 96% of sales will occur without the search keyword purchase – Direct Mail: has been the engine that runs the business; customers are sorting mail into bills, and junk. We can measure ROI, and forgot how to create demand – brand happens everywhere; but where is everywhere? “My Reality” = Physical, Virtual and Dream worlds …. – deep rooted marketing processes for a world that no longer exists – marketing prices … Continue reading Brand matters |Sapient

Forrester Forum: Great quote from Jim Smith from Wells. “I think Banks have spent too much time measuring transactions online, and not enough on the aspects of customer relationship, and the impact of online” Technorati tags: Forrester Forum Technorati tags: Online Banking Continue reading Understanding the real impact of online financial services

Forrester Forum: Cliff Condon did a great piece on the lessons from Europe that US Banks could learn. Increasingly there is a sense, that I would support, that North American Banks are involved in a “me too” environment, and no levering and learning from the online channel. Within that view, there is also an apparent learning to be had from the Canadian Banks. I am less sure about that, but Cliff’s piece on European Banks really set a whole new level to consider. Hence his tagline, “Benchmark globally, differentiate locally”. Some stats – % of customers using online banking: Sweden … Continue reading Benchmark globally, diferentiate locally

During a disucssion on brand monitoring and loyalty, the matter of not just listening and watching online conversations about your brand, but participating in the conversation came up. Answer from a respectable Bank was that this would not be helpful, and in fact might actually hurt. General murmurs and nodding heads throughout confirmed this is the right approach. hmmmm … what will it take to get Banks to participate??? forrester, financeforum, Social Computing,Brand Management Continue reading Particpating in online blog conversations is not useful #@!%

Peter Kim from Forrester provides more detail on the Customer Experience keynote. Forrester Marketing blog forrester, financeforum Continue reading Turning Customer Experience Into A Competitive Weapon