The old expression springs to mind …  “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings“. A group of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it is interested in buying Dutch bank ABN Amro in a deal worth some £49bn. The mooted offer would trump a deal that was agreed with the UK’s Barclays. Source: BBC NEWS | Business | RBS woos ABN with £49bn bid plan This offer is 13% higher, and includes Spain’s Santander and Belgium’s Fortis, who are proposing a deal worth 72bn euros (£49bn; $98bn), or 39 euros a share.  The Barclays arrangement … Continue reading RBS woos ABN with £49bn bid plan

 This post from Jean at Javelin, resonates with me.  During the early days the apparent truism that all a customers information could be simply assembled on one page, drove enormous assumptions that were over-stated. In an ideal world, FIs would have all information necessary about each individual customer’s preferences, life stage, demographic and psychographic profile, and endless other details that make the market-of-one more of a reality and less of an ideal. Source: Javelin Strategy and Research » Appealing to a Market of One The early promise was in fact a theory more than reality.  This from Information Week in … Continue reading Appealing to a ‘Segment of One’ | is it a lost hope?

 As noted earlier, BMO Bank of Montreal were touted as being interested in LaSalle Bank in Chicago, but general analyst sentiment places the US $21 Bn price tag that BofA appear to have secured, well out of reach. At $91-billion, a Barclay’s merger with ABN Amro dwarfs Canadian banks, and may leave them out of future plays as global consolidation rolls on.  I would be shocked if Harris came to the table with a bid at this point. The largest financial services takeover ever is reigniting calls for Canadian bank mergers as Bank of Montreal appears unable to even pick … Continue reading Europe’s mega banking deal highlights the constraints that Canada places on its Banks

Hat tip to Susan Abbott –  this quote from Jeffrey Eisenberg is highly profound. Brands don’t work the way they used to … Take a look at a company like Starbucks. Can anybody name a major brand, not a brand extension, but a major brand that in the last decade has been created primarily through advertising? Nobody. I’ve never met a crowd that could. If you think of companies like Yahoo and Google and Starbucks and Amazon, these companies have been built by experience and by word of mouth. Marketing doesn’t work the way it used to. Source: Customer Experience … Continue reading "Brands don’t work the way they used to"

 Despite being considered a cheque centric country, US use of electronic bill payment now exceeds cheques, for paying bills. The January 2007 survey of 2018 respondents, which was conducted by Harris Interactive and the Marketing Workshop, shows that online payments made up 39% of the total volume of bill payments among Internet-connected households, an increase of four per cent since December 2005. In contrast, the number of cheques sent through the post to pay bills fell four per cent to 34% of the overall volume. Source: Finextra: E-bill payments surpass cheques among Web-connected households   Technorati tags: cheques, checks, bill+pay, … Continue reading Finextra: E-bill payments surpass cheques among Web-connected households

 When I saw this headline my first reaction for schwabmoneywise was to expect an interactive site that engaged participants in discussion, and interaction. After all, they won’t be kids forever. Schwab MoneyWise will help you teach your teens the fundamentals of finance and money management. So you can raise them with the knowledge to thrive in an increasingly complex financial world. Source: Charles Schwab MoneyWise : Financial Basics Detail The premise is based on, of course, research. The site was developed based on Schwab research showing that parents want help educating their kids about money. Coincidentally, the 2007 Schwab Teens … Continue reading Charles Schwab MoneyWise misses out on a perfect opportunity

 Seth makes an important point here in referring to the older baby boomers having some characteristics that have not traditionally been associated with old people, and hence his conclusion.  Psychographics (open vs. closed) are way more important than demographics. Source: Seth’s Blog: Marketing to seniors (open and closed) I would adjust the statement to say that psychographics are essential to understand the impact of demographics, and how to think about the segments, including old baby boomers, otherwise know as “Cranky’s“. The point in my simple view is that methods of assessing demographic shifts must take into account the psychological profile … Continue reading Psychographics more important than demographics

 Doug does an interesting job here comparing different markets, and the decision points for consumers, pointing to the commoditisation of loans. Lowest price Convenience – same side of the street Urgency – low fuel light came on and you pulled in to the next gas station you saw Loyalty – always use the same gas station Cleanliness – pumps and station are clean Hunger or Thirst – filled up and went in to the convenience store Speed – like the pay at the pump system at the preferred gas station Rewards – get rewards at the gas station used Source: … Continue reading Gas (Petrol) station banking

 Datamonitor report that Banks continue to treat internet as a service channel, and are failing to capitalise on soaring consumer adoption rates and convert online services to sales.[hat tip Finextra] Karina Purang, financial services analyst at Datamonitor, says a big problem is that banks are struggling to integrate the Internet with other channels and where there is integration in many cases this remains confined to the transactional level, rather than in terms of integrated business processes and a single customer view across multiple channels. This has a negative impact on the customer experience, says Purang, and also prevents banks from … Continue reading Banks are struggling to integrate the Internet with other channels