Market research is always questionable, and somewhat self serving, but this survey (Keane) has significant results in favour of financial planning tools online. Consumers Are Still Not Getting the Online Services They Need From Their Banks The Keane study discovered that many customers want to improve their financial planning but they need – and say they are willing to use – online help from their financial institutions. 80% of Aspiring Planners said they would be likely to use expert advice and online guidance on financial matters and more than 60% would use an online diagnostic planning tool to help them … Continue reading Willingness to use financial planning on Banks’ web sites

Bank of Montreal opens new branch and replaces the mall branch with a grocery store outlet. canadaeast.com – TT Local Economy Having a new stand-alone branch and an in-store branch right across the street just makes sense for a vibrant community like Dieppe with both branches' locations right on the border with Moncton, senior vice-president for Quebec and Atlantic Canada François Hudon says. The strategy is to capture business as customers go about their grocery shopping. ……. new in-store branch at the Sobey's grocery store in the mall that is open every day, 64 hours per week."We're going to try … Continue reading We need to recapture those conversations – BMO

A simple example of the international nature of ATM fraud. Information from ATM cards skimmed in Auckland used in Canada to fleece accounts of thousands (IRN News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)There has been a third case of skimming of money cards at an Auckland ATM machine.This time it is at a BNZ machine at Pakuranga Plaza. Information is thought to have been stolen from 60 cards. That information has been used in Toronto in Canada with the fraudsters taking a total of $49,000. It was only when card holders queried transactions that the BNZ realised its ATM machine at Pakuranga … Continue reading Information from ATM cards skimmed in Auckland used in Canada to fleece accounts of thousands

Just when everyone thought they saw and understood the quiet contextual advertising model espoused by Google, they have done it again as reported earlier by Ajaxian. Charlene from Forrester makes the link to advertising and how Google are integrating Google Base content into search results in a highly relevant way. She further makes the point that operations such as car dealers ought to get into Google Base. Charlene Li's Blog: Google integrates classifieds into search results What this means: if you're an auto dealer or real estate agent, get your listings into Google Base. It will be a great way … Continue reading Google Base quietly moves forward

Chevrolet have had an interesting baptism of fire in trying something new online. Someone, somewhere in Cherolet Marketing department, decided a campaign that involved Tahoe drivers in creating their own commercial would be a good idea. The creative brief probably spoke of "building commiunity", and "engaging users" etc etc. The campaign, is here and the results are here. The way it works, is that the apprentice is asked to add some pre-packaged Tahoe pictures, and pre-selected music, and they stuff it together into a commercial. After you are done, I have no idea where the commercial goes, because it took … Continue reading How “not” to use internet for marketing

This paper from Selfserviceworld.com, is intriguing and captures the general trend we can all see, for ATM type machines showing up everywhere within otherwise traditional shops and stores. TheFivePromisesofSelf-Service.pdf There is a new generation of ATM like machines that are available to Banks. These machines will perform additional functions, and are only limited by the Banks' imagination and technology constraints. These ATM's can provide "assisted self service". Customers can perform the bulk of the transaction, (commercial deposit, wire transfer, purchase a draft) at the ATM, and complete with the CSR. This provides greater efficiency to the CSR team, and speed … Continue reading The promise of assisted self service

Courtesy of the USC Center for the Digital Future. Here are the results of their survey of top activities for internet users. I am impressed we made the list, let alone made #7. Got this from Mark Evans, after he saw Jeffrey Cole speak today. Wish I had caught that actually. Hope to meet Mark at MESH. He is doing a good job at promoting the new web lifestyle. The top 10 for 2005 are: e-mail general Web surfing reading news shopping entertainment news (searching and reading) seeking information about hobbies online banking medical information (searching and reading) instant messaging … Continue reading Online Banking is one of the top internet activities