SMALL BUSINESS BANKING: Lessons in Acquiring and Retaining Customers

Anyone walking the streets of New York City recently, will notice an increasingly common sight — banks on every corner. With rental prices in excess of $100 a square foot, these banks are aggressively looking for new customers, particularly small businesses. The marketing campaigns directed to small businesses have been just as aggressive.There is much wrong with these marketing approaches, but let’s look at a number of ways around the problems.

AMERICA’S BANKER: The Many Chapters of A.P. Giannini

A.P.Giannini never let a little thing like an earthquake get in the way of his work, even if it was one of the strongest in memory.

A.P.Giannini never let a little thing like an earthquake get in the way of his work, even if it was one of the strongest in memory. The pictures of the destruction from the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 must have been reminiscent of those we keep seeing on the news nearly 100 years later of the hurricanes ravaging the Gulf Coast. Today, we see flood waters. Back then it was fires. But with the Great Quake, there was no warning, no satellite pictures of an oncoming storm, no chance to flee the city and board up windows. The earthquake hit the city like a sledgehammer blasting through a pane of glass. Geologists now estimate that the April 18, 1906, earthquake was an 8.3 on the Richter scale. Like so many other people in the city, Giannini was awakened from his sleep by the jolt that morning.

PARTICIPATORY MARKETING ON THE INTERNET

The online experience is changing the shopping and buying habits of consumers. It is also adding a critical chapter to the rule book of marketing. How we structure, plan, buy and measure media is being challenged by the direct, interactive and personalized nature found online.

Online is democratizing marketing and enabling relatively small, aggressive companies like Emigrant Direct, to capture a market share from established brands.

INTERVIEW

VERBATIM: JFAMInterviews Marketing Legend, Don Schultz, Ph.D., Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications, The Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

In this issue of The Journal of Financial Advertising & Marketing, we turn our attention to a direction we have not traveled before academics.

METRIC

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BRAND? (And Who Cares) By Nader Ashway

On a recent commute along a major interstate in New York City, a large trailer drove alongside my car. I was struck with the audacity of the massive graphic painted on its side.

FEATURE

CONSUMER RULES: Who’s Got The Power Now? By Steve Gardner and Tom Nelson

If you don’t receive at least half a dozen articles and e-mails about the need for new ways to reach consumers, you’re not in marketing.

FEATURE

THE AUDIENCE WITHIN: Employees Become Key Target Market

Several years ago, a super-regional bank considered an innovator (I’ll call it Bank A) invested heavily to build a capital management business that moved the institution beyond traditional banking.