Category Archives: Marketing

Sun Life advertises no government bailouts

A couple of weeks ago, Sun Life announced the launch of a new advertising campaign (“Get to Know Sun Life”), designed to raise Sun Life’s brand awareness in the U.S.  (See http://www.gettoknowsunlife.com/)

sun_life_no_bailout_ad

At the same time Sun Life is also running online advertising that emphasizes the fact that it have never received a government bailout in its 144+ years of existence.   The advertising is a counter of how long Sun Life Financial has gone without bailout money.  In addition to emphasizing Sun Life’s financial strength, it also highlights its longevity.

Many banks, insurers and investment firms have highlighted the fact that they have not received government funding–or have repaid the funding–in investor and analyst presentations, but very few financial institutions have launched advertising around this topic.

Signs of life in bank marketing spending?

Recent bank advertising campaigns (from Bank of America, American Express, Chase, Discover, and Visa) is leading to speculation that banks are once gain increasing bank advertising/marketing spend.  However, the latest financial data does not support this contention.  Most financial institutions reported year-over-year declines in advertising/marketing spend in 3Q09, and for many of these, the level of the y/y decline in 3Q09 was higher than that reported in 2Q09.  An exception was U.S. Bank, which grew ad spending 83% y/y to $137MM.

The following table tracks trends in advertising/marketing spend for some leading U.S. financial institutions:

Financial Institution

3Q09 Advertising/
Marketing Spend, $MM

Y/Y Change in 3Q09

Y/Y Change in 2Q09

American Express

                   $504

         –22%

         –47%

Bank of America

                   $470

         –22%

         –13%

JPMorgan Chase

                   $440

           –3%

          +1%

Citi

                   $317

         –36%

         –43%

Visa

                   $283

         -12%

         -15%

Wells Fargo

                   $160

           -2%

         -44%

U.S. Bank

                   $137

        +83%

        +21%

Morgan Stanley

                   $126

         -24%

         -35%

Capital One

                   $104

         -61%

         -53%

Discover

                     $78

         -44%

         -22%

PNC

                     $58

         -21%

         -27%

Key

                     $19

         -30%

         -19%

Huntington

                       $7

        +17%

          +2%

Dashboards: Measure what Matters

The increased attention on marketing ROI and the customer experience has produced an increased interest in the development and use of dashboards in the marketing/CRM environment. The article “Dashboards: No Longer a Luxury” from 1-to-1 Magazine clearly points that out. The fact that everyone wants dashboards is positive, since measurement drives more informed—and therefore better—decisions, but the reality is that few succeed in creating dashboards that are truly valuable management tools. The pitfalls of most dashboards are that they measure too much which creates information overload and/or they measure the wrong things.

To be effective, dashboards should comprise no more than five or six measurements, which should be a blend of results metrics (e.g., sales, leads) and operational performance metrics (e.g., call resolution statistics, outbound call volume).

  • Results measurement should focus on the two or three numbers that will provide a “snapshot” of the health of the business/functional area. The numbers should be able to provide either an early warning of issues requiring intervention or reassurance of the state of the status quo.
  • Operational measurements should focus on quantifying the operational activities that drive positive results. For example, if you can correlate customer training attendance to customer satisfaction and repeat business, you should be monitoring training attendance rates.

Dashboards can and should be a valuable tool for management to understand at a glance the state of the business and the progress towards goals, but only if it’s focused on the right measurements.