Three Consumer Trends Affecting FSI Marketing Strategies
Current consumer trends are driving financial service institutions (FSIs) to adapt their service offerings and evolve their marketing strategies. Three trends in particular have been identified as major drivers of change when it comes to FSI marketing:
Growing Wealth of Generation Y
With Generation Y (or Millennials) surpassing Baby Boomers to become the largest group of consumers, FSIs are recognizing that this generation has more spending power than ever. In fact, Millennial spending power is dictating a whole set of its own trends in relation to banking.
As Millennials gain more investable assets, they look to their chosen FSIs to provide education and advice on a variety of topics, such as applying for a mortgage, selecting insurance policies, and investing for retirement. This creates an opportunity for FSIs to engage Gen Y’ers through marketing communications.
Since Generation Y members prefer to do a majority of their banking online (and other generations have begun to adopt the same preferences), many FSIs are expanding their online and mobile product offerings, and spending budgets on increasing functionality for all online and mobile solutions. This brings us to our next trend.
Consumer Demand for Online & Mobile Banking Solutions
Online and Mobile Banking continue to grow in popularity among all customer age groups. Since online banking portals and mobile apps have become a standard expectation, banking customers now demand more functionality for these options as well.
We also know that electronic banking customers expect industry innovation. Offerings like voice-activated mobile banking transactions, express banking kiosks, and alerts for everything from over-drafting to low loan rates are attractive to electronic banking customers who already are utilizing their FSI’s technology.
As more customers accept these technology-driven banking methods as standard, FSIs must continuously market their online and mobile product offerings to remain relevant. It stands to reason that a larger allocation of FSI marketing budgets would go toward advertising these solutions in an effort to retain current customers and capture new prospects’ attention.
Yet, while banking customers continue to express interest in electronic banking, they’re also sensitive to the security of these technological solutions.
Customer Perception of Lack of Security
As the number of banking customers using online and mobile banking technology increases, so do concerns about information security. Even though FSIs have continued to provide better measures for protecting customers’ security (e. g., thumbprint and voice access to mobile bank accounts, and use of emojis and images in bank PINs and passwords, etc.), consumer perception of lack of security is a large barrier to adoption of electronic banking methods.
FSIs can mitigate this consumer perception by providing more marketing communications surrounding their approach to the topic of security. With ongoing communication about security upgrades, FSIs will appeal to banking customers who are still leery of the online and mobile technology, and provide peace of mind to those who already utilize these banking methods.
FSIs can leverage Gen Y’s spending power, the consumer preference for electronic banking solutions, and the desire for more robust security, turning these trends into marketing opportunities. And, as individual institutions recognize and adjust their marketing strategies to accommodate these trends, they will continue to maintain and convert banking customers.
For more information on Martino Flynn’s category expertise, visit our financial services capabilities page.
The Financial Brand, 2016 State of Financial Marketing, February 2016
MINTEL, Financial Services Trends 2016, January 2016
MINTEL, The Future of Banking in the U.S., January 2015
MINTEL, Mobile Banking – US, January 2015
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Infographic: Top 5 Media Spending Trends
The Key To Your Telecom Booth Strategy: Know Your Audience
Know your audience. Know your audience. Know your audience. How often does that mantra cross your mind? In the world of advertising, public relations, and marketing, I’m going to guess it plays on repeat every single time you work on a new strategy or tactic.
When it comes to trade show marketing, this phrase definitely holds true. From the booth design, collateral, key messaging, and engagement activities and contests to booth staff attire, all components to a trade show booth strategy must answer the question of: “Will this resonate with my audience?”
In 2015, Martino Flynn worked with a leading Fortune 500 telecom company, Windstream, to develop a booth strategy for SpiceWorld 2015. SpiceWorld is the annual trade show and conference hosted by Spiceworks where IT pros and Spiceworks community members (SpiceHeads) come together to learn, meet, and play as they share the latest tech tips and tricks. SpiceWorld is the “Comic-Con” of the IT industry with conference activities that include 8:00 a.m. zombie face painting and attendees dressing up in costumes as popular characters, as well as “SpiceRex” the Spiceworks T-Rex mascot greeting attendees around the expo floor.
The event team at Martino Flynn provided Windstream with pre-show strategy support planning for SpiceWorld, as well as on-site support for the company’s trade show marketing activities as Windstream looked to engage with the Spiceworks community and top SpiceHeads. As the team prepped for the trade show, all strategies led back to the marketing mantra of “know your audience.”
With a fun group of attendees and a trade show with a unique environment, Martino Flynn and Windstream turned to the popularity of Game of Thrones to spice up SpiceWorld. Martino Flynn provided counsel on Windstream’s Game of Thrones-inspired trade show marketing components that would bring life to the fantasy novels and popular TV show for SpiceHeads stopping by the Windstream booth. The Game of Thrones-inspired trade show activities included a “Windstream is Coming” booth t-shirt giveaway and the Windstream prize patrol passing out Game of Thrones memorabilia to SpiceHeads wearing the “Windstream is Coming” t-shirt during the three-day conference.
Martino Flynn also recommended and executed a range of social media tactics to drive promotion of Windstream at SpiceWorld, including a blog post, live tweeting, a social media booth contest with a custom hashtag (#SpiceHeadsWIN), and live Periscope broadcasts.
By knowing our audience, the Game of Thrones-inspired theme was a huge hit with SpiceHeads and allowed Windstream in its inaugural year at SpiceWorld to be wildly successful in reaching KPI goals and overall ROI.
We’re always looking to provide our clients with ideas that do more. To learn more about Martino Flynn’s trade show marketing capabilities, contact Chelsea Metzger at cmetzger@martinoflynn.com or give us a call at 585.421.0100.