1. MONEY TALKS THOUGHTS ON PERMANENT CHANGES TO THE FINANCIAL LANDSCAPE & HOW WE ARE LIKELY TO PROGRESS FROM HERE THE VALUE ENGINEERS
2. AND THE WINNER IS ……. We’re here to talk about how companies can move from the wreckage of the current financial landscape and rebuild trust. Who will win…?
3. SO, WHO THINKS THEY’RE THE WINNER? It would appear that all financial companies think they are winners! The FDs’ Excellence Awards ‘The Bank of the Year Award’ 2010 Business Moneyfacts Awards – ‘Business Bank of the Year’ 2010 Best Banking Provider 2009 at the ‘Your Money’ Awards Thisismoney.co.uk ‘most trusted’ Mortgage Provider 2010 Lovemoney.co.uk ‘most loved’ Current Account 2010 Which? Magazine Financial Services Provider 2010
4. We’re going to use Big Brother as a parallel around which financial service brands can learn key lessons from the show and its success hungry contestants
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6. WELCOME TO THE BIG BROTHER HOUSE In the Big Brother House there are a number of ‘housemates’ - all under the all seeing eye of Big Brother…
7. WHAT GOES ON IN THE CHANNEL 4 HOUSE The things the housemates get up to remind me of some words from Leapfrog’s presentation: Anger, Demented, Living on Another Planet, Better the Devil You Know, Paralysis
8. WHAT GOES ON IN THE CHANNEL 4 HOUSE The things the housemates get up to remind me of some words from Leapfrog’s presentation: Anger, Demented, Living on Another Planet, Better the Devil You Know, Paralysis
9. BIG BROTHER SEES ALL… … and meanwhile…Big Brother watches everything, he reports on everything and holds the housemates to account for their behaviour, punishing them, and in some cases ejecting them
10. THE CHANNEL 4 HOUSE IS AN OPEN ONE BLOGGING OPEN FOR ALL TO SEE TALKING SOCIAL INTERACTIONS In Channel 4 Big Brother all these goings on are public and high profile in social media, blogs, TV and the tabloids… They talk about it over the coffee machine at work. In a similar way (as we have seen with the Face and Leapfrog presentations) consumers talk passionately about their money – it’s a highly engaging subject.
11. BUT THE FINANCIAL SERVICES HOUSE WAS CLOSED HIDDEN CONFUSING INCONVENIENT INACCESSIBLE However, in the financial world the doors were locked, the cameras were turned off, the curtains drawn. No one could see in, no one could tell what was going on….
12. … AND BIG BROTHER WAS ASLEEP zzz zzzz zzzzz AND - the Financial Big Brother was asleep. The FSA, The Bank of England, The Treasury either were not aware of what was going on in the financial services house OR were complicit in the growing misdeeds. So the Financial Housemates weren’t held to account, punished, or ejected
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15. TRYING TO BE YOUR FRIEND - AND TO WIN… With customers now paying attention, many financial institutions are trying to ‘win’ the customers approval in the same way that contestants would in Big Brother – by trying to be their friend, to create a relationship, by being helpful, friendly, best mates, attractive, cheery, funny, witty
16. Communications are designed to reach out to customers, connect with them, make it easy, make them laugh, magically transform their money into wealth… Yet still we have cynical, distrusting consumers – there is little evidence to suggest that consumer trust is building – in fact it’s more likely to be continuing to diminish. So where are we going wrong?
17. WINNERS WITHOUT SUBSTANCE END UP BEING LONG TERM LOSERS Past Big Brother contestants have often raced to the bottom in terms of behaviour and intelligence in their quest to be popular, be liked and to succeed…but which of these have had long run and successful careers?
18. ANATOMY OF A “WINNER” WITHOUT SUBSTANCE? INFANTILISM BEING OPAQUE “ What on earth were they thinking with the ISA ISA Baby adverts? Nonsense” “ I’ve gone overdrawn once in my life by 27p. They bloody charged by £25. How dare they! I’ve been a good customer” “ I thought I was getting an 8% savings account which looked stunning. Then I realised I could only access this by paying for my gold standard bank account so I would be losing money! Paying £134 to get £130 interest. Thieves.” Winners without substance infantilise the sector with advertising such as ‘ISA, ISA Baby’, they are seen to be up to ‘dirty tricks’ with every consumer able to cite examples of how they have been ‘ripped off’ by the banks, and they seem less than honest, making products deliberately complex, confusing and opaque DIRTY TRICKS
19. WHO IS THE ‘REAL’ WINNER? YOUR BRAND? ADULT INTEGRITY GENUINE CARE HONEST STANDS OUT FROM THE CROWD SERIOUS FAIR POSITIVE RESPONSIVE The real winner from Big Brother is Davina. She has the integrity, compassion, trust and personality to connect with the viewer. She represents all the best things about Big Brother
20. WHO COULD TAKE YOU BY SURPRISE? Which brands are going to turn your market upside down? You may be thinking already of Virgin and Tesco – but are they really doing things differently? Who is going to come in left-field and take you all by surprise?
21. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE… Money is a serious matter. Consumers want security, stability, success, a safe pairs of hands
22. YOU’VE GOT TO BE SERIOUS Dirty Tricks Being Opaque Infantile Professional Honest and transparent Adult Being opaque, infantile and playing dirty tricks does not help you. Being honest & transparent, professional and adult just might.
23. AND THE WINNER IS? THE SAD REALITY IS - THERE IS NO WINNER
• Thanks to Lucian. • When John Rowley invited me to talk at tonight’s seminar, he asked me to be controversial and thought provoking to ensure a lively discussion and debate at the end of the session. • In the spirit of being controversial, my apologies to any of you in advance if I use your brand to illustrate a point which may not be all that complimentary.
I always like to ‘start with the end in mind’. No doubt you are all wondering who will have the winning formula for future success in today’s fast changing consumer landscape. Who is best place to win back trust and capitalise on the new order? Is it going to be you? You’re all working hard, trying hard, trying to get it right, trying to build consumer confidence in the exciting new world.
It seems that all financial services companies are chasing an array of awards and accolades in the hope that they will become ‘the most trusted’ , ‘the most helpful’, ‘the most customer orientated’ Like me, like me, like me Pick me, pick me, pick me SO – I’m going to now introduce a different type of competition where there are lots of parallels – believe it or not.
Who recognises this? For those of you who don’t know if, it’s the famous Channel 4 Big Brother show, which is, in effect, a competition where all the competitors – or housemates – want to become the WINNER and win lots of money and fame. Tonight I would like to use the Big Brother parallel to illustrate some key points of learning for financial services brands.
Who has heard of big brother? Who has watched snippets or episodes? It has had the highest viewing figures EVER for a reality TV show. At one peak time it was watched by 10 million people in the UK Now let’s think about the interesting parallels with the world of financial services
In the Big Brother House there are a number of ‘housemates’ - all under the all seeing eye of Big Brother… In the Financial Big Brother House there are a number of financial brands in a defined market space (ie. the house), all overseen by a tripartite Big Brother - but we’ll come back to him shortly…. Let’s see what goes on in the Big Brother house ….
Scary, isn’t it Reminds me of some of the words from Leapfrog’s presentation ANGER, DEMENTED, LIVING ON ANOTHER PLANET, BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, PARALYSIS
The housemates get up to all sorts of mischief in the house. They behave very badly. Many of them are not very likeable and you certainly would not want them to be ‘your friend’ You certainly wouldn’t ‘trust’ them The housemates nominate each other for eviction from the house and it’s the public who decides who stays and who goes.
… Big Brother watches everything, he reports on everything and holds the housemates to account for their behaviour, punishing them, and in some cases ejecting them
In Channel 4 Big Brother all these goings on are public… Everyone talks about it – it’s at the centre of social media. People watch it on the TV, hear about it on the radio, read about it in the tabloids and they blog about it. They talk about it over the coffee machine at work. In a similar way (as we have seen with the Face and Leapfrog presentations) consumers talk passionately about their money – it’s a highly engaging subject. The Big Brother hosue is also OPEN for all to see The program is very transparent everyone’s aware of what’s happening and what they need to do It is also very democratic – people are voted on and off. People go if they don’t live up to the standards expected of a winner – they are evicted. But that’s not the case with the financial services industry – OR HASN’T BEEN.
In the financial world the doors were locked, the cameras were turned off, the curtains drawn. No one could see in, no one could tell what was going on….
AND - the Financial Big Brother was asleep. The FSA, The Bank of England, The Treasury either were not aware of what was going on in the financial services house OR was complicit in the growing misdeeds. So the Financial Housemates weren’t held to account, punished, or ejected
And as a result the Financial Housemates got up to some really naughty things….and some of them have been forceably evicted… Rather than passionate advocates banks have at best apathetic customers – with 7 out of 10 banks having negative Net Promoter Score Nationwide and Cooperative are the ‘least untrusted’ companies!!
Customers now realise that the FS House was closed, but they have now had a peek inside and are keen to break into the vault even further to understand financial institutions, to share their opinions and experiences with each other…to know how big the bonuses are. The 24/7 customer experience of Big Brother has turned its focus on the financial world and is shining a light into the dark corners stimulated by the terrible news and bad headlines Customers now feel they know that their savings are going half way round the world, understand what a hedge fund is, know about sub prime mortages and have a feel for how big the risks are that Financial institutions take with their money. And - they are not happy about it…
With customers now paying attention, many financial institutions are trying to ‘win’ the customers approval in the same way that contestants would in Big Brother – by trying to be their friend, to create a relationship, by being helpful, friendly, best mates, attractive, cheery, funny, witty, safe, on your side
Communications are designed to reach out to customers, connect with them, understand them, make it easy, make them laugh, magically transform their money into wealth, be their hero, give them freedom. Yet still we have cynical, distrusting consumers – there is little evidence to suggest that consumer trust is building – in fact it’s more likely to be continuing to dimish So where are we going wrong?
Past Big Brother contestants have often raced to the bottom in terms of behaviour and intelligence in their quest to be popular, be liked and to succeed…but which of these have had long run and successful careers? By trying to win, many financial services companies have been acting as if they were actually in the big brother house. They’ve been trying to make consumers love and notice them, and to stop them thinking about the negative press, But like Big Brother viewers, consumers have seen right through this they see you as trying to be something that you are not - and that they don’t want you to be… AND trying to be funny, simplistic and friendly does not rebuild trust, it just gets you more laughed at.
It seems that everyone is trying so hard to win, but without solid foundation and substance to build on. Fixing the mistrust, earning trust and cementing trust should be a major priority at this time but no brand seems to be really addressing this at the moment. The FS winners without substance infantilise the sector with advertising such as ‘ISA, ISA Baby’, they continue to be seen to be up to ‘dirty tricks’ with every other consumer able to cite examples of how they have beeen ‘ripped off’ by the banks, and they continue to be less than honest and seem to make products and communications deliberately complex, confusing and opaque.
So who is the real winner with a lasting career? Let’s go back to Big Brother Just outside the Big Brother house – it’s Davina – She is the voice of the outside – the consumers (the viewer) She is the face of the program - the figurehead She’s straight talking, no messing, honest, stern – behaves with integrity She’s positive and up-beat without being flippant AND she genuinely cares Financial institutions do not have enough of Davina’s characteristics. Who is really the consumer champion? Which brand really stands out from the crowd, has real personality, takes a measured, stern and fair assessment of the sector from inside it, and represents this to the outside world? The few who show the caring side of the industry – CoOp/Smile, NS&I – are safe, secure and somewhat dull.
Who could be Davina? Which brands are going to turn your market upside down? Lots of you may be thinking already of Virgin and Tesco – but are they really doing things differently? Who is going to come in left-field and take you all by surprise? What about PayPal & Western Union? They are both making real inroads in payment mechanisms. Paypal have just launched an ap which enables consumers to take photos of a check and pay it into their bank without having to go to the branch. What are they planning for the future. Who are your hidden competitors? What about the mobile phone networks. Mobile banking is one the rise and it won’t be long before mobile payments are the norm. What threat do they pose to traditional banking? And what about Apple, Facebook, Google – the new and innovative technology companies who really do think out of the box and turn markets upside down. Or maybe it will be a brand from abroad. FS brands need to be rethinking their competitor strategy.
It’s time to get to serious. Money is a serious matter. Consumers find money (especially the lack of it and losing it) really scary. We are increasingly living in an INSECURE world – instability in the job market, the housing market, the financial markets. Consumers are looking for reassurance. They want to be able to put their faith in big organisations, to believe in them. We are know that trust has to be earned and we are at a point in time where we need to think about ‘the journey’ to trust: How to fix the mistrust How to earn trust How to cement trust.
Being opaque, infantile and playing dirty tricks does not help you. Being honest & transparent, professional and adult just might.
No doubt you are all wondering who will have the winning formula for future success in today’s fast changing consumer landscape. Who is best place to win back trust and capitalise on the new order? Is it going to be you? BUT, anger, frustration, paralysis – THE SAD REALITY IS - THERE IS NO WINNER It’s a lose/lose situation for consumers and for financial services. AND – I’m every the optimist and believe in hope, believe you all want to get it right.
The final questions I would like to leave you with is who is going to take responsibility? Who genuinely cares enough about their consumer, their industry, their brand? Who is not just going to talk about it, make empty promises? Who is going to deliver?
