Out of Balance
Banks! Stop admiring yourselves and start advertising customer benefits

Munication can make you blind. If you forget about the "co" in communication you can spend millions talking to yourself instead of your prospects. Bankers seem to do that a lot. And they really should know better. They have more information about their customers than any other industry. And they do less with it.

Right here in the Bluegrass, we have banks that would rather talk about themselves than what they can do for people. They're making a costly mistake.

David, go back to school

One local operation seems to derive great pleasure in likening itself to a David among Goliaths. They even have a homemade commercial which tries to depict the young David sheepishly hurling a stone at an unseen Goliath. The effect is weak, the point is vague, and what they are really saying to people is that they don't seem to care much about quality standards I suppose they hope to use the analogy as an indirect approach to a personal service story. Sorry, lads. Your advertising doesn't pass the "who cares?" test.

A study in basic blah

But when it comes to self-centered advertising, David is not alone.

Consider the outdoor board for First Security Bank that trumpets its return to basics. The three questions this board evokes are:

1. Who cares?
2. What are banking basics, anyhow? And,
3. What does that do for me?

The first thing about advertising

For my money, these banks don't know the first thing about advertising. And in case you want to know what the first thing is, it's the answer to this question: What motivates prospects to become customers?

If bankers would simply ask this of a few dozen people on the street, they would find out.

They'd learn that customers go to banks because of the deals they're offered, and not because of their glorious images of these institutions.

Sell the deal, not the house

If you want to see how to get results, just look at the Fifth Third outdoor board. This is savvy advertising that will cause people to reach for the phone. Carol Zazo (director of marketing) and her people know what turns prospects into customers. They don't waste any time talking to themselves. They just give people a good reason to call and sign up.

And look at the ad for Check Exchange. This outfit may not be as classy as chartered banks, and they'll never get a crack at a financing package for a corporate client company, but they certainly know how to make their phone ring.

Remember the excellent image advertising we cited a few months back for Slone's Signature markets? Their campaign has style, originality and a sense of obligation to deliver customer benefits. The image it projects is one of quality, good taste, and great attention to detail. Stone accomplishes all of the above by delivering customer advantages, not by bragging.

In the final analysis, images are made by what you deliver. They are not affected by claims about wannabe dreams.

Dennis Altman is a professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Kentucky.

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