With a potential economic depression at the forefront of customers' minds, financial institutions focus on building trust in a changing world.
The $700 billion Wall Street bailout and the financial collapse has left a crisis of confidence among customers, which leaves marketers wondering how to position their financial brands as stable, educational and necessary during this tumultuous time.
"Back-to-basics marketing with an emphasis on trust is essential," said Alan C. Scott, SVP and CMO of Enterprise Media Group, Dow Jones & Company. His organization is weathering the storm by focusing on the message being sent out, rather than on ROI, clicks or other measurements. "We are focusing more on what we are saying to the marketplace, so that we can be seen as authentic, real and in it with everyone else," he said during a panel presentation at the iMedia Financial Marketing Summit in New York City.
"The financial institutions have a lot of explaining to do," said Wenda Harris Millard, President, Media and Co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. "The restoration of trust and confidence in financial institutions is a big building job, and they are not going to get it from direct marketing," she said, adding that consumer education is essential.
During the panel -- moderated by Brad Berens, chief content officer and editor at large of iMedia Connection -- Millard also discussed how institutions need to take responsibility to help the consumer understand not only what just happened, but also where to go from here. "Marketing needs to increase among those brands who are left, and they need to take it seriously for the long-term. Educating consumers through the media and through 'good old fashioned marketing' is necessary," she said.
Consumers' needs have changed over the last six months, and financial institutions need to focus on helping customers, agreed Imran Khan, managing director at J.P. Morgan. He suggested that financial marketers need to rebrand and send the message to customers that they are ready to help.
The panelists do not think that companies will pull out of internet advertising during this financial crisis, but they do feel that marketers will need to reach the right audience with the right message through careful media buys on authoritative websites.
That said, Alan Scott said that newer media such as Twitter, blogging and other social applications may not be the best choice for some marketing messages. At Dow Jones, he explained, the focus is on thought-leadership marketing and educating the marketplace. "If you can connect with the audience in a way that they want to receive information and you help them understand something or problem solve, you are in good shape."
Dow Jones is accomplishing this through webinars, which allow the institution's journalists to educate customers on what is happening in the marketplace. In addition, Dow Jones is developing an integrative model that creates microsites for individual customers. The strategy takes headlines and content from newswires, aggregates the information and disseminates it via social media and video to create a hybrid community.
Nevertheless, blogging is out there, and customers talk. "I think we have all gotten past the notion that we are in compete control of our brands in the blogosphere," Harris said. Thus, "feeding consumers the right information is essential and avoids leaving brands open to customer interpretation."
Kristin Della Volpe is a freelance writer covering diverse industries including healthcare, business and science.