DEL.ICIO.USNew bank ads emphasize your money is secure
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, November 28, 2008
A boy hugging his dog. A winding country lane. Two kids playing on a tire swing.
These sentimental images have an unlikely thing in common: They’ve been featured in recent advertisements for Georgia banks.
Fidelity Bank wants to present an image of consistency and stability with its ads. SunTrust believes customers want to return to basics and ‘get on solid ground financially.’
What do dogs and swings have to do with banking? At first blush, not much.
But with economic anxiety sweeping the public, some banks have decided to jettison traditional ads touting products and instead market traits like stability and security.
Atlanta-based Fidelity Bank, for example, has rolled out a print ad campaign featuring homespun images — the dog and tire swing are theirs — designed to convey the bank’s deep community roots.
SunTrust, one of the Southeast’s biggest banks, recently unveiled an advertising campaign titled “Live Solid. Bank Solid,” which promotes the bank as able to help people deal with financial uncertainty.
A recent ad for Bank of America shows a boy resting on his father’s back with the tagline: “Peace of mind should be more than a feeling.”
Much is at stake, experts say, given that the economic upheaval has banks scrambling to hang on to customers and angling to woo new business.
“Bankers are trying to offset the tremendous amount of fear that’s been created” by the financial crisis, said Tim Pannell, president and CEO of Financial Marketing Solutions, a suburban Nashville company that produces ads for many Georgia community banks.
Most of the ads his firm is now producing emphasize safety, soundness and security rather than mortgages, home equity lines or other products.
It’s a sound strategy, considering the uneasy times, said Ken Bernhardt, Regents professor of marketing at Georgia State’s Robinson College of Business.
“It’s a very emotional time for consumers. The market isn’t totally rational at the moment,” he said. “Therefore, building an emotional connection with your customers becomes very important.”
That’s the goal of Fidelity Bank, which is trying to present an image of consistency and stability with its new ads. The tagline on the ad showing the boy and his dog reads: “There’s a reason why, after 34 years, we’re still called ‘Fidelity.’ “
The bank’s president, Palmer Proctor, said his bank has survived several recessions and has the resources to weather the current storm.
“We’re trying to provide certainty in these uncertain times,” Proctor said. “All banks’ earnings are under pressure right now, but we remain well capitalized. Everything is fine here, and that’s what the whole image is portraying.”
While banks such as Fidelity are stressing their longevity, SunTrust is taking a different approach. After all, some of the nation’s most venerable financial companies have fallen in the past three months.
Recent marketing research found a customer base eager to get back to basics, said Rilla Delorier, SunTrust’s chief marketing officer.
“They are focused on being prudent with their spending. They are giving up on trying to keep up with the Joneses,” she said. “We realized that people feel like they’ve been on a bit of spending binge, and they want to get on solid ground financially.”
One of the ads, developed by SunTrust’s new advertising firm, Winston-Salem-based Mullen, shows people enjoying the simple things in life — pushing children on swings, splashing in the pool, opening the curtains on a bright morning.
Sprinkled throughout are catchphrases such as “solid is strong,” “solid is timeless,” and “solid has its priorities straight.”
Bank executives agree on one thing: It’s a great time to be advertising. The financial crisis has customers giving a hard look at their banks, with many considering making a change. In industry-speak, money is on the move.
“They are looking for banks that are interested in them as individuals, and they are looking for banks that are safe and secure,” said Craig Metz, marketing director for Blairsville-based United Community Banks, the third-largest banking company based in Georgia.
United’s recent ads seek to strike an emotional chord. In one, a couple canoes on a tranquil lake, with the word “Relax” in big lettering on top.
The bank is also giving away Pyrex baking dishes to new checking customers. An ad touting the promotion shows a piping hot casserole dish. “Come on in … and enjoy the warmth of home,” the ad reads.
Some banks, though, aren’t messing with what’s worked in the past. Buckhead Community Bank, for instance, continues to run ads promoting CD rates and checking accounts, with no mention even indirectly of the banking crisis.
“In these uncertain times, the best way to approach it is to just be calm and work through this, so we are just going with our traditional ads,” said Marvin Cosgray, the bank’s president and CEO. “Hopefully that ensures people that we are fine, things are normal as they always have been.”
To win new business, Cosgray said he plans to ramp up ad spending and roll out a new product, a high-interest bearing checking account.
To illustrate what’s happened in marketing strategy in recent months, Pannell, the Tennessee-based bank marketer, recalled meeting with a banker just before the banking crisis took hold.
The banker mentioned his company’s robust capital reserve and suggested an ad campaign focusing on safety and security. Pannell quickly shot the idea down.
“I remember looking at him that day and saying safety and security is no longer an issue for banks. That is assumed,” he said. “A year and a half later, [safety and security] is the No. 1 message.”
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