Comments on: The coming media crisis and parallels with the financial crisis http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/ Tracking the evolution of financial services Sat, 26 May 2012 18:05:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Colin Henderson http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28637 Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:24:40 +0000 http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28637 @Niche Banker – I agree on the ‘philosophical’ point you make. There has to be additional value beyond just another bank accoutn with complicated service charges.

]]> By: Niche Banker http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28611 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:44:41 +0000 http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28611 Colin, many of your points are exactly the reasons why I’m bullish about niche banking. It’s the internet that has enabled this new soon-to-be movement of niche banking, and I believe strongly it will do so in a way that does indeed add value to people (not spam them). It’s not about interruption marketing…in fact it’s almost not about marketing at all. In the long tail of banking, banks have to add value (beyond just products and services) so or else they have no market. In fact in my vision of the long tail niche banking future, people are buying that value to the extent that the banking services themselves are a distant secondary focus.

To your point about innovation, I’m a big believer that not all innovation is technical (in fact I posted about that recently). I think the type of innovation we’ll see with niche banking is not so much about whiz-bang technology, but rather a very innovative and paradigm-shifting use of EXISTING technologies to create long tail banking experiences.

I realize this is somewhat philosophical and vague at this point…there will be better, more concrete examples in the near future.

]]> By: iamatthew http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28598 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:41:37 +0000 http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28598 Hi Colin
Again, this is an instance of the internet redressing the imbalance between consumer and provider. Finding new ways to ‘get one over’ the consumer by unscrambling patterns, predicting behaviours and generally obfuscating value/quality/experience is a zero-sum game that’s a legacy of broadcast, one-way channels.

In the old days, consumers couldn’t respond – they had no way to draw back the curtain. Now, the task for advertisers becomes ‘how can I develop trust in a two-way environment… the simple answer of course is by providing tangible value (honesty counts as value!) in much the same way as someone might in a real world conversation. Who on Earth would want to enter into a conversation with someone you think is annoying or continually spouts bullsh1t? You just wouldn’t.

This is a tough new lesson for marketeers to learn of course – it’s a paradigm shift from the standard operating procedure of the last 100 years. Because of this, things will certainly get worse before they get better.

]]> By: Colin Henderson http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28585 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:54:24 +0000 http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28585 Exactly Deborah. Also the balance of power between merchants/ advertisers and consumers must be rebalanced.

]]> By: deborah nixon http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28579 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:39:57 +0000 http://thebankwatch.com/2009/11/12/the-coming-media-crisis-and-parallels-with-the-financial-crisis/#comment-28579 Colin: Could not agree with you more. The internet has the power to do wonderful things, but it can also be horribly intrusive. I work hard to block out unnecessary approaches and advertising through a variety of programs which block these things. The down side is a slower system- but well worth the privacy.

Marketers should realize that advertising interruption does not serve their purpose. the consumer has such great control over what is coming in that not only will they block you, they will be annoyed by your interruption. Isn’t it better to offer something remarkable to them and seek their permission to tell you about it? The days of pushing your product out to the market are long past. As are traditional ways of reaching out to consumers.

Transparency is what is required for trust to build and yet many of these advertisers violate the very tenets of ethical advertising, thus contributing a great deal to the reputational risk they run. Wouldn’t it be so much better to just be known for your integrity, straightforwardness and the ability to deliver on what you promise? What complicate matters? Seems commonsensical to me.

]]>