Retail Banking Strategies

PNC buying Nat City, Wells Fargo acquiring Wachovia, J.P. Morgan Chase landing WAMU – winners are emerging, but it is also a unique opportunity for the rest of the industry to profit.  Ironically, most banks will fail to capitalize on what may be their best chance to grab profitable market share.

Here are some thoughts — which we recently discussed at the Bank Administration Institute’s (BAI’s)Retail Banking Community. (more…)

Artemis Strategy Group, a Washington, D.C. based communications strategy research firm, has some excellent insight on ways financial services brands can improve their position that we thought would be of interest to our readers.

How can financial services brands weather the current financial storm and emerge even stronger?

Events are moving critically fast in world financial markets today.  Even with the latest government responses, the world is struggling with the twin impacts of a massive loss of liquidity and a commensurate loss of confidence – on the part of investors, companies, the public, and even governments.

The loss of trust in the financial sector leads to one big question:

How does an organization build and maintain trust in its brand when their audiences are uncertain, preoccupied with financial uncertainty, and people are skeptical about whom they can trust?
 
We have four principles that take on even more importance in today’s rocky environment. (more…)

Actually, I don’t dislike mission statements; it’s just that so many of them are meaningless,  high sounding words that don’t give a clue to what the organization is really about. “Provide superior return for our stakeholders” — What does that mean? Better ROA than average? Top quartile performance? Better stock performance than peers? Which stakeholders are we talking about: community, employees, investors? What is our obligation to each?  And anyway, doesn’t every bank claim to have similar goals: superior return, superior service? (more…)

Almost all companies undertake a time-consuming strategic planning process, but in survey after survey, more than half of respondents believe their company’s approach could be improved. Most indicate they are satisfied that their plans accurately describe the current situation and challenges. The most frequent complaint: too much time spent on where we are now; too little time assessing strategic initiatives that will really drive the business forward.  

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