Are you marketing or spending?

The Super Bowl is coming up and soon the pre-game hype will start over this year’s crop of commercials. One of the favorite all-time Super Bowl commercials showed a young boy dressed in his Darth Vader costume as he tried to use The Force to control objects.

I bring up that example because it fits into my topic, but first, let’s define what I mean by the headline of this blog.

Marketing means your advertising gets results. For financial services marketers, it means your advertising opens more accounts, increases deposits and revenue, and broadens your customer or member base.

Marketing that doesn’t accomplish these goals is merely spending. You’ve spent your money and accomplished nothing. (Except, maybe, you’ve held on to your marketing job.)

Wether you work for a bank or a credit union, you have the same problem as all other financial institutions. The public thinks all your products and services are the same as any other financial institution. Likely, that’s close to the truth.