Make your own products a marketing priority

While traveling through Oklahoma recently, I made a quick stop at Braum’s, a regional ice cream and fast food establishment. I ordered the standard combo meal and was caught off guard when the person at the register asked me if I’d like a chocolate or vanilla shake with my meal. I don’t eat a ton of fast food, but when I have, nobody has ever given me this option – not even Dairy Queen. I did not opt for the shake, but a quick scan of the room revealed that about 50% of the customers did choose the shake on that particular day during a busy lunch hour.

If your financial institution pays a third party for its checking account or reward product(s), this is a valuable lesson in Sales 101 for you. When we conduct marketing audits for financial institutions, we frequently find ourselves telling them to spend less money and energy promoting someone else’s product. In fact, we often encourage them to develop their own similar products using lessons learned from their current vendor relationship.

Think about it. The products you develop and manage in-house are like the burgers in a fast food restaurant. You own the magic formula for them. They are proprietary. The products you pay someone else to create and/or manage are the soft drinks in a fast food restaurant. Consumers want and need them, but they belong to someone else and you don’t make as much money selling them. Braum’s is not just a fast food restaurant. It’s also a dairy which makes its own milk and ice cream. Shakes are proprietary, and all the signage related to combo meals push shakes first – not soft drinks…

 

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