Final Bank Marketing Score: Steelers 2, Seahawks 1

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Fidelity, First Mutual Bank, PNC Bank

Pnc_steelers_homepageAs we analyzed PNC Bank’s identity protection services (see previous article), we happened to notice this timely photo of its hometown Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled to compete Sunday in the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks (click on inset for closeup). PNC is the official bank of the Steelers.

We were curious as to how many banks were leveraging Super Bowl fever in the states of Washington and Pennsylvania. Using Yahoo’s directory, we found only one of 27 Washington Banks (see below), and two of 68 Pennsylvania banks with homepage references to their home teams.

Firstmutual_seahawkcdAnd only First Mutual Bank <firstmutual.com> in Bellevue, Wash., has a promotion tied to the big game: a 4.05 percent "Championship Rate" on its High-Yield Money Market Deposit Account (click on inset for closeup).

Fidelitybank_steeler_homepageThe two Pennsylvania football tie-ins were simple eye-catching graphics on the homepage from Fidelity Bank (click on inset right for closeup) and PNC Bank (see above).

—JB

Editor’s Note: Since the Steelers won 21-10, we are wondering whether bank website appearance may be a leading indicator of Super Bowl performance. We’ll see next year.

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PNC Bank Bundles ID Theft Insurance with Checking

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Credit Reports & ID Theft Protection, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, PNC Bank, Washington Mutual

Pnc_idtheftlogoHow do you make your checking account stand out from the one across the street, around the corner, or two clicks away in Internet Explorer? It’s not easy if you want to maintain or increase profitability.

Several banks, including Washington Mutual (NetBanker Nov. 8, 2005) and PNC Bank, use a relatively new technique that is inexpensive and plays to the current hysteria surrounding online security: identity theft insurance. Pnc_idtheftinsurance

In PNC’s case, three of its core checking account options come bundled with $2500 to $5000 in insurance: Premium Plan, Choice Plan, and of course Digital Checking (click on inset right for more details). Free Checking does not include ID theft insurance.

Action Items
Before giving away identity theft insurance, look instead at creating a profit center around fraud protection services. As we discussed in a previous Online Banking Report (OBR 83/84), identity theft protection and related credit bureau-monitoring services are among the few relatively easy fee-income opportunities online.

Pnc_truecredit_cobrandIn fact, PNC Bank sells a full suite of credit bureau services housed under Identity Theft Safeguards in the Personal Finance area. The options range from a $29.95, one-time, three-bureau report to relatively pricey $120/yr and $180/yr subscription plans powered by TransUnion’s TrueCredit, an OBR Best of the Web winner in 2002 (click on inset for closeup).

—JB

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Data Security Standards Set by Major Financial Institutions

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Security & Privacy, Wells Fargo

A consortium of six major banks and the country’s largest accounting firms said Wednesday that they were setting uniform computer-security standards, designed to ensure that the third-party computer providers they do business with are adequately protecting both their computer systems and the information those financial firms send them.

“This is good news,” says Avivah Litan, vice president and research director of Gartner Inc. “I don’t think it goes far enough, but it’s smart for them [the institutions] to do it in steps, if that’s what they’re doing. But they need to do it beyond the service providers. They need to do it themselves”

Continue reading “Data Security Standards Set by Major Financial Institutions” →

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No More Western Union Telegrams

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Western Union

Last Thursday, the day First Data Corp. announced its reorganization, Western Union announced it was out of the telegram business.

We understand the logic. Who sends telegrams in a world of emails and instant messaging? And though the company doesn’t say so, it’s hardly likely that the telegram business, on which the company was founded in 1851–as the Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company–was a profit center. Dropping the business just made sense for a global payments company that makes $4 billion a year.

Still, it’s a melancholy milestone, in observation of which we share with you our favorite Western Union story:

Life Magazine was doing a story about Cary Grant in the 1950s and, not knowing his age, sent him a telegram reading “How old Cary Grant?” Grant replied “Old Cary Grant fine. How you?” (Contact: Western Union, 303-967-6416)

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Looking for ARM conversions

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: DiTech, Mortgage, Refi & Home Equity, Search Engine Marketing

The Wall Street Journal’s Ruth Simon writes today about how lenders are using the rise in short-term mortgage rates to convince borrowers to swap their adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) for a fixed-rate one. She told how CitiMortgage, Wells Fargo, and others are targeting borrowers through direct mail, statement inserts, and telemarketing campaigns.

To see if these tactics had spilled over to the online world, we tried a few Google searches to see who was advertising "ARM to fixed-rate conversions." The only highly targeted ad was by DiTech, <ditech.com> the online lending unit of GMAC.

Ditech_google_arm_to_fixed_mtg_1

Under our search, "trade ARM for fixed mortgage," their AdWords promotion used the headline, "Dump Your Adjustable & Get a Fixed Rate Loan from Ditech.com" (click on screenshot above for a closer look), exactly what we were looking for. Unfortunately, DiTech has not created a landing page that speaks to this niche. We were dumped on their busy homepage (click on screenshot below for a closer look) and left to our own devices to figure out how to accomplish this intricate task.

Analysis
It’s simple to see what went wrong here:

   Great search engine marketing
+ horrible website execution
= wasted $$$$$

Ditech_homepage_2The old advertising cliche about the fastest way to kill a bad product is with great advertising is doubly true with search engine marketing. Great search engine marketing increases click-throughs, driving costs through the roof, while poor website execution pulls conversions down, making the whole effort appear terribly cost ineffective.

So before launching any clever search engine campaigns, make sure you are able to cash in on the traffic.

—JB

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Western Union Spin Off May Do Little for First Data

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Chase Paymentech Solutions, First Capital, First Data, JP Morgan Chase, MBNA, Mergers & Acquisitions, MoneyGram, Payment Cards, Strategic Planning, Synovus, TSYS, Western Union

Last week’s news that First Data Corp. will spin off its Western Union operations to First Data shareholders and create a company worth an estimated $20 billion is probably good news for Western Union. Noting that the parent company will be keeping its card processing, card services, and international business lines, observers were asking what had otherwise changed.

The answer: Nothing. “The bottom line for me is that this doesn’t change the realities, which are that even though they’re going to reconstitute what First Data will be, it doesn’t change the facts that Western Union, while it’s a good business, is facing increasing competition around the world, that the card business is struggling mightily, and that merchant processing is a commoditized business,” says Scott Kessler, who follows First Data for Standard & Poor’s.

Continue reading “Western Union Spin Off May Do Little for First Data” →

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Fox leaving FinCEN for Bank of America

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Bank Secrecy Act, Money Laundering

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said today that William J. Fox, its director since Dec. 2003, is leaving to become senior compliance executive for compliance risk management at Bank of America (BofA). Fox starts at BofA on Feb. 21; he’ll be replaced as director by Deputy Director William F. Baity, effective February 4.

Continue reading “Fox leaving FinCEN for Bank of America” →

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ING Direct Personalizes Emails for Security

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Alerts & Messaging, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Email Marketing, ING Direct, Security & Privacy

Ingdirect_personalized_emailING Direct <ingdirect.com> is the latest bank to move to greater personalization in order to distinguish its messages from phony phishing attempts. The bank has added the customer’s first name and masked all but the last three digits of the customer’s number (click on inset for a closer look).

The message at left was sent to customers to market ING’s latest deposit promotion: 4.75 percent APR for new money.

Ingdirect_personalized_alertThe same technique is also used for routine account alerts (see inset right).

Note: The high-impact sales pitch for its 4.75 percent deposit promotion.

Analysis
While it doesn’t prevent phishers from attempting to recreate the same look (see footnote), it’s an effective first line of defense. Besides, the personalized greeting is a friendler way to communicate with customers. Citibank has been using a similar approach for more than a year (NetBanker, May 30, 2005).

Citi_phishFootnote: Yesterday, we received a fake email that recreated the Citibank personalized area in the upper-right corner. The crooks just left blank the Email Security Zone in the upper-right corner, figuring many users won’t look that closely at the box (click on inset for a closer look).

—JB

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Mobile Payments: Japan Leads the Pack

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: American Express, Card Acquiring, Card Issuing, Debit Cards, Discover Card, DoCoMo, FeliCa Card, Market Platform Dynamics, MasterCard, Mobile Payments, Octopus Card, Payment Cards, Stored Value Cards, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, VISA

The potential of cellphone-based mobile payments to eventually squeeze banks out of their central role in payments can already be seen in East Asia, says Andrei Hagiu, a principal at Market Platform Dynamics, and by ignoring it, American banks have nothing to lose but their business.

Octopus_cardHong Kong’s Octopus prepaid debit card (see inset) is one example: Issued by Hong Kong’s subway system and several other transportation companies—with no bank involved—Octopus cards drive about $2.2 billion in annual payments volume.

Continue reading “Mobile Payments: Japan Leads the Pack” →

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Bank Alert Welcome Message

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Alerts & Messaging, Bank of America

Bofa_alertwelcome_emailWhenever online banking users make changes to their account preferences, you should confirm with an email. It not only shows you are paying attention, but also provides customers the peace of mind that they accomplished the intended task.

Today we changed one of our account alerts at Bank of America <bankamerica.com>. Within a few minutes, we received this attractive email (see inset). However, you can tell that this particular message was crafted in the pre-phishing days, as evidenced by the old 2004 copyright date (lower left corner), the old 2000-2004 Olympic sponsor logo in the lower right, and hyperlinks back to the log-in page.

Action Items

  1. For better authenticity, include a personalized greeting, shared secret, or truncated account info in your message.
  2. Do not include hyperlinks back to the bank on routine, non-personalized messages.
  3. Update all messages at least annually so they don’t carry outdated corporate branding and/or copyright dates.

—JB

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