06Jun

With Gen Z — that generation born after the mid-1990s — beginning to earn their first paychecks, the establishment banking industry is rushing to sign them up and capture their loyalty before they decide to go with a fintech startup.

“Financial marketers must reach out to this generation right now or their window of opportunity may slam shut forever,” cautions The Financial Brand’s Executive Editor Steve Cocheo.

The dire warning is based on a report from Raddon Research which says 8-in-10 Gen Zers are “open to and excited by nontraditional financial services” or “love digital banking channels” and prefer avoiding in-person banking, even if they consider traditional banks necessary.

It’s especially urgent for credit unions and community banks to move quickly and decisively, because they’re still playing catch-up for the business of millennials who gravitated to the nation’s biggest banks. Credit unions are doing better, but community banks, according to research cited by The Financial Brand, are struggling to capture younger banking customers.

Geography, which used to be the primary influencer on where a customer chose to bank, has a far less important role since the advent of digital banking. When you need cash, ATMs are ubiquitous.

It seems a reasonable case to make that the banking industry as a whole, and smaller banks in particular, needs to develop products and offerings geared to the Gen Z market.

But a Forbes article says, “Don’t believe it.”

“Warnings like this are reminiscent of those from 10 to 15 years ago regarding millennials. Roll the clock forward to today, and three megabanks — Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo — have 44% market share of millennials. And they were hardly the ones ‘decoding’ millennials before it was “too late.”

So who should banks be pursuing with vigor? Baby boomers, writes Ron Shevlin, managing director of fintech research at Cornerstone Advisors.

He doesn’t suggest ignoring Gen Z, just that banks gave at least equal time to older customers. Three trends make boomers different from the generations that preceded them:

  1. They are working longer and many are taking part-time jobs in retirement to keep busy and supplement their income.
  2. Family dynamics are changing how money is handled and debt is incurred. Many boomers have taken over the financial affairs of their aging parents.
  3. Healthcare is becoming a greater concern due to rising costs and worries about incapacitating illnesses and the need for long-term care.

Concludes Shevlin: “The oldest boomers are just in their mid-70s. The challenges listed here are more prevalent among consumers in the late 70s and early 80s, however. This means there is a window for new product and service development. With the youngest boomers in their late-50s, it also means that the life cycle for these new products and services could run for the next 30 years.”

Photo by Eduardo Soares on Unsplash

[bdp_post_carousel]

Influencer is the Hottest New Marketing Career (Sample)

When the pandemic hit and Americans hunkered down, spending on essentials and entertainment, but on little else, brands naturally cut their marketing budgets.

One area that survived was social media influencers. After dipping slightly at the outset of the quarantine, social influencer spending quickly returned to pre-COVID levels. Meanwhile, other advertising, including digital, continued to decline so much that 7-in-10 CMOs have seen an average 19% cut in their marketing budgets.

From an almost accidental niche specialty, influencer marketing has become a big part of digital marketing. Spending on social influence was estimated to hit $9.7 billion this year.

Marketers report that for every $1 they spend on social influence they earn an average media value of $5.78. No surprise then that influencer jobs have become one of the hottest new marketing careers. By virtue of the relationship they’ve established with their audience, social media influencers can introduce their followers to a new brand, or boost an established brand’s sales simply by posting about them.

Until recently, influencers didn’t see what for many began as a hobby as a career. They wrote blogs, posted videos and images to YouTube and Instagram channels and otherwise produced content about what most interested them. As they gained followers, they gained influence and companies noticed.

Kylie Jenner, with 164 million Instagram followers, can drive huge sales for her cosmetics line and for other products she promotes. So effective is her influence that companies pay her hundreds of thousands, even up to a million to post about their products.

[bdp_post_carousel]

Banking’s 2021 Outlook: Transformation and Resilience

When the pandemic forced the shutdown of businesses across much of the world, one of the sectors that adapted quickly was finance.

In a detailed forward-looking article, Deloitte applauded banking’s response calling it “notable… Banks effectively deployed technology and demonstrated unprecedented agility and resilience.” Looking ahead, the report says now is the time for the industry to institutionalize what it learned about engaging customers, digital transformation, finance and talent, among others.

While COVID impacted so many areas of the global economy and work, perhaps the most highly visible is in workforce management.

“Banking leaders around the world have faced an array of challenges on the talent front, from shifting to a remote, distributed workforce to finding ways to keep employees engaged and productivity high,” says the report written by two of Deloitte’s most senior leaders in its Banking & Capital Markets practice: Mark Shilling, a vice chairman, and Anna Celbner, vice chairman of Deloitte UK.

A majority of banks adopted flexible schedules and focused on employee safety and well-being. However, the economic fallout also led many to implement layoffs, furloughs and voluntary time off. Further “hard decisions on optimal talent models” may need to be made in 2021, the writers acknowledge.

But as uncertainties continue, “Bank leaders should continue to proactively recognize employee concerns, be sensitive to their personal/family needs, and prioritize physical and psychological health efforts that can also help maintain employee productivity.”

To improve retention and engage workers, especially the many that work, and may continue to work remotely, banks must “transform their talent strategies to enable employees to learn better, faster, and more frequently.”

Teaming needs to change to “facilitate flexible, self-organizing teams that come together for a common purpose,” the authors write. “Boosting productivity, creativity, and collaboration should be the ultimate goals.”

The lengthy report addresses multiple other areas of banking operations, suggesting how the industry can build on the lessons of the last year, as well as proposing ways to manage the uncertainties ahead. Resilience, a recurring theme throughout the article, is the overall message.

Acknowledging that, “Uncertainty about the effects of the pandemic will likely remain for the foreseeable future,” Shilling and Celbner, say “This should not prevent bank leaders from reimagining the future and making bold bets.

“They should institutionalize the lessons from the pandemic and build a new playbook by strengthening resilience now and accelerating the transformation in the post-pandemic world.”

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon

[bdp_post_carousel]