by Tony Vidler 
How can we create or transfer enthusiasm to a customer when:
That sort of makes good marketing pretty hard to achieve, doesn’t it?
Or does it?
It does if marketing is focussed on the product. Let’s face it, in financial services the products mostly suck when it comes to the excitement and enthusiasm stakes. No matter how beautifully crafted the brochure and policy document is an insurance policy remains as exciting as watching your phone re-charge. The same can be said of a mutual fund, superannuation scheme, trust deed….and on we go. They are simply not as exciting as owning a pet rock.
Boring. All of them.
Yawn.
Yawn again.
The products are just tools that we use. Just like the home mechanic, we have a tendency as an industry to get excited and enthusiastic about our tools, but nobody else is really that interested. They just think we are weird for wanting to talk about the tools in the garage all the time.
Some financial services companies get it very right though, and the secret formula they use in their marketing is to virtually ignore the tools.
They don’t talk about their products and services. They talk about what their customers care about. Their marketing is focussed on making customers feel good about themselves and the financial services provider becomes good by association as they clearly share the same values.
They transfer enthusiasm to their target market beautifully. Not enthusiasm for a product, but enthusiasm for a brand. Enthusiasm is generated for what a brand stands for….what it values…..how it behaves…..
The secret to getting customers enthused about our services when we know our products don’t do so is to link the brand to the human values and behaviours.
Market the attributes and values of the brand and how that changes outcomes for people, not the products we use as tools to fix customers problems. Nobody cares about the tools.
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