This paper examines the ways in which recent experience of various forms of economic adversity during the recession of the 1990's has impacted upon consumer behaviour and attitudes towards financial organisations. The results of this assessment have significant implications for the suppliers of financial services, and are based upon responses to a specially developed 'barometer' question that has been included within several large-scale consumer research assignments. These have been undertaken on behalf of different leading financial organisations from 1992 up to the present day.
The paper begins with a brief discussion of the changes to the personal sector financial services market since deregulation in the late 1980s, dealing in particular with the impact these changes had on the banking sector in the United Kingdom. A detailed exploration of the changing customer base for Barclays Bank, follows. It begins with the segmentation of customers in terms of demographics, and moves on to an understanding of customer motivations. The paper culminates in a detailed exploration of buying behaviour, out of which an overall generic model of buyer behaviour for the personal sector of the financial services market was produced. The paper also deals with Barclays' implementation of the key findings from this research process, giving indications, where appropriate, of the effect on the Bank's current marketing strategy.
There can be little doubt that the influence of technology is fundamentally changing the nature of the relationship between our High Street banks and their customers. In the United Kingdom, this is most graphically illustrated by the growth in the availability of automatic telling machines and the number of withdrawals going through them. This paper describes developments in home banking over the last ten years and argues that for the foreseeable future, the telephone is likely to remain the predominant delivery medium for financial services into the home. It concludes with a warning to financial institutions that not only should they carefully research the full cost versus benefit picture before venturing into new areas of service provision and capitalising on new technologies, but that the longer term consequences of possible customer alienation and loss of brand loyalty need to be carefully evaluated before committing wholeheartedly to the brave new world of electronic service delivery.
In the rush to implement cost-cutting procedures and deploy the latest management theory panaceas, management have neglected the need for motivated and loyal employees. This project represents the beginning of one organization's attempt to redress the balance: to better understand what would improve the 'wellness' or morale of its staff. This paper is mainly concerned to highlight the potential contribution of other disciplines - particularly engineering design and strategic planning - in helping to better understand complex issues such as staff morale. Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) makes no assumptions about the structure of an issue. It lets the issue reveal itself to the group, and indicates the subsequent use of a more focused problem-solving method. Encouraging the use of idea generation techniques in the early stages, ISM then takes over where they leave off by allowing a qualitative model of an issue to be developed by those most involved.
This paper looks at the evolution of large scale mystery shopping survey programmes, which in many instances is being driven by financial institutions. It describes how NOP has reacted to both the development of the market for performance measurement programmes and explains the mechanics of utilising mystery shopping as part of this measurement process. The first part of the paper examines mystery shopping as a means of evaluation. The second part explains how both agencies and clients have reacted to these developments and looks forward to the next generation of mystery shopping surveys. The paper approaches the subject primarily from a practitionerâs viewpoint. It illustrates how the design and successful implementation of mystery shopping surveys - just as with the more established research methodologies - demands foresight, flexibility and attention to detail - from client as well as agency.
This reference to Credit Mutuel's Assises has allowed us to grasp at what point the meta-consumer was central, at the heart of the banking debate, of values, of the organisation and of strategy. This notion is not an alibi for the communicator but presumes to understand a type of conflict at stake in a structure and to be on the watch to resolve it. The "relationship" with the customer is no longer the last thing to consider, but is the comer stone of the strategic and organisational edifice. Meta-consumption enables the hackneyed conflict of "ethical values" and of "performance", of "customer relations" and of "figures" to be left behind in order to understand how a bank should operate. The overall perception of the "person" must answer an overall action of the bank, where the relationship to communication, strategy and organisation must be involved. It is a coherent offer, which emerges from the internal coherence of a company which mirrors the new meta-consumer. To develop the specificity of this notion must be considered as the first action of internal communication. The interest in the method used which inscribes the leading elements of a debate that is apparently highly diverse, is to grasp how to articulate the notions that the conscious portrayals can put into opposition. Thus, a real movement is outlined : the banks, such as Credit Mutuel, which can be perceived as falling short of banking, can find themselves again in the expressions the same of banking today. The loyalty considered as "soft" in the past becomes an active loyalty and the motor of banking. Credit Mutuel's results in 1995 are convincing in this respect.
The present paper attempts to answer the question of how to create consumer preference in the retail bank sector. The question of creating consumer preference has become increasingly relevant as retail banks grow more and more remote from the consumers. Banks may be well- established as companies, but the consumer no longer perceives of any difference between the service they provide. Some banks, however, have succeeded in creating a unique image in the consumerâs eyes - a reason to choose to bank specifically with them. All of them have done this either through offering a truly different service, or through standing for something truly different that the consumer could relate to. Too much difference, however, may be jeopardising the level of trust the bank is built upon. It is assumed that it is esteem rather than differentiation that constitutes the cost of entry to the bank sector, whilst it is the point of difference that creates the consumer preference.
This paper describes the reasons which have led us to use Geographical Information System technology at Banco Central Hispanoamericano, the procedures followed to implement the project, the information systems used, the achievements obtained and other considerations to be taken into account by any business which plans to carry out a project of this kind. We may define a Geographical Information System as an element integrating corporate databases which permits a relationship to be established between the different concepts according to their geographic location. Geographical Information System technology, initially used in universities, the government and utilities (water, gas, electricity, etc.) has now been applied in many different sectors, principally in those which need a spatial conception of information.
This paper examines the challenges and opportunities facing financial service brands against a background of structural insecurity in Europe, and explores the most profitable ways of using total communications. It examines the key consumer or customer priorities, discusses the implications for financial brands and proposes a model for optimizing the brand relationship with the consumer. The broader implications of the interactive consumer are explored and the paper concludes with a five point programme for improving brand communications.
The German Customer Barometer cannot replace a business's own analysis of customer satisfaction and retention, enabling it to realise a lasting high quality in all areas of customer relations within the company at large. However, through its benchmarking function, a national barometer represents an important element in an comprehensive mix of methods used by suppliers of financial services.
We are living in rapidly changing times and banks are not immune from the need to change. As new banking approaches emerge, market researchers are called upon to assess likely consumer reactions to these changes. This paper argues that, because of innate human resistance to change, research should focus not just on assessing the extent to which changes will be accepted, but rather on how to aid consumers to come to terms with changes that are inevitable. It then proposes a conceptual framework within which to conduct and analyze research findings into adaptation to change, providing examples of the practical value of this conceptual framework. Finally, it points to some methods that can be used to align consumer paradigms and banking paradigms when these do not coincide; and concludes that, paradoxically, often the best guides to adaptation to the future can be discovered by studying the past.