A DISTINGUISHING FEATURE

When it comes to food, dogs are not all that discerning. You could put the same dry kibble in front of a dog 2 times per day for 10Ys straight and each time they will look at you with big brown eyes and lick the hand that feeds him. We have seen some of our co-workers do the same thing with pizza, but we digress. As customers walk around their daily lives, they tend get excited about the same things unless somebody presents something new. Business travelers, for instance, were always happy just to get to bed, but it was the Westin hotel chain that came up with the concept of the "Heavenly Bed." All it took was a little extra thread count on the sheets, a washable comforter and some suburb marketing. Suddenly, business travelers were not only wanting to book extra hotel nights, but were talking about the Heavenly Bed to friends and associates. Customer satisfaction scores shot up by 9% and the hotel garnered a 13% increase in ratings over "cleanliness." Expanding on their success, Westin took the market segmentation strategy two steps further and came up with the Heavenly Bath as well as a catalogue that allows customers to buy the whole line for the home. According to Westin, 3 Heavenly beds are purchased each day and sales for the department now exceed $10mm per year. This marketing move resulted in increased stays, a new line of product sales, higher retention and increased branding. On average, pricing increased $10 to $20 per night as a result of the marketing campaign. Banks should take a page out of Westin's playbook and ask themselves, what is it in their organization that can be marketed as a differentiating factor? Quick loan approvals, extended hours, branch coverage and personalized service are all attributes that some banks have chosen to name and build a marketing campaign around. Take a simple thing that you do well and exploit it to a marketing advantage. In similar fashion, maybe it is knowledge of a particular industry such as dry cleaners, temporary help agencies or doctor's groups that a bank can build marketable expertise around. Whatever it is, make it a memorable point in order to promote your bank without using rate as a tool. Banks that do, may find that not only does marketing pay, but it may have customers wagging their tails like dogs to kibble.