GIVING WINGS TO BANK MARKETING

It is two o'clock in the afternoon and the aura in the office is dragging. Your first thought is to grab a Red Bull® because "it gives you wings." This popular energy drink has pushed above $1.6B in sales not with a superior product (as Red Bull had one of the lowest ratings on an independent taste test) - but rather through brilliant marketing. A concentrated campaign involving catchy slogans, television commercials, billboards, internet ads, Red Bull® mini cars, free samples and special events has led to fantastic growth. Founder Dietrich Mateschitz reported: "We don't bring the product to the consumer, we bring the consumers to the product." Mateschitz recognized early that different people use his product for unique purposes. This example of marketing acumen lays not so much in the creative nature of the advertising or in the dollars invested, but the discovery and exploitation of the unique ways customers use the product. After hitting on the fact that world-class triathletes and extreme sports competitors were downing the tonic before competition, Red Bull started to sponsor (and even buy as a marketing first) sports events in order to feature the product. Mateschitz also delivered sample Red Bulls to campus parties and special events throughout the world. Once he found college students had invented the now popular Vodka-Red Bull drink, the Company leveraged the buzz at bars across the country. After seeing a group of Canadians drink it before a pick-up hockey game, Red Bull created a downhill ice skating competition that took off and increased market share in Canada. Many banks can appreciate the Bull's stampede across the world. While it takes marketing dollars, it also takes creativity and the dedication to implement ideas. Red Bull's success comes from how they paid attention to their customer and then were flexible enough to produce campaigns around them (a technique ripe for use in banking). Our point here is that successful marketing is more about creativity than spending. You don't have to be Proctor & Gamble to launch a successful brand. In fact, over the last 20-years, many of P&G's most successful brands (16 of their top 25) such as Oil of Olay, Tampax or Old Spice, were purchased from small firms that already had exhibited success. How about PepsiCo? Despite a huge marketing budget, the big soft drink firm failed to think creatively enough when it lunched its AllSport drink. The firm ended up buying Gatorade because it took a smaller, more flexible firm to grab market share. As all of these examples demonstrate, the key to bank marketing is to get creative, stay consistent, remain dedicated to the art and keep going. Having a large advertising budget can work against you, as executives usually feel compelled to spend the money in search of an immediate return that is rarely achieved. Successful small companies like Red Bull, Dell, PowerBar, Starbucks and Gatorade start with an inexpensive public relations push and then pick a particular customer or delivery niche to exploit. A word of mouth campaign is cultivated, as are strategic partners with like-minded goals. Finally, major advertising dollars are added and the now successful concept is taken to the mass market. Red Bull offers proof that a small company can make it to the top by marketing. Just as Mateschitz used inventive techniques, community banks must find a way to stand out in the crowd. Our advice is to sip on a Red Bull and get the wings that will separate your bank from the pack.