This is a really difficult blog post for me to write.
First of all, because I have to admit that I might have been wrong about something. And second, because with a blog title like this one, I risk offending some people, and losing some readers. Especially female readers. Which is not as sexist a comment as it may seem, and, in fact, might be a key point of the whole post.
Confused? Sorry. I’ll explain.
I recently published a blog post in which I claimed that despite banks’ branding efforts, that “rates matter (a lot).” While I might have been right about the relative ineffectiveness of branding efforts, I might have overstated the impact of rates.
The Neuromarketing blog points us to a research report based on a marketing test conducted by a South African bank. According to the study:
A South African lender sent letters offering incumbent clients large, short term loans at randomly chosen interest rates (which ranged from 3.25% to 11.75% per month). The letters also contained independently randomized psychological “features” that were motivated by specific types of frames and cues shown to be powerful in the lab, but which, from a normative perspective, ought to have no impact.”
What were those “psychological features”? They included the description of the offer, promotional giveaways, comparisons to competitor rates, and the presence (or absence) of a photo of a person. These photos varied between various combinations of race and gender.
What did the bank find? According to the report:
For the male customers, replacing the photo of a male with a photo of a female on the offer letter statistically significantly increases take-up; the effect is about as much as dropping the interest 4.5 percentage points. For female customers, we find no statistically significant patterns.”
So maybe I was wrong — maybe rate doesn’t matter. If you’re marketing to men, and use pictures of women in your marketing material, that is.
Anyway, I figure if the quality of the offering doesn’t matter as much as having photos of women, then I don’t have to worry about writing high quality blog posts as long as I include pictures of sexy nude chicks.
Technorati Tags: Marketing, Banking, Neuromarketing
Ron Shevlin's Marketing Whims 
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Very interesting article. It’s a common feature of companies that I’ve worked with that they think what occupies a large proportion of their time and energy – e.g. rate-setting – is as important to their customers as it is to them.
There’s nothing wrong with this: people work in organisations because at some level they are interested in and often excited by the nuts and bolts of what their organisations do. Your post and the source article are timely reminders that customers frequently don’t share that enthusiasm.
Ron, please keep us apprised of your click through rate on your sexy nude chicks link. The only question is the multiplication factor for its popularity over the next most-clicked outgoing link on your blog. Is it 5x, 10x, 20x or more? I’m also curious what this entry and link does for your incoming blog hits. 🙂
You know, all I can say is this points out the real need to test. You’ll never know what is most important to a consumer unless you test it.
By the way, even I clicked on the sexy nude chick link…
Good one 🙂
Suzanne
Nothing like knowing your target audience, and which of us would click the link before we even read the post (I mean, MIGHT do that!)
Oh man, I’ve always been one to argue that it’s the rate that gets the attention. Thanks for the post.
It’s always good to remember that not everyone thinks like you do.
Somewhat related… the other day it occurred to me that I prefer to deal with women rather than men. For example, I tend to choose the checkout line with the woman cashier. I have a woman dentist and doctor. I prefer to have women bosses. Not sure what this means, but I find it interesting.
Having worked at several financial institutions, our research always showed rates were the most important aspect and the other brand elements were considered after rate was considered.
In the research you cited, it states “incumbent clients large”. Perhaps rates don’t matter as much once you’re a customer. But from a new customer acquisition perspective, I do think it matters greatly. That’s the power of teaser rates and multi-line banks. Once you are in the door, convenience, and brand affinity play a larger role.
BIG PROBLEM = women control more than 89% of family financial decisions. I am pretty sure MOST women dont want to see sex laden women. Then again…Kattie Perry’s song ” I kissed a Girl is like…#1″ What do I know.