There's a "pot of gold" hidden on this website.
Can you find it?
I'll give you a hand.
Go to "Sector Channels" and click on "Financial." Scroll down to "Financial Research" and click on "Financial services need to improve targeted marketing."
If you have anything to do with the marketing of financial services - or ever intend to have anything to do with the marketing of financial services - READ THIS ARTICLE AND THINK ABOUT IT!
(I won't keep you guessing. It is about recent research by GI Insight, the research shop run by Andy Wood.)
So, what's the big deal?
I think we all "get the concept" that the industrialized nations are headed into a downturn. How bad? Gee, I don't know.
But if you can see lightning or hear thunder, you know that spending power in the UK and US is going to be drying up for, say, the next 12 to 18 months.
It seems to me that marketers might be wise to think about this: Who still has money to spend?
Andy Wood, managing director of GI Insight, discovered that the UK financial sector has its marketing completely backwards.
"Shoooooooow Me The Money!"
The people with ample free cash available to spend and invest are the 45+ consumers.
The financial sector is targeting the under-45s in its marketing.
The 45 to 65 age band is in its highest earnings phase "and therefore can generate the greatest profit from well targeted investment and money management products."
I'll leave it to you to read the rest of the article. It left me wondering about this guy Andy Wood, managing director at GI Insight. I decided to lurk about his website to see what I could pick up. (You should go there, too.)
This is the URL:
http://www.gi-solutionsgroup.com/gi-insight/homepage.aspx
I was quickly "blown away" by Andy's straight-shootin' approach to marketing. This is part of what he said on the website:
"In our experience, companies make money from their customers in 4 ways:
• By winning more customers
• By persuading customers to spend more
• By getting customers to buy more often
• And by convincing customers not to defect
"All the superfluous marketing-speak you hear nowadays should not distract you from these simple objectives."
Frankly, between the GI Insight research on financial services marketing and the double dose of reality from Andy Wood on his website, I found the whole thing quite invigorating.
How does all this shake out in the real world?
I opened a copy of the June 2008 issue of Yachting Magazine. (For the benefit of third-stage data addicts the ISSN is 0043-9940. Publisher: Bonnier Corp.)
The last time I checked, Yachting Magazine had a total readership of 1,168,000. The average net worth of a subscriber was $5.1 million. Twenty-six percent of the subscribers owned at least one waterfront property. About 40% of the subscribers were company owners and partners. They spend an average of 65 days a year on their boats.
Get the picture?
Money on a stick.
The 214-page June issue was groaning under the weight of adverts asking the readers to buy something.
How many of the adverts invited readers to invest? One. Exactly one provider of financial services provider thought it was worth making a pitch to this mountain of money.
There's a pot of gold out there. And almost nobody is even looking for it.
**********
REG CROWDER - "The Sage in the City"
[Freelance Financial & Investment Writer]
[http://www.RegCrowder.com]
[http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/TgTQ/REG-CROWDER]