Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

Financial services firms know they have a problem. Many consumers blame these enterprises for leading the country into the Great Recession. As a result, financial services operators intend to embark on reputation improvement campaigns this year.

Ad-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report for Community Banks. The following are the predicted Top 3 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months:

Banks are still feeling the pain from new legislation that limits the amount of money they can charge customers for some services. In addition, some banks have withdrawn from the mortgage market. These changes in the industry have left operators looking for new product lines, especially in investments and insurance.

More Americans this year plan to save – not spend – their tax refunds, according to a new survey conducted by BIGinsight. Some, however, will throw caution to the wind and use their refund for a major purchase, such as a car or new television (12.3%) and vacation (11.3%). More so this year than in the past, Americans are eager to file their taxes; more than half (64.4%) will have filed their taxes by the end of February, the highest since 2006.

Financial advisors who target the senior market find themselves selling to a very worried group of consumers. A new group of consumers is beginning to move into the senior market – older baby boomers. As a result, financial advisors are evaluating the best way to reach out to prospective clients.

Local and regional banks, along with credit unions, have a problem. These financial institutions are far less likely to offer the latest technologies to their clients and this is especially true of mobile banking. While a significant number of clients at these smaller financial institutions do not yet use new kinds of services, demographics are changing and to maintain market share, small banks and credit unions will need to begin promoting their mobile offerings.