Your Institution's Personal Ad

If your institution had a personal ad, what would it look like?

There’s an interesting article in April’s issue of Fast Company that equates a brand’s message to personal ad headlines on match.com. Frankly, there are some strong similarities between the two: they have to be short and to the point, they should be written to attract your target, and – in reality, most of them are boring, safe and ineffective.

The article “Polarize Me” offers insights from Made to Stick authors Dan Heath and Chip Heath. The first of which is “If you want people to like you, first decide who needs to hate you.” While financial institutions really don’t need to focus their attention on deciding who needs to hate them, they should be clarifying their target and crafting a message that resonates with that target. Essentially, this is the start of a differentiation strategy; and in today’s industry where so many institutions are trying to be “all things to all people,” differentiation is more important than ever.

The article refers to this as the “Hey phenomenon,” where companies are too general and all-inclusive in their messages. In comparing brand messages to the personal ad headlines, the authors say “Why do these headlines suck so much? Fear. Fear of saying too much. Fear of saying something clever that someone might think is stupid. Fear of saying something revealing that might turn someone off. The headlines try desperately not to exclude anyone. In doing so, they succeed at boring everyone.”

Nowhere do so many companies “try desperately not to exclude anyone” than in financial services. The industry is flooded with generic value propositions which usually include promises of outstanding customer service and quality products. Many of today’s successful financial institutions are those that have clearly defined who they want to be and, perhaps more importantly, who they do not want to be. This clarification allows them to make decisions which ultimately contribute to a more focused message, a more carefully crafted experience and a targeted value proposition that actually communicates real value.