"Chase What Matters"

Yesterday the New York Times ran a story about JPMorgan Chase’s plan to roll out a sleek new brand campaign on January 13th that uses the tagline “Chase What Matters”. The campaign, created by Mcgarrybowen in New York, will spend more than $70 million in the first quarter alone to communicate that Chase recognizes and focuses on the things that matter most to customers (e.g. security, recognition, control, protection, access, etc.).

One of the new TV spots follows a man shopping for a new television who uses Chase Mobile to check his account balance via a simple text message to determine how much he can truly afford to spend. Another TV spot shows a woman actively rock climbing when she receives an alert that her checking balance is low. She is easily able to call Chase to transfer funds into her account so she can avoid an overdraft. Chase is clearly trying to brand itself as the bank to keep up with the needs and desires of people with busy, dynamic lifestyles.

This morning NPR carried this story, suggesting that customer retention (rather than customer acquisition) is the likely motivator for a campaign of this size and scope. They noted that consumer confidence in financial institutions is low given the recent credit crisis and housing market problems, and that Chase’s expenditure on this campaign is an effort to shore up their market share. NPR briefly interviewed business journalist Glenn Rifkin, author of Radical Marketing, who essentially suggested that Chase would be better served to put the $70 million into things that really matter to customers, like ATMs, customer service, etc. But it really isn’t that simple – especially for financial institutions.

Chase hopefully understands that you have to do both…you have to make an investment in communicating bold, clear messages that resonate in the marketplace, and you have to back up your words with actions. What will make or break this kind of campaign is whether or not Chase has prepared itself to live and breathe the campaign internally.