In this month’s TED Talks, John Gerzema, marketing strategy whiz and co-author of The Brand Bubble, imparted poignant insight, facts, and anecdotes on the enormous cultural shift that has occurred over the past year. Here is a hopeful outlook on the new landscape, which ought to inspire new strategies to traverse it.  “If you think [...]

Now, that’s localization! Bank Machine, which runs 50,000 ATMs in the UK, has programmed five ATMs in London with a Cockney interface. Just insert your “bladder of lard” (card). Want cash? Push the button for Sausage & Mash.
The company plans on rolling out ATMs in other dialects, including Brummie (Birmingham), Geordie (Newcastle), Scouse (Liverpool) [...]

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Via Visual Economics

We’ve all heard customer-service nightmare stories, the ones that end with a declarative, “I’m never stepping foot in that place again!” And occasionally, you might hear about someone’s amazing customer-service experience.
But how often does someone bother to tell you about a customer experience that falls somewhere in-between? It wasn’t great. Nor was it bad. It [...]

In preparation for Independence Day celebrations in the U.S., we offer links to some marketing-related finds on the Web. Enjoy!
Apple Insider: Apple developing “active packaging” for iPods and iPhones
“…Apple Inc. is now apparently working on an in-the-box concept that could provide power to iPods, iPhones and other electronics devices still inside their retail packaging, allowing [...]

Remember when credit cards were paper? Or when Carl Malden was the spokesman for American Express? Then you might enjoy “Plastic Flashback: A visual history of the credit card” on Slate’s Big Money blog.
Do you have any old credit cards? It turns out they are highly collectible. A first-generation, paper American Express card can [...]

Yesterday,  American Banker shed some light on the little in-store branches that could. And will. Despite a history of many opponents declaring them undersized, unimportant, and even blemishes on their brands, many in-store branches seem to be proving themselves to be more profitable and appealing than their traditional counterparts.
With as many as 15,000 to 25,000 [...]

With consumer confidence in financial institutions understandably shaken, banks find themselves in a tough spot. “How can we engage customers?” many bank marketers are asking. It’s as much a question about tone as it is about content. Striking the wrong note in branch promotions and messaging will simply confirm consumers’ worst suspicions about banks being [...]

While the basic components of a digital signage system are fairly standard, banks can make a number of decisions regarding the scope, scale and complexity of their network in order to manage capital and ongoing expenses.
Below are some of the key decisions that marketers can leverage in order to strike the right balance between cost [...]

Jim Bruene of NetBanker has published The Netbanker Awards, his personal list of favorites from the 2008 BAI Retail Delivery Conference. Well worth checking out.
Jim reports that attendance at BAI was down 20% (we heard rumors but hadn’t seen any numbers), which was cause for much grumbling among exhibitors (we heard that grumbling). But on [...]