Wells Fargo & Co. has told securities analysts that it expects its first-quarter earnings will be $3 billion, easily topping the $2 billion it made during the same period last year.
Bank of America is significantly hiking the interest rates it charges at least four million credit card customers, and other banks have or will institute programs to force borrowers to pay more, and/or pay more often.So the banks needed public bailouts in order to free up lending again, and they're going to make a killing while making it harder for credit card users to borrow?
No wonder the brand marketers at our financial institutions have been so noticeably quiet during the recent economic, um, unpleasantness. This isn't just a communications nightmare. It's real.Think back with me, to the ads that they've run over the past half-year or so. They've almost consistently been in the "have faith, trust us, we've been in tough times before" mode, right? There was little (if any) direct analysis of what was happening, or why. No public events delivered thoughtful, detailed introspection about what caused the various crises, or what should be done about them.
Just stay the course. Don't ask too many questions. Keep investing. Certainly, there's never been any mention of a question, let alone an answer...via ads or any other medium...of any real, substantive change in these organizations as a result of their own understanding of what was broken.
Are financial firms making fundamental changes to the asset allocation model on which we investors have been raised?Have they instituted radically new processes for vetting and managing operational performance?Are there clear, obvious strategies the regulators are using, not just to try and keep track of all the money we've donated, but to better understand the financial activities on which our very economic being relies?
Nope. The best we got was the government yammering about greed and holiday bonuses, which was a symbolic sideshow, at most.Now we know. There was no communication about fixing anything because nothing was broken. The system -- their system -- is working just fine, thank you very much. The brand marketers communicated as much with their silence.I'd suggest that the financial institutions face an incredible challenge: why should consumers believe that they operate in their best interests? Even if the explanation is that they most definitely and consistently do, it's not obvious or particularly intuitive.
No feel-good ad or social media campaign can address this issue. The real challenge is how to brand reality, not obfuscate or avoid it. That's what the financial institutions have done with their brand marketing up to now. Nobody has told us what's really going on...we've only learned the truth by default. Financial brands have had nothing new or relevant to say to us. And now we know why.
Link to original post