The wallet goes digital
As smartphones take an ever-more prominent role in our daily lives, there’s one emerging trend that financial institutions should pay particular attention to. The concept behind the “mobile wallet” is, on its simplest level, the idea of storing digital versions of credit and debit cards on a smartphone instead of carrying hard copies in a bulky, physical wallet. If a consumer wants to purchase something using their Google Wallet app, they simply tap the back of their phone on an NFC terminal (basically a scanner) at the point-of-purchase and the transaction is complete.

While the real upside of mobile wallets is yet to be truly realized (like automatically selecting the card with rewards points you didn’t even know were available for purchasing a particular item), the technology is far enough along that key players in the tech industry are moving in on what should intuitively be financial and banking market share. According to a study by Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group, Level-Up, Square, PayPal, Google and Apple are the tech giants best-poised to beat major banks and credit card companies to the proverbial profitable punch.

Part of the Marketing Organizational Leadership Series

In Part 1 of our series on Building Brand Trust, we discussed strategies for building trust through social media and customer communities. While companies should always strive for a proactive approach to building brand trust, however, there are times when trust has been broken and needs to be restored. Here we discuss strategies for repairing broken trust – even when it may seem like an impossible task.

During Cincinnati’s recent BrandHUB launch, we had the opportunity to hear Guy Kawasaki speak. His second pillar of enchantment, trustworthiness, struck a chord of relevance with us, especially to building brand trust. Whether you’re an individual or a business, trust is integral to success. To build trust, you first need to extend trust; then, follow it up by modeling trust through authentic and transparent customer communications. Here are three guidelines:

As consumers have embraced social media in the Digital Age, they are conducting more research online than ever before.The digital environment is rapidly evolving, and navigating it requires the insight and collaboration of multiple departments.

The insurance vertical faces several industry-specific challenges such as long sales cycles as consumers use the Internet to evaluate multiple vendors during pre-purchase, customers typically only buying one or two products from the total portfolio, and agent turnover. Marketing technology systems can help to combat these challenges by simplifying the process of coordinating insurance marketing initiatives with dedicated or independent agents.

Whether your rebranding decision is driven by a merger or acquisition or competitive reasons that necessitate refreshing your brand image in the marketplace, irrespective of the catalyst for change, rebranding strategies require time and research to be done right: Setting your rebrand strategy is just the beginning. Below is our guide to executing a seamless rebrand, including a review of the channels and materials affected and recommended best practices for managing the transition.

Joint, co-branded events are an effective tool in your marketing promotions mix to help distributed sales channels reach new prospects and close the sale. Events and seminars are excellent opportunities for new prospects to learn more about your product or service, and in-person meetings with current customers can also generate new up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Co-op marketing events and seminars also provide a means for insurance, financial services and manufacturers, such as building products companies, to get closer to their end-customers while overseeing delivery of the brand message. Here’s your checklist for executing a seamless co-op marketing event or seminar from start to finish.

Continuing our ongoing marketing organizational leadership series, we are pleased to share the expert marketing knowledge of Ed Burghard, CEO and Manager of The Burghard Group, where Ed currently focuses on applying consumer marketing insights to place marketing as a way to strengthen Brand America. Before founding The Burghard Group, Ed served most recently as Executive Director at the Ohio Business Development Coalition. A 33-year career marketer at Procter & Gamble, Ed holds the prestigious distinction of Harley Procter Marketer and is a recognized expert on the marketing craft. Here he shares his recommendations for helping marketers to become effective brand advocates by engaging all functional stakeholders in delivering the brand promise.

With emerging new entrants to social bookmarking such as Tumblr and Pinterest, the social media landscape is rapidly evolving, while consumers are flocking to social networking sites en masse around the globe. Your employees, whether you are a B2B or B2C business, are powerful brand advocates for your company, which is why it’s so important for marketing to be at the hub of brand advocacy in the Digital Age, engaging with and mobilizing your employees to champion the core values of your brand. Below are some thoughts about brand advocacy in the Digital Age: