The Story

This article in the Puget Sound Business Journal got me thinking about the lack of niche marketing of financial services. Sure, there are banks (like Plaza Bank) targeting larger minority populations, especially Hispanics and Asian Americans, but what about other demographic niches? Where is the bank that exclusively focuses on attracting a clientele base of women small business owners? Or the one marketing solely to the under-35 crowd? How about a gay and lesbian bank?

Most industries have caught on to the fact that you can’t be everything to everyone, and that it’s usually more profitable to focus on a specific, defined market segment. However, the financial services sector seems to be lagging. Sure, there have been a few attempts, such as the Young Americans Bank (only for those under 22), the now defunct G&L Bank (for the gay and lesbian community), and Citigroup’s Women & Co (for guess who… women). But I honestly can’t say I had heard of any of these before I started researching the subject.

Is focusing on one defined market segment a good idea for banks? Especially in the current economic situation, where most banks - even those that steered clear of residential mortgages - are feeling the pinch, are there any willing takers? Executed successfully, this approach could help a bank differentiate from the pack and build itself a strong, stable and loyal - albeit smaller - customer base.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 8:01 am and is filed under Bank Branding, Credit Union Branding, Bank Marketing, Branding, Credit Union Marketing, Corporate branding, Bank marketing plan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.