2002 Planning

Web Banking Gains a Wide Following

Jim Bruene

June 2001

: OBR 74/75

44

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With the free-flow of capital shut off, it may seem like the pressure to innovate is off. We don’t think so. Despite the severe downturn among consumer Internet sites and the closing of three prominent Net-only banks, WingspanBank, Security First Network Bank (SFNB), and CompuBank, end-user demand for online banking continues to grow at a phenomenal pace, even surpassing our last forecast made during the peak of the hysteria (OBR 59, April 2000).
We think these failures have little bearing on your 2002 plans. If anything, they reinforce what you already knew: even with branches, it’s damn tough to move market share in the transactional checking space. But Web-based content can be effectively used to support a multi-media promotional campaign (pp. 18- 20). For instance, Bank of America, which is blitzing our area with print and radio ads for its MyAccess checking, has added a prominent link to the product on its home page (p. 39).
Focus online marketing efforts on products that consumers readily purchase outside the branch, namely loans (pp. 13-15), and to a lesser extent investments (pp. 15-16), especially high-interest savings accounts (ING Direct’s Orange Savings, pp. 40-43.) We’ve updated the 2002 Strategy Matrix (pp. 12-37) to help you make sure you’ve covered all the bases.

2002 Planning

SKU: OBR74&75

strategic planning, business planning, marketing, product management, ideas, tactics