ABA Banking Journal
No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
SUBSCRIBE
ABA Banking Journal
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Retail and Marketing

Capturing Mindshare with Higher Level Marketing

November 6, 2018
Reading Time: 3 mins read
Bryan Jordan speaks at a First Horizon employee event.

Bryan Jordan speaks at a First Horizon employee event.

By Anthony Iannarino

Marketers have always been responsible for helping attract and win customers—often having to do so by displacing a competitor. This is a difficult task under the best of circumstances. Today, with almost every company defending against competition, and every industry growing increasingly crowded, marketing is more challenging than ever—especially at banks.

But if there is one way in which marketers make their own jobs harder, and reduce their chances of winning new business—especially business that presently belongs to their competitors—it is that they market at too low of a level. Let me explain.

There are four levels of value a salesperson or sales organizations can create. The levels provide you with a simple shorthand for understanding how you are perceived—and how to create a compelling reason to change. Let’s take a quick look at all four levels.

The first level, Level 1, is the value found in your product or service.

As a marketer, you know this as “sell sheets,” “features and benefits,” and all things that differentiate your product from your competitors’. It’s also likely you know that, while creating an awareness, it doesn’t do much to create a compelling reason to change.

The second level, Level 2, is the value you provide in the experience of working with your company.

Maybe you are easy to do business with, have excellent support and service, and are attentive to your customer’s needs. The challenge with Level 2 is the fact that so many banks have good support and service, and your value in this domain may need to be seen and felt to be believed.

The third level of value, Level 3, is the result your product or service produces.

Let’s imagine you run a marketing consulting service (not too much of a stretch here). You can provide me with a list of all your prominent clients and the marketing goals you achieved for them. But in today’s crowded context, your competitors all have similar lists of prominent clients, with similarly impressive results to boast of. The result you produce is difficult to differentiate from the crowded market where you compete.

Level 4 is the highest level of value.

This is where you can find the ability to differentiate and capture mindshare: by marketing to the way the clients view their challenges, their needs, and the right partner. To market at this level, you have to provide strategic advice—by teaching your clients how to go about getting the outcome they really want. Capturing mindshare starts with explaining your prospective customers’ world to them.

 

Here are the kinds of questions you should be answering for your prospective clients to provide Level 4 value:

  • What has changed over the last twenty-four months that should be compelling your customer to do something different from what he or she is doing now?
  • What is likely to change over the next eighteen to twenty-four months that will cause them greater problems if they don’t start changing now?
  • What is the real, compelling reason your prospective customer should change what they are doing, how they are doing it, and potentially, who they are doing business with in this area?

Since bank products and services are commoditized, bank marketing is less about the logo and sell sheets and more about compelling change—especially now that markets are global, and the internet is disintermediating businesses and industries.

Here is a little test to see how well your marketing matches the Level 4 outcomes. Sort all your marketing material by the level of value it creates, using “compels change” as the measurement for Level 4. My guess is that the largest stack is Level 1, the legacy of effective marketing over the past decades. The Level 2 stack will be quite a bit smaller, maybe less than half. Level 3 will be quite small, maybe a few case studies or white papers. The Level 4 content will be too small, but not to worry. You have the ideas and insights inside your four walls. Now you have to deploy them create the marketing content that meets the needs of the new economy and compels your clients to change.

Anthony Iannarino is an international keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, sales leader, and sales coach. He blogs daily at The Sales Blog, teaches part time at Capital University’s Capital School of Management and Leadership. His latest book, Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away From Your Competition (Portfolio, 2018), is now available in bookstores across the country. Email: [email protected].

ADVERTISEMENT
Tags: Customer acquisitionSalesValue proposition
ShareTweetPin

Related Posts

Is deepfake technology shifting the gold standard of authentication?

Will fraud prevention ever be autonomous?

Technology
June 17, 2025

Anti-fraud systems are learning to anticipate fraud rather than merely react to it. Better anticipatory abilities inch systems closer to full automation.

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 12, 2025

Jim Ryan has led Old National Bank to 250% asset growth. On the podcast, the ABA American Bankers Council chair discusses the bank's growing profile and footprint, his views on deposit insurance reform and the experience of leading...

Bank community engagement: Yes, you can help bank veterans

Bank community engagement: Yes, you can help bank veterans

Retail and Marketing
June 9, 2025

AMBA partners with the ABA Foundation to recruit banks to provide our nation’s veterans access to safe, reliable and flexible financial products and services.

FHFA finalizes strategic plan for 2022-2026

Marketing Money Podcast: Why leadership matters more than likes

Retail and Marketing
June 6, 2025

For bank marketers, the value of being strategic is great.

Looking for trouble?

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 5, 2025

"First Amendment auditors" have long tried to provoke public officials into stopping them from recording in public settings. Now, some auditors are targeting banks.

ABA: Proposed quality control rule for AVMs would overburden banks

Bank survey: Uncertainty weighing on prospective homebuyers

Community Banking
June 4, 2025

Roughly 60% of current homeowners and prospective homebuyers are uncertain whether now is a good time to buy a home, up from 48% two years ago, according to a recent survey by Bank of America.

NEWSBYTES

Treasury official outlines principles for Bank Secrecy Act modernization

June 18, 2025

Report: Bank merger activity continues at steady pace

June 18, 2025

CFPB proposes ending using civil penalty funds for consumer education, financial literacy

June 18, 2025

SPONSORED CONTENT

AI Compliance and Regulation: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

Unlocking Deposit Growth: How Financial Institutions Can Activate Data for Precision Cross-Sell

June 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

April 25, 2025
Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

April 5, 2025
Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

March 15, 2025

PODCASTS

Podcast: Staying close to clients amid tariff-driven volatility

June 18, 2025

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

June 12, 2025

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

June 5, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT

American Bankers Association
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-BANKERS (800-226-5377)
www.aba.com
About ABA
Privacy Policy
Contact ABA

ABA Banking Journal
About ABA Banking Journal
Media Kit
Advertising
Subscribe

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.