By John Oxford
If you happen to be into the nerdism of superhero or Disney movies, you know that most of these flicks have some form of trigger for the plot. “Transformers” has the AllSpark, an all-encompassing energy power cube. “The Avengers” has the Tesseract, which strangely is also a type of all-encompassing energy power cube.
Each of these items is known in entertainment vernacular as a MacGuffin–an object or device in a movie or book that is just a trigger for the plot.
In bank marketing, we have our own MacGuffins. It’s whatever triggers actions in the journey of our clients. To us, email would be a MacGuffin—a means to hopefully move a client to an action. And interestingly enough, MacGuffins became more important as our marketing plots came through the pandemic.
Did we adjust for digital adoption of both our brand messaging and product delivery through better online and mobile applications? Most of us saw past marketing MacGuffins such as mobile check deposit, for example, as it turned into something that is now a necessity to keep drive-thru lines moving and a more-than-ever adopted convenience.
It’s time for long sought-after website and app updates, adding or upgrading your online account opening process, to move from print to more digital and social media advertising. That means bring on a CRM or MCIF system, and many other “wants” that have now moved to “needs” to be addressed.
As the well-known proverb points out, necessity is the mother of invention. As we begin to see some green shoots for an end to the pandemic along with a digitally adjusted public, there is no better time than now to claim necessity for some changes and move those MacGuffins in your brand and marketing strategy.
For more on this discussion, some random trivia and other strange knowledge around the mother of invention, listen to this week’s Marketing Money Podcast, where I am joined by Josh Mabus, president of the Mabus Agency.
John Oxford, director of marketing at Renasant Bank, and Josh Mabus, president of the Mabus Agency, are co-hosts of the Marketing Money Podcast.
