Friday, September 28, 2012

Dear ANZ

Here's an message to the marketing gurus from the ANZ Bank as they prepare to "retire" the National Bank's iconic black horse.

Hi folks - to give you credit, you've been really quick to bash out advertisements urging National Bank customers not to be afraid of becoming ANZ customers.

You're sending the black horse to the knacker's yard, but you're reassuring folks that it will be business as usual, albeit in new uniforms. You've even got people ringing up and e-mailing talkback hosts telling them that very thing.

Your marketing campaign is slick, and all-encompassing. We're getting adverts on the radio, on the telly, and even on the computer, on places like YouTube and Facebook. We don't know how much this campaign is costing you, but all that saturation advertising at peak hours can't be cheap.

But here's the rub; we are neither customers of the National Bank nor the ANZ Bank, so as far as we go, your efforts are going to waste. And if we are already getting sick of all these advertisements just 24 hours into your campaign, how many other people are going to be turned away by this campaign?

The sharks are circulating, and the competition has been quick to respond with advertisements luring National Bank customers to come on over. Just be careful that your slick PR campaign doesn't backfire on you.

There; we feel better now! Has anyone else noticed the bombardment of adverts though? We wonder at how much this PR campaign has cost, and we wonder if ANZ-National is going to get value for money.

7 comments:

The Gantt Guy said...

Given the number of high-value customers ANZ lost when they subsumed lower socio-economic customers from PostBank, I'd say they're right to try and mollify the NBNZ customers. That said, I think you're right and the saturation campaign might just backfire. It may corral existing NBNZ customers, but will put potential new customers off no-end.

Keeping Stock said...

Corral - nice horse pun TGG!

The Gantt Guy said...

Sorry, couldn't resist. You're obviously at least a couple of coffees into the day, to pick it up that quickly!

Lofty said...

Hey you two......stop horsing around! Sorry to nag.

Keeping Stock said...

Why the long face Lofty?

fredinthegrass said...

I am a National Bank customer from way back.
My good lady left the Anz and joined the National due to poor service and a general lack of interest! in her custom.
We will definitely consider moving from "The New Anz"
The Horse has been an icon for excellent service for years.

The Gantt Guy said...

Fred, I hate to tell ya, but if you've remained with National since 2003 (when ANZ finalised the purchase), you've been dealing with ANZ. They've just been wearing different uniforms.