Bank Marketing - How you can succeed as a marketer!

I've worked with many banks, and the correct answer to the question of how to succeed in marketing banking products is tightly linked to bank location, local competition and especially psychographic and demographic profiles. What I normally do, is apply Claritas' system for customer profiling to a given bank's customer base (i.e. tag customer records in a banks MCIF system) and track attrition rates by branch within profile.

Having analyzed and executed research studies for 5 different banks, you'll find:
1) 80% to 90% of a regional bank's customers come from only 8-12 different profile clusters (out of 66 total cluster profiles that make up 100% of the population).
2) The number of products per customer will average 2.5 - 3.5
3) The rate seekers will average 1-2 products
4) People don't change banks because of rates! In a study I completed including 500 banking customers, 90% of people change banks due to a personal change (new job in a different location, or new residence) or bad customer service (bad experience). Changing banks is simply to much of a hassle for people to worry about a .5% (or less) change in checking interest.
5) The only rate seekers are for mortgages, HELOCs and CDs. Very few people will change banks for more checking account interest (really, none)
6) When people do change banks, they are more concened about convenient location first, and fees second. Not much else.
7) The only real way to add deposit customers is to have top of mind awareness when a trigger happens (4, above). The only other way is to grab them with a low rate on a product listed in 5, above, and then cross sell the other products to the new customer.

Overall, the best way to achieve customer success in banking is to maximize the number of products per customer through cross-selling, establishing strong brand awareness, and wrapping every customer engagement with stellar customer service and support - so your customers don't leave you.

I've had many banking clients since 1994 (10+) and with each one, these rules held true.