We all know the financial services industry moves a bit slowly.
We say that with regularity. Somehow we seem to think that being risk-averse and moving slowly is fine. (Then there’s compliance, which intensifies our turtle-like approach.)
But this slow pace isn’t gonna work as the most connected, personalized, multidimensional generation steps into leadership roles .
Since day one, Millennials have had a remote control, a microwave, cable, computers. Not to mention the younger members and their own cell phones. Whether they’re Millennials or Xennials —Gen X/Millennial hybrids—they’ve seen their access to technology, flexibility, speed and control compound every year. And they’ve grown to expect it. No more checking a smart phone for the weather, just ask Alexa.
Since day one, Millennials have also been given choices: “Do you want to wear your blue shoes or your red ones today?” (We were told choice eliminated the morning-shoe meltdown.) “Do you want to play soccer or softball? Or both?”
This is a whole new world, and we have to change the way we market to this generation.
We have to change the products we offer and the messages we send. Even the way we depict the American Dream.
This is a whole new world, and we have to change the way we market to this generation. We have to…
The slow, one-size-fits-all approach we’ve taken in financial services just won’t fly with Millennials. We have to provide efficiency, convenience, choices, innovation, personalization, with a splash of color . Millennials believe they can have whatever, whenever, however they want.
Then they encounter the turtles in financial services.
How’s that gonna work?
Don’t get me wrong about compliance. I know and respect their efforts. At times I’ve shared my love for them. (I couldn’t do their job.) We all must work within our industry’s guidelines. I get that.
But I can’t help but think about the Fosbury Flop. (Stay with me for a second.)
Dick Fosbury had challenges with the high-jump in high school. He was unable to compete with the scissor-kick, the straddle or the belly-roll. Then he invented the Flop. “The advantage,” he said, “from a physics standpoint is, it allows the jumper to run at the bar with more speed and, with the arch in your back, you could actually clear the bar and keep your center of gravity at or below the bar. It was much more efficient .”
The Flop looked very strange at the time. Track coaches were worried as young athletes began to imitate Dick’s Olympic Gold-winning moves; afraid their athletes would break their necks. Then it stuck.
Now the standard is the Flop.
No one did it, because no one did it. Until they did.
Related: What We Can Learn From Disruptive Marketing
Now, think about the four-minute mile. No one did it, because no one did it. Until they did .
That’s the trouble with. They aren’t engineered to Flop. Yet .
I recently joined Ed Kless, host of the Sage Advice Podcast, to talk about all things digital marketing . (Well, an eight-minute dive into digital marketing.) Listen in!