What Your Financial Institution Can Learn From this Budweiser Commercial

It's not often I see a beer commercial on TV and instantly think "Banks and Credit Unions could learn so much from this!" but this commercial did just that.

Watch the commercial here, and then see the outline of lessons to be learned below:

Lesson 1: Don't be afraid to say you're NOT for everyone.

All too often we see credit unions and community banks too afraid to differentiate. They spend tons of time and money to define their brand, core values, and mission for the purpose of differentiating, but then don't execute when it comes to clearly explaining who they are, and are not for.

Lesson 2: Know your primary persona and target market.

We see a lot of lip service paid to target marketing for personas but the reality is that most financial institutions don't do it, or don't do it well. Budweiser knows that their Bud Light primary persona weren't going to misconstrue the message and be offended that a person was singled out for their beverage choice. 

Additionally, Budweiser could have thought "well most people like beer so lets make a commercial that shows that everyone loves Bud Light" to appeal to all personas, but marketing in that safe zone doesn't sell products.

All too often community banks and credit unions market in the safe zone with the belief "everyone needs an auto loan" and "everyone has a credit card" so we're for everyone. Worse yet, it's often followed by "we have such great customer service that..." The problem is that when a consumer is in market for an auto loan or credit card there is nothing that makes your institution stand out as the right choice for them. You blend in with everyone else that's staying in the safe zone trying to send the message they have products for everyone with great service.

Lesson 3: Use campaign, not corporate, messaging.

You'll notice the commercial ends with "Bud Light. For the many, not the few." That's not Budweiser's slogan (which is "The King of Beers" in case it's your first day on the planet!). It is a continuation of the 'Dilly Dilly' series used previously for Bud Light but the main takeaway here is that your corporate tagline doesn't fit on all your products and in all your marketing materials and that's OK.

If your mission is to improve the environment then don't be afraid to use a statement throughout your entire campaign like "eco-friendly auto financing for eco-friendly people" even though that's not your corporate tagline.

Different slogans for different campaigns is the right way to market. You may be thinking that your limited budget offers limited opportunity to get messaging out so you want to maximize every attempt to get your corporate statement in front of every audience.

Instead I would encourage you to think that the limited opportunity for messaging means it needs to be more relevant for a greater chance that it will resonate with the target market for that product or service.

In conclusion...

When you see ads by "the big guys" look for take-aways you can implement at your credit union or community bank. Even though you don't have the big budget you can utilize the same tactics and strategy.