Post by Martin Hill-Wilson on 10 June 2008
If Traditional Brands Are From Mars, Social Networkers Are From Venus
I have recently presented the world of Web 2.0 and social networking to the UK police leadership and a major bank. It's kind of fun to watch the internal struggle as they try to reconcile the realities and expectations that this new group of consumers hold versus the familiar demographic of grumpy but essentially docile consumers/citizens for whom customer service means call centres and bit of online support.
In a previous blog I mentioned wesabe.com which is a banking facility run by social networkers which has a fundamentally different value proposition - to help you get richer! If you haven't yet goggled it, it's worth the 'cut and paste'. Now further evidence has emerged about the strength of demand for such services.
While the more mature consumer looks to speech rec for better security in banking interactions, the younger generation is more interested getting secure banking via social networking.
Research by WorkLight indicates a strong desire for Web 2.0 banking tools among customers. One in four Facebook users would consider leaving their bank to be able to obtain online banking through Web 2.0 gadgets. Polling Facebook users between the ages of 18 and 34, the survey also determined that nearly half of those asked would take advantage of secure Web 2.0 gadgets for online banking.
The profile of the typical Web 2.0 banking customer was revealed to be males between the ages of 25 to 34. Men are slightly more open to managing personal financing with Web 2.0, with 55% of men responding in the affirmative, versus 45% of women in the research group.
Among the age groups, the 25-34 year olds seemed slightly more open to the idea of Web 2.0 banking with 53% saying they would take advantage of the service, compared to 45% for the 18-24 year olds. Moreover, 25-34 year olds (33%) are more likely to switch to another bank that offered Web 2.0 gadgets for online banking than 18-24 year olds (21%).
What this means is that social networkers are now used to staying put gazing out into the online world from the vantage point of their anchored online presence. The world needs to come to them in the form of services pre-integrated into the dashboard of communication and transactional services they can already access from their home pages.
In wesabe's case, they can integrate all their financial partners into a single wesabe branded interface without recourse to the original brand's online facilities. That's disintermediation writ big!
Being bold in recessionary times is never an easy call. But the birds are still flying south.
Comments
Post a comment
The blog postings on this site soley reflect the personal views of the authors and do not neccessarily represent the views, positions, strategies or opinions of Datapoint. All comments are made in good faith, Datapoint will not accept liability for them.