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Struggling with their public images and a questioning of their brand values, Australian banks are turning away from advertising and moving into customer relationship management techniques as they attempt to maximise the effectiveness of their marketing spend.
Between them, the Big Four Australian banks - Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and Westpac - admit spending around A$100 million (US$70.2 million) on advertising.But insiders claim that with "below the line" spending that figure is probably three times as large, when other marketing is considered.
Even fifth-ranked St George Bank spends a reported A$8 million, but if the insider's equation is applied to that figure, a more realistic estimate may be over A$20 million.
According to figures from research house ACNielsen, the biggest spender on mass media advertising in the bank sector is CBA, which spends around A$30 million a year on advertising and is ranked in 26th place in the list of Australia's top 50 advertisers.
The only other bank to make ACNielsen's list is Westpac, which is in 48th position in the top 50 and has an advertising spend of between A$25 million and A$30 million. Westpac's 2003 annual report confirms that the combined advertising and marketing spend is A$88 million.
Away from mass media ads
Although it is Australia's top-ranked bank in terms of size, NAB does not rank as a major advertiser, largely because the company has moved away from mass-media advertising to invest in its CRM system, a project jointly developed with CRM vendor Teradata.
NAB's CRM chief, Charles Lawoko, said that its CRM investments, which began in the mid 1990s, have increased the bank's "share of wallet" by 27 percent over the...