News from Dick's Desk
Finally, An Answer to Bank Protests
The Service Employees International Union is organizing protests at this week's American Bankers Association meeting, in what's shaping up to be a classic failure to communicate.
The big banks that everybody loves to hate haven't hit on an effective strategy for addressing angry citizens determined to vent their frustration about Wall Street greed, as here.
Part of the problem is that banks don't talk like people -- as reflected in a radio ad from The Private Bank.
In a 60-second spot by Tom Dick & Harry Advertising, the Chicago-area financial firm lampoons its bigger rivals' tendency to rely on corporate-speak. It's an inspired script making use of just about every entry in the Encyclopedia of Business Cliches here.
Will it mollify an angry Main Street? It might work about as well as anything else the bankers have said so far:
"Let’s touch base to arrange a little face time so we can appear fully engaged. Let’s be proactive, synergistic and leverage this thing. Better yet, let’s circle back and do a deep dive so we can empower a paradigm shift with a value added, team building, best of breed, Six Sigma, perfect storm that could go viral. And be scalable! It can be a loss leader, but let’s focus on the low hanging fruit. Also, look for change agents that generate robust ideation. Make sure the concept has legs and allows our stakeholders to focus on our core competencies with seamless integration. As for the action items and next steps? Well, we’re going to be proactive and bench mark the bottom line. That’s the bottom line-- in all candor. So that at the end of the day, we’re on plan, even if we’re off plan. We’ll have to manage up. Manage down. And manage expectations. Net-net: It’s a win-win. Got it? OK? Fantastic."
10.27.09