iPad banking: retaining the under-35 crowd.

• Author: Albro, Walt

IN JUNE 2013, FIRST NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST CO., BELOIT, WIS., became one of the first community banks in the country to offer customers an iPad mobile banking application.

Since then, more than 1,000 mobile banking customers have downloaded the app.

While the bank has long pursued a strategy of quickly providing new technology for customers, the lure of innovation was not the motivation behind the move.

Between 2006 and 2008, First National Bank (assets: $850 million) noticed that its market share of the critical cohort of customers ages 18 to 34 had declined by 7.3 percent. Younger customers are the bank's future. So, beginning in 2008, First National pursued a goal of better meeting the needs of these under-35 customers. One of the tactics was to speak to this group through channels that are relevant to them--such as social media and mobile banking.

The approach--the introduction of an i Pad banking app is only one example--appears to be paying off. Since 2008, the bank has increased its market share of the under-35 group to 10.2 percent.

"We often volunteer when companies are testing. new technology," explains Laura Pomerene CFNIP, vice president and marketing di rector."We benefit from the experience, and this helps us when we roll out the new technology ourselves."

While the bank might not introduce technology as quickly as the large national banks, it typically is the first to offer it among the community banks in its own market--that is, among its prime competitors. "When a customer at a national bank is thinking about switching to a community bank such as First National, we want to ensure that we are offering a level of sophisticated technology that is comparable to the larger bank," says Pomerene.

Sound financial advice

First National Bank and Trust is a family-owned bank with 12 branches on the border between southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. The market consists of four counties in Wisconsin and one in Illinois--a mix of rural agricultural areas and small-town manufacturing centers. The competition includes large national and regional banks and community banks, with a heavy credit union presence. First National is among the largest of the local banks.

The bank's. brand is to provide sound financial advice to its customers. When the bank realized eight years ago that it was losing market share in the younger demographic group, it modified the brand strategy to include financial educa-tion--since research showed that young...