Be a financial lifeguard: consumers are full of resentment and mistrust as hard times force them to retrench financially. The successful banks in this altered landscape are likely to be those that are safe, local and project an image as a trusted protector of the customer's endangered wealth.

• Author: Fabrizio, Lou
• Position: Recession Marketing - Cover story

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The global financial crisis has created a shift from excess and recklessness to retrenchment and responsibility.

On the consumer level, there is resentment towards those companies that through greed and irresponsibility devastated the retirement funds, prosperity and net worth of the average worker.

At the time these words were written, there were glimmers of hope that the recession might be easing. If that is the case, consumers will begin accelerating the process of rebuilding--revitalizing their general savings, education and retirement funds; their trust in the system; and their sense of control over their own lives.

While consumers obviously are continuing to buy financial products and services, their bias is toward not purchasing anything that they do not need. This creates a particularly large Challenge for bank marketers, especially those whose product or service does not make the consumer's short list. In that case, no amount of marketing will likely lead to success. It is already expected that advertising expenditures in many discretionary consumer categories will be down in 2009. For those marketers who do make the short list, the competition will be fierce. Only those with the most relevant marketing messages will break through to the skittish, prudent consumer.

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While many financial institutions were a faucet for the free-flowing money of the past two decades, their success to a great degree was based on general market conditions and not on individual brand marketing efforts. In the minds of most consumers, banks were not very important. Every institution had money to lend, easy credit and reasonably attractive rates. If one bank or financial institution didn't come through, there was another one down the street. In that respect, banking was more about bulk than brand. Under current market conditions, that scenario has been reversed.

Money is now "number 1" on the consumer's short list. And as Eddie Sutton, the famous bank robber, said when asked why he robbed banks--"Because that's where the money is"-the selection of a financial institution suddenly takes on a new and important meaning.

How do you make the cut?

As already pointed out, competition among those marketers on the consumer's list will be fierce. However, based on what has happened, the position of the largest institutions has been weakened and that puts them far down on the list. The image of defunct/troubled financial institutions such as Countrywide, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, and Citigroup is a negative one. Combined with the natural retrenchment of the consumer and his desire for familiarity, safety and control, local financial institutions stand to make great strides this year and beyond.

Among local institutions, those that will succeed will be the ones with the most sterling reputations and that fit into the consumer's shrinking circle of trust--institutions that not only have the best, most innovative programs, but who also communicate them through effective brand advertising and marketing. Unlike the two previous decades, advertising about banking will now be an important read for the struggling consumer. The skew will be toward "local."

Forming a brand message in context to current conditions

What is the attitude of today's consumer? Consumers are angry at everybody and anybody. And while your institution may not have...