Top 10 smashing success strategies for 2009: customers are nervous and don't know who to trust with their money. Here are some action steps that marketers can take to help stabilize the outlook for bank business in the year ahead.

• Author: Sullivan, Mary Beth

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The financial services industry is undergoing rapid change--the likes of which none of us has seen before nor is likely to see again. In just one month, Wall Street as we've long known it ceased to exist. Some of the biggest banks in the country went out of business. Credit markets froze. The stock market tanked. And some investors in money market mutual funds found out the hard way that these funds aren't necessarily safe. While trouble had been brewing for months, no one could have foreseen the degree of change that September 2008 had in store for us. And more changes are undoubtedly on the way.

These changes have significant implications for bank marketing in 2009, but these are not the only trends that will affect bank marketing this year.

We spoke with a sample of senior managers in banks across the country in an effort to discover the short- and long-term trends that will affect bank marketing this year. Using this information together with the results of a quick, informal survey of chief marketing officers conducted in the fall of 2008, we've developed a list of the top 10 "marketing actions" to take in 2009. Many of these steps are not new, but some have taken on renewed importance during these challenging times. These steps follow below.

1 Maintain (or grow) the marketing investment.

Among the marketers surveyed, many expect to maintain or even increase 2009 marketing budgets. In light of industry changes, we think this makes sense. Many of us will remember times when the annual budgeting process amounted to an annual budget defense. The marketing budget was viewed as more of an "expense" than an investment. Given today's economic environment, we believe that now is not the time to cut back on marketing and communications activities. Perhaps never before have traditional banks, including community banks, had such significant opportunity to reinforce themselves as safe, sound and wholly on the side of the customer.

Hopefully, bank marketers are getting the support they need from their CEOs and other senior managers. In our experience, top management of most banks have come around. They understand that competition is greater than ever; the economic environment is more complex; and customers need their bank partners to reassure them, help them regain confidence in the financial sector, and guide them through these challenging times. Banks can't accomplish these sorts of things if marketing spending is constrained.

2 Emphasize core brand attributes.

The events of the past few...