Episode 12 – Differentiation

Rokture Ramblings – Episode 12 – Differentiation

Hello everyone, and welcome to Rokture Ramblings, where I discuss topics around digital 

marketing, marketing technology, and marketing operations for the financial services industry. 

My name is Fernando Pena, and I’m the founder of Rokture, where I can help you master the digital 

channel and help your organization grow. So today’s topic is taking us a little bit further 

back to the fundamentals of marketing. And that topic is, how can I differentiate my business 

from the competition? And this is a common issue, one that I see a lot of organizations still 

struggling with, and not really able to overcome this point of differentiating anywhere within 

the market. So what we’ll be going over today is the reality of financial services, what most 

institutions do, how to differentiate value being the key, and also getting different viewpoints. 

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So first things first is that the financial services reality. The fact is, is that financial 

products and services are commodities. There’s really very little that differentiates what 

one institution offers over another. Now there may be some nuances in terms of terms and conditions, 

or maybe some product features, but for the most part, a checking account is a checking account. 

A loan is a loan, a credit card is a credit card. So what are institutions doing in order to be able 

to rise above the masses and really differentiate themselves? And that’s the big question 

here. There’s very little competitive differentiation. So as I mentioned before, aside from 

rates, what else can you really compare yourself against when in the eyes of a client? And that 

is a big concern. The other thing is, is that digital has created more client indifference. 

And what I mean by that is that in the past, when you had branches being your primary means of customer 

touch points, you had personal relationships  

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that were being built. And as a result of that, somebody might have an affinity for an individual 

that works in your institution. With digital, however, and it’s just an app, and an app is an 

app, there’s really no differentiation between yours and someone else’s, with the exception 

of maybe the ease of use, the overall client experience. Those are things that you can build 

upon, but realistically, it’s a very small thing to grasp, and there’s not as much of a bond as 

there was with those personal relationships. Which takes us to the next point, which is that 

personal relationships and in -person touch points have become secondary. So how often do 

customers visit branches? It’s not very often in most cases. You may have a core of a segment 

of your population that visits quite often, but the majority of individuals do most of their 

banking virtually. And as a result of that, it’s very difficult to build that bond, and again, 

differentiate yourself from all the competitors that are out there  

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in the digital landscape.  

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So what do most institutions do? Now, if you think about most institutions, look at this picture 

on the left here. If you are a beige button of an institution, then how are your customers going 

to be able to tell you apart from all the others? It’s very difficult. And so I think this illustration 

or this picture is a perfect illustration of what I’m trying to get to. Most institutions talk 

about how wonderful their service is. Now, that’s great, but the problem is when you go back 

to one of the points I made in the previous slide, they’re not having these personal relationships 

much longer, the clients. And so the only time that the wonderful service becomes an issue is 

if your competitors have their call centers offshore, and that experience leaves a lot to be 

desired. So maybe that’s something that you can play upon, which we’ll get into in later slides. 

They also emphasize ties to the local community, and again, that is a slight point of differentiation, 

but how is that going to help  

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me as a customer get the best rate on my mortgage? And what is that going to do in terms of me being 

able to access my money that is housed within your institution? So it’s a nice history, but it’s 

not something that you can hang your hat on. They discuss the long history of the organization. 

Some clients may care whether their grandfather banked with you or not. Others, again, it’s 

not likely to really affect them, and it’s not likely to really create that sort of loyalty that 

you’re looking for from your institution. It really has to be you’re addressing one of their 

challenges and one of their obstacles, which I’ll get into in the next slide. The last one is 

attempting to compete with pricing or special offers. The danger with this is that you end up 

with the types of clients that are just looking for a deal. And so I think it’s Grant Cardone that 

had a quote that said, there’s only one lowest cost provider. And so ultimately, if that’s not 

you, then you’re really just second place when  

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it comes to chasing that type of strategy. And again, I’ll get into that a little bit more in subsequent 

slides.  

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So how do you differentiate? So the first thing is that with a small institution, whether it’s 

a community bank or a credit union, you are likely locked into a specific area. And so with that, 

you can look at where you have the most opportunity. So whether that’s a segment of the population, 

whether it’s a certain type of product that you really try to focus on. So it could be, for example, 

small business owners in a certain geographic area. Focus on them and now try to build products 

and services that align with their, which is the next point, pain points and grievances. So 

what is it that these small business owners are just completely sick and tired of the other institutions 

and how they treat them? It could be lack of ability to get in touch with someone. It could be maybe 

that the underwriting standards are too high. It could be that maybe they’re a business that’s 

on the no business zone when it comes to your underwriting standards. There’s a number of different 

plays here, but you  

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have to find a spot that is being underserved and try to figure out how you can best serve them. 

And that’s the way that you differentiate yourself. So unfortunately, it can’t be everything 

to everyone. That’s what the big banks can do. But with a small institution, you have to really 

focus on a segment and just go all in on that segment. Focus on messaging that addresses challenges 

and results in a positive outcome. So let’s go back to that call center example that I had before, 

which is that you call the call center. You’re now going, you’re on hold for 45 minutes with another 

bank. And so unfortunately, you’re not able to get your issue resolved. It has to be escalated. 

A case has to be written, etc. So focus on messaging how, okay, our call center is local. We have 

real bankers on the other end of the phone, and we will resolve your issue 90 % of the time on one 

call. That can be a positive outcome. Also make it clear that you’re the potential outcome if 

they don’t go with you. So maybe  

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on the flip side, your messaging can say, well, if you don’t go with us, then you’re going to be 

spending a lot of time with offshore call centers. And we’re not sure how much you like to do that, 

but that will be a better part of your day if you have some sort of customer service issue or challenge. 

So make it clear that these are the consequences if you don’t go with us. And that’s something 

that, again, resonates with them and helps to differentiate you from all the other sort of generic 

messaging. And then relay your message or post your message, whatever you want to consider 

it, where your potential clients are. So if you’re trying to chase the sort of younger crowd, 

then you’re going to have to do something digital. If you’re trying to differentiate yourself 

from other competitors that don’t traditionally use like direct mail, maybe that’s the approach 

you have to use. It may be that certain business owners, for example, are spending a significant 

amount of time at certain trade shows.  

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And maybe that’s where you want to make sure you have a representative. So just make sure that 

your message, it can be as clear and as perfect as possible. But if it’s on the wrong channel, 

you’re not going to get very far. So make sure that the channel resonates with the intended audience. 

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Value is key. So I talked about price before and that you don’t want to necessarily do that race 

to the bottom, which is being the lowest cost provider. So price is important, but what’s more 

important is value. And the value that you provide to your clients is going to create those long 

lasting relationships. So if you are throwing offers out there for free money or teaser rates, 

then essentially what you’re doing is you’re attracting the type of clientele that are going 

to take advantage of that. And unless something now convinces them otherwise, they’re going 

to leave as soon as that promotional time period is done. It’s easy enough to do that, and that’s 

likely what they will do. However, if you go about it a different way and convey the value that 

you’re providing to them, and that value could be not only monetary, but there also could be 

some service based value, then it does help to build a longer lasting relationship because 

they’ll say, okay, well, even though this might cost me  

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a little more, it’s saving me so much more in aggravation that it’s worth this higher cost. So 

that ends up with less churn on your part. And also on top of that, you end up with potentially 

more revenue because that client is seeing the value in your services and is willing to pay a 

little bit of a higher price. Along those same lines, the best deal may end up actually turning 

away some clients. So a lot of times when you see a tremendous deal, whether it’s a lower cost 

solution or a higher rate of return, then automatically the thought in the back of your mind 

is that, okay, well, what’s the gimmick? What’s the gotcha? How am I going to get sort of taken 

away from what I’m looking for initially by this offer? And so that best deal may turn off your 

good customers. And in that case, you end up with individuals that again, are just looking for 

the deal of the day, and then they’ll churn at a later point in time. Next one is really important. 

And unfortunately, with a lot of small institutions,  

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you don’t have a lot of control over this, but that’s that acquisition is only the first step. 

So you might have this great acquisition strategy and everything looks great. The experience 

is just a tremendous experience. But unfortunately, the operational experience doesn’t 

match. And so there’s a tremendous sense of disappointment and also expectations that are 

not being met by the client or for the client. And what I mean by that is that once you get into like, 

let’s say online banking, if it’s still two or three generations behind what most of the industry 

is using, it’s going to be noticeable. And that’s going to unfortunately cause problems for 

you in the long run. Now, that’s a lot more difficult to address because these core systems require 

significant energy and time and effort and money to upgrade. But it is something that is really 

important because, again, most business is being done digitally now. So you want to make sure 

that you are removing the obstacles to get onboarded.  

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That means digital onboarding and also removing the obstacles of ease of use. So very important. 

I know it’s a challenge, but it’s something that really needs to be held in high regard and considered 

a high priority for your institution. Otherwise, you are bound to fall behind. And then the 

last one is always ask for referrals. So great salespeople always do this, but I think as an institution 

as a whole should do this as well. Your best customers are likely going to come from your existing 

customers because they will be associating with those that are similar to them. And that’s 

your key clientele. So always ask for the referral. Always make it easy to get referrals. And 

also you could potentially make it a benefit to those who are referring to you that they get additional 

product services or compensation of some sort. And again, I know there’s some restrictions, 

but within whatever guidelines you have to abide by in order to be able to make that happen on 

your behalf.  

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Getting different viewpoints. So I know that this is very difficult to sometimes change the 

mindset of messaging from a marketing perspective. So oftentimes I look at client surveys, 

for example, what bothers them? Those grievances and pain points are things that you can now 

incorporate into your marketing and use the previous examples that I gave where you present 

the problem, present the solution and also demonstrate the potential downfall if they don’t 

go with your solution. And I think that should resonate with your audience. Also take inspiration 

from other industries. So banking, unfortunately, and well, financial services in general 

is a very conservative in terms of making use of innovations and also marketing methods. Now 

that’s not to say that you can do exactly what like, let’s say a retailer does or an in the entertainment 

industry, but you can take cues and inspiration from them and sprinkle that into your marketing 

message and the way that you go to market when it comes to  

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getting the word out about your services. And then finally make use of professional partners, 

whether it’s an agency, a consulting fractional chief marketing officer like myself, where 

they will be able to bring in some fresh ideas and also act as a sort of outside expert where those 

who are working for you or your stakeholders may take those viewpoints with a little bit more 

authority, so to speak, than if it’s just being suggested and passing internally. So that’s 

an opportunity there to bring in some new ideas and also someone who has been able to get this 

done in the past and is able to make use of frameworks and best practices that have already been 

proven. So that concludes today. Here’s my bio and contact information. If any of this interests 

you, then these are the ways to get in touch with me. Or if you would just like to talk about the 

state of marketing and what’s the most effective use of digital and other marketing methods 

within your institution. So thanks again for listening  

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and watching this video. Until the next time, have a good one. Bye -bye.