Visualize this: A woman is pushing a loaded grocery cart through the frozen-food aisle when she gets a mobile phone alert. Her checking account balance has dropped to $100. Uh-oh, the food will be well over that amount.
But wait. Up pops a clickable ad, offering her the chance to sign up – right now – for overdraft protection.
That might be a marketing no-brainer, but it’s still wishful thinking in mobile banking. “Banks are starting to ask for this capability,” said Drew Sievers, co-founder and CEO of mFoundry, a Larkspur, Calif., technology firm that creates software for mobile banking and mobile payments. “But security risks are a big concern.”
Sievers says current mobile marketing strategies have great potential for helping banks gain a greater share of customers’ wallets. For one thing, financial services firms can partner with other businesses that want access to their customers, as Visa has done with Starbucks. A mobile gift card application that mFoundry created for Starbucks features a Visa advertisement. Those who use their mobile devices to reload Starbucks cards get an extra $5 added, if they pay with a Visa card.
Mark Schwanhausser, a senior analyst with Javelin Strategy & Research in Pleasanton, Calif., likes this type of partnership strategy. “Banks have incredible insights into how individual consumers spend their money,” he says, “and they sit in a spot where they can play an instrumental role in directing coupons, offers, rewards and other savings to consumers.”
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