India’s Term Deposit Interest War

Customers have never had it so good recently, as banks are at war, wooing them with ever increasing interest rates on term deposits. Indian Overseas Bank tops the list of high return rates with a whopping 10.25% interest for senior citizens, on a 42 month deposit period. Centurion Bank too is topping the 10% mark, [...]

Bullish on Online Banking

Forrester is not normally known to make conservative estimates, so it was a bit surprising that it is so bullish on the penetration of Online banking in the US. Their latest report says that the U.S. market will grow to 72 million online banking households in less than 5 years, a 55% increase from Forrester’s [...]

Middle Age, Money Age

Batsmen are said to peak in their early thirties. Chess players in their mid-30s. Theoretical economists in their mid-40s. So what is the age that most people make the right financial decisions? 53 years, according to this report from Social Science Research Network, (you can download the report as reported here) by David Wessel in [...]

Skype Gets Into Money Transfer

A few days ago, Skype said that users of its Internet telephone service will soon be able to transfer money to each other using PayPal. Both Skype, the Voip phone service and online financial transaction service, PayPal, are owned by Internet auction firm eBay. PayPal already allows people to transfer funds online using [...]

Brands in Beta

Brands of the future need to get over the “we are the brand, we know” attitude and cede control to consumers. As Influx Insights reports: What’s interesting about brands being in beta, is that they are openly acknowledging to consumers that they are not quite ready. They are showing vulnerability and in so doing, their [...]

Differentiation the Virgin way

“We’re small, with only 40 planes,” says Paul Dickinson, sales and marketing director of Virgin Atlantic, “the only chance we’ve got is to be better.” So how does Virgin build differentiation and thereby loyalty? The strategy is to stay flexible to customer needs by giving them choices. If customers have choices, then they feel as [...]

Patriot Games

Chrysler’s Jeep has created an intense online experience as part of its 2007 campaign for Jeep Patriot. Imagined by digital agency Organic, this truly engaging experience gives the viewer complete control to navigate through the film. The story begins around a campfire with our group of friends, Gary, Srini, and Jodi, and a story of [...]

Power of Dance

Going out in a hip and trendy club and still be responsible. This idea forms the base for the Sustainable Dance Club, a concept that combines contemporary lifestyle with the latest ideas on sustainability. Dreamed up by the hipsters at Enviu – innovators in sustainability - and Döll - studio for the art of building, [...]

Bill Pay

Pew Research Centre has another detailed Social Research paper on how America pays bills. This fascinating study shows how the bill paying habits of a nation has changed in just one generation. While over half of those interviewed still use cheques to pay their bills, about the third of Americans use online payment methods to [...]

Beautiful Change

Creative Review Magazine is running a feature on commemorative coins from Britain and how the Royal Mint has been using the 50p coin as their design canvas. In fact, looking at the range of commemorative coins is like taking a history tour of the nation. From the nation’s entry into the European Union in 1977 [...]