Banks Bailout Windfall.

As the Obama administration decides how to fix the economy, the troubles of the banking system have become particularly vexing. Congress has so far approved the $700 billion rescue plan with the idea that banks would help struggling borrowers and increase lending to stimulate the economy, and many lawmakers want to know how the first half of that money has been spent before approving the second half. But many banks that have received bailout money so far are reluctant to lend, worrying that if new loans go bad, they will be in worse shape if the economy deteriorates. Fearful that the economic downturn could deepen and wary of risking additional losses, the question of what to do with the bailout money comes down to self-preservation. Read more in NY Times.

Pay Debts Faster With Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo has announced new tools to help consumers save more while reducing what they owe, while also introducing resources to use credit better for a lifetime. The Wells Fargo Debt Pay Down Solution allows customers to consolidate their monthly payments through a personal loan and help find money to pay off the loan faster.
The bank is also offering the
Wells Fargo Cash Back Card and the Wells Fargo Cash Back College Card to incentivise customers to pay down debt by offering cashback rewards that they can use to reduce credit card or personal loan balances or add to checking or savings. Wells Fargo is also introducing its Smarter Credit Center, an online resource center with information about how to establish, rebuild and use credit. More from Payment News.

The Economist. Reimagining Finance.

A new draft policy getting some notice around the world and in Washington in particular, is looking at some strong steps to set right the financial system that fell apart in 2008. The paper titled “Financial Reform: A Framework for Financial Stability” contains some muscular stuff, according to The Economist. The 18-point agenda includes “strict” capital requirements on high-risk proprietary activities, that is, bets made using their own money. For banks and non-banks alike, the report calls for a more refined analysis of liquidity in stressed markets and more robust contingency-planning. Central banks should have a stronger role in policing such things, the authors argue, and need to be especially vigilant in good times, when credit is expanding quickly. They should also be more involved in supervising bank safety and soundness—although, to safeguard central-bank integrity, the role of chief firefighter is best played by others once trouble ignites. The other important message is that a global crisis requires a global fix. International co-ordination should go beyond rule-making closer to harmonisation including enforcement,
say the authors, and more needs to be done to curb the uneven application of international rules at national level—although they shed little light on how this could be achieved. More in The Economist.

Learning By Listening. New Services Delivering. Better Customer Experiences.

There’s a lot of talk these days around companies needing to listen to customers, even if many of these customers are wrong. At Future Lab, John Cadell lists out a few reasons. Elsewhere Peter Kim pointed us to a review by Forrester of listening technologies. He goes on to add that the future lies for companies who go beyond offering just products. He feels the need of the hour is to offer services around such products. On the 1 to 1 blog is another interesting tidbit about customers helping other customers. How when the designated Comcast employee was on leave for a day, his colleagues who were also on Twitter picked up from where he had left off and continued to support those in need. Not long ago, we had written a piece on how companies can help customers help themselves. On Jerimiah Owyang blog is a list of white label social networking products. Yes there’s an explosion of such services. Needless to say companies need to do their best to keep their ears to the ground and computers logged in.

Life Without TV. Will Radical CMOs Reshape Marketing?

As the upfronts loom many big brands – like General Motors and Citibank – are slashing their spends on television advertising out of necessity. But another factor to consider is the maverick CMO who is willing to spend a lot less on TV advertising or cut it out entirely. Partially, it’s a response to market conditions, but some marketers say the economy is prompting them to take a chance on new forms of marketing. Susan Lintonsmith, CMO for Red Robin, said the economy is definitely one impetus for going without TV. “It’s a little of everything,” she said. At Best Buy, CMO Barry Judge has another view: TV advertising is important, but can be undermined by a bad consumer experience, so he cut his TV spends by 40 percent and opted to spend it on increasing staff in the company’s stores and on improving the company’s Web site. Other marketers are moving away from TV because they feel that there are other needs their communication budgets need to fulfill. Like in the case of Century 21st, where the CMO felt that the brand had 98% awareness, and that their customers were looking for information in other areas. Research has shown them that most potential home buyers or sellers—about 87 percent—go online before making a purchase. So they took money out of TV and are reallocating it to online—namely paid search, display ads and social media. Read the full story in BrandWeek.

Stories From The Aisle. Boom Time For Shopper Marketing.

Not the first time are we writing about shopper marketing. And there’s good reason for doing so. Because the dynamics in the media landscape have changed, and now the one place you can still aggregate a mass audience is in-store. If 35 million Americans watched the season ending finale of American Idol, the most watched show on television, some 150 million Americans pass through the revolving doors of WalMart, Costco, Walgreens, Safeway and Kroger to boast weekly shopper counts of 20 million, 30 million, 44 million and 68 million, respectively. Point of sale is probably the most important point at which shoppers makes choices, and if you can hit them with a message, you can measure it with a sales lift. A study by Booze & Co found that over the next three years, in-store marketing activity will grow at a higher rate than any other marketing tactic. One of the key inflection points in this space has been WalMart’s decision to start an instore TV channel. With over 2600 locations around the US and hundreds and thousands of TV screens the network will rival the reach of traditional TV network. The IPTV based network is capable of delivering a precise message at the moment of purchase, down to one single screen. In India too such networks are beginning to proliferate. Future Group’s Future TV is one such player connecting up 10 million customers a week. Although there is a lot of buzz surrounding these latest in-store shopper marketing strategies, there’s still an ailing economy driving decisions. That could cause companies to pause before jumping into the newer in-store networks and rely on the tried-and-true shopper marketing tactics. More in AdWeek.

What Are We Buying?

Wonderful infographic that shows how different countries are consuming things, as only NY Times can do it. What your global neighbours are buying – a look at how people spend their discretionary income. The infographic illustrates that cash spent on clothing, electronics, recreation, household goods, alcohol – depends a lot on where they live. People in Greece, for instance, spend almost 13 times more money on clothing as they do on electronics. People living in Japan spend more on recreation than they do on clothing, electronics and household goods combined. More Interactive charts here.

The Bailout. Now A Game.

Enough has been said and written about bailouts in the financial services sector. So now the guys at Blue Interactive has gone out and created an interesting little game. The BailOutGame. Steer a truck across a cityscape and the game ask you to make bets across many famous American bailouts that have taken place in the recent past. A simple yet chilling reminder on how the bailouts are sinking the nation further and further into debt. Play here.

Bank Of Twitter

Bank of America becomes yet another bank to embrace Twitter with a customer service stream. Manned by customer relations specialist David Knapp, customers can tweet him if they have problems with their accounts or general questions. Wachovia, which in August started an account to seek out and serve customers on this micro blogging platform, now has over a thousand followers. While some banks have active twitter accounts, there are others who have created accounts and not followed up on it. Read more in Finextra.

Trillion Dollar Notes On The Way.

Zimbabwe’s central bank says it will soon introduce a 100 trillion dollar note as the once prosperous country battles to keep pace with hyperinflation that has caused many to abandon the country’s currency. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said the new notes in denominations of 50 trillion, 20 trillion and 10 trillion would be released for the “convenience of the public”, according to statement released Thursday. The new 100 trillion dollar bill would be worth about $300 in U.S. currency. A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe now costs about 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars — and like most commodities, the price increases every day. The currency is in free fall, forcing traders to peg their prices to international currency to hedge against losses. The Zimbabwean dollar is facing extinction, with most traders now accepting other countries’ notes, claiming that they import their products. Even vegetable vendors prefer the U.S. dollar, South African rand or Botswanan pula, and most workers now demand their salaries in foreign currency. Doctors and nurses have been on strike since last September, demanding salaries in U.S. dollars. The strike coincided with a cholera epidemic that now has claimed more than 2,000 lives. More from CNN.