Bunny Business

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There is a new bank in town and they’re doing a lot of grassroots campaigns to promote themselves. Being a new community-based bank, they pride themselves on being different, they’re open seven days a week, have mascots and focus on convenience (Free Checking and Internet Banking.)

Their mascots are rabbits, guys in rabbit suits handing out candy and brochures from buckets… I laughed but felt bad when I saw them standing in the rain – imagine a six-foot wet bunny costume holding a bucket that’s half full of water and wet brochures trying to get people to stop. They were a bunch of them walking along the sidewalk, waving at people and encouraging you to take a brochure and come inside.

I was given two brochures accidentally (bunny gloves) and decided to go inside since it was beginning to rain harder. Lucky me, I was spoken to by three suits – they told me about their new community approach, their charter, mission statement and commitment to my success.

They were giving away tickets to a concert, so I was asked to fill out my contact information on a little postcard. It had a lot of space for my name, phone number and address, but very little for the requested email ID. I added my name and phone number and the guy stopped me, telling me that was enough information.

The Miss-Hop (Step)
I can't wait to hear from these people – if they are advertising Internet Convenience, they should have made it more internet-focused, handing out little cards to coax people online where they could check out the website.

Their people should have been trained better, not one person asked to get my email ID. Even for the concert entry, they should have insisted on an email and asked me to check my email to see who won (where they could have asked for more information.)

A lot of financial institutions still have the money to spend on getting started, but you have to think of this money as going away if not spent to reach a wider audience.