As we highlighted in last week’s innovation blog, a recent CFC member survey on top priorities for 2012 reveals that innovation is top of mind for over 60% of retail banking executives.  In a sustained economic environment of cost pressures and revenue challenges, our members recognize the imperative to innovate. An investment in product innovation is one of the keys to restarting growth.

With this mandate, the Council surveyed 100 new products from 2010 and 2011 and identified three big bets for growth from around the world:

1. Go Where the Customer Is – Engagement is about fitting into customers’ lives. As traditional face to face relationships decline, the real challenge is capturing time share within customers’ day-to-day activities online. Leading banks are positioning themselves in remote channels to gain the customer’s attention and then keep them engaged through interactive features and gamification.
2. Join Networks, Make Friends – Net promoter and referrals have a multiplier effect. Referrals are no longer one to one, as social media creates the opportunity to incent customers to broadcast their brand advocacy. Banks are beginning to trade rewards in the form of cash or miles for “likes” on Facebook to expand their reach into their customers’ networks.
3. Speak Consumer, Not Banker – Brands are at the product and service level more than the bank level. In introducing new products and services, banks are moving away from their traditional image in favor of new, specializing branding. New products like payments systems are getting their own independent names and brands; the bank is an external entity.

Join us on December 15^th as we share the innovations attached to these growth bets, and reveal three other areas in which the industry is placing its growth bets for the future.

US Members register here: https://cfc.executiveboard.com/members/events/Abstract.aspx?cid=100752142

APAC Members register here: https://cfc.executiveboard.com/members/events/Abstract.aspx?cid=100885494