Bank bosses taking a bulldust drug

THE problem is our bank bosses and financial houses believe their own bulldust. I guess that goes for our politicians as they continue to allow the money masters to do as they please.

Not that we in the real world needed proof. We’ve known for years these kingpins live in an elite, uninformed world. Despite the daily reports of rip-offs, the financial victims and ongoing mistreatment, this inconvenient information is brushed off by boardrooms.

But a report this week has shone a spotlight on one of the reasons these people continue their selfish bonusdriven behaviour. They’re all taking the same drug: the boardroom bulldust drug.

According to the second annual survey by financial services consultant Yell Creative, the marketing and advertising experts of Aussie financial services companies don’t know what their customers think.

Either deliberately or ignorantly, they think finance consumers “trust” their financial institutions.

The survey of financial advertising, marketing and PR people found not a single so-called marketing expert thought consumers had no trust in their financial service provider. Not one!

When you get feedback like that from your frontline people, and the directors and executive don’t have the intelligence to question it, it starts to highlight the poor quality of leadership and governance we have within our financial sector.

It also raises the question; are these financial spin doctors and marketing gurus deliberately lying to their bosses? Or are they just incompetent? The same questions need to be asked of boards and the executives.

Are they just gullible simple folk? Or are they deliberately choosing to believe the unbelievable?

The gap between what the financial marketing departments “think” (and report to bosses) and what their customers think is huge. For example, marketing people think the financial sector is rated the second highest for trustworthiness, behind only technology companies.

But consumers rate the financial sector lowest, behind pharmaceutical companies, telcos and even the government.

At least 33% of Australians – according to Yell’s survey – do not trust their financial institutions or service providers. OK, duh!

No surprise to all of us out here in the real world but the boardrooms are keeping their fingers in their ears. La la la. Can’t hear you.

Despite all their feedback forms, consumer retention surveys, market analysis and media reports, the news isn’t getting through.

After all, who wants to fess up the multibilliondollar advertising campaigns are a total failure? Or give the news to the director who hired them that the company’s ideas don’t work.

Or have even the surveys got it wrong? Could the real percentage of consumers who don’t trust the finance sector be 66%, not 33%?

Without the constant storm of advertising and marketing campaigns battering our hearts and minds, could it actually even be 90%?