Is mobile banking inadequately marketed?
November 3, 2009 – 1:53 pm by Shalini AmarnaniAre bankers not pushing the mobile banking channel enough? ‘Yes’ says a new study by Javelin.
Javelin Strategy & Research today issued a new report that reveals that banks’ marketing efforts are not keeping pace with their actual mobile-banking services, and the imbalance is causing limited adoption of mobile-banking by consumers.
The study found that 50 percent of financial institutions do not adequately address consumers’ two primary mobile banking concerns.
Key Findings of the Javelin 2009 U.S. Mobile Banking Benchmark Scorecard
- No banks currently allow unique mobile enrollment or opening of accounts via mobile channels.
- Marketing positioning and placement need further work: 17 percent of financial institutions have poor accessibility to mobile offerings.
- Half of the banks analyzed provided sufficient security messaging on their Web site but 17 percent included no mention of security despite this being one of the strongest factors preventing consumers from adopting mobile banking.
- Within five years, 45 percent of adults with mobile phones will use mobile banking (54 percent of iPhone users already use mobile banking on a monthly basis.)
“For financial institutions looking to expand their mobile-banking marketshare, one of our key recommendations is to provide access via text messaging, Web browsers and applications,” said Mark Schwanhausser, Financial Services Analyst. “Mobile banking will be most accessible and powerful when it is available to consumers regardless of the type of phone they carry and the wireless carrier they subscribe to. Triple-play accessibility will put customers in charge, enabling them to decide which method to use at a given time for a given transaction. It’s not about telling customers which channel is best for them. They will choose for themselves, and they will want flexibility.”
While this is a US based study, it applies to India in most parts. Mobile banking in India is still in the infancy stage an the marketing push for this channel is non existence. While internet banking is encourages and advertised to some extend, mobile banking simply a channel on offer with limited features in most cases.
Are there any readers who have used mobile banking? Any one who uses it as a primary channel of transaction? What has your experience been?
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3 Responses to “Is mobile banking inadequately marketed?”
For the first time this Morning as i was driving to office I heard a Radio Commercial by ICICI Bank that was informing people about thier Mobile Banking application. The Ad spoke of the ease and features that IMobile provided to users.
I guess we have lots of time to go before we get Mobile Savvy when it comes to the BFSI Sector; for the time being we are happy only receiving Bank Balance Alerts on SMS
By Paurush Sonkar on Nov 4, 2009
Have managed and used the mobile banking channel. A couple of observations:
1 Expectation setting : The mobile as a channel will always serve a subset of functions offered by branch or the Internet channels, even for those customer segments that emerge as frequent users
2. Usability & penetration : The biggest challenge for several years has been the UI and usability. Its only over the last couple of years that J2ME apps etc. have been offered to customers
3. Need : Which is the burning need that is getting addressed? if push based messages / alerts engage the customers sufficiently, then do we really need them to log in via the mobile
as regards marketing, fundamentally believe new concept marketing efforts in the BFSI sector are quite terrible. Consumer centricity is quite often missing.
The reality is that mobile banking makes for excellent board room chatter and media exposure. The key question is whether the organisations truly believe in the channel
By Upendra Namburi on Nov 4, 2009
Well said Upendra….
I believe there a “only Mobile” bank in UK.
I think one of the worse think about mobile banking is the inconvenience of looking at a small screen and typing in minuscule alphabets.
Ofcourse there are security concerns too.
While it looks to be path breaking in rural sectors where the mobile acts as a branch, the urbanites prefer to log on or wander into a branch.
By Shalini Amarnani on Nov 5, 2009