European Banks Working on Gen Y Strategies

Survey finds 31 percent of Euro banks do not have a strategy for marketing to and serving 14-to-30-year olds, but 38 percent say they are working on one.

Oracle and the European Financial Marketing Association have conducted a survey among European bankers to determine how ready they are to serve the Generation Y market, which they define at as anyone aged 14 through 30.

In the following YouTube video, Senthil Kumar, vice president, marketing for Oracle Financial Services, describes the research:

Kumar points out that Gen Yers expect choice and quick responses to queries. Surveyed banks that have a Gen Y strategy in place had the ability to launch a new product in a week; those without such a strategy took three months to a year to bring out something new for this group. The research confirmed that this group is heavily influenced by word of mouth and social media commentary.

In the survey, 31 percent of respondents say they do not have an active, dedicated strategy for marketing to and serving the Gen Y demographic segment. Another 31 percent say they do have a dedicated strategy and 38 percent of respondents say their organizations are working on a strategy.

Banks without a dedicated Gen-Y engagement strategy are less likely to use social media as a marketing and communications channel to have responsive and flexible customer service; and to be able to speedily launch new products.

Only 31 percent of respondents have a social media strategy in place. More more than 40 percent of banks with an established Gen-Y focus use social media to communicate and market, and another 26 percent plan to launch a strategy in the next six months.

While personalized and configurable products resonate with Gen-Y, only 4 percent of overall respondents say they can launch a product in one week. This compares with 11 percent of Gen-Y focused banks. This group is also more likely to offer products tailored to Gen-Y, including prepaid debit cards, and partnerships with retail chains. Both groups are nearly comparable in their ability to launch products in the one-week to one-month range.

Compared to their peers, European banks with Gen-Y strategies are more likely to invest in modernizing their retail banking platform. Banks without a Gen-Y strategy were more likely to be focused on maintaining and upgrading current applications and platforms.

The research surveyed more than 100 executives at large banks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.