I went to Iron Man this weekend with a goody buddy from work and his 5 year old son. As I’m writing this, another co-worker came up and asked me if I had seen it. He and his son went to the movie this weekend as well! It was a great movie and very entertaining. But the funny thing is everyone I know who saw it this weekend, from age 5 to 38, loved the movie. So what does it take to create a movie that is loved by people in different generations?
After seeing the movie, I got to thinking about what really makes this movie likable by both a 5 year old and a 40 year old. The five year old likes the action (everyone wanted to be able to fly as a kid) and the grown ups enjoy the action, humor, and plot. Is it even possible to appeal to multiple generations of members with financial products? Why couldn’t a checking account meet the needs of everybody? Some would say it seems easy for movie to do with the success of movies like Transformers, Ice Age, and Shrek. Each of those movies has a little something in it for each generation that the other generations seem to not pick up on.
Is it even feasible for credit unions to be able to create such a versatile product that can appeal to many generations at one time or are we stuck creating products for each new generation?
5 comments for this entry ↓
1 Chris Giles // May 5, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I agree, the movie was great! My 11 year old and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That being said…
I think this comparison actually breaks down pretty quickly for FI’s in general– and CU’s in particular– in that neither $200 Million and 18 months to come up with the next product, and each product has to meet their customers needs over a period of years, not hours.
However, it is interesting to think about trying to craft a product that can meet the needs of multiple generations simultaneously; a financial tool/vehicle that has features which are “transparent” or “inactive” for one set of users who may not need them at the time, but become “active” when appropriate. I guess the trick would be making it profitable or at least sustainable for the provider at the same time.
Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.
2 Alex Carmichael // May 5, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hey, guys… I have a great idea!! oh… nevermind.
3 Robbie Wright // May 5, 2008 at 2:35 pm
What ever are you talking about Alex? Yeah, focus groups are not the end all be all like many think they are.
4 bk127001 // May 6, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Interesting thought - especially that you mention checking accounts - how different are the needs between a 20 year old and 50 year old? Checking accounts are all about simple access to dollars - so I think a simple product could be applicable to people across generation groups, and many other types of groups. It seems the difference is target marketing - offering the same product to multiple groups with different marketing approaches. Just as an example, mobile access is important to me, but not to my grandparents - but the same base product probably meets both of our needs - at least when it comes to checking and savings. Brokerage, mortgage, HELOC and consumer credit are a different story.
5 Mike Templeton // May 8, 2008 at 7:24 am
I too am intrigued my this line of thought. As marketers, we are taught to cater and design products for different segments of the audience, but is it in fact possible to create that “silver bullet” product that appeals to everyone?
One thing that immediately comes to my mind is Smarty Pig. Its a web-based savings tool that ties back into a bank. Start an account, announce what you are saving for and gather friends/family to help contribute.
The possibility to create such products exists, its just going to take a different line of thinking to figure it out. I’m interested to see what Filinx comes up with.
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