The banking industry and the media

Abstract

The way decision makers in bank institutions perceive the media that can be used for communicating with their customers cannot be assessed properly if the respondents are not guided by giving them overt criteria for judging the media. When guiding the respondents by giving them such criteria, it appears that three dimensions can be discovered in their perception: effectiveness of the medium, low costs, and image/brand awareness/no irritation. As for the first two dimensions, direct mail shows a second-best score; direct mail scores rather low on the third dimension. Furthermore, there is a cluster of respondents who prefer the media direct mail and telephone. The findings imply that managers lack the knowledge and insight needed for making media decisions. Training in this field is necessary.