Will the IPOD generation ever trust financial services?

Answer – No.

Will the 50-plus ever trust financial services? Answer – No.

OK, never is a long time. Let’s be realistic and say for the lifetime of the average bank or insurance company marketing director and their three successors.

I doubt if the Financial Services really, really understands the mess it is in - not just financial – something that can be fixed quickly. The bigger mess is the total destruction of consumer’s confidence in its Industry Brand.

Have a read on this excellent report from Reform about the way the younger generation view the finance industry. This is a taste of what it has to say.

The industry is still mentally domiciled in the suburbs of the 1950s relating to a vanishing generation of people who are interested in lifetime savings backed with job-for-life security.

Inflexible products are presented in a complex way, yet often failing to disclose basic important information.

It is not surprising that IPODs place greater trust in friends and family rather than relying on price comparison sites or independent financial advisers, whom a third of IPODs think are out of touch with younger generations.

Am I over stating the issue? Will the banks, insurance and investment companies quickly regain a place in our hearts? I think not.

I have included an interesting bit of analysis from the report. Something that marketing managers who target the IPODs might like to ponder upon. Dick Stroud