Over the weekend I went out for some drinks with a friend. As I pulled out my Chase Freedom credit card to pay the tab, someone asked me if I liked the card or not. My poor, unprepared amiga was immediately hit with a barrage or reasons why I absolutely LOVE my Chase Freedom Card, their accounts, their integration with other banks and their mobile platform. A full minute and half into my speech I realized that somehow I had unknowingly become a brand promotor for Chase. For someone who spends most of her free time thinking about how humans and brands interact, this was quite shocking.
So how did this happen? How did I go from a poor post-college graduate opening a Chase account because it was the closest bank to my apartment, to someone ready and willing to try and convert all of my friends to the ways of the Chase? Upon reflection, there seem to be 4 things that are supremely important to me, and these are the 4 things that hooked me.
**Disclaimer, I do not work for Chase and this is not a sponsored post. That being said, I am not above kickbacks for free marketing services. Hear that, Chase? I'll look forward to your call.**
1) Chase integrates seamlessly into my life. I, like most people my age, live my life off of a smartphone, and Chase has one of the most intuitive mobile apps I have ever seen. Not only that, but when there's an alert on my account, it doesn't just sit there as an angry red notification waiting for me to login and check. Instead, I get a text message of the notification. Chase has mastered the practice of inserting themselves into existing customer behaviors. I am on my phone all the time, so it makes sense that I would want to bank there as well. 10 years with a cell phone has conditioned me to check any and every text message, so I never miss something important from Chase. Instead of trying to teach me new behaviors, Chase has adapted their systems to work conveniently with my lifestyle.
2) Chase is always with me. While that statement sounds like it came out of a Nicholas Sparks novel featuring a burley man named "Chase", it's actually about my bank. I have already talked about how much I love the Chase app - one of the reasons I love it is because of it's responsive design. I travel a lot for work and pleasure, and every time I open the Chase app in a new location, I am treated to a beautiful photograph of the city I am currently in. This serves as a subtle reminder that no matter where I go, Chase is with me. Plus the photos are always really pretty.
3) Chase is transparent. I rarely have questions about my bank accounts, credit card benefits, or interest rates, because Chase is consistently providing me with information. I opened the Chase Freedom Card because research told me that it was one of the easiest to use cards on the market. 1 year in and I have to say that the research was correct. When something isn't immediately intuitive (for example, I have to "activate" my quarterly bonus benefits instead of receiving them automatically) Chase addresses it with an email titled something like "Why do we do it this way?". Information is readily available and easy to find, and in such a busy world that is immeasurably valuable.
4) Chase offers education. If you were to visit the Chase website right now, you would find a section called "News & Stories" below the fold on the homepage. This section is filled with articles on personal finance, "hometown heroes", and travel tips. Most of these articles are valuable to me, and teach me something new about planning and finance. By providing me with high quality resources, Chase is telling me that they care about me as a customer, and have built a partnership with me to help control my finances and my life.
So what have I learned from this moment of reflection? I have learned that for a brand to engage promoters, they have to offer a high quality product that is easy to use, can subtly stay top-of-mind, and add value to the customer's life. That's good marketing. Chase does all of these things beautifully and with such finesse, and I didn't even notice at first.
So there you go, if you want an army of dedicated brand promotors working for you for free, follow Chase's guidelines and pretty soon you'll have millennial talking up your product over Friday night drinks as well.