Banks should avoid the self-inflicted wound of negative messaging

• Key insight: Effective leaders avoid negative messaging; bashing the competition or past leadership never lands well with consumers.
• What’s at stake: If your pitch is that you’re not as awful as the other guys, customers tend to lump you together.
• Forward look: The most effective leaders and marketers spend their energy painting a compelling picture of the future and backing it up with consistent action.

It’s not often that a television commercial has me reaching for the remote, not to change the channel but to replay it to see if I just saw what I thought I saw. But that’s exactly what happened while I was watching the early rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament.
The commercial reminded me of a subject I’ve addressed with bankers for years. I am not a fan of trying to compete by tearing down the competition. If your pitch is basically that you’re not as awful as the other guys, customers tend to lump you together.

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There was a national advertising campaign not all that long ago from an online-only bank that played up just about every negative stereotype about banking known to man.

The core of their message seemed to be that you shouldn’t trust all these greedy, dishonest, fee-charging, lazy fat cats. But hey, trust us. We’re different!

The company’s plan appeared to be endorsing nearly every insulting stereotype about its own industry, most of which are inaccurate, and then asking customers to believe it is somehow different.

Right. Good luck with that.

Now, the recent commercial I referenced was from a national burger chain. In it, its president narrates and even makes a brief appearance. I looked it up and learned he has been in the role for nearly five years.

The big budget spot is filled with archival footage that creates a strong sense of nostalgia.

What caught my attention was the core message. The ad leans heavily on how great the company and its products were in the past, tying them to a happier, better time.

It certainly looks like their hamburgers once spread joy throughout the population. Hey, when you’re paying for the commercial, you can make whatever claims you want.

And then, according to our narrator, they “fell off.” They try to suggest that all fast food lost its way, but then lean into how disappointing their own products, service and facilities have become.

In fact, they show clips of customers describing just how disappointing their experiences have been.

Then, according to the storyline, they set out to listen to customers. Well, what do you know?

It turns out they wanted better quality food, cleaner restaurants and friendlier service.

I may be a bit more cynical than some, but I replayed the spot several times, baffled that basic customer expectations were being sold as a revolutionary breakthrough.

I’d respectfully suggest that’s borderline insulting to customers’ intelligence.

The gist of the pitch is that the company, the brand if you will, let customers down under previous leadership.

But trust them now. They’ve learned their lesson! Apparently.

Again, maybe I pay more attention to messaging than most, but I came away from this ad feeling at least as much negativity as positivity.

And that struck a nerve. But not in the way they intended.

Whether you’re publicly bashing the competition or internally throwing your organization’s previous leadership under the bus, the impression is the same.

And it rarely lands well.

It’s not a good look because of what it signals. For one, when you tear down previous leadership, you lower trust, as people assume you might do the same to them. It usually comes across as defensive rather than confident.

And if the company made such poor decisions before, why should anyone believe it won’t happen again?

That does not mean past decisions or mistakes should not be examined and learned from. But too many managers spend more time than they should criticizing the people and decisions that came before them.

I’ve joked with more than a few bankers who are overly critical of their predecessors and “the mess” they inherited that they should actually thank them. You might not have the job if they had done everything right.

At the end of the day, people want to root for winners. A continued focus on how wrong things were under a previous regime may feel like honest accountability, but it often leaves a sour aftertaste.

The most effective leaders and marketers I’ve seen spend their energy painting a compelling picture of the future and backing it up with consistent action.

Sure, they acknowledge the past when necessary but then quickly and confidently move on.

So, the next time you’re giving a town hall or just talking to your team, ask yourself a simple question: Am I focused on the present and future, or am I still looking in a cracked rearview mirror?

The difference in impact is enormous. And so are the results.