6 July 2011
…then surely financial services firms should be coming up with the answer. Or at least offering to.
That doesn’t mean immediately turning to the product suite and asking what do we have on the shelf that might do the job. But it may mean trying to understand what the public needs to know, helping them with answers and then perhaps offering something – advice, a fund, a service or even a strategy that can help.
It is also one of the ways in which savings, protection and investment firms can embrace social media by offering helpful information which doesn’t have to be linked to a product push, but will help build brand recognition or even help build better brand trust.
The answer isn’t easy of course. Is the problem based on the CPI, RPI, or more likely direct personal inflation depending how much you need drive or what proportion of your disposable income the heating bill takes up? Step one is probably making sure that people are aware just how significant inflation risk is in the first place.
A calculator with some decent comment could be invaluable here.
Then there is some pretty obvious advice about shopping around – such as not leaving your money languishing in a poorly paying account, checking to see if some of your savings are underperforming, and whether some of your cash could be switched into assets with a slightly higher risk and higher return because you don’t need instant access to the money.
We would also suggest that firms shouldn’t be wary of mentioning other sources of beating interest rates, such as National Savings & Investments, even if at the fringes the plans might be said to be in competition.
If your firm has a social media presence, then this may well be the ideal place to consider such issues. Oh and if you have a plan, a fund or a product that could well help people beat inflation safely and within defined goals this must be the perfect time to think about a marketing plan. Always assuming you’ve already helped people to understand the issues.
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