// This is long, so feel free to skip it. //
The rumours are true: The news about Scotiabank paying $800 million for the naming rights to the arena which is home to the Toronto Maple Leafs suggests that the leadership of Scotiabank is perhaps more out of touch with reality than folks previously thought.
“Huh. Really, why would they pay such an obscene amount of money to name an arena?” you may be wondering.
Our guess is that the leadership of Scotiabank thinks that seeing their name associated with hockey will make more Canadians more likely to consider using their services.
“But doesn’t Scotiabank already support a ton of community teams? Doesn’t it also already have its name plastered on another NHL team’s arena?” you may be asking.
Yes, they support more than 8,000 community teams. And yes, you’re thinking of the Scotiabank Saddledome, where the Calgary Flames play.
“So did that make more Canadians think more highly of Scotiabank?”
No. According to the Globe and Mail report from August 25, 2017, in a recent J.D. Power survey on customer satisfaction, Canada’s bottom-ranked big five bank was Scotiabank.
// We’d include the link, but the article is behind a paywall. Just Google “Which Canadian bank has the right pitch to millennials?” //
Still with us?
We’re sorry about the folks at Scotiabank whose futures may be affected by Scotiabank’s lack of clear purpose. But enough about Scotiabank.
Let’s talk about you: Would you rather believe a beautiful lie or a difficult truth?
Here’s an example of a beautiful lie: plastering your name over a sports arena will improve your business and how folks feel about it.
And here’s an example of a difficult truth: The icing doesn’t make the cake.
Every day, businesses big and small spend thousands of dollars in acts similar to plastering a name over a sports arena in hopes of driving both prospective buyers and existing customers into their stores/branches/websites.
Once there, however, whether in person or on their website, many a time, folks are greeted with unpolished customer service, tired ideas, dated messages and educational materials, etc. Said differently, once there, folks are often greeted with a bland, tired, and unpolished customer experience.
Takeaway: The icing doesn’t make the cake. Instead of more icing, be like Apple, Amazon, and Netflix: give folks more cake.
p.s.
In case you’re wondering, Canada’s top-ranked bank in terms of customer satisfaction in the above survey was Tangerine. What does the fact that Canadians prefer the bank that’s most unlike traditional banks tell you?