In June I bought an iPhone 4, and as of two weeks ago I now have an ‘old phone’. How annoying but equally exciting is that? The iPhone 5 has flooded the market, giving consumers what they want. The camera is sharper, it browses the web much faster and all the while Apple continues to drop the price of their phones (and other products) to make them accessible to more people – so more phones are purchased and more profits are made to fund more innovation to give the consumer what they want.
Around and around the circle we go, and what a fabulous circle it is. Apple is so good at this that they have perfected the art of guessing what we want next before we have even realised it.
This should be our benchmark in financial services. Unlike a technology company such as Apple, we are in a blessed position. The three most important things to all of us are consistent: they are family/friends, health and money (in no particular order). Consumers need us to help them, but then why do only two out of 10 seek this help? I would suggest that, because of the good times we have had in financial markets over a long period of time, we haven’t really had to innovate to attract big dollars and healthy profits.
However, we must be cautious about what the future holds because the consumer of the future will be savvier, more sceptical and empowered via the capabilities the internet affords them. We no longer have that luxury of looking forward to the good times returning via improved market conditions to see the money rolling back in.
For advisers and financial services companies, to attract consumers in the future we need to think differently about what we can give them. It must be something unique, something they can’t find via a Google search or a scaled advice website with their super fund. We need to think differently about how we can tap into their desires and opinions about what defines financial success, whether that be money in the bank for a rainy day, money for investing in shares (via whatever medium) or the passion close to most Aussies’ hearts – direct property.
If we erased the past, ignored the vested interest we all have in existing products and models, if we pretended they didn’t exist and we had to start from scratch, what would we create? Apple launched the iPod in October 2001 with such a mindset, and look where it took them. Any Steve Jobs’ out there?
