-Today, due to the development of e-commerce and the ease of transferring money between banks clients, almost all teenagers already have bank accounts. A dozen or so years ago they usually founded them after the end of the 18th year, now parents are more and more often done after 13 years old – says Rafał Jakubowski, CMO (head of the marketing department) at Santander Bank Polska.
This is one of the reasons why banks are more actively trying to reach these youngest customers and their parents. Usually, parents decide in which bank they will set up a child's account and most often chose the institution, which they themselves were clients. But now banks are trying to build awareness among the children themselves. If they “like” the brand, they can affect the parents' decision to choose a bank.
Santander wants to be in the top two
-We want to reach two groups of young customers and their parents: at the age of 7-12 and older, from the age of 13. Bank solutions for these two groups are of course different, which results from legal restrictions, but, for example, 7-year-olds may have a card and pay it for small, current expenses. In turn, 13-year-olds already have many functionalities, including the ability to pay BLIK and using the application
The youngest banks clients do not use credit products, and bills for them are opened by parents, in accordance with the requirements of the law. Usually they cannot use investment products.
Santander in the past did not actively strengthen the brand's awareness offering products for teenagers. His communication in this area, like e.g. Bank Pekao, was not large. Against this background, PKO BP, mBank and ING Bank Śląski were distinguished by its activity.
– We want to appear in the minds of teenagers and show that we can be an attractive brand for young people. We have much greater ambitions in attracting the youngest customers than it would result from the current approach. We are brand four among the elections of the youngest customers, but we have greater ambitions – says Rafał Jakubowski.
– Other banks have recently been more active in the efforts of the youngest customers, as a result our market share in this group is lower than it would appear from our position. We try to catch up in this area and start the campaign “starts well”, in which we show our bank to teenagers. We will refine products for this group, but it seems that it is equally important to build a brand perception. The youngest customers must like her. So we put the main emphasis on communication. We increase the budget in this respect several times – he adds.
– We want to have a good offer for the youngest clients, provide them with excellent experience with financial services, and their parents a sense of security and As a result, be No. 1 or 2 in the scope of attracting the youngest customers. I would like to double the number of clients between 7 and 17 years of age obtained by Santander Bank Polska – He reveals his CMO ambitions.
Older teenagers usually have a bill. The game is about the youngest
– This is a long -term investment, which will probably result in a lasting relationship in the future. Teenagers manage their money differently than before. They want to have an account, a card, settled using the BLIK system. We want to answer this need, be a partner from an early age. We hope that a young satisfied customer will stay with us for a long time – says Rafał Jakubowski.
He adds that acquiring a new customer in banking is difficult, The tendency of 40-50-year-olds to change the bank is very low, most often it only occurs when the bank is irritated or nervous. Added to this are demographic issues, i.e. the aging of society. In such conditions, it is difficult to increase the number of customers served.
How many young customers are there? – We have a generation of demographic lowlands. Children aged 7-12 are around 300,000 In each of these six years, which gives a total of less than 2 million people. And we want to reach the whole group. If parents set up a 10-year-old account in one bank, it is unlikely that they will set up another one in another. There is a good chance that when he enters adulthood, it will stay with his first bank – emphasizes our interlocutor.
The second group, i.e. people aged 13-18, are less than 3 million people. – But the structure is very important because you Older teenagers usually already have bank accounts, statistics indicate that 80 percent people before the age of 18 already have a bill And here banks are difficult to compete effectively. That's why in this group We will pay the most attention to a group of 13-15-year-olds, of which there are about 1 million, and their parents – he adds.
– A young customer is a kind of investment. We want to maintain such customers primarily with high satisfaction with the bank's services and products, measured by the NPS (Net Promoter Score, command indicator – ed.). We also want the Santander brand to be strongly present in the minds of young customers. The idea is that the customer entering adulthood, asking parents to open the bill – first consider choosing products in our bank – sums up Rafał Jakubowski.
Pekao also wants to catch up
Bank Pekao also devoted a lot of attention to demographic issues during the recent presentation of the new strategy for 2025-2027. It was pointed out that the demographic crisis in Poland would deepen: the CSO forecasts a total decrease in population in Poland by about 1.4 million to 2035 (there are to be 36.1 million then). In 2050, as much as 29 percent Citizens will be over 65 years old, although – as President Cezary Stypułkowski pointed out – at the same time a large part of retiring in Poland remains professionally active, and additionally alleviate the effect of aging of societies will probably be the influx of immigrants.
At the end of 2024, Pekao had 1.1 million clients under 26, which means an increase for three years by 37 percent. However, it was not stated what some teenagers and the youngest customers were.
Author: Maciej Rudke, Business Insider Polska journalist
