“Kasasa!” Umm, Gesundheit?
We may have gotten sneezed on by a recent press release:
“More than just a catchy name, Kasasa is a completely new kind of banking that pairs innovative products with the personal touch of community banks and credit unions.”
A catchy name? Is that what it is? No. It is not. The Teller doesn’t think we can even utter the word.
In fact, The Teller would expect a punch in the face just for letting the word “Kasasa” escape from our lips. The look of the printed word, and the fact that it is a brand name, are surpassed in miserable-ness only by the sound of the word coming out of one’s mouth.
The Teller recognizes that brands must differentiate themselves. Banks tend to use branding that is quite traditional. They want to avoid confusion at all costs. They want strictly to maintain the identity they’ve worked so hard to establish, and establish and establish. So when Bank A starts an offshoot mortgage company, it is called Bank A Mortgage.
On the other end of the spectrum is the software industry. These folks feel free to indulge in non-sequitur branding, so we get
high-tech firms with names like Blue Duck, or XenoPort or NuVasive.
Perhaps Kasasa falls between these two extremes. It’s not dryly boring, nor is it crazy.
But it does fall into one trap. It doesn’t tell anyone what the hell it is supposed to be.
Television ads ask viewers “do you Kasasa?” To which one might well respond: “No, but your mother does.” “Will it put me in a higher tax bracket?” “Is that legal?” or “Can I get an STD from it?”
Unfortunately for Kasasa, the truth behind the silly name is that Kasasa is actually pretty neat.
It’s basically a rewards system for bank customers. If your bank signs up to offer Kasasa accounts, you, Joe Customer, can get stuff like free checking accounts that pay interest in cash, or iTunes
downloads.
Kasasa itself claims it is spreading like wildfire throughout the country, though there are only a couple of banks in Massachusetts that offer Kasasa accounts. But if enough customers walk into their banks and ask for Kasasa, banks will give in to that pressure.
Unfortunately, The Teller doubts many customers can get up the nerve to walk up to a teller and say “Kasasa.”
