Managing liquidity - literally

Rosenthal & Rosenthal bank in Manhattan

Managing liquidity - really?

Here is an example of a New York bank that does what banks are supposed to do - handle money matters for its clients. Nothing wrong with that. That's what banks do. When they do it well, it helps the economy prosper. When they don't do it well, things end up being a mess as in 2008.

Rosenthal & Rosenthal in midtown Manhattan has a poster hanging in its window that reads:

"We help companies better manage their liquidity". So far so good.

Then, however, they do something really funny, and weird. They illustrate their message by - literally - visualizing the term 'liquidity'! How bad is that? I can't believe they are seriously showing a water bucket that has a tiny hole poked into it, from where water runs into a drinking glass! Oh my... that is just so awful! Why?

One: I think it is fair to assume that the target group for Rosenthal & Rosenthal is smart enough to know what "managing liquidity" in the financial world means. I mean, we are not talking about a consumer savings bank in a low-income suburb with high rates of illiteracy where you have to take a very simple approach to explain the term 'liquidity'. We are talking Manhattan business district.

Two: Everyone reading this ad, and seeing the visual, has to make two mental transfers. Transfer 1: Private bank - to - liquidity & the literal water bucket. Then transfer 2: liquidity & water bucket - back to - its original meaning in the financial world. It's completely unnecessary, and actually confusing.

Three: By doing the above, the ad is actually very two-dimensional. It doesn't have any depth. It comes across like a concept developed by a fourth-grade student. It is too simple.

Four: The best part - it doesn't even make any sense. The visual going along with the message is completely wrongly chosen. If we analyse it correctly, then it implies that the bank has HUGE amounts of the clients money in its vault (the big water bucket), but only releases a tiny bit at a time to the client, but in a constant flow. There is no 'managing' illustrated here at all! If they wanted to at least get this minimalistic approach right, then there should be a faucet, with someone turning it on and off, no?

What happens, for example, in the picture above, when the glass is full, meaning the client has enough money (liquidity) for the moment? Does the bank just keep pouring it out? Or is someone coming over, putting a finger on the hole in the bucket? I don't get it. This is so stupid!

I have seen a few scenarios in my career, where similar sub-par results like this were brought to life. It usually happens when not too much thought is given to advertising. It is usually two high-school or country club buddies shaking hands (one runs the bank, the other the ad agency), or the son or daughter of someone in the company has studies graphic design, and has been given the job without any real professional marketing consulting or competitive bidding. We see these 'friends & family programs' all the time, and I find it flabbergasting how people can get away with it.