The horrible result of the poll by Raiffeisen Bank

Raiffeisen Bank is running an online campaign these days, through which it is attempting to find out people's opinion about it.

Which is praiseworthy, considering that according to sociological studies, people's trust in the banking system has deteriorated lately.

But the opinions, are for the most part, unfavorable to the bank, its products and services.

In an advertising video, the chairman of Raiffeisen Bank says: "It is not an accident that Raiffeisen Bank has been designated the best bank in Romania, in 2012 and 2013, having received awards from 1, 2, 3, 4 foreign prestigious publications (...) But what matters most is to know that you (ed. note: the public) also share that opinion".

So the people in charge of marketing at Raiffeisen Bank have set off on an online promotional campaign, which was carried out on certain blogs, as well as on Facebook, in order to urge people, both former and current customers of the bank, to express their opinions on the services it provides.

One of the "hosts" of the campaign was Zoso (www.zoso.ro), one of the best-known Romanian bloggers.

He wrote on his blog: "Raiffeisen wants to find out what it means as a bank to its customers, to the people who have to work with it every day, with its operations and its people. It wants feedback, it wants to find out the users' opinion < straight from the horse's mouth > and it has challenged me to ask < What does Raiffeisen mean to you? >. The campaign will take place online and on Facebook, it will last one week, and the award is a Sony NEX-5 camera".

From comments like "a bunch of jerks" (Croif), and "to me, Raiffeisen means slow ATMs and high fees" (mIKE), to the ones like "Raiffeisen is one of the banks that provides good services, and with decent employees for the most part" (Cristian Banu) and "I am happy with the services of Raiffeisen" (Dan), people (over 50 of them) have expressed their opinions, backing them with arguments, either driven by the chance of winning a photographic camera, or just to get their voice heard.

However, most of the opinions expressed about the bank were negative, as the people who criticized the bank's services received tens and hundreds of likes (57, 70, 124). In the case of comments which were favorable to the bank, the likes were far fewer (1, 6, 7).

Some readers noted: "I don't think it was a good idea to open the topic of < banks > topic in a post/advertorial. It can't work out well in the comments" (add). Another one of those who commented wrote: "I will never understand the banks' marketing people. I think they teach you in the first year of college how to collect this kind of information: it's called market research and it is done through specialized companies" (IQ).

Perhaps feeling slightly guilty over the direction the debate had taken, the representatives of the bank tried to undo some of the damage, by addressing some of the complaints: "We want to thank everyone for the comments posted on the blog. Basically, this is the goal we wanted to achieve through the < What matters is what you say > campaign, namely to find out the real opinion of the customers about the bank, be it good or bad, and not necessarily to collect praise, perhaps even less of the less believable kind. As a team, we feel it is better to complement the market studies and the focus groups through campaigns like this one", the officials of Raiffesen said in the beginning of their comment.

While it had been initially designed as an "advertising campaign", it became a poll with extremely painful findings.

The image of Raiffeisen among the public is a disaster, regardless of the awards received by the bank.