Join the Community

23,561

Expert opinions

41,337

Total members

379

New members (last 30 days)

186

New opinions (last 30 days)

29,156

Total comments

Join Sign in

Pimp my plantpot

31 May 2007 1 comment

Paul Penrose

Head of Research

Finextra

How to make friends and influence people: The UK’s Co-operative Bank is promising to donate 20 pence to a children’s charity in return for people who join the bank’s list of friends at its new MySpace page.

Now, we all know that buying friends on MySpace is not cool. But the Co-op has cleverly included the pay-per-friend scheme as a natural extension of its green marketing policy.

The Co-op's MySpace profile plays heavily on the bank’s ethical credentials, and features television adverts, a 'Climate Care CO 2' calculator, a regular poll on topical environmental issues, plus downloadable screen savers and wallpaper.

It’s been a week since the page went live and the Co-op has already signed up 50 ‘green’ friends at a total cost of £10. As marketing programmes go that represents good value for money.

Ethical banking, or cyncial marketing ploy? You decide.

External

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.

5577

Report

Channels

/retail banking

Trends in Financial Services

A community to discuss the future of financial services and any other interesting trends, strategies, ideas, views.

Join group

400 opinions 85 members 26 June 2025

Comments: (1)

A Finextra member

31 May 2007

Just adding the Co-op bank to my Myspace friends and I noticed with interest that The Co-operative bank is male, 35 years old and from Manchester. It's apparently in a relationship, home town is Rochdale of course and its star sign is Aries.

Report