It’s happened again. It’s a new year and you’re dying to improve your finances and learn about generating and growing wealth. But every time you open a business paper or magazine, you start yawning and notice some cracks in your walls that you’ve never seen before. How does one achieve this level of dullness?

Try and be as stuffy as you can

Did the greyness enter when financial service providers starting branding themselves as serious businesses – believing that a little lightness and informality will lead clients to believe that they can’t be trusted with money?

Complicate things

Shall we blame the various financial professions: accountants, actuaries and financial industry lawyers? Did they consciously exclude clients from the inner circle of financial power by wrapping the industry in so much jargon and convoluted sentences? So that clients in the end could not make out head or tails of the products that were being offered.

Don’t give enough background information

Context keeps clients awake while they are reading about your new product or service. But there’s another reason why enough background information is important. The grey and seemingly stable austere of the financial industry hides a lively and unpredictable place. Things can change overnight and the more familiar clients are with the risks of their investment or insurance product, the less likely they are to do a bank-run or cancel a product when financial turmoil strikes. Institutions that realise this, will provide potential clients with plenty of background information, written in client-friendly language.

Steer clear of colour and beauty

At large, the financial media has been an aesthetic desert – not catering for more creative clients, or for those attracted by beauty. (Unless of course you count the long-legged blondes that have been used to attract a predominantly male clientele.)

Don’t bother with stories – they’re for children

Even adults are drawn to (and remember) entertaining stories that gives them more insight into the business, its philosophy and values.

Build no relationship with your client

Many global businesses attribute their success to their move towards not only strong and reliable brands, but brands that enter in a pseudo-personal relationship with the client – what Saatchi & Saatchi has coined ‘lovemarks’. (Think Apple, Mini Cooper and Levi’s). Financial institutions are slow to follow.

Think that money solves all problems

As in any other industry with lots of money going around, financial companies are sometimes guilty of thinking that just sourcing the most expensive leaders, consultants, or partners will give the best results, instead of searching for the people who are most passionate about the product and the company’s target market.

Mercifully, the industry is slowly changing. Many local financial service providers are following the UK, US and Australian trend of presenting all their documentation in clear, easy-to-read English. Allan Gray has used strong narratives in all their ads of the past few years to explain how they approach investment. Coronation’s creative ‘Vincent’ production grabbed the attention – maybe because it is exactly the opposite from what you expect from a financial services ad. Old Mutual’s has added some light-hearted illustrations to their handy online financial planning tools.

We may soon run out of sleep-inducing literature.