In the name of education, how to practice marketing, how to get the original of financial and business education

As the entrance to traffic, financial and business education can not only undertake the original customer base, but also sink the long-tail market. However, financial and business education with obvious marketing characteristics should be defined as financial marketing, and then accept the norms of the relevant system

Text | Che Ning

Originally supposed to help customers increase their wealth, in fact, there is no shortage of rolls to run.

Explaining the financial thinking that is good, in the end it is actually pushing the base to recommend stocks.

It was as if I had bought cheap tickets to high society, but I didn't expect to fall into the various routines of institutional accumulation of wealth...

Riding on the east wind of social wealth growth and financial awareness, using a variety of media such as the Internet and entities, wandering in the dual scene of education and finance, financial and business education is rising strongly in the current moment when all kinds of network investment outlets are generally silent, rapidly expanding first-tier cities and sinking markets, covering high-end customer groups and long-tail users, becoming the indisputable traffic star, institutional heart, capital heartbeat, customer itch.

However, with the rapid growth of the financial and business education market, illegal chaos has also come. From the content, methods and even qualifications of education, from inducing consumption, false publicity and even selling anxiety, all kinds of doubts are endless, and a small number of institutional fraud, "harvesting" and even "thunderstorms" have aggravated consumer panic.

However, after all, financial and business education is different from some Internet financial formats that have been required to be retired, and on the other side of its business service, it also has the public welfare color of enlightening the people's wisdom, and it is also of positive significance for the sustained and healthy development of the financial market. Therefore, how to regulate the development of financial and business education business and guide it to continue to grow healthily on the basis of balancing commercial interests and social responsibility has become a practical issue that the government is concerned about, the society cares about, and the people care about.

A variety of factors in the rise of financial and business education

After several years of rapid growth and the active participation of all parties, financial and business education has long been no longer the "Wuxia Amon" of the past, but has developed into a complex system with multiple aspects. Therefore, to understand, analyze and standardize financial and business education, it is necessary to clear the source, go deep into the historical environment of its occurrence and development, and "seek causality" from its "body of continuing activities" and "seek causality" in the future (Mr. Liang Qichao).

It should be said that the background of the rise of financial and business education is first of all the rapid development of China's national economy and the rapid accumulation of social wealth. According to authoritative data from the National Bureau of Statistics, even after the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the per capita disposable income of Chinese residents in 2020 increased to 32,189 yuan, doubling from 2010. In the first half of 2021, with the gradual restoration of production and living order, the savings deposits of Chinese residents have increased by 7.45 trillion yuan, and the balance is approaching the 100 trillion yuan mark. On this basis, the total market value of stocks dominated by retail investors in China's securities exchange market has reached 86 trillion yuan, the net value of securities investment funds has exceeded 22 trillion yuan, and the balance of bonds has exceeded 120 trillion yuan. Because of this, the rise of the financial and business education market has its deep economic roots, which cannot be summed up simply by the word "hype".

However, the rise of financial and business education is not the result of social wealth growth. From the perspective of the growth trend of financial and business educational institutions, after experiencing tepid 2016 (813) and 2017 (877), the growth of institutions in 2018 was sharply increased (1411), and then peaked in 2019 (1865), until 2020 (843). This is closely related to the background of the "breaking of the rigid exchange" in financial investment activities at that time.

With the divestiture of wealth management business from direct banking and the risk at their own risk in the process of P2P network lending thunderstorms, Chinese people who have long enjoyed asymmetric returns with risks have faced the bitter fruit of wealth disillusionment for the first time. This is more than the growth of wealth to call for the rise of financial and business education, and it can also explain why "trafficking anxiety" has become a routine that the industry has repeatedly banned.

The growth trend of financial and business educational institutions tells us more than that. It was in 2016 that the State Council deployed a special rectification of Internet finance that had a far-reaching impact on the later development of the Internet and financial ecology. From a single institution to the entire ecology, some industry enterprises that cannot adapt to the regulatory environment and obtain business qualifications have gradually withdrawn from the market. However, for the capital at that time, entering the financial market in a non-licensed way and carrying out "regulatory arbitrage" on the basis of advantages such as passenger flow, data, technology, and ecology has become an action and even a habit of thinking. And compared with P2P online lending, online crowdfunding, and mutual insurance, financial and business education is closer to the development of business, the boundary with supervision is more distant, and the interaction with customers is more frequent, and it is not difficult to imagine becoming an outlet for capital to compete. But it also defines that the business model of financial and business education is more like finance than education.

Although the business model is different from general education, the rise of financial and business education has taken the former's business spurt, sharing the concept aura of the former and undertaking the spillover effect of the former. Different from finance, education has a wider coverage of customers and deeper market penetration, especially the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020, which has brought a large number of incremental customers such as third- and fourth-tier, middle-aged and elderly people to Internet education. In addition to the first- and second-tier Cities Leading in the Internet Ecology, the Financial and Commercial Educational Institutions have also attacked cities in small and medium-sized cities and even counties through the combination of online and offline.

According to the data of enterprise investigation, although the head enterprises are still gathered in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, the place with the largest number of registered financial and business educational institutions is already Shandong, Jiangsu and Guizhou. Different from the "traditional" Internet finance format in the first half, the customer reach of financial and business education is more extensive, the customer's financial knowledge is relatively more scarce, and its specification should be more cautious.

Multi-faceted platform: education, traffic, marketing

When we talk about financial and business education, what are we talking about? Whether it is a project report, a forum speech or even internal sharing, it can be found that the questioners and respondents repeatedly fall into the logical circle of "chicken and duck talking" and saying their own words. You talk about business, he talks about public welfare; you talk about content, he talks about effect; you talk about thinking, he talks about products... In fact, there is no financial and business education with clear functional boundaries as a single business form, which is determined by the complexity of its rise background, and financial and business education also has a complex existence orientation.

Financial and business education first exists as an educational curriculum, and its profit model is course fees or membership fees. It should be said that most institutions in the market still adhere to the bottom line of education, practice the original intention of education, and play a role in education. Unlike the developed countries in the West, the Chinese people started from the liberation of the poor and white, the time of economic development and wealth accumulation is only more than 70 years, and from the reform and opening up is only more than 40 years, a considerable number of people have only participated in and shared the dividends of the times, and their understanding of wealth is not in place, let alone value-added and used. It is reflected in investment, or a rush to enter, or a competition to stampede when exiting, or a complaint after the loss.

Consumers' immaturity in financial literacy and wealth management will even affect the effectiveness of macroeconomic policies, and under the "herd effect", relevant regulatory policies are also taboos. It should be said that the positive role of financial and business education as education itself is undeniable, but it should also be managed, standardized and operated according to education.

Financial and business education also exists as a traffic entrance, and its profit model is the benefits brought by diversion and customer conversion. As mentioned earlier, after the ebb and flow of Internet finance, there are still unwilling capitals looking for new outlets, and financial and business education is the "chosen son" in their eyes.

Relying on all kinds of resources, especially professional capabilities, accumulated in the past, financial and business education as the entrance to traffic can not only undertake the original customer base, but also sink the long-tail market. And because of less capital occupation and lower compliance costs, companies even find themselves in a track that has an advantage over the original. Encouraged by this situation, many of the original Internet finance practitioner teams have followed suit, and some head platforms have even begun to test. However, compared with financial and business education as an educational curriculum, financial and business education as an entrance to traffic is more commercial and more Internet-oriented, and should have its own special regulatory logic and mechanism.

Financial and business education also exists as a marketing method in a broader sense, and most of them do not have their own independent profit model. Especially under the passive influence of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the originally dormant webcast has been revived, and its remarkable performance has even made the usually high-cold financial industry look at it and test the waters.

However, on the one hand, due to the gradual clarification of specific regulatory norms, on the other hand, it is also the lack of ability to control emerging media channels, and traditional financial institutions and even financial institutions with Internet backgrounds are stagnant when carrying financial products, and they have to adopt a financial and business education model with both education and marketing as the entrance to customers and the starting point for providing services. This type of financial and business education has obvious marketing characteristics, which should be defined as financial marketing, and then accept the norms of the relevant system.

Finally, there are illegal and criminal activities carried out in the name of "financial and business education", and its profit model is the illegal appropriation of other people's wealth. Originally, as one of the fields of education, financial and business education should set up a scientific curriculum system to enable students to master certain skills, maintain physical and mental health, and abide by laws and regulations, professional ethics and integrity principles, and protect consumers' rights such as informed choice and fair trade, especially the safety of funds.

However, there are criminals who take advantage of the popularity of financial and business education and customer trust, do not teach customers how to obtain wealth but treat customers as wealth, in addition, there are a small number of institutions to induce customers to invest in virtual currency and other illegal financial targets through financial and business education. The above acts are not really financial and business education, and criminals need to bear corresponding civil, administrative and criminal liabilities.

Chaos abounds: illegal practice + misleading marketing

Objectively speaking, due to the complex background of the rise and the excessive growth of business, even if the illegal and criminal acts for the purpose of illegally occupying the wealth of others are removed, there are still many problems in financial and business education, which need to be solved one by one in development.

The first is false publicity and inducing consumption, which ranks first in the complaints of financial and business education. Originally, advertising, as the basis for financial and business educational institutions to provide services and contracts with customers, should be clear and clear and comply with the law, and its promotional content has the natural legal effect.

China's Advertising Law clearly stipulates this, such as Article 4, which requires that "advertisements must not contain false or misleading content, and must not deceive or mislead consumers", and Article 24 requires that "explicit or implicit guarantee commitments must be made to the effectiveness of education and training". In addition, in response to the issue of celebrity endorsement with strong social reactions, Article 38 of the Advertising Law puts forward targeted requirements and refines the way of bearing responsibility in subsequent penalties.

The second is illegal practice. In financial and business education, especially as the traffic entrance and marketing method of financial and business education, trainers from time to time cross the boundary between education and marketing, and do not have relevant qualifications to sell related products to customers. This is obviously contrary to Article 160 of the Securities Law, which stipulates that "engaging in securities investment consulting services shall be subject to the approval of the securities regulatory authority under the State Council; without approval, services shall not be provided for securities transactions and related activities".

Not only that, for financial and business education, the more critical problem is that there is no appropriate institutional access, personnel practice threshold requirements, course content, system settings and even fee refunds also lack universal and authoritative measurement standards, although these problems are not clearly stipulated by law and do not involve "illegal" practice, but their existence is even more unfavorable to the long-term development of the industry.

The third is the security of funds. In terms of formal financial and business education institutions, due to the competitive advantages that have been formed and continued to accumulate by the head institutions, due to the policy expectations of the gradual tightening of industry supervision, and because the financial and business education has entered the plateau area after experiencing rapid growth, the operating pressure faced by the financial and business education institutions at the waist and below continues to increase.

Coupled with factors such as possible complaints and runs from customers, and the inconspicuous "effect" of financial and business education, there is indeed a possibility of loss in the tuition fee paid by students in the form of single-purpose prepayment. Capital security is directly related to industry confidence, prepaid is also conducive to the financial and commercial education institutions to improve quality and efficiency, its outbreak, spread of the entire industry of financial and commercial education is nothing less than a disaster, it is necessary to take precautions, systematic governance.

Finally, it is an unhealthy model of education. The pressure of performance and the pressure of compliance will finally be transmitted and transformed into the pressure of education, because the quality of education itself is difficult and difficult to quantify, in order to retain customers and expand customers, some financial and business educational institutions continue to "routine" customers in the education model.

On the one hand, relative to the sense of wealth growth, wealth loss and even relative loss (less than "others", slower rise) anxiety as a dominant customer action is more powerful, the relevant institutions will continue to shape the language, the environment to strengthen anxiety; on the other hand, through the packaging of teachers, to create a person, and consciously set up a relatively closed circle of students, it is more convenient to form a "personal attachment" to teachers and institutions, the judicial organs are difficult to collect evidence after the institutional thunderstorm, and in the long run, there will even be "bad money expelling good money." In the case of the situation, institutions that are truly determined to improve the quality of financial and business education are difficult to gain a foothold under the "routine".

Comprehensive governance and standardization

Compared with the mature financial and business education system in the West, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States, although China's financial and business education may win in form and scale, it cannot meet the objective needs of the market in terms of quality and coverage. Like any market, the development and maturity of financial and business education also requires the joint role of an effective market and a promising government, especially at a time when the development direction is still unclear and the accumulation problem is gradually exposed, it is more necessary for the government's "visible hand" to intervene in a timely manner, fully provide public goods such as institutional norms, create an infrastructure for the development of the industry, and provide positive energy and certainty for the industry.

On the one hand, it is to create an educational curriculum system with diversified levels and division of labor. Distinguishing existing financial and business educational institutions and curricula from the business model and operational logic and classifying them is the starting point of the entire normative mechanism and the basis for its real role.

The first is to improve the content of financial and business education in the K2 education stage of young people, in addition to the concept of life education such as the concept of righteousness and profit and the general education of macroeconomics, it should also increase the micro content of wealth and finance according to their age growth, acceptance and participation in social and economic activities, and strictly restrict and regulate the wealth education activities of adolescents outside the school in the name of expansion, practice, and games, so that they can return to the source of public welfare.

The second is to encourage academic and scientific research institutions to provide public courses on financial and business education to the society. Under the premise of not building a traffic portal and not recommending specific institutional business, academic and scientific research institutions can develop general education courses for different audiences, continuously improve the common sense of wealth in the whole society, and cut off the chain of interests of illegal institutions selling wealth anxiety. For the educational courses provided by academic and scientific research institutions, especially for the elderly customers, the elderly and the young, the border and poor areas, etc., the government may study and introduce necessary incentives and tax reduction measures.

The third is to guide commercial institutions to provide financial and business education services in compliance. For all kinds of financial institutions, education and marketing should be strictly distinguished, and customers should be clearly reminded when displaying content, and if marketing is involved, the relevant personnel should have the corresponding qualifications as required. Financial institutions should earnestly fulfill their fiduciary obligations to customers and social responsibilities to the public, not only provide corresponding knowledge education according to the types of business contracted with customers, but also provide financial consumer safety knowledge with quality and quantity, and participate in the construction of a public infrastructure for financial and business education.

For financial and business education specialized institutions, it should be clearly prohibited from carrying out marketing publicity for specific businesses, products and services, restricting financial institutions from taking shares and holding shares, prohibiting the operation of "rice circles", selling anxiety, creating a closed teaching environment, guiding them to truthfully publicize, legally practice, and operate steadily, effectively protecting customer funds and information security, placing their competitiveness on the basis of cultivating customer knowledge framework, understanding ability, method and skills, creating differentiated needs for different customer groups and school basic education, social general education courses, Financial institutions educate and promote a curriculum education system that is different from each other but supports each other.

On the other hand, it is to build a governance system with comprehensive coverage and complete functions. The government should start from industry legislation and local legislation, gradually establish and improve the financial and business education normative system system, pay special attention to improving the entry threshold of industry institutions, the qualification of practitioners, the content of courses, the disclosure of important information, and the management requirements of funds and fees, and formulate relevant emergency plans. On this basis, the leading department of financial and commercial education market supervision should be clarified, and a comprehensive law enforcement judicial system covering market supervision, financial supervision, education management, personnel management and even public procuratorial law institutions should be established, so that there must be laws to follow, and more importantly, violations of the law must be investigated.

Industry associations should carry forward the work from top to bottom and effectively play a role as a bridge connecting the government and the market. First of all, we should clarify or establish industry self-regulatory organizations in the field of financial and business education; second, implement the relevant laws and policy requirements of the government, refine and continue to carry out self-discipline inspection in the formulation of self-discipline norms and standards; the third is to optimize the development plan of the industry, ensure the correct direction of the development of the financial and business education industry, and condense the industry theory to optimize the curriculum system; the fourth is to build a development monitoring and complaint handling mechanism, and work together with the public, news media, financial and business education institutions, and the network platform for publicity and education to jointly carry out social supervision and risk governance.

Finally, specialized agencies for financial and business education should also strengthen corporate governance. After entering the so-called "bottleneck period" of development through the grass growth stage, industry institutions will compete more for compliance internal strength than "risk-taking spirit". In addition to improving the curriculum in accordance with the requirements of the government and industry self-regulatory organizations, financial and business educational institutions should also improve the governance system, especially the financial governance system, build customer confidence in their long-term operation, and form a benign interaction; externally, they should cooperate closely with the government, schools, industry associations, financial institutions and other related enterprises, focusing on the whole life cycle of financial consumer wealth management to create a closed loop of services, shape a good social image, and build a rich development ecology.

(The author is Deputy Director of the Research Center for Rule of Law and Sustainable Development, China University of Political Science and Law; Editor: Yuan Man)