A deal with a Dutch mapping company has allowed Bank of America Corp. to put its logo wherever its automated teller machines appear on the maps of the vendor’s electronic navigation systems.
Tele Atlas NV has updated its maps to make the Charlotte company’s logo appear when customers search for nearby ATMs.
Other banking companies’ money machines are also displayed on the screen, but only as plain dots. The agreement, announced last week, “is a way to make that dot on the map be more powerful,” Jay Benson, the vice president of business planning for North America for Tele Atlas, said in an interview Tuesday.
Maps from Tele Atlas are used with the global positioning systems built into cars from Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. The maps are also used with Tom Tom International BV devices, which include in-car systems as well as software for handheld gadgets such as personal digital assistants.
Sanjay Gupta, B of A’s e-commerce and ATM executive, said this feature evolved from the ATM locator his company offers through its Web site.
“We thought it was logical to extend that convenience to everywhere our customers are,” he said. “It’s very convenient to our customers while they’re in their car.”
Customers that use this will likely still use the online tool, he said. “It’s not either-or.” All of Bank of America’s 17,000 ATMs have been added to the maps.
Mr. Benson said that B of A is the first large financial institution to sign a contract for the logo-placement service, and that getting a detailed list from B of A of its ATMs’ locations, rather than having to dig up the information independently, will make his maps more accurate.
The service is appealing to B of A because its brand appears in front of travelers when they are most receptive to seeing it, he said.
B of A customers would like the service because it demonstrates the benefit of its extensive ATM network, Mr. Benson said. “If you’ve ever been to a random city and you go to a random ATM, the fees can be quite high.”
Noncustomers may also use B of A’s ATMs when they are on the road, he said. “There are a lot of ATMs in this world,” and people who need cash but are not close to one of their bank’s machines may use one from a well-known bank.
The effort to put business logos on maps began a year ago, Mr. Benson said. “It’s a really simple program that has a lot of value.”
Alenka Grealish, who manages the banking group at the Boston market research firm Celent LLC, said that B of A’s agreement with Tele Atlas, though mostly a branding exercise, demonstrates that bankers are still eager to find ways to improve and differentiate their ATMs.
Banks have devoted a lot of time and money to building up other self-service channels such as the Internet, but they “have not turned their backs on ATMs, even though the results have been discouraging when they’ve tried to add more pizzazz,” she said.
ATMs “have a huge fixed cost,” she said. “They have maintenance. … It’s a big line item for banks, and they have to keep it alive. They have to think of creative things, and I think they’re probably getting more creative.”
The deal with Tele Atlas is just one way bankers are trying to improve the usefulness of a bank’s ATMs. Another way is JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s addition of a tool to its ATMs and Web site that allows customers to program personal ATM preferences, such as language, for future visits.
Though it puts more emphasis on brand than it does on directly improving service Tele Atlas’ deal with B of A is comparable to the JPMorgan Chase tool, Ms. Grealish said. “When you cross channels to expedite” ATM transactions, as JPMorgan Chase has done, “that has more customer impact.”
Still, the Tele Atlas deal will appeal to B of A customers, she said.
“People carry so many information sources on their hip,” so it is important that the deal extends beyond cars, Ms. Grealish said. If the logo appeared only in car systems, there would be a narrower audience, since for the most part, “people drive to and from work” and are already familiar with the ATMs on that route.
