Deutsche Bank: refreshing innovations

Funny how things come
together as yesterday I noted RBS´s recruitment fair in Second Life and
then I sat in a presentation from Deutsche Bank on Second Life.
Actually, it was a presentation on how to emulate the bank experience
in real life in Second Life, which is what Michael Tirpitz, Marketing
Director, set out to achieve.

The first experiment however was
how to innovate the real life experience in real life.  This has been
an ongoing prototyping and innovation project he´s been running in
Berlin called Q110.  Q110 is Quarter 110, as Berlin is divided into
Quarter zones, and Deutsche´s branch on Felixstrasse has been
transformed into a hub of innovation in branch store design. 

From
the street, the front of store looks like a retail shop.  You look
inside and yes, you can see banking products!  That´s because Deutsche
have taken the traditional bank brochures describing their services and
turned them into tangible tins and boxes.  Inside the box you find a
description of the product, plus a coupon for coffee and a gift.  The
coupon for coffee by the way, can be traded instore to encourage you
inside to meet the sales folks (what used to be called tellers!).

They´ve
also partnered with Harrods, who have no stores in Germany, and offer
Harrods branded food ranges at the front of store.  Food in a bank
branch?  You guessed it, this is no ordinary bank branch.  In fact,
from buying your banking tins with coupons for coffee to walking
through the organic food hall at the front of store - you heard me -
you get into the main guts of the branch and that´s when you start
finding mortgage, pensions, cashiers and so forth ... oh yes, and
coffee of course.

There´s too much to tell here about the branch, so have a look online at www.q110.de. 

Then you ask me: where´s the Second Life link Chris?

Well,
after rolling out the new innovations in Berlin last year, they´ve now
copied the whole branch experience of Q110 and deployed this in Second
Life in July 2007.  This includes everything - even the branch staff!
You go inside Deutsche´s 110 zone online, and meet Olga who you know as
the concierge in Felixstrasse.  She guides you to the same designs and
layout of advice, information and service as you see in Felixstrasse.
You can even get your virtual coffee and drink it ... virtually of
course.

Unbelievable.  Check it out here.

Mind
you, the cash machine proves a bit more of a challenge as my PC printed
Linden dollars rather than euro´s ... ah well, can´t have everything.