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Leaflets and Guides…
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OR CHOOSE A DECADE:
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1920s
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1930s
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1940s
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1950s
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1960s
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Just as Martins’ advertising
changes radically from the early 1960s onwards, so too does the style and
content of the leaflets and  guides it publishes for customers. We look at the changing face of cheques and
other bank slips in our CUSTOMER
STATIONERY section, and at the move to a modern hi-tech
facility for printing it all at STATIONERY DEPARTMENT. Here though, we take a brief look at some
examples of the leaflets and guides from the 1950s and 60s, many of which are
also shown elsewhere on the site as part of other features.
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The Treaty of Rome
 At the height of discussions as to whether or not Britain would join
the Common Market, Martins Bank Information Department decided to produce
this handy leaflet to weigh up the pros and cons of membership.
It is a good example of the department’s
thoroughness, dealing with nine different topics about the Common Market,
and providing a number of statistics regarding population sizes, national
incomes and industrial production details for the six common market
countries, the UK and the USSR. The following statement appears on the
back of the eaflet, and on many of the other special guides produced by the
bank:
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“The
Information Department will be pleased to receive through the manager of any
branch of the Bank, enquiries of an economic, industrial or commercial
nature, concerning the United Kingdom, the Common Market or other countries
overseas…”
We wonder - just how many times the KGB wrote
in to obtain information?
Wish you were here…
  Martins’
Show and Exhibition Branches Department looks after the fleet of Mobile Branches,
which together attend around eighty shows and agricultural events in the UK
each year. The post card show here on the right is one of a set that features
a number of different images of the
mobile branches, and is used to invite visitors to shows, and important local
business people to visit the mobile branch to see what Martins Bank is all
about. In addition to the fleet of
Mobile Branches, Martins regularly attends Trade Fairs all over the United
Kingdom. Show and Exhibition Branch
Department creates a variety of imaginative stands, and Martins Bank Magazine
carries a large number of images of these, many in colour, over the
years. To learn more, and see the Bank
in action at a variety of trade shows, please visit our TRADE STANDS feature.
Not just holiday money…
 Martins Bank European Travel Guides
are extemely popular, and perhaps this is because they are quite simply
small, handy and very useful. Produced
from around 1959 until the Barclays takeover, the guides change their look
occasionally, but essentially remain as a quick reference guide for the
countries you want to visit. A special
edition is produced for those using one of the Bank’s major customers –
British Eagle Airways. The guides are just the right size to keep handy in a
wallet, or to wrap around foreign currency and travellers cheques. Now how’s that
for convenience?
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The future is here - today!
 When you
are at the forefront of innovation and new technology, you want people to
know about it, so Martins produces these customer leaflets to help
customers understand two wonderful new developments: “Martins Drive-In Bank” gives practical
advice on using the special counter and getting the best out of this new
way to bank. “Pegasus” explains just
how your details will be handled by the amazing new computer that is the
first to offer current account data processing. Within six years, Martins
will have two major computer centres and the ability to transmit data from
one end of the Country to the other…
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An Account at Martins Bank
  What we know today as “products” are just about getting off
the ground by 1959. The power of ITV,
which is now four years old, to sell everything from toothpaste to white
goods on hire purchase, cannot be underestimated. At Martins, “The Housewife” is enticed by
the simple but powerful image of a cheque produced from a handbag, giving
housekeeping money a whole new kudos.
It has never been so easy to open a banking account, and forgive them,
for the knew not what they were doing, the modern day evil of personal credit
is just finding its wings thanks to the newly packaged “Personal Loans”. It is frightening to think that the
Consumer Credit Act, giving protection to the borrower, is still fifteen
years away!
A Co-Ordinated Campaign
  Our final set of examples of
Martins leaflets is from the “Martins go to extremes to be helpful” period, a
year or so before the takeover. Most of these leaflets are featured in full
elsewhere on the site, so by clicking on your choice below, you will be taken
to the relevant page. Sadly, the Liver Bird has been dropped from all
promotional material by this point, and the grasshopper is left to fly the
flag as Martins final days tick by. It is hard to imagine that in the
apparently enlightened 1960s, millions of Britons still don’t have, or more
importantly don’t trust a bank account, considering the idea to belong to a
higher social class. As the
full power of branding and marketing hits the banks, they in turn hit the
public with advertising campaigns and leaflets designed to woo even the
most “cash only” individual, that putting that cash in a bank doesn’t just
bring safety, and perhaps a bit of interest.
No, having a bank account is responsible
– you owe it to your family to have your financial affairs safe and in
order. Having a bank account is practical - you can start one with
only a small amount of money. Having a
bank account is, perhaps most of all, a source of that highly prized 60s
financial commodity – “FREEDOM”.
The new BANKERS CARD makes your account portable, and with payment
by cheque now AUTOMATED,
fledgling CASH MACHINES are appearing on street corners The newly created
direct debits and credit cards make it easy to spend, borrow, obtain cash AND make payments quickly and safely. In fact freedom and a bank account go
together very well indeed. Whilst
already under part merger with Barclays, Martins has one final stab at
independence with the issue of three leaflets designed to recruit new current
account customers. (See the first three leaflets below). The campaign uses an
“all walks of life” gallery helping to widen the appeal of a bank
account. Sixites fashions aside, these
leaflets look almost as if they were produced yesterday, or at least only the
day before that… Choose your favourite, and enjoy!
For your information…
It
is easy to forget that Martins Bank’s branches themselves - along with the
staff that work in them - are all advertisements for the Bank, and at Martins
Bank of course, the staff always go to extremes to be helpful. However, there is also one more method of
letting customers know about services and any special events that might
occur, and that is through the use of
in-branch displays.
Official Notices, counter displays, helpful leaflets and Counter Plaques
to remind you of those vital services…
Images: Martins Bank
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