Once upon a time there was a direct marketing campaign that didn’t get any response.
What-no flurry of telephone calls? No BRCs returned? Nothing.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. After First Bank System Inc., Minneapolis, acquired U.S. Bancorp, Portland, OR, last summer-forming a $72 billion company with close to 4 million business and consumer customers-bank officials wanted nothing more than a smooth transition.
“We really wanted to communicate the changes clearly and in a very easy to understand manner so there wasn’t any alarm on the customers’ part and there would be no need to call us,” says Carol Rossman, assistant vice president for U.S. Bancorp.
That communication consisted of four geographically targeted mailings that went out to all the bank’s customers from March through June.
The mail pieces-detailed brochures and personalized letters-outlined changes in service, offered alternatives and unveiled the new U.S. Bank name.
New York’s Wilcox & Associates, which designed the campaign-costing 70 cents per piece excluding postage-collected customer data from the banks including branch, type of accounts, balance and ATM usage to build a database and profile customers.
Some 4,500 variations of copy were designed to meet individual customer’s needs, detailing account numbers and specific changes to accounts. “The customer [got] a clear idea about the changes that had meaning to them,” says Bob Wilcox, president of Wilcox & Associates.
The task was all the more challenging since federal regulations require 100% mailability and accuracy and that adverse impacts to customers be highlighted, Wilcox notes: “Humans translate the word ‘change’ into ‘problems.'”
Rossman credits the customized pieces for fewer problems and much of the campaign’s success, adding that the original forecasted call volume had been cut in half.
Even in this quiet direct mail campaign several special offers were tucked in with the 3 million brochures sent to consumers-for example, a $1 incentive check to encourage these customers to use their ATM cards to make deposits. The piece, which Rossman says received good response, also outlined free access to nearly 3,000 ATMs. The mail campaign was augmented with print, TV and billboard ads.
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