The Philadelphia objective: To attract new members. How to do that in a competitive market? Develop, implement and facilitate a multi-level promotion, utilizing a matrix mailing that highlighted such top-line products as checking, high-yield savings and certificates of deposits. Other products used to entice membership included auto loans and personal signature loans.
The Philadelphia FCU caters to city employees and their families. The target audience for this mailing consisted of new adult members who joined the credit union between June 1, 2005 to December 2005.
It was our goal to create memorable, on-target, effective messaging to gain maximum exposure to the target audience and we accomplished it through good, old-fashioned analysis.
The pre-campaign analysis started with analyzing the existing membership of Philadelphia FCU through the following steps:
- Identify the most profitable members.
- Determine demographics.
- Identify the product penetration.
The break-even analysis was performed on response rates ranging from 1% to 3%. The analysis was conducted utilizing the product identified for the initial direct mailing. When more than one product was offered, then we performed a break-even analysis based upon a blending of the products and an average interest rate based upon response rates ranging from 1% to 3%.
In the five-month period from June 1, 2004 to October 31, 2004, the total new adult members for the credit union were 4,687. This group generated a total number of 8,814 products ($3,038,685 Deposits & $3,677,721 Loans -- Total $6,716,406), which translated into a 1.88 average number of unique products. The goal was to have 2005 new adult members open additional products that would total in excess of 10,000 unique products ($4,558,027 Deposits & $5,516,581 Loans -- Total $10,074,608 -- 50% Increase over 2004 $$ Total) and increase their unique product penetration above 2.00. The 2005 new adult members during the same five-month period consisted of 8,701 new adult members who would receive letters/postcards touting the attractiveness and effectiveness of the credit union’s product lines. The targeted customers were chosen based on a profitability model that correctly assessed the previous year’s membership product penetration, total deposits and loans generated. Fancy language for who would be best served by joining the Philadelphia FCU. The demographic was hungry for service, reliability and great products; the matrix mailing developed targeted this audience perfectly. Over the course of five months, an average of 1,740 potential new members received a Philadelphia postcard/letter. As they joined, they were also eligible to receive new member matrix mailings highlighting specific products.
Ultimately, the credit union correctly analyzed the government workers of the city and increase product usage to 19,015 unique products ($10,461,494 Deposits and $13,321,635 Loans -- Total $23,783,129) or 2.18 average number of unique products.
