The Race to Define Yourself

I roll to the red light as my engine settles to a low rumble. Glancing to my right, a perfect stranger ... now a 2-wheeled, mortal enemy ... who gives me an ever-so-slight nod of the head and rev of an engine. I return my own rev of approval. My pulse quickens. A bead of sweet sweat forms on my temple.

Our focus turns to our electronic taskmaster while we await its permission to unleash hell. When the cross light clickers from green to yellow I can sense our combined muscles tense, like TNT anticipating a lit fuse. I shift into first and back off the clutch as much as possible to shed precious milliseconds. 

The cross light flickers from yellow to red ... it's time. My hand tightens on the gear shift. My feet, light on the pedals. 

At green, our tandem of engines scream with excitement, like thoroughbreds released from their gate. My smaller, lighter foe pulls ahead with ease and I imagine his cocky, confident smirk just feet in front of me. My car, Sunny, and I are one as I listen and wait for just the right tone. When the engine hits that perfect note, I tap the clutch - scarcely long enough to slide into second gear. I pull even and sense my prey's smirk turn to scowl as he torques his throttle beyond its limits.

Our dance continues from second to third to fourth gear. Though Sunny and I are smooth through to shifts and united in our desire, we simply can't keep up. The Vespa scooter pulls away, not even looking in his rearview as he offers a triumphant wave.

With a sigh, I pat Sunny's dash in our own sense of victory. We putt down the road with the satisfaction that we've helped yet another person smile with this bright yellow classic convertible VW bug.

Sunny will never win any races with her 78 horsepower, 35 year old engine. She'll never take the prize in a car show with her dented trim and ripped rag top. But I've found in the year that I've owned her that she has a gift. When I pull her alongside the faster, flashier, more expensive machines at the local Friday night car show - she draws the crowd. More importantly, she demands smiles. Every single time I take her out, people point and flash a grin.

To be honest, Sunny fits me. She reflects my personal brand. Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather see myself as a drop-top '67 Camaro SS or a '63 split-window Corvette. From a running perspective, I can make a case for being a Jeep Wrangler - at home in the solitude of nature, ducking under fallen trees and splashing through rocky creek beds (heck, I wrote this blog on last night's trail run). But that's just me for a few hours a week. Every minute of every day, I'm quirky. More interested in having fun than being flashy or high-performance. Looking to make people smile. That's my '78 bug. We know who we are and we own it. Voluntarily trading trophies and ribbons for smiles and waves.

So, that's the branding challenge, isn't it? To set aside a Corvette dream that may not really fit you or a cooler Jeep persona that doesn't truly define you. There are hideous cars that win countless races and show-stoppers that spend more time on tow trucks than pavement. For yourself and your organization, know who you are, what you do naturally well, how it separates you, where that fits in the grand plan and work it like there's no tomorrow. 

Your brand isn't built in your imagination or in your Board room. It erupts from your soul.

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too. Contact us to see how.

With more than 250,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues. Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker. Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

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Gamify Your Way to a Financial High Score

A very close friend of mine sent me a cool article from Forbes a few days ago about motivating your staff through Gamification.

Gamification, according to the article is: “taking techniques that make games engaging and addictive and applying them to things that are not games.” In particular it’s about providing rapid non-financial recognition and rewards to reinforce positive behaviors.


Chances are that, on you smartphone and/or tablet right now, are several social media and game apps where you can earn badges.  Those essentially meaningless little icons that you've played hours to earn and collect.  

I have about 15 badges on Foursquare right now, including JetSetter for being in so many darn airports (not all badges are fun to earn!) and Fresh Brew for being in so many different coffee houses (some badges enable addictions).


While the phrase "gamification" annoys me, the concept intrigues me.  

The Forbes article does a great job of defining how you can use gamification to onboard employees into your corporate culture and reward them for reaching performance goals.

There 3 Simple Steps Are:

1. For each employee, figure out what behaviors have the most impact.
2. Make sure those employees know what is expected and have the tools, resources and support required to do what they need to do.
3. Recognize and reward behavioral steps along the way as well as end results.

See the Forbes article here



The Forbes article re-inspired me and motivated me to reach into my "Giant Bag of Big Ideas Never Fulfilled" from 2010 - before "gamification" was even a word.

Some examples of internal gamification badges you could create for your staff are:

Do Gooder: Employee with 20 + hours of community volunteerism

Savior: Employee who finds way to lower customers payments

Ada Boy: Employee who receives positive customer comments

But you can also use gamification to increase loyalty and deepen share of wallet.

If you want to affect Gen X and younger, here's an idea...

Could you imagine motivating your customers to deepen their relationship with you through phone app-style rewards?  What if each customer had a PURL (personalized URL) that tracked their relationship with you?  You could then send email to reinforce positive activity and promote "special badges" on your social media - challenging customers to earn more badges (106 customers earned the "Tree Hugger" badge this week, click here to see how to earn yours).

POSSIBLE BANKING BADGES

Easy Rider: Motorcycle Loan

Car & Driver: Any auto loan

Gonna Need a Bigger Garage: 3^rd active auto loan

Tree Hugger:eStatements

EZ Access:Checking

Charrrrge It!: Credit Card

Trifecta:Checking, Debit and Online Banking opened

Far Far Away:Vacation Savings

Tis The Season:Christmas Savings

Rockafeller:$150,000 in total deposits

It’s mine, all mine:Any paid off loan

Professor: Attend education seminar

Entrepreneur:Small Business Loan

This Could go Platinum: Any CD

Banking in Jammies:Online Banking

Mmm: Money Market

Writer’s Cramp: 30 signature-based debit card transactions in 1 month

Single-handed Stimulus:50 plus debit card transaction in 1 month

Loyalist: 4 or more total products

No More Rent:First time mortgage

Home Sweet Home:Any Mortgage

Nest Egg: IRA

Pass It On:Referrals

The challenge, of course, is measurement and tracking of the badges.  But, realistically, most of the above criteria are built on simple triggers or reports from your core, MCIF or CRM system.  The more immediate the reward notification, the better - so monthly updated files aren't ideal.  But don't let the tech-geek in you kill a potentially good idea.  If you think it will work with your base, make it happen.

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too. Contact us to see how.

Nearing 245,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues. Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker. Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

Follow me on Twitter @egagliano

A Cheat Sheet to Perfect Creative

Give your creative the FREEDOM of a tight strategy.

What I love about what we do is that there are infinite ways to address the same problem.  There are few rules and usually, the crazier the idea, the better.

You want your creative to stand up and take notice.  You need it to be clear and concise.  To get there, you have to be focused!  

That's the job of the creative brief.  In one to two pages, describe exactly what needs to happen.  A great creative brief can lead to killer creative.  It's also your sanity check to know whether the creative is simply entertaining or on strategy too.

Here are the 5 areas to focus on when you're focused on creative:

1. What do you want to do?

Why are you spending this money?  What do you want the effort to accomplish?  How will you quantitatively know if it worked or not.

• What does the advertising do for the brand?
• How will the objective be measured?

2. Who are you talking to?
It's easier to write to a person than to a nameless group.  Who do you want to talk to?  Give them a name, a face, a personality and needs:

• What do they look like? What do they like to do? What is their economic standing?  What makes them tick? (be as specific as possible)
• What motivates them?  Why are they making this purchase decision? What's going on in their life?
• When they buy, why do they choose you?
• When they don't buy with you, why not?
• How do they FEEL when they make the decision?  How do you WANT them to feel (tone)?

3. The ONE Big Thing

Let's face it, we're lucky if anyone ever sees our work ... we're blessed if they care ... and if they take away ONE message, we've done our job.  What is the ONE big thing that you want them to know?

• How does it make you different from the competition?
• So what? (Benefit) What problem are we solving?  Why should anyone care?
• Prove it (3-5 supports - Prioritize) Why should they believe you?
• Who's voice is telling them?  Are you the trusted old uncle or the hip young friend or the crazy granny?

4. What do you want them to do?
How will the audience help you achieve your objective?  Do you want them to feel something?  Pick up the phone?  Go to a URL?  Run to your location?

• Is it easy for the target to do what you want?
• Who answers the Call to Action?  Are they prepared?

5. Thou Shalts and Thou Shalt Nots
What are the rules? The must and must nots.

• Budget
• Schedule and duration
• Media options: Print? Broadcast? Web? Direct Mail? SEO? Point of Sale? Outdoor?
• What does the staff need to know or do?
• Mandatories (logos, icons, legals, etc)

Now go back and start crossing words out.  Keep the brief ... well, BRIEF!  The more focused you are, the less sidetracked the creative ideas will be (You know creatives ... show 'em something shiny and you lose them for hours!).

From the brief, try to come up with at least 3 good ideas:

• The safe idea
• One that scares the hell out of you
• Something in between

Finally, when the work is complete, go back to the brief and start checking off each item.  If the work addresses each element of the brief, then it should be on strategy ... focused ... and ready to generate business.

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

Nearing 230,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

Follow me on Twitter @egagliano

6 Examples to Get You Noticed

The goal of any creative initiative is to get noticed.  Of course, you also want a clean message with an easy to understand call to action … But unless you differentiate and stand out, your message will never be heard.

A catchy headline, crisp copy and bold design are a good start …  but think beyond that.

Here are some examples that may fire up your creative neurons.

Why Use Normal Paper?

We had 2 different jobs that pushed us creatively to think outside of traditional paper.

In the first example, our client offers the first personalized debit card in the market, where the member can put their own photo image on their card.  So, we “demonstrated” what the card “could” look like by turning part of the postcard into an actual mirror.

Another client was targeting physicians for a Commercial opportunity.  So we delivered the message to them in an x-ray envelope and printed the “message” on actual x-ray paper.  The best part?  We include an "appointment card" like you would receive from your family doctor or dentist.  The card lists the date and time that our team will follow-up.  

Again, the goal is to get your message noticed, so you can have your message understood.  In both of these cases, a world-class printer can make you look like a rock star!

Get Them Involved.

You don’t need to have a lottery to use scratch-offs.  Here are 2 examples of mailers that use scratch-offs to get the reader engaged with the piece.

We have a client who positions themselves as the mortgage authority and expert in “specialty” mortgages … RD, VA, etc.  This card asks the questions that the target is likely to be thinking with the answers under the scratch-off keys. 

In another example, we used a scratch-off to reveal what customers can do when they “Need extra cash,” with the answer, “Use the equity in your home!”

Much like the stickers in a Publisher’s Clearing House promotion, we simply use a tool where the reader expects to “win” something and get them more engaged with the mailer.

Why Use an Envelope?

The “Shoe Mailer” may be one that we are most commonly known for.  We ask Commercial prospects to “Take the next step with us,” and mail the message in an actual shoe.  The postage and address are applied to the sole of the shoe and it ALWAYS gets noticed.  During follow-up calls, it’s common to be recognized as, “the shoe people.”

Our local post office loves us!  The vessel that you mail in may be more important than the actual message.  Think creatively through the entire project.

Show NOTHING on TV.

Creating a television message, on a local production budget, that gets noticed isn’t easy.  It’s a common rule in presenting that if you want the room's attention, say nothing until people look up.  We used a similar strategy in this 30-second ad – where the first 5 seconds are black.

If you read this blog regularly, you know we believe that great creative starts with a sound strategy and focused segmentation and is supported by detailed front-line processes and success measurement.  But, there comes a time when you simply have to don the Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops and get your creative groove on.  When that time comes – I hope these ideas help take you further.

Want more creative ideas?  Click here for a sample of our creative library.

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MarketMatch is a full-service marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM for your organization and demonstrate RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

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