Vlarketin

"If you give people something worth talk-

Word of Mouth Takes ing about, they will do your marketing for
you," says Jeff Stephens, CEO of Portland,

Hold in Bank Marketing OR-hased Creative Brand Communica-

tions, the paient company of PSST!, a mar-
keting agency that specializes in WOM
I b cut through the clutter of traditional advertising, many banks marketing strategies.
cU'C em|_i]o\ing word-of-mouth marketing strategies. Free pizza, According to a Nielsen Media Research
anvone?
anyone.'' BY BY ANTHONY
ANTHONY MALAKtAN
MALAKIAN
survey oi'more than 26,000 Intemet users,
consumer recommendations were found
lose is only good in horse" communications. And the crowTi jewel ofthe to be the most credible fonn of advertising
shoes and hand grenades— $20 million campaign was the free pizza, among 78 percent ofthe respondents. Re-
well, and marketing, too. If she says. "What we were trying to do was search company Jupiter Media says that
a eonipany gets a five per- differentiate our convenience message,' nearly half of online shoppers choose shop-
cent response on a direct Sandelli says. "It s an unexpected experienœ ping sites based on recommendations.
mail campaign, odds are with our brand that would really set us apait WOM cuts thrtjugh the clutter of tradi-
the marketing department from any other financial services providers tional advertising. If you tura on a tele\i-
will be thrilled. For TV it s worse. .sion, you expect to see commercials; read a
But there's one marketing strategy' that newspaper, you expect to see ads; open your
is almost guaranteed to get a 100-percent bank statement, you expect to see a stufler.
response rate: free food. WOM marketing is something that people
If a man calls Paulies Pizzeria, asks for a aren't expecting to see.
large pie and finds out the pizza is gratis Umpqua Bank in Portland, OR, has
thanks to a local bank, that man is going been a leader in WOM because several
to remember that bank's name. And it's years ago its, CEO Ray Davis, charged the
quite reasonable to expect that he will tell marketing department with reinventing
his friends and family about the free pie. the way the baiik presents its message, saj's
Pi-eü>- soon his Aunt Beth has told her hair- Eric Lucero, Umpqua's vp of marketing
dresser, who passed the word along to Joe, strategies. By switching to WOM strate-
the man behind the counter at the local gies, like giving awayfi-eeice cream and of-
deli, while hu>ing lotto tickets. At least that's fering Intemet access at its branches, the
what TD Bank, was hoping when it recendy $8.3 billion-asset bank has cut its market-
delivered 20,000 pizzas» In TD-branded ing budget by 20 percent, Lucero says.
boxes, to customers of pizzerias up and "Really, the thought behind this was:
down the East Coast. How can we become less dependable on
TD Bank was created last year when traditional kinds of media and find new
Toronto-Dominion Banks TD Banknorth ways to take our culture from inside our
Inc. acquired Commerce Bancorj^ Inc. of stores out to the community," Lucero says.
Cherry Hill, NJ. In rolling out the new Among its more successfiil efforts was its
brand in Commerce's markets, which and establishes a one-on-one personal ex- "Lemonaire" campaign in which it gave chil-
stretched fi'om Connecticut to Florida, TD perience with the brand in a way that we dren of small husiness ownei-s in the bank's
tested a number of word-of-mouth (WOM) hope is spread through word of mouth." footprint startup capital ($10) to open a
marketing techniques that played on the Some refer to WOM marketing as guer- lemonade stand. While children wpi-c tlie ben-
slogiui it inheritedfi-omCommerce, "Amer- rilla marketing, but it's that and more. At eficiaries, the campaign was realty aimed at
ica's most convenient bank." its base, it is a strategy used to create a buzz, small business owners, the m e s s ^ being that
It gave aw ay 40,000 TD-bninded laundry a con\'ersation, about an institution. When no business is too small for Umpqua. The
bi^s, handed out TD-branded umbmllas and done well, media organizations are filing 2,100 lemonade stantls Itfinancedhelped the
ottered free gift-WTapping services at kiosks reports about the campaign, bloggers are bank bring in roughly 1,000 new business
during the holiday season, say.s Allegra blogging about it, and, like v>iidfire, the customers 2,331 new accounts and $113 mil-
Sandelli, TD Banks head of marketing and message spreads. lion in new deposits, Mr. Lucero said.

16 usBanKer March 2009