Direct Mail Case Study - Jan08

Creating good business Fengshui

Tips for fostering wealth and prosperity

The card operations business today is possibly one of the most profitable retail banking products. "Hypercompetitive" is a word that best describes the industry - intense fighting between banks for market share in an increasingly saturated credit-card market and for a significant share in the growing debit-card market. For existing card issuers, the question is how to increase the profitability of their current card operations; for new issuers, the question is how to be noticed amidst the din of products available.

A customer-centric, rather than product-centric, approach can provide banks with a powerful marketing strategy to compete successfully against competitors, for example, by increasing the rate of customer acquisition and proactive retention of profitable customers.

SunGard's System Access has a solution to help banks compete effectively - CardPro, a card solution system that supports all aspects of card and customer management. Built on an open platform, it is fully modular and scalable and compatible with existing and future IT infrastructures.

We needed an impactful marketing tool to introduce our CardPro solution to a very select prospect list, comprising of 200 CEOs, presidents, MDs and heads of IT/retail banking/card centres from some of Asia's biggest banks.

DM was chosen because it provided the most direct and impactful way to reach out to busy executives who are constantly inundated with calls from salespeople and marketing messages. It allowed us to rise above the sales "clutter", and communicate to them in a customised, relevant and cost-effective way.

We simplified the product proposition by focusing the key benefit that the product can help users take advantage of revenue generation opportunities with its features. To communicate it in a novel and creative way, we developed the ‘Wealth Generation' concept which we felt would resonate well with an Asian audience, especially the Asian banks.

Our objective was to create maximum impact and desktop retention value with minimum production cost, in the shortest time possible. We wanted off-the-shelves items that could be adapted within the creative concept and was of real value and benefit to the recipient.

A Fengshui book met the requirements and provided the perfect analogy for "wealth generation". In a literal, direct manner, we wrote: "This Fengshui book can help you foster wealth and prosperity for business with its useful and enlightening tips". On a conceptual level, we communicated: "System Access CardPro can help you take full advantage of revenue generation opportunities with its rich features". We adapted it easily within the creative concept by creating a mock cover wrap for the book.

To give our utmost attention to the prospects during follow-ups, the DMs were delivered in stages to small groups at a time. The first phase comprised of the mail-out to prospects in Hong Kong and Taiwan, totaling 70 DMs.

The response received for the first phase has been encouraging. Appromixately 25% of recipients have responded and agreed to a one-on-one meeting with our sales executive.

Objectives

To reach out to very select list of prospects - senior executives in some of the biggest banks in Asia - in a direct, relevant and cost-effective manner.

Approach

A high-impact DM with great retention value, comprising a Fengshui book, and a bookmark with a concise at-a-glance snapshot of CardPro's features and call-to-action details.

Result

25% said yes to a one-on-one meeting.

Wedad Sunny

Client Services Director

The Gate Worldwide