Celebrity Cruises: Will 209 emails convince me to set sail?

In April, I wrote about Celebrity Cruises sending me an email once a day, on average. Every day is a new special – or, perhaps, the same special as yesterday that bears repeating! Nearly every email contains a limited time offer, so I’d better “Act Now!”

I received 207 209 emails since returning from a March cruise, making Celebrity’s near spam-like email solicitations a sad Fail for List.  (I started this morning with 207 emails but received 2 more in the past hour.)

Let’s recognize that going on a 3- to 14-night cruise to exclusive destinations (pardon me for absorbing their sales language) is not entirely an impulse purchase decision. If it were, then Celebrity would have offers that last a day or two rather than a week. But, hey, I’m not a cruise industry marketing expert.

Celebrity isn’t the only cruise line that continually hits homes with marketing communications. Every month for at least four years, I’ve received a mailer from Norwegian Cruise Lines. Every monthly mailer tours a destination and rotating offers such as on-board high-end dining, excursion credit, friends and family tag along for free, in-cabin Wi-Fi, or the opportunity to binge-drink at sea – also known as “unlimited open bar.”

The distinction between Norwegian’s and Celebrity’s marketing is that Norwegian’s printed and mailed offers include an aspirational flair: You want to be on the beach in the Caribbean or watching whales off the shore of Alaska. In contrast, Celebrity’s special-offer-of-the-day emails tend to be more transactional in nature. To be fair, maybe some of the emails strive for a more emotional resonance, but, even as a marketing professional, I’m not going to review all 200+ of them to find out.

Lesson:

Test the frequency of communications with your customers to learn what is the most responsive. Sometimes less is more.

MoMA: Failed Mail, But Is It Art?

I moved to New York City last July. Last week, I received the below solicitation for membership from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The Outer Envelope Teaser reads, “Welcome to the Neighborhood!” Inside is an offer of discounted membership “… available only for our new neighbors.” However, I moved to New York City last July.

Inviting Outer Envelope
"Welcome to the Neighborhood!"

I can only speculate why I received a solicitation with this type of messaging after living here nearly a year. Did MoMA purchase a hot movers list that wasn’t so…hot? Did the mailer obtain my information several months ago but didn’t use it until now (e.g. a Fail for Timing)? If either of these is true, that is poor targeting (e.g., a Fail for List). Did MoMA know I moved more than 10 months ago but chose to position their solicitation as being for new residents? If so, that appears to me to be a Fail for Creative, because the messaging is not relevant.

Front of letter

Back of letter includes many membership level options

Aside from that point, creative execution is quite good. The package includes many of the elements known to support optimizing response:

• Outer Envelope. The outer envelope clearly identifiers the sender. It is stamped, which suggests a personal correspondence. The teaser “Welcome to the Neighborhood!” is in an inviting color.
• Letter. In lieu of a typical Johnson Box, the letter tastefully displays what a new member might expect to enjoy at the MoMA. Displaying the organization name and return address on the side (as well as choosing a font that visually matches the MoMA brand identity) is inviting. The interior highlight colors match the outer envelope teaser. The copy describes the overall benefits of membership and is inviting. The letter is personally signed by a relevant individual, and it closes with a postscript that reinforces the offer. 
• Buckslip. The buckslip insert clearly and simply reinforces basic membership benefits and includes a call to action.
  
  
  
  

  

  Buckslip insert

• Personalized Response Form. The Membership Acceptance Statement already has the prospective member’s name and address. The form includes mention of to whom to make out a check and includes an option to pay the membership fee using a major credit card. 
• Business Reply Envelope. The reply envelope is postage-paid, meaning the recipient won’t need to spend effort finding an envelope or a stamp. The FIM Bar and barcode will ensure smooth and fast response delivery.

Standard Business Reply Envelope
Prepaid postage allows for easy return & fast delivery

This solicitation may also deserve a Fail for Offer, because there are too many and they are confusing. The front of the letter lists four membership options, while the back of the letter lists nine – with costs ranging from $70 to a whopping $6,000. If the people being solicited are new to the neighborhood, they are likely not ready to put down more than a couple hundred dollars on membership at a museum. They may also not be willing to take the time to understand the difference between the $70 “Global” membership listed on the back and the $70 “Individual” membership listed on the front. This forces the consumer to make a decision within a decision – to first make a decision whether to be a member and then to make a secondary decision regarding the type of member to be. Forcing the secondary decision risks prospective member frustration, which leads to delayed or no action on the primary decision.

It would be worthwhile to communicate only two to four entry-level options for new members, then take action to upsell them later when they call to join – or upon their first enjoyable visit to the museum.

In addition to caring for the Fails, there are a few minor optimizations I would consider with this type of solicitation:

• Open the letter with the recipient’s name. Perhaps there wasn’t space with this design; but, if you are going to take the effort of having a personal-style letter solicitation, open with “Dear Marc Davis” – or, if the list source data allows, “Dear Marc.” 
• Explain some elements a bit better. When communicating museum features and benefits, consider the fact that the intended recipient is new to New York City. For example, the back of the letter and the buckslip mention free admission to “MoMA PS1.” A new neighbor might confuse that with something related to a SonyPlayStation. 
• Reinforce the promo code. To get the discount, the new member has to enter a promo code mentioned in the body of the letter. Someone simply scanning the letter, however, would be hard pressed to find it. It should be listed in the Acceptance Statement in #1 under “Four easy ways to join” and it could be reinforced in the postscript. 
• Create a matching landing page. The current call to action mentions moma.org/join, which appears to be the standard page for new member enrollment. Unfortunately, that page has even more options than the letter – creating even more potential for confusing prospective members – and the page also doesn’t reference the new member discount. This means the recipient of the letter couldn’t use it to get the targeted discount. A matching landing page can have an inviting URL (i.e., moma.org/newneighbor), visually match the solicitation, and show only simplified, relevant membership levels at the offered price without forcing the new member to enter a promo code. In addition, quantifying page visits can support gauging overall prospective membership interest resulting from the solicitation. 
• Avoid the zip+4 on the outer envelope return address. This bit of technical accuracy doesn’t help optimize mailing the package and detracts from the light, personal feeling of the solicitation. 

One needs creative skills to design the right type of communication for the target audience to mail at the best time. But is it art? Well, maybe – but the actions of measuring, testing, learning, and optimizing mean it is also math.

Maybe, one day, MoMA will have an exhibit featuring creative elements of successful direct mail, perhaps next to a Swatch Jellyfish watch or Macintosh classic desktop computer. 

Lessons:

1. When choosing to communicate to prospective customers around life events, make sure your list source is accurate – and mail on a timely basis.
    
2. When soliciting new customers to your program, offer few and simple options.

(Edited to correct hyperlinks.)

Celebrity Cruises: My Ship Comes in Again… and Again… and Again…

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had planned to cruise on Celebrity Cruise Lines. At some point, when booking excursions, I must have opted in for marketing communications. I know this because, in addition to communications regarding the cruise, I received emails with limited-time deals for upcoming cruises. Many, many emails. In the month after the last day of my cruise, I received 37 emails from Celebrity. (That was yesterday.  As I post this blog, the count it now 39.)  That’s more than an email per day with a marketing offer to make the major travel purchase of a cruise.

In digging through these emails, however, I did receive two that addressed my recent cruise. One was a polite thanks for our sailing. It arrived five days after we disembarked. That’s timely. 

The next relevant email arrived two days later with the subject line of, “Marc, Thank you for sailing with us.” As a quick proofreading note: I would not have capitalized “Thank you” when preceded by a comma, but at least the messaging was relevant to my experience – with a timely call to action to book another cruise. Disney is effective using similar techniques when reaching out to their customers after a trip to The Magic Kingdom.

What Disney may not do is spam the crap out of their customers. I have too many emails to display here, with subject lines like, “Last Day – Do NOT miss these low fares to Alaska.” (March 26); “Now ending: Savings for all, plus TWO free perks” (April 2); “Exciting Deals is coming to an end. Last day tomorrow.” (April 8) “Just arrived! Just arrived! New offer to Alaska gets 50% off.” (April 9). I received two emails on the same day: “Marc, it’s Funday Sunday, perfect for booking an Exciting Deals getaway.” (April 22, 10:15 am) and “Traveler, it’s Funday Sunday, perfect for booking an Exciting Deals getaway. (April 22, 10:27 am).

It appears to me that Celebrity’s Marketing Department uses the criteria to send promotional emails only on days ending in “y” – and that’s a Fail for Timing for sending too many emails too often. They become meaningless in the continued clutter of communications. It may also be that there are several marketing lists floating inside the Celebrity organization and they don’t relate them to the customer experience. If that is the case, and they are using a Spray and Pray method of marketing, that’s a Fail for List.

Lesson:

Know your customers. Communicate to them sparingly and with relevance – addressing them in the context of your customer relationship.

Celebrity Cruises: A Ship Came In, But It Wasn’t Mine

My wife and I are looking forward to a cruise with Celebrity in a few weeks on a ship sailing to a few locations in the Caribbean. Like any good marketing machine, Celebrity is sending us frequent reminders of our upcoming vacation while providing us with add-on solicitations: beverage packages, gourmet dining, and excursions. Until recently, these emails appeared to me to be well targeted (and enticing, but I digress). However, this email for One-of-a-Kind Modern Luxury Adventures misses the mark.

The email visually represents a few exclusive opportunity excursions in Europe. As much as I’d like to go to Europe, I’m not. Perhaps the email was intended as a general sales communication of their new Celebrity Discovery Collection excursions. Perhaps the targeted population was everyone in their email communications list. If so, then the reference to “HERE’S A SAMPLE OF WONDERFUL EXCURSIONS FOR YOUR NEXT VACATION” is too assumptive, because my next vacation – and that of many other customers receiving the email – won’t be to Europe. 

If this email had been targeted as intended – a broad audience – then the headline should have read “HERE’S A SAMPLE OF WONDERFUL EXCURSIONS WITH CELEBRITY” or simply “HERE’S A SAMPLE OF WONDERFUL EXCURSIONS.” This merits a minor Fail for Creative, because the messaging is not aligned with the target audience. If the email had been targeted at upcoming European cruise customers, then it merits a more substantial Fail for Targeting, because it was sent to people not planning to sail to Europe.

It appears to me that Celebrity does not fully manage their customer communications.  Some emails are properly targeted and personalized, while others seem to have a Spray & Pray approach.  Specifically, they send the same communication to every email address they have.  Such emails fail at building and maintaining customer relationships.

Lesson: 

Consider the best use of your small data, that is, the collection of information already available that can be used simply and effectively.

In the meantime, below is an example of a well-targeted upsell email complete with personalization and relevant visuals of available excursion opportunities. No Fails here.

Verizon Wireless: Winback Email That Does Not Win Me Back

Last June, I wrote about lack of communications from Verizon Wireless after I switched my mobile service to a different carrier. A couple months later, I started to receive winback offers shown below – offering a package deal price of $40 per line for four lines with unlimited usage.

I need 1 line -- not 4

This is a Fail for List. Verizon had 15 years of customer history and could have easily discerned that I was a single-line, low-usage customer. An unlimited plan is not useful for me, much less a plan with three devices more than I need. Verizon Wireless doesn’t need to use Big Data to properly tailor its winback offers. Making smart use of Small Data – namely, the collection of information already available that can be used simply and effectively – would be sufficient to understand former customer needs and offer a service that is relevant. 

Page 2 of email -- fine print & disclosures

My supposition is that Verizon’s leadership has chosen to take a product proposition and push it out. As I write this, their mass media marketing focuses on unlimited usage offers on their better network. After 20 minutes on their confusing website, I’m not sure there is even a low-usage plan available anymore. 

Granted, the population of U.S. consumers using less than 4 GB per month is decreasing, but keeping or winning back a customer is always less expensive than winning an all-new customer. (To wit: As of this writing, Verizon Wireless is offering rebates of $150 and up to new customers.)  Keep the customers you have, then you can upsell and cross-sell them later to 5G, home FIOS, and other services.

Lesson: 
The best way to win back former customers is to offer what your data suggests they want or need.

Uber: Free Ride Available but So Far Away

email from Uber 4/27/16

I received this offer from Uber for a free ride from “the Fest.”

“What fest?” I asked myself, “Musikfest is not until August.” It took me several minutes to realize that the festival being referenced is in New Orleans. My guess is that Uber cannot mention the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival by name because it is not a paid sponsor.

This email merits a Fail for List  because it was sent to someone in Pennsylvania who has not been to New Orleans or used Uber south of the Mason-Dixon Line this year. However, if Miller Lite is ready to subsidize a 1,217-mile ride, I’m ready for some Paul Simon. I wonder if Uber will still be crazy after all these years.

I would think Uber has the technology to target emails by mobile location rather than spray what I presume was the entire country.

Lesson: Geographically-based offer emails should be targeted.

Wright Veterinary: Typo Leads to Very Early Reminders

I received this postcard on January 15 from the veterinarian for my dog, Buddy. The vet sends these courtesy postcards if I have missed my dog’s immunization dates, reminding me to keep my dog vaccinated.

Although one would like to believe that the neighborhood vet who cares about each four-legged and two-legged friend individually is a from a mom-and-pop shop, it is nonetheless a business complete with business processes, a database, and a lettershop. The reminder postcard I received for my vet in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, had been mailed from such a lettershop in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 

The postcard reminded me about treatments due in December 2016 -- 11 months from now. This merits a Fail for List. As I understand from a phone call to the WrightVeterinary Medical Center, one of the employees had incorrectly entered the month and year of due vaccinations for the mailing list. This typo had resulted in many reminder postcards being sent in error -- and many pet owners calling in to verify they had received the postcard in error.

The message is attempting to be a bit cute -- referring to the pet and suggesting the owner bring the pet in for immunizations, but the message was a bit confusing. However, I wouldn’t call the message a Fail for Creative. Still, there are some typos as well as multiple instances of confusion between singular and plural nouns, so the copy could be cleaned up a bit. Here is an attempt to streamline the content while maintaining the same message.

We missed seeing your pet for at least one important vaccination.

Maintaining your pet’s immunity to diseases is a vital part of its total health care program. So, we wanted to remind you of the vaccinations and dates due for each pet. They are listed on this postcard.

Please be sure to order preventative medications and make an appointment for preventative treatments now, because further delay could be harmful to your pet. Call us at Wright Veterinary Medical Center today at 610-865-2611, because a healthy pet is a happy pet.

I would also suggest writing a cleaner call to action. Just ask the pet owner to call in to discuss how to ensure the pet can get its required vaccinations. By having one call to action and maintaining a consultative tone, a pet owner can call with adequate peace of mind.

If I am going to write about my dog, I can’t help myself but include a picture of Buddy. He is such a cute, friendly dog!

Buddy!

Lessons:

1. What goes out on your mailing list is based on what you put in as your list criteria, so be sure your mailing list accurately reflects your intentions.
2. Keep your call to action clean and simple whenever possible.

CenturyLink sends great offer to ineligible cusotmer

This recent post on Consumerist about CenturyLink mailing an offer to an ineligible customer with prior issues is a reminder that all companies should have and maintain a Do Not Solicit list.  The list should include who request opt-out as well as unusual situations like Seth’s.  Use it for both email and snail mail. 

Lesson: Save yourself some embarrassment -- have a marketing opt-out list.  Maintain it and update it frequently.

TruGreen: Is the Past the Future?

I currently live in a townhome in a managed community, which would make this solicitation from TruGreen an easy Fail for List. But the creative has some interesting elements.

Front of letter

On the front of the letter, the Johnson Box appears to have a general introduction sales message. If you read only that, you know the offer and the call to action. However, that darn asterisk suggests that there may be more to the offer than advertised. Looking on the back of the letter, we find in the disclosure: “Special price of $29.95 is for the first application only, for new residential EasyPay or PrePay customers only,” and so on. OK, fair enough. But I would not necessarily be a “new” customer. I am a prior customer — albeit at a prior address where I owned a house with a Texas-sized lawn. 

In fact, the first subhead and footer both ask that I “Come back to TruGreen now …” Perhaps I was targeted for this solicitation because of my prior customer status, which would make this mailing a win-back effort. Setting aside the fact that this is still a Fail for List — because I cannot purchase TruGreen’s services for my townhome — the offer is confusing. If I am a prior customer (e.g., not really “new”), am I still eligible?

Back of letter

I get the sense that the win-back messages were wedged into a new customer solicitation mailing. While there are two headline-level messages suggesting I “Come Back,” the body copy and outer envelope teaser suggest that I have never been a customer and am unfamiliar with the product. Perhaps this was a multi-cell mailing and the variable copy is in the spaces with the green background.

Aside from that, there are some creatively strong elements to the mailing. TruGreen’s message of “153 of your neighbors have TruGreen lawns” lends legitimacy to the product proposition (but, again, seems irrelevant to a former customer). Core messages are conveyed multiple times in the Johnson Box, side bar, sub-heads and the back of the letter. The use of color with emphasis on green and complementary lifestyle photos results in a pleasant resonance.

Outer Envelope

Lessons:

1. Target customers who can purchase your product or service.
2. When messaging a customer based on knowledge you have, ensure your messaging is consistent.

Mytireshop.com: Online Company, Offline Fail

I originally flagged these two postcards I recently received on the same day from mytireshop.com because two of them arrived at the same address on the same day — one for someone who, to my knowledge, has never lived at the address. That would make it an easy Fail for List and an example of the importance of doing a list dedup; after all, if you are willing to address your mail to “Current Resident,” there is nothing to be gained from sending two pieces of mail to the same residence.

For me

Not for me 

Inspecting the postcards further, this appears to be example of how an online business fails in its use of offline media in other ways:

• There is not a specific Call to Action. It appears the objective of the postcard is to motivate people to visit www.mytireshop.com. However, the message about the website is that it is “your Fast, Local Tire Source.” The call to action should be specific, i.e., “Shop Tires Online at mytireshop.com”, with supporting features and benefits messaging.
• The URL is lost in the copy. It is the same weight as the rest of the copy, without a “www” preceding it, making it easy to get lost. It should have some distinction — at minimum an underline, different color, or italics. Having a “www” in front makes it clear that it is a website. Granted, the concept of having to explain that something is on the World Wide Web is a bit passé, but, perhaps, that is why there is a “www” in front of the same piece’s mention of www.generaltire.com. Which leads to …
• There are multiple possible actions from the communication. If a customer visits the General Tire website, they receive general information about the brand, but not about mytireshop.com. So why have multiple URLs on the same communication? Here’s my speculation: General Tire was willing to co-fund the postcard to promote their brand. That’s fine, but the postcard suggests that mytireshop.com sells only General Tires. It would have been better for mytireshop.com — and the potential customer — for the postcard to explain that “mytireshop.com sells General Tires and other fine brands” or have a similar headline-level message. 
• Benefitmessages are missing. The features messaged here are specific to the tire, the ability to install the same or next day, and that it is a “Faster, Local Tire Source.” (How is a company with a foreign-seeming toll-free phone number local?) The benefits that could be messaged but are not are Peace of Mind, Ease of Use, Joy, and so on. For example, “Install the same or next day” could be “Relax. Visit www.mytireshop.com today and enjoy your new tires tomorrow.”
• There is no method of tracking success. Customers go through a sales funnel: Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Desire, Action. The business behind mytireshop.com could easily learn how many customers move from Awareness (receiving the postcard) to Interest (visiting their website) by using a personalized URL that tracks who visited the website — or, at the very least, a vanity landing page specific to the mailing to count site visits. Once online, both methods can be used, along with Google Analytics, to see how many people complete the sale process — and how. 



Postcard front - heavy on GT

• The phone number is not mentioned as toll-free. While most people know that “800”, “888”, and “877” are toll-free phone numbers, many consumers do not yet recognize that “866”, “855” and “844” are also toll-free. Some people might counter this by explaining that most people use mobile phones with unlimited voice usage or pay regardless of the phone number; however, there are still people that call from landline phones. For those who prefer to call from home rather than visit the website, this piece should help get them from Awareness to Interest by reminding them that the call is free.

These are Fails for Creative and reminders to spend your marketing dollars wisely.

Lessons:

1. When mailing to homes by address, dedup your list by address.
2. Have a clear call to action that stands out.
3. Include only one call to action and one URL on a communication.
4. Communicate benefits.
5. Establish and utilize a results tracking method.
6. If your phone number is toll-free, message it as such.

Recyclebank: Perishable email

There is a lot of buzz in direct marketing about ‘big data’ — “An all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using traditional data processing applications” according to Wikipedia. Nice, but before embracing the challenges of big data, marketers should be successful using the information they have. I often call this ‘small data,’ or “The collection of data already available that can be used simply and effectively.”

Which brings up the topic of this recent Recyclebank email. When I joined Recyclebank in 2011, it appeared to be the MyPoints of environmentalism, offering points for purchasing products and doing things that are good for the environment. Those points could be used for healthy and environmentally beneficial rewards. After a bit of use over the course of a year, though, I cashed out all my points for some Odwalla coupons. I earned a few points after that, but not enough to redeem for anything meaningful before they expired. That was more than two years ago.

I never opted out the program, however, and still received an occasional email with offers of points for taking part in environmentally friendly offers or for learning why drinking from cans is better than drinking from bottles. However, the email I’m talking about is a bit different. In it, Recyclebank attempts to engage me by offering point redemption offers. Nice, except I have zero points and have not had any points since 2012.

In sending this email, it appears that Recyclebank took a ‘spray and pray’ approach, pushing the same email to all customers. A smarter use of their small data, however, would have been to simply target customers with a meaningful number of points by adding a line or two in the code querying the list of customers. This would have avoided a Fail for List.

Lesson: Use the information you have in-house to target your customer communications appropriately. Avoid sending emails with irrelevant messages.