Direct Energy: Phone Sex, It's a Gas!

This is a classic Fail for Creative … 

Direct Energy, when offering a renewal price to natural gas customers, mistakenly gave out the phone number of a phone sex line rather than its own customer service number.   

No doubt a term-contract renewal mailing like this was sent dozens or hundreds of times by a large company such as Direct Energy, which makes the mistake all the more notable.  It is easy when reusing a standard mailing to overlook the obvious – proof everything every time.

Lesson: Call every phone number in your communication to verify correctness.

 

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.

 

Harry & David: Not too late?!?

It's September 10 as I write this.  Yesterday, Harry & David sent me a reminder of my holiday gift list with a Subject line of "There's Still Time to Order From Your Gift History."

It is a bit odd to have a period at the end of a subject line, even if it is a sentence.  It is a bit more odd to assert "There's Still Time ..." when it is 80 degrees outside in PA.

At least wait until October before reminding me of my gift list, and maybe December to remind me how little time is left.


Lessons: 

1. Time your emails appropriately.
2. Keep your subject lines timely and relevant.

United Airlines apologizes, misses facts and the point

Consumerist.com describes how a customer received a letter from United Airlines that didn't quite fill in the blanks. 

Lesson: Even if you have a systemic production process, you need to proof your work and have the right quality assurance steps in place.

Wells Fargo: Benefits & Call to Action

Brochure Front

A couple of weeks ago, I shared lessons related to Wells Fargo’s in-store brochure for their Propel 365 card.  One month later, the retail branch is presenting a new brochure for another product. This one is for their other AMEX offering — the Wells Fargo Propel World American Express Card.  

Unfortunately, this brochure has the same Fail for Creative as the Propel 365 card brochure — it describes the features of accruing points but gives no benefit statement about the value of points. When you’re playing a video game, earning points is important as a goal in itself. However, with a rewards program, the points themselves are not the goal. Instead, the goal is to get what the points can bring — such as a trip to visit Grandma, fun electronics, or extra cash for the holidays.

Inside

The Wells Fargo Propel World American Express Card brochure does mention their front-end benefits, such as hotel upgrades, airline fee reimbursement, and concierge service. This would support the headline message of “Upgrade your travel experience.” The cover photos suggest aspiration, with the moving ghostlike Wells Fargo Wagon graphic on the credit card and a happy couple on a gondola, presumably in Venice.

The brochure also has a disconnect in the call to action. While the cover directs customers to talk with a banker to apply for the card, the inside of the brochure directs customers to visit a website or call a phone number for more information. You can sell only one thing at a time — and that also applies to motivating a customer to action. Having two distinct messages in this manner dilutes interest.

Lessons:

1. Marketing communications should communicate a benefit. Points are not a benefit — they are a vehicle of earnings toward a benefit.
2. Keep your call to action consistent, and reinforce it whenever possible.

Wells Fargo: What’s the Point of Points?

Front

Normally my comments are limited to marketing communications shared directly with consumers via direct mail or email, but this in-bank pamphlet merits a potential Fail for Creative.

Inside

Wells Fargo uses its retail branches as an opportunity to cross-sell products and services. Every bank teller window has a brochure holder for a customer to read while transacting with the teller. The brochures appear to rotate about once a month. This month, the brochures are for the Wells Fargo Propel 365 American Express Card.

The two-page, two-panel brochure touts the card as one that “earns you accelerated rewards and so much more.” More what? The brochure describes the accrual rate of points but gives no indication of the value. The only suggestion is on the cover -- in the form of a lifestyle photo of someone driving an expensive convertible. Now, that would be a nice “so much more,” but the brochure doesn’t mention that as an option.

Back, Disclosures

Also, as I write this, the URL listed inside the brochure, wellsfargo.com/getpropel, does not appear to work. After a search through the website, I found this mention of redemption options such as gift cards, unique travel experiences and exclusive offers, and credit to qualifying Wells Fargo credit product.  

Credit card rewards benefits range from the practical to the aspirational. Wells Fargo’s credit card appears to have both -- if you can find information about them.

Lessons:

1. Marketing communications should communicate a benefit.  Points are not a benefit.  They are a vehicle of earnings toward a benefit.
2. Ensure all your website match the URLs listed in your marketing communications and are properly functioning.

Edit: As of this evening 5/28/14, the landing page wellsfargo.com/getpropel appears to be functional.