8/14/2013

Citi aspires to list fail

I received this email from Citi today, reminding me that I still have the opportunity to spend enough on my Hilton HHonors Reserve Visa Signature Card to achieve Diamond status in the Hilton HHonors program.  However I met the spend level. 

This Fail for List might be forgivable if I recently met the threshold.  After all, there is a lag time between when an action takes place and customer's information is updated as there is between when a list is pulled and used for direct correspondence.  However I met the spend requirement in March -- a full 5 months ago.

Lesson: Be sure your contact list is based on accurate information.






Disclosure: I used to work in Citi's Bankcard group, although I was not involved with the HHonors credit card portfolio.

7/30/2013

Lands' End says "Daddy!"



I have been a loyal customer of Lands' End for over 20 years, purchasing clothes by mail and online for myself. Because of that, they occasionally send me catalogs and frequent discount offers.
I have not purchased any gifts from Lands' End or clothes for other people, so why did I receive this Lands' End Kids catalog? The timing is not bad -- Back to School shopping season is approaching, as is fall -- but the use of their in-house mailing list and big data is questionable. Why target someone who does not have children and has not purchased anything for children from their company?

Or perhaps the Lands' End database knows something I don't. Perhaps I'd better check in with my ex-wife.

6/10/2013

Amica, Allstate, Wal-Mart: Bad timing on car insurance mail

I received at home mailers for auto insurance last Friday, May 23, from three different insurers. This is a Fail for Timing, albeit an accidental one. What is not accidental is that the mail arrived close to a holiday weekend. Consumers are far less likely to read mail related to low-interest categories on the business day prior to or just after a major holiday. They are more focused on, well, the holiday – traveling, hosting, or just taking a couple days off from the rat race. This is not exactly a typical time to think about saving on your car insurance.

 The three packages I received vary in their approach. Amica uses a conventional solo mail letter, with an easy-to-read Johnson Box that appears through the envelope, an official-looking savings card that reinforces a call to action, a sidebar that summarizes the benefit, smooth flow, and good use of boldface subheads and underlines. The call to action is reinforced several times, with a message of exclusivity in the closing and signator. Finally, the letter includes a postscript that reinforces the call to action and benefit. And, just to top things off, a buckslip is included that communicates popularity along with a reinforcement of benefit and call to action. Richard Benson would be proud.























6/09/2013

Not So Free Parking at Newark Airport



Solicitation email

This email offering a free day of parking is a Fail for Creative

The email subject line reads “Get 1 Day Free at EWR & JFK”. The content of the email also touts enjoying “1 day of free parking at Newark Liberty & JFK airports!” It is not until the reader prints the coupon that he or she discovers that the free day has strings attached. The customer must park at the airport for 3 or 5 days to obtain the benefit of the free day.

Coupons with conditions
Ideally, the headline of the email should include the contingency of the offer, i.e., “Get 1 Day Free at EWR & JFK when you park 5 days.” If not, then the body of the email should include an adequate disclosure or at least reference the contingency of the offer, i.e., “See coupon for details and conditions,” “Minimum parking stay required,” or a similar message. But, even in the fine print, this email does not include a mention of the minimum parking requirement.

When a business sends offers where the conditions are not clearly communicated, it not only degrades customer trust and brand equity, it is often a violation of Federal Trade Commission rules.

Lesson: When presenting an offer, communicate the requirements for your customers to benefit from the offer upfront and clearly.

Fine print - no mention of minimum parking requirement


4/15/2013

Tax Day Fail for Turbo Tax & Wells Fargo



Postmarked 4/8/13, arrives on Tax Day

My monthly Wells Fargo statement included an advertisement for TurboTax. The offer is mentioned only on the outer envelope, not in any inserts. The fine print mentions that the offer is valid only through April 15, 2013. The Fail is that the envelope was mailed on April 8 and arrived in my mailbox only today. Having a response window of only one day is a Fail for Timing.
The copy on the back of the envelope could also use a few touch-ups:
  • The phone number shown includes both a vanity number and the actual digits.  Communicating a vanity phone number can be useful in mass media or social media -- where the customer is expected to memorize it before dialing -- but on a static medium such as paper or email it is not necessary. Listing both the vanity and non-vanity number is a distraction.
  • This phone number is oddly capitalized. ‘WFB’ is in all-caps but ‘Open’ is not. This makes it a bit more difficult to read.
  • The use of periods at the end of statements is inconsistent. The headline does not include a period. The first statement in the call to action includes a period at the end of the URL. However, the last sentence on the second line is missing a period after the date.
 Lessons:
  1. Give customers an adequate amount of time to respond to your offer.
  2. When communicating an offer by mail or email, provide the actual phone number rather than some vanity number.
  3. Proofread even the small print.

2/19/2013

AAA Should Stay on the Road



Your ship has come in!

I received this email from AAA promoting Cruise Month while watching the CNN helicopter circle the Carnival Triumph being towed to shore. This is a classic Fail for Timing. Consumers are far less likely to consider going on a cruise when there are scenes on every televised newscast of people sleeping on mattresses above deck and feces on ceilings.

Unlike direct mail, which has a significant lead time between when something is mailed and when something can be received, email is instantaneous. The marketing people at AAA could easily have had the email held for a few days -- or at least until Fox News moved on to a different topic. 

Lesson: Do a final check before every direct marketing effort to ensure that your product and offer are appropriate. Do not send a marketing offer for a product category when there is a high volume bad press about it. #cruisefromhell

1/16/2013

Chase: Control Evolution

When a direct mail marketer takes a successful direct mail package and tweaks it, it is often referred to as "Control Evolution". This is often executed one of three ways:

1.       The nature of the offer has changed but the marketer chooses to retain the creative package. Same creative style, same package, new offer.

2.       The new package goes through an A/B test compared to the existing Control. The winner is the new Control.

3.       The marketer chooses to make changes but does not test against it.
In the case of this self-mailer I received from Chase, it appears that approach #2 or #3 applied -- with some notable changes compared to the solicitation package I received from Chase last summer:

1/13/2013

Amazon gets ahead of itself

This email from Amazon arrived in the Inbox of a fan on January 7 at 3:18 am, 17 hours before the BCS Championship game celebrating Alabama as the BCS winner:
I guess the Fighting Irish not only had to beat the Crimson Tide, they had to overcome Amazon’s prediction.  Amazon could have waited until the game to end, then send out this type of email a few seconds after the Alabama head coach gets Gatorade poured over him.
Props to Amazon for recognizing their Fail for Timing and sending this apology a few hours later: 



Still, I wonder if the folks in Seattle are right now producing hats reading "Atlanta Falcons - Super Bowl XLVII Champions" and readying those solicitation emails.
Lesson: Be careful when sending opportunistic time-based offers.

Salesforce is so last year

This email from Salesforce.com inviting corporate customers to visit them at CES last week has the incorrect year in the headline graphic.

Some people forget to write the correct year on their checks, others in their marketing communications.



Lesson: Proof every element of your direct marketing communication. 

11/27/2012

Facebook sends email at the worst time, perhaps on purpose



DirectMarketing guru Bob Stone once said, “Once JCPenney has its first Christmas Sale, you are done for the year except for giving gifts and charity.” Back then, JCPenney actually had sales and, when he said that, JCPenney’s first sale was typically around November 7. 

A separate direct marketing conventional wisdom is that sending marketing communications too close to a holiday dilutes the likelihood that a customer will read it.  Consumers are focused on preparing to travel or host people -- or perhaps a holiday event -- to read what you send.  And when they return, they are focused on digging through the most important email (or snail mail) to read marketing communications.

These two things intersect when considering that Facebook recently sent this notification of a change in privacy policy to its users at around 11:12 pm on the day before Thanksgiving. That would be a Fail for Timing.

Or perhaps they did not want many to read it – the email was a notice of a change in terms that are not favorable to Facebook's users. Some people have interpreted this change to mean they have to declare their postings off limits while sharing with hundreds of friends, leading to explanations on Snopes and news sites

Lesson: If you want people to read your email, avoid sending it too close to a holiday. If you do not want people to read your email, time it to arrive close to a holiday.