The Corporate Logo

by John Yuva

Within the financial industry there are many different financial institutions ranging from national commercial banks, savings and loans, credit unions, and securities. All of these institutions provide various services to its members and customers to keep their investments safe, sound and growing. But they also provide promotional product suppliers with a wealth of business opportunities.

Between each of these institutions, competition exists to attract new customers through expansion and increased services. For instance, in 1996 there were 9,586 commercial banks in the United States with a combined holding of nearly $4.5 trillion in assets. From those banks emerged 57,000 branches to service customers in various parts of the country.

The competition between commercial banks is evident by the everyday consumer who walks into their local grocery store only to see checkout lanes on one side and a bank branch on the other. Banks also have increased their hours to service more customers throughout the week and on weekends. The new banking trends provide people with better convenience to stop at their bank more often, while at the same time allowing banks to create promotions to attract customers into using additional services.

Credit Unions are another financial institution competing for more members. In 1997 there were 11,629 credit unions in the United States, with 4,100 holding assets in excess of $10 million. While credit unions are a non-profit financial institution owned by its members, they still serve 70 million Americans.

Credit unions, however, are chartered federally or by the state with members who belong to organizations specified in the charter. Organizations may include specific employers, associations or residences. Competition exists within this institution to increase the number of organizations who can belong to a credit union to create greater liquidity. From a promotional perspective, the greater the number of organizations belonging to a credit union, the broader promotions may be to serve its various organizations.

Another large group in the financial arena are security brokers, dealers and flotation companies. In 1995 there were 981 companies with 429,900 employees with revenues of $176.26 billion. The stock markets in 1995 rose 36 percent from the previous year reaching 400 million daily shares on the National Association of Securities Dealers' Automated Quotations System (NASDAQ). The market is expected to remain healthy through the remainder of the 1990s based on economic and demographic trends.

The popularity of promotional products within a number of industries, including the financial market, is evident from many creative programs that have been done for the industry. The challenge to distributors selling to the financial industry is understanding the relationship between an institution and its members or customers. Recognizing the financial services and the benefits of those services to the customer will ultimately lead to a promotional item profiting both sides. In some cases, institutions will use different means of deciding what type of item will best suit a promotion.

Many banking institutions have several branches throughout the country that rely on promotional products as a part of its marketing efforts. Pat Herm, buyer/supply purchasing for Minneapolis-based Norwest Bank, says promotional products are one of many vehicles utilized in promoting the bank's image and are highly successful. However, while all the branches for Norwest use promotional products, the corporate headquarters does not regulate promotions for each of the branches.

"We are a very decentralized organization with many promotions being organized directly at the banking or financial branch," she says. "There is no promotion's fund set aside to finance promotions for all the branches. Each branch handles its own promotions."

Herm explains that catalog ordering is the primary means of choosing items for a promotion. In fact, the merchandise catalog is used by employees at all levels.

"It's a corporate merchandise catalog that employees can use to order Norwest items for their customers, their families or themselves, as well as for recognition programs," says Herm. "However, promotional products are more generally given to customers as a way of conveying our name and image."

With several items available in the catalog, Herm explains that there is a definite emphasis on wearables to generate name recognition. She says wearables are utilized primarily by Norwest employees to wear on casual days.

"It's very common now as the workforce has become more casual for a facility to request that its employees wear logoed Norwest apparel on casual days," explains Herm. "In almost every Norwest branch I have walked into, the employees are wearing Norwest logoed product."

For companies such as Chicago-based Everen Clearing Corp., which provides clearing and execution of securities transactions, matching a promotional product with the heart and soul of the company makes for an effective promotion. Edmond Orr Jr., vice president of correspondence services, says promotional items are effective supplements to an overall marketing campaign.

"We use promotional items that support a business to business relationship, rather than a business to consumer one," says Orr. "We have a very targeted audience that allows us to use a higher-end product as opposed to other companies restricted to low-end items because they're sending them out to the masses."

Orr explains that Everen Clearing Corp. held a direct-mail campaign using three information pieces and one promotional item. The item was a Swiss Army™ Knife with the Everen logo on it that represented versatility, adaptability and resourcefulness. What makes this promotion unique is the double meaning behind the Swiss army knife. It not only represents the qualities of the item, but of the company as well.

While a commercial bank utilizes promotional items to create name recognition and attract new customers, and a securities company targets potential business clients, a credit union rewards existing members and attracts new ones from target organizations.

Marty Glenn, marketing services supervisor, for the Phoenix-based Desert Schools Federal Credit Union, says the company uses a variety of promotional items including pens, Post-it® Notes, name tags, shopping bags, shirts and children's stickers. He says the credit union orders approximately 150,000 Post-it® Notes every year, as well as 80,000 pocket calculators.

"We try to stay away from the bigger dollar promotions unless they're related to a loan promotion or new accounts promotion," Glenn explains. "We found that our members would rather have a better rate than a promotional item, therefore, we stay in the lower dollar amount where it doesn't impact the price of the product to have the promotion."

Glenn says many promotional items are utilized by the business development department at Desert Schools which receives requests from schools and employee groups conducting seminars, conventions or events for "goody bags" to use as giveaways.

"School employees may join the credit union while other employees of other groups cannot, so we'll give away Post-it® Notes to the schools," says Glenn. "From that one item our name and number is on just about every teachers' desk throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. Most school districts will not purchase Post-it® Notes because they're too expensive, unless teachers buy them from their personal fund, so they're happy to have them."

Glenn adds that Desert Schools uses the same distributors on a consistent basis, which stems from developing a relationship over the years and receiving reasonable prices.

A consistent relationship also exists between distributors and suppliers. Suppliers often find themselves producing items for the same distributor. In some cases an outside company will continue using the same promotional item creating a long-term relationship between all three parties.

The Stamford, Conn.-based Communications Design Group Inc. has worked extensively with the same distributor producing phone cards for Price Waterhouse, a financial consultant firm. Roberta Strom, sales associate for Communications Design Group, says the phone card promotions have been successful for all parties.

"We have done eight phone card promotions for Price Waterhouse, which uses them primarily for trade shows and conferences," Strom says. "The phone cards have been so successful that we produced seven different cards from seven divisions in Price Waterhouse for one order."

Strom explains financial institutions, especially banks, will use phone cards to entice customers to open a checking or savings account, apply for a loan or place in a folder for a shareholders meeting. A phone card is not only a product that everybody can use, but people enjoy receiving free phone time.

"A phone card is a mini-billboard that has the client's logo on 100 percent of the face of the card," Strom explains. "It's the same size as a credit card, which makes it a very easy item to carry. And many phone cards are rechargeable allowing the promotion to live on."

A company with similar success providing phone cards to the financial industry is Los Angeles-based SmarTalk Promotions. The company has worked with as many as 22 banking institutions over the last three years on a variety of promotions ranging from customer appreciation, new service introductions, employee rewards, shareholders meetings and grand openings, according to Jonathon Slater, president of SmartTalk Promotions.

"One of the most successful phone card promotions was with Wells Fargo Bank where two 60-minute phone cards were given to an existing customer and a referral," says Slater. "The 'Refer A Friend Program' says to their existing customer base, bring in another customer and both of you will receive an hour of phone time and be entered in a sweepstakes to win a 100-hour phone card. As a result, Wells Fargo increased their sales by 50 percent over their expectations."

While phone cards are becoming a widely used promotional item for financial institutions, companies such as Portland, Ore.-based Money Mania are supplying distributors with paper products straight from the bank vault. John Davis, vice president, says 90 percent of the company's business is from the financial industry.

"Our $1 million dollar bills are very popular as well as our chocolate money," says Davis. "The $1 million dollar bills are used for recognition of million dollar achievements and as business cards to hand out. The chocolate money is primarily left behind for customers."

Davis explains that financial institutions recognize the value of paper money and the longevity the item has for staying in front of the customer because of its novelty appeal. The attraction to money provides a need in the market place that Money Mania is striving to fill.

Similar to suppliers, distributors also are recognizing the promotional needs of financial institutions. With financial promotions becoming centrally focused to a particular theme, the industry is spending more money on promotional items to ensure quality and a lasting impression with the customer.

Joe Setton, president of the New York-based Frank N. Abate & Associates Inc., says 60 percent of his company's business is attributed to the financial market. Setton attributes this in part to many financial companies spending more dollars on promotions because of the competition for market share within the industry.

"Financial companies are becoming more creative in what promotional products they use for a promotion," says Setton. "They're are looking for products beyond the industry staples.

"We have a mouse pad in imitation leather that we sold to a financial institution for their direct-mail campaign that proved very successful," adds Setton. "They claimed it increased their response rate by 40 percent."

Jon Spetrino, co-owner of the Wilmington, N.C.-based Daztech Promotions Inc., agrees that financial institutions are putting their money where their mouths are with increased promotional product spending. The value of financial customers outweighs the cost of the promotion in the eyes of many institutions.

"Like any other company the budget goes up and down through the year, so financial companies hold out on big promotions until the right time of the year where they feel there will be a big turn-out of customers," says Spetrino. "Promotional products can play a key role in their advertising efforts."

Spetrino says the financial industry prefers a number of products including phone cards, T-shirts, golf items, tools, key chains and even model airplanes that are given away at trade shows, conferences and customer appreciation days.

"A financial institution once had a specific theme using a model WWII B-52 Mustang fighter plane with its logo on it to convey the message 'Flying Above Everything Else,'" says Spetrino. "It has been a delight working with financial companies."

The promotional objectives for many financial institutions is spending more for unique products that generates an overall message about the company, the promotion and the product. The challenge to distributors is meeting those objectives in a unique fashion that keeps the client coming back for more.

While every industry has similar objectives, not all use promotional items on a consistent basis. Making a good impression the first time will bring business back when the next promotion arrives, despite being several weeks or months away.

Tim Sheridan, president of the Chicago-based Adventures In Advertising/Windy City, explains financial institutions are trying to promote an intangible product, while the distributor is providing a tangible product to keep the company's name in front of its customers.

"When I'm working with a client the objective is not only to come up with an item, but decide on an item that really fulfills the client's objective or desire," says Sheridan. "Understanding who the end user is and what the objective is of the promotion will enable the distributor to select an item that promotes that."

Sheridan says the popularity in wearables has prompted many corporations, including institutions, to wear logoed apparel. Company employees and customers are no longer afraid to wear logoed merchandise because of the improvement in the quality of these items over the past years.

"A quality shirt will project quality and stability in their business," he says. "Companies want to offer products to their customers that when they walk away with it in their hand, the item will carry their name forward. Companies are recognizing this fact, so they're spending more thought power to find the best item beforehand to make sure it's the right item and a quality item that is produced well."

With several promotional products that appeal to the financial market, some distributors are recognizing an emerging trend with many financial corporations. With 30 years selling experience to banking and mortgage companies, Phil Hoose, director of sales for South Bend, Ind.-based Carleton Inc. says there is a split between financial institutions on the importance of using promotional items.

"The newer banks are looking at promotional items as an unnecessary expense, so if they bought 100 last year they may only buy 50 this year," says Hoose. "Many of the older banking institutions view promotional products as a necessary means of generating name recognition."

One thing is clear, however, even though financial institutions' services and functions run the gamut, many promotional product suppliers are banking on high returns.