Press
Data-driven marketing takes a personal approach
New MARQUIS Program Quantifies the Value of Credit Union Membership
(November 12, 2013) — For more than 100 years, credit unions have touted the benefits they offer their members, promising to help them save money on loans and earn more on their savings accounts. Now they can prove the value of membership, with an innovative program recently rolled out by MARQUIS of Plano, TX.
The program, called a Member Value Statement, generates specific dollar amounts for each member, showing the relative value of their credit union products compared to similar products at other financial institutions. Other companies have attempted this type of analysis on an institutional level, providing generalizations that might show the average savings for an auto loan, for instance. The MARQUIS program is more granular, allowing each member to see exactly how much benefit they gain from their unique combination of accounts.
Wright-Patt Credit Union in Fairborn, Ohio, was the first institution to run the analysis and implement a direct mail campaign. Vice President of Marketing & Business Development, Tracy Fors, recognized the power of the campaign early on. “We had used other sources of information in the past to convey the message to our membership at a collective level that we really are here to help them keep more their hard-earned money,” she explains. “But this really helped bring the message home by quantifying the savings at the individual member level. Here’s exactly how much we saved you. And if you use your credit union more, you can save even more. Most people are not going to ignore that type of compelling information.”
The credit union quickly saw results. “We had a huge increase in attendance at our annual meeting shortly after the Member Report Cards were mailed,” says Fors, “and many of the attendees told us they were there because they had received the Member Report Card and wanted to learn about more ways they could save by using their credit union. Within the first 90 days of the mailing, we were able to attribute approximately $50 million in new relationships as a result of this project.”
Further details are available from the MARQUIS website at www.gomarquis.com or by emailing Tony Rizzo, Creative Director, at TonyR@gomarquis.com.
MARQUIS is the largest provider of MCIF/CRM solutions to financial institutions worldwide, with a long-standing reputation for excellence. The company’s creative division ranks among the fastest-growing creative agencies in the country.