Banks and promotional products, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I—OK, maybe that’s a bit juvenile. Our apologies if we stirred up any repressed memories of that time in sixth grade when everyone found out about your crush on Suzie Thompkins and totally ruined your life. (Our classmates were so mean.)
What we were attempting to illustrate with the above jingle is this: Banks, perhaps more than any other industry, have made promotional products an integral part of their marketing strategy. They’ve hitched their proverbial Wells Fargo wagon to logoed products as a primary means of spreading brand awareness—and judging by the 14 Bank of America pens we have around the office and our sudden urge to open a money-market account, it’s working.
That’s a good thing for distributors, but it also presents some challenges. Banks know what they want, and with larger chains in particular, it can be difficult to get a foot in the door. But we’re here to help with a list of tips from the experts, cherry-picked from past issues of Promo Marketing and Print Professional, and that will have you selling to banks faster than you can spell “K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
On Direct Mail
“I have a customer, a bank in Cape May County, New Jersey, that was looking to target businesses in its space for business banking and lending. We came up with a custom-printed box mailer. Inside the box went a custom pail and a lid from, a one-pound bag of local saltwater taffy and a totally customized postcard. The post card was personalized, so it would say ‘Dear Joe Smith’ on it and not just ‘dear generic customer.’ And at the bottom, where the digitized signature was, was the person’s name from the bank who was going to be calling them. So, Joe Smith got this package, and it was signed by Lana, so Lana is the person that was going to be calling Joe Smith.
“We assembled the box, put the pail in, the taffy in, the lid on top, then this personalized postcard. They were all packaged in shrink-wrap and mailed. We mailed 250, they got appointments with 150 of them. It was tremendous. The whole thing only cost them like 30 bucks a unit.”
– Derek Miller, principal of ProPrinters, Trenton, N.J. From “My Best Promotion,” Promo Marketing, October 2012.
Uniforms
“Take a couple of styles in to have the associates look and feel the fabric. If they feel good about the selection process, then they will feel great about wearing them to work.”
– Taraynn Lloyd, marketing director for Edwards Garment, Kalamazoo, Mich. From “Befriending the Bank: Pitches, products and plans to make the sale with banks and other financial businesses,” Promo Marketing, October 2011.
Cater to Corporate Identity
“Corporate identity is fundamental marketing for banks. Any time they have a meeting everyone should have a logoed beverage container (cup, mug, water bottle), logoed note pad, logoed pen, etc. A bank is more than a financial store—it is a consultant-type business and strong corporate identity helps customers trust their bankers.”
– Gregg Emmer, vice president and chief marketing officerfor Kaeser & Blair Inc., Batavia, Ohio. From “Take it to the Bank: Seven sales tips to help you sell to financial institutions,” Promo Marketing, October 2010.
The Value of Research
“Distributors new to the market need to understand there is a separation between a bank and a credit union. They are two different channels. For example, banks have customers who use personal checks, while credit unions have members who utilize share drafts. If a distributor goes into a credit union and starts using bank language, it could be very embarrassing.”
– Jim Staricha, national sales manager for Northstar, a division of Ennis located in Brooklyn Park, Minn. From “It Pays to Serve the Financial Market: Customer need and supplier innovation converge with profitable results for distributors,” Print Professional, November 2005.
Crayons
“Banks use crayons as incentive gifts. A child comes in and deposits 10 dollars in his or her savings account, they get a new crayon with the bank’s logo printed on it. It’s enticing the child to continue to save money to get another crayon gift.”
– Josh Goodelman, vice president of Liqui-Mark Corp., Hauppauge, N.Y. From “Ways to Play: Sorting through the variety of game and toy items,” Promo Marketing, June 2011.
A Case Study
“The Five-in-one Spoon was used in a bank throughout several branch locations. The bank bought the 5-in-1 spoon and put two of our measuring spoons together, so you had every kind of amount up from a quarter teaspoon to a tablespoon in this set of two. The imprint was ‘banking beyond measure,’ and it was kind of a rebranding of these retail branch locations that were located in grocery stores. So it tied in very well to the geography of the land, so to speak, where [the customers] were, and of course to the bank. I believe over 30,000 sets were handed out over a weekend through half-a-dozen locations, so it was pretty successful in getting their rebranding out.”
– Steven Meyer, MAS, vice president of sales for Molenaar LLC, Willmar, Minn. From “The Joy of (Promotional) Cooking: The products you need to keep serving up sales with cooking and kitchen items,” Promo Marketing, December 2011.
