Boston based bank, Mercantile Bank, advertising and marketing case study.

Project Review and Analysis

Project: Market & Manage New Branch Promotion.

Client: Mercantile Bank, Boston, MA

Overview

A few months after beginning our work for our new client, Mercantile Bank, Roster Associates was charged with promoting a new office in Brighton, MA.

The branch is located on a main urban thoroughfare at 423 Washington Street in Brighton. A specific, limited marketing budget was designated. This obviated the full, multi-channel marketing campaign originally discussed. But fresh from two successful grand openings for South Shore Cooperative Bank, we were confident we could meet the bank's goals.

The Marketplace

Brighton is one-half of the Allston-Brighton neighborhood, one of many specific communities within Boston, most of which have their own developmental and promotional entities. The combined population is about 70,000, 40,000 of whom are Brighton residents. The area is home to long-time family residents, young professionals, and college students (primarily graduate students). While the majority is caucasian, American citizens there are significant minority groups in Brighton. These include Russian immigrants, Hispanics, and Asians.

There are many competing bank offices in the same area, including one across Washington Street (Citizen's), plus two others in Brighton, another a few blocks away (Fleet) and the dominant local bank, Peoples Federal Savings Bank on the next corner.

We supplemented the bank's new branch feasibility study with Roster market research, and data provided by the aforementioned neighborhood development groups.

The Challenges

Mass advertising was eliminated as too costly, impractical and wasteful to market to a small geographic area. Our target(s) had to be precise.

In addition to promoting a very specific event (grand opening) in an exact time frame, we were faced with simultaneously branding yet another bank with with near-zero recognition in Brighton. (The main office is located across from Fenway Park, but did little marketing. The only publicity the bank had received in recent years was negative: alleged malfeasance of founding directors).

Another challenge was the branch office itself. (A former bank). Ugly place. The front is a continuous, sweeping curve of glass matched with a curving interior back wall. It induced a feeling of vertigo, a tough place to welcome new visitors.

Strategies

A six-part strategic marketing
campaign was developed:

1. Point-of-Sale design

2. Local print advertising

3. Direct mail

4. Guerrilla marketing

5. Public relations

6. Continual branding

1. P.O.S. Design.

While still under reconstruction, we worked with the bank and its contractor for signage and displays, including six-foot window signs, to help neutralize or at least minimize the dizzying effect of the architecture.

2. Advertising.

Print advertising was mainly placed in the weekly broadsheet, the Allston-Brighton Tab. Supplemental display ads appeared in two foreign language tabloids. The print campaign began with teaser ads, followed by simple branding messages, then ads that introduced the positioning line, "A Real Community Bank", and finally, that grand opening announcement.

3. Direct Marketing.

Coincidental with the grand opening ads, a DM postcard with an attractive CD offer was sent via selected carrier routes to residents within a two mile radius (students were not specifically targeted). A month later, after analysis of the DM drop and some merge-purge work, a second DM list of owner-occupied residences was established. The offer this time was a home equity loan. And while we are generally opposed to featuring client personnel in any marketing, a secondary message on the postcard highlighted three persons. Each had worked at another nearby bank and presumably had a recognition factor and, it was hoped, a following.

4. Guerrilla Marketing.

Without a substantial budget and faced with promoting a virtually unknown bank, we made the creation of word-of-mouth an essential marketing ingredient. Some traditional models were employed, such as cross promotions with area businesses. We met with and were assisted by the Main Streets association, which promotes commercial districts in Allston-Brighton. (Each of the major Boston neighborhoods has a Main Streets component).

Directly across the street from the new Mercantile office is a Boston Public Library branch. We designed a series of bookmarks which were distributed at the library,providing us with a penetration into brighton's literate residents.

To achieve the goal of generating immediate street "buzz", we partnered with a local florist. Fresh flowers were delivered to the Mercantile branch each day during the promotional period. A single flower, together with a "Thank you for visiting our new office" handout, was given to every visitor, women and men.

An indicator of how well the "buzz"-factor worked was a scene we observed frequently: a visitor would come into the branch–perhaps through mild curiosity, or to get some popcorn or snacks–and leave with a long-stemmed flower. She would then walk across the street (to Citizen's) or up the block (to Peoples Federal Savings) to her primary financial institution, carrying her fresh flower and a Mercantile Bank handout.

5. Public Relations.

Through a series of releases, a background press kit, andphotographs, we steadily appeared in The Tab, The Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and the Main Streets newsletter, among other publications.

6. Continual Branding.

Seizing the momentum of the grand opening campaign, a series of branding display ads (personal and commercial banking) followed for the next few months, mainly in The Tab.

Anecdotal and Empirical Review

The new depositors count at the branch was in line with expectations. Loans were below stated general goals, but it was felt that a steady increase over the coming weeks would meet the objective. A significant number of certificates of deposit were written.

Both Mercantile president, Jack Doyle and new branch manager, Thom McLaughlin pronounced the grand opening a true success and that Mercantile Bank had become a player in Brighton.

Roster Associates: November 8, 2006

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