Hello, moneyquest-ga!
I must thank you for your patience while I worked on your question!
While I initially thought that the search would be quite
straightfoward, I ended up following numerous pathways and rabbit
trails that brought up intriquing, and I hope useful, bits of
information.
There are so many components to your question that I could have gone
on for days :) Each segment is a question in itself. I tried to cover
all the bases as best I could without the risk of losing you in pages
of information and websites.
If I have neglected anything that is critical, please let me know. I
hope the following references prove helpful.
=================
SALES AID DESIGN
==================
"15 Design Truths." Blair Marketing Bulletin
http://www.blair-inc.com/?n=30
Examples of Print Collateral from Blair Designs:
"As sales brochures go, this one has it all. It’s colorful, elegant
and incredibly informative."
http://www.blair-inc.com/?c=89&j=200
"The image of your company and integrity of the service you provide
speaks volumes."
http://www.blair-inc.com/?c=89&j=113
Examples of Corporate Identity Packages from Blair Designs:
http://www.blair-inc.com/?c=96
========
"Your New Brand Image," by Glenda Shasho Jones. Catalog Age. (July 1,
2000)
http://catalogagemag.com/ar/marketing_new_brand_image/
"Regardless of whether you are communicating in print, in a store, or
in a digital format, your customers expect to receive the same brand
message."
....
"How do you effectively translate the branding elements you've built
in one medium to another? Bricks, clicks, and paper are each a
different experience. They each require different shopping and buying
behavior on the part of the consumer. And they certainly require
different creative strategies on the part of the marketer."
(Read on for design strategies
========
Discover Card Print Advertising Highlights:
http://www.discovercard.com/discover/data/about/advertising/
"Our print campaign continues to highlight the growing number of
places where Discover Card is accepted. You may have seen "Sephora" or
"FTD.COM" in national publications like People and "O" the Oprah
Magazine, or while riding the subway or bus or walking around town.
Keep your eyes open for more advertisements coming soon."
Larger images of print ads:
FTD.com
http://www.discovercard.com/discover/data/about/advertising/ftd.pdf
Sephora
http://www.discovercard.com/discover/data/about/advertising/sephora.pdf
=============================
AWARD-WINNING PRINT/BROCHURES
==============================
Life Communicators Association Awards Competition Winners:
http://www.lcaonline.org/awards/awrds02.html
( Click on each category of interest for a link to the winners )
Prospect Sales Promotion
http://www.lcaonline.org/awards/awrds02-e.html#e-3
Prospect Sales Brochure
Best of Show: "Intelligent Choice Brochure" - Berkshire Life Ins.
Co. of
America
Direct Mail to Prospect
Best of Show: "Reach for your College Funding Goals" - USAA Life
Insurance
Co
Financial Service Products:
http://www.lcaonline.org/awards/awrds02-h.html
H-1 401(k), 403(b) & RRSP Materials
Best of Show: TIAA-Cref
Mutual Funds Materials
Best of Show: Advantus IRA Brochure
Advertising:
http://www.lcaonline.org/awards/awrds02-a.html#a-2
Consumer Advertising
Best of show: MassMutual Financial Group
Trade Advertising:
Best of show: Ameritas Life Ins. Corp.
====================================
SUCCESSFUL BRAND IMAGING/ADVERTISING
====================================
"Reuters Launches New Brand Advertising Campaign to Penetrate Online
Private Investor Market." News Release (March 2000).
http://about.reuters.com/newsreleases/art_22-3-2000_id73.asp
"It attracts attention through some captivating and intriguing
images, which lead to a question such as "Who provides the information
to the world’s leading online brokerages?" The answer in each case is
"Reuters. Behind Every Decision." It features double-and single-page
ads, partly in colour."
========
"Hidden Brand Identity." Branding, eMarketing, Internet Marketing
through a new concept. Act on Vision.
http://www.actonvision.com/internet_branding/branding.html
Highlights the successful brand identity of several products and the
"branding formula" that is behind the success."
========
"VMS EVOLVES BRAND IMAGE." Press Release (10/2001)
http://www.vmsinfo.com/pdf/pressreleasebranding.pdf
"Central to VMS’ re-branding effort is a newly designed corporate
logo, characterized by a keen eye gazing forward intently, and a
significantly expanded offering of strategic products and services."
"We’re confident that our new image will help compel businesses --
especially those who have come to rely on us over the years -- to take
a closer look at the vast resources we now offer, such as the ability
to monitor and evaluate news and advertising in print and on the
Internet,in addition to the airwaves."
========
"Watermark logo enhances brand image of company," By Jan Gottesman.
Houston Business Journal. (1999)
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/1999/08/09/focus8.html
"For most companies, image is communicated any number of ways: a great
logo, thoughtful advertising, impeccable service or products made with
the best materials using the best designs. Brand images can also be
projected through high-end collateral, including top-quality
letterhead with custom watermarks."
"The watermark also conveys the subtle message that a company pays
attention to detail. Highly successful companies such as Coca-Cola and
Visa use their watermarked sheets for everything from letterhead,
business proposals and business plans to press releases, newsletters
and product sales sheets. Each of these extends their brand identities
to their customers, the media or anyone else reading their materials."
"The decision to use a watermarked sheet - however it is used - has
become almost universal among the best brands. Graphic designers have
been recommending watermarks to their clients for years and the trend
toward brand building doesn't show any signs of slowing soon."
========
"MULTICHANNEL MARKETING: Keeping the brand consistent," by David
Christenson, Carol Worthington & Rhonda Cohen. Catalog Age, (Mar 1,
2000)
http://catalogagemag.com/ar/marketing_multichannel_marketing_keeping/
"It's often said that you can't really call someone a customer until
she has ordered from you the second time. To bring your customer back,
you need to please her with regard to service, quality, integrity, and
so on. You also need to offer a real impression of who you are, so
that your customer remembers you and feels good about visiting you
again. This is where brand speaks the loudest."
========
"Customer Experience Meets Online Marketing at Brand Central Station,"
by by Jim Sterne. (8/2002)
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/print/002890.php
Excellent article about designing a website that portrays your brand
and reels in the customer.
"There are only a few touch points where a company can exercise any
serious control over that brand-building series of customer
interactions: the advertisement, the marketing materials, the
packaging, the product itself, and the web."
=======================================
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP AND BRAND LOYALTY
=======================================
"The Missing Link: CRM and the Brand." by James Hipkin. CRMguru.com
(Mar/2002)
http://www.crmguru.com/features/2002a/0328jh.html
"This article explores how marketers can maximize CRM investments
through the missing link, the power of branding. It will examine how
CRM tools can be used to build longer, stronger, and more profitable
alliances between customers and brands."
....
"For the marketer who sees CRM as a branding tool, every interaction
with a customer becomes a branding opportunity - or a branding risk.
Whether it's on a telephone help line, an e-mail alert, or an
ill-informed salesperson at retail, each interaction is an opportunity
to either reinforce or degrade the brand promise. Understanding this
opportunity (or risk) is critical for a successful CRM strategy. After
the brand promise has been introduced, it must be reinforced and
nurtured across channels, media, and throughout all phases of the
consumers' brand experience."
(The different phases of customer interest are important to identify
and latch on to..)
"After the purchase, customers want to hear from the brands they
choose to do business with. They want confirmation that they have made
a good decision and that their business is valued. Marketers who have
embraced CRM are well positioned to take advantage of the Connection
Phase; they simply need to talk to the customers and deliver relevant
information to create a connection that will initiate a relationship
between the customer and the brand."
Read more...
========
The following articles are from the Blair Inc. Marketing Bulletin:
"Five Ways to Keep Key Customers."
http://www.blair-inc.com/?n=49
"The Art of Inquiry Follow Up."
http://www.blair-inc.com/?n=32
========
"Mobitor Develops Mobile Solutions That Help Salespeople Create and
Nurture Deeper Relationships With Their Customers While At The Same
Time Improving Their Organizational Effectiveness.
http://www.mobitor.com/vision01.html
"While other industries have focused on improving customer service and
customer relationships, financial services companies are experiencing
a trend towards commodity pricing and decreasing customer loyalty as a
result of many initiatives that have distanced themselves from their
customers."
"According to Gartner, the financial services industry has focused on
product creation and largely ignored distribution and sales
strategies. This focus on product creation and limitations of existing
technology has forced them to compete by the rules established by the
online start-ups: low-prices and self-service. Only by shifting their
focus to having more interaction with customers can Financial services
companies expect to strengthen brand loyalty and re-establish value
pricing."
"Accordingly, many companies are beginning to focus on the quality of
their brand message and it's consistency as well as their sales
activities, with "improving sales effectiveness" as the top priority."
=================================
WRITING SUCCESSFUL SALES LETTERS
=================================
"Sales Letters that Sell,"by Debra Kahn Schofield. The Weekly
Guerilla.
http://www.gmarketing.com/tactics/weekly_105.html
=======
"Structure of a Great Sales Letter," by James Driscoll. SalesDoctors
Magazine
(January 1999)
http://www.inc.com/articles/1999/01/14544.html
=======
"Sales Letter, Not Announcement," by Sonny Bliss. Bizine.
http://www.bizine.com/saleltr2.htm
======
"The Perfect Pitch = 7 tips for writing dynamic sales letters," by
Cynthia Perun. Business Start-Ups magazine (January 1998)
http://www.entrepreneur.com/Your_Business/YB_SegArticle/1,4621,227929,00.html
" Be the customer as you write. This is the most important aspect of a
good sales letter, but it's often overlooked. Imagine yourself as the
reader of your letter, and write what the customer wants to know--not
what you want to say."
"You have one page to attract a customer; you'll lose the opportunity
if your sole emphasis is on your business. Remember, your customer's
main concern is fulfilling his or her needs and desires, not
increasing the balance in your bank account."
========
"The Secrets Of Million Dollar Sales Letters." From Beginner Guide to
Small and Home-Based Businesses. (2001)
http://beginnerguides.com/pages/secrets_of_million_dollar_sales_.php
Excerpt:
"Regardless of what you're trying to sell, you really can't sell it
without "talking" with your prospective buyer. An in attempting to
sell anything by mail, the sales letter you send out is when and how
you talk to your prospect.
"All winning sales letters "talk" to the prospect by creating an image
in the mind of the reader. They set "the scene" by appealing to a
desire or need; and then they flow smoothly into the "visionary" part
of the sales pitch by describing in detail how "wonderful" life will
be and, how "good" the prospect is going to fee after he's purchased
your product. This is the "body or guts" of a sales letter."
=========================
CUSTOMER SERVICE LETTERS
=========================
"The Technology Gap: Part II." Grokdot.com. (9/2001)
http://www.grokdotcom.com/techgap2.htm
A humorous and legitimate gripe about customer service letters that
are impersonal and aggravating to the customer.
Points made:
1) "Always have a functioning reply address in any communication you
send, particularly if you want your customer to resolve something."
2) "Have a human being who sounds like a human being respond."
3) "If you are in the process of resolving a problem with a customer,
don't send additional "or else" letters until you know the disposition
of the first attempt."
4) "Have a way folks can call to speak with a real human when the
going gets tough."
5) "When you are responding to a customer-generated query, address the
reply to the customer.: Dear Grok or Hi Grok or Whuz Happenin' Grok."
6 )"Provide a personalized response to a personalized question. If the
FAQ didn't work the first time, why should the customer have
confidence it is going to work the second time? Sometimes, in the name
of service, you've got to repeat yourself."
Examples of two automated but perfectly acceptable responses are also
included!
=======================
AWARD-WINNING WEBSITES
=======================
World Best Websites (links to all the winners by category!)
http://www.worldbestwebsites.com/
"World Best Website Awards are granted to exemplary websites that are
pursuing "best practices" in website design & Internet
communications."
"This competition seeks to attract designers & programmers who are
"redefining standards of website excellence & challenging existing
paradigms of world best practice in Internet communications". This is
rigorous competition between high quality sites at the "leading edge"
of website design. Our quality criteria for website excellence are
among the most rigorous on the Internet."
========
Elliance Award-Winning Websites:
http://www.elliance.com/About/awards.asp
2001 Best Bank Website:
https://www.dollarbankloans.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/ConsumerLoans
2001 Standard of Excellence:
http://www.officebydesign.com/
===================================
FINANCIAL SERVICES AND THE INTERNET
===================================
"Loyalty and the Web," by Gentil Noens. Financial World. (Oct 2002)
http://www.financialworld.co.uk/magazine/mag.pdf/octpdf/p22%20Customer%25_9oyalty%25_2FWOct.pdf
"The evolution of multi-channel servicing has allowed financial
services providers to reduce costs and provide products that are
accessible "anytime, anywhere". However, research has shown that
customer loyalty is developed and maintained through personal contacts
between customers and businesses. The development of efinance has
undermined the very concept of customer loyalty. With such a wide
range of choices, many of which are increasingly similar, customers
may lose a sense of affiliation to a company, preferring to shop and
change at whim. Indeed, by their marketing of web-based services,
particularly where a sub-brand is involved, financial services
providers contribute to the notion that a new supplier is just a click
away."
"So can e-servicing ever give customers fast, efficient service with a
personal touch, while delivering businessbenefits for organizations?"
========
"Internet Changing Financial Service Brand Perceptions," by Michael
Pastore. Cyberatlas (January 2000)
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/finance/article/0,1323,5961_287291,00.html
"An estimated 10.3 million Americans have changed their opinions about
financial service brands as a result of information retrieved online,
according to research by Cyber Dialogue. The findings are part of a
larger ongoing study of online branding impacts in different
industries."
"More than 25 percent of cybercitizens have changed the financial
service provider(s) they use as a result of what they learned online,
the research concludes. This equals some 3.1 million financial
services customers who have changed service providers as a result of
their online experience."
"The online revolution has moved beyond such early goals as building
Web site awareness and capturing online customers, and is now in a
more profound realm where financial services brands, themselves, are
being fundamentally defined by the Internet," said Thomas Miller, vice
president of Cyber Dialogue. "The success or failure of service
providers to master the basics of interactive brand management plays
an increasingly important role in shaping how cybercitizens trust
those brands."
Read more...
========
"Financial Services Use Web to Build Brand," by Tim McHale, Tom
Hespos, and Eric Porres, Underscore Marketing. (July 2002)
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/features/072402.asp
"Particularly in the wake of the recent rash of corporate scandal,
financial services brands need to convey trustworthiness to their
customers. The "Crisis of Confidence" in American public companies is
fueling concerns about where long-term investments should be made and
many investors are pulling out of stocks to invest in things like real
estate, where the perceived risk is easier to stomach. The overarching
question in this day and age seems to be, "Whom do you trust?" and
we've seen financial services companies investing in their brands to
convey trustworthiness and experience."
"Given the uncertainty of the financial markets right now, companies
are investing in easing the customer's mind," says Roni Jenkins,
partner, and director of communications strategy at Digital@JWT. For
Jenkins, consumers need "a trusted name they can rely on."
(This article covers some very interesting aspects of financial
marketing, brand loyalty and customer retention)
========
Again, your question involved individual components that could have
taken on lengthy and intersting searches within themselves. I hope I
have provided an answer that provides an acceptable overview without
compromising any of the issues.
Thank you for the opportunity to work on a challenging question. As
an aside, you might be interested in two previous questions involving
the Financial Services Industry and customer relationsips and loyalty
programs:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=174275
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=163447
Sincerely,
umiat-ga
Search Strategy
---------------
best advertising brochures AND OR letters
Excellent OR good OR best "customer service letters"
"brand advertising" success
brand image in print
award-winning +sales +design
website awards
print awards
+awards +"sales brochures"
"financial services" AND brand loyalty |
,
0 Comments
)