Escape the Expected
Tyler Shean, Tyler Ellison, Colby Higgins, Chris Hastings
Meet The Team
Executive Summary
Situation Analysis
Customer Analysis
While Wells Fargo does have a broad customer base, current Wells Fargo customers are 61% more likely to be wealthy, well-educated professionals. Many with careers in management, business, and financial operations. Wells Fargo’s current user makeup is very diverse. Wells Fargo also has a large share of the Asian-American market compared to its share of the general population. Wells Fargo’s current customer base is primarily made up of individuals from the West and South. They generally live metropolitan and suburban areas. They use Wells Fargo for their reputation and service. The competitors customers are very much like Wells Fargo customers. These people would use the competition because they thought they received poor customer service and or perceived high fees at Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo’s biggest competitors are JP Morgan and Chase Co, Bank of America, and Citigroup.
“Escape the Expected”
With Wells Fargo
Situation Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Wells Fargo’s competition ranges from large banks to smaller local banks such as first bank and bank of the west. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the United States in terms of revenue behind JP Morgan and Chase Co, Bank of America, and Citigroup. All of the big four are growing including Wells Fargo. Many of the Larger US banks have noticed the Millennials love for technology and recently started pursuing their business using strategies such as the creation of mobile apps and text money transfers. Bank of America has even gone as far as creating a completely online bank account that does not ever require the customer to visit a branch to use it. Many of these large banks have received similar complaints about their products and services as Wells Fargo had. Upon researching customer satisfaction for the other of the big four banks, all had the common problem of customers thinking that their prices and fees were too high and that their customer service is lacking or seems like they do not actually care about the customers personally. Millennials are looking for a bank that they can not only trust with their money but also that offers a different experience than the other banks.
Situation Analysis
Positioning Analysis
When customers think of Wells Fargo they think of a bank that is well run but has poor customer service. Hallah Toouryalai from Forbes explained, “Wells Fargo is the best run bank in the country because it doesn’t dwell much on customer service”. Banks have a hard time differentiating themselves from one another with their products so customer service becomes important when our client positions themselves amongst competition. Most consumers view Wells Fargo as a bank that is going to be around for a long time with strong financial strength with a the highest consumer rating as seen below. Wells Fargo however got the lowest consumer rating of one of five stars in customer service, fees and charges and overall satisfaction. Purchasers understand that the customer satisfaction of our client is not the strongest but they continue to use the service due to the convenience of the branches and the position Wells Fargo has obtained amongst others. Our target market of millennials have been able to easily recognize Wells Fargo because of the social media efforts Wells Fargo has done to position itself against competition. With comparing four colorado local banks Wells Fargo has more facebook likes, youtube videos, tweets and followers on twitter. When it comes to the bank industry as a whole customers have a negative perception of banks with those who have switched banks 28% of them being due to poor customer service and 21% because the banks are not conveniently located. When comparing student accounts of Key Bank, Chase and Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo had the highest estimated annual fees with Key Bank the lowest. Chase had the most locations with 55 within 50 miles of the area code of Greeley, Wells Fargo was a close second at 51 locations. The features of the three were almost identical, with the main positioning differences coming by the way of fees, location and ease of use. Comparing the differences in product and features from the main competitors of Chase, Key Bank and Bank of America there are very slight differences. The positioning differences come in the number of locations with our client being in the top tier of its competition. Overall the positioning of Wells Fargo is coming against a negative perception of all banks but has strengths with advertising and ease of use and locations but downfalls in customer service and fees and charges.
Situation Analysis
Target Market Analysis
After analyzing many different groups of consumers and taking into account Wells Fargo’s objectives and goals, we have identified millennials aging from 18-30, predominantly white and hispanic, located in the Colorado front range, as our target market. Millennials are a diverse and complex group to market towards. They are the most racially diverse generation in America. For our geographic region in Colorado our two largest segments in terms of ethnic background are the white population at 69.4 percent and the Hispanic population at 21.0 percent, this makes these markets incredibly attractive to target. Targeting this specific group will equal a large percentage of the people attending the three events and give us the best opportunity to achieve our overall objective of 1000 checking accounts. The benefits this group will seek include lower fees, digital channels for banking, mobile banking, high security especially over digital channels, and a high level of customer service. The reason we believe our target market is the best option for this marketing strategy is that it gives us a large group to target and work with, it applies to both males and females, also as a very open and accepting generation it is an attractive group to approach based on receptivity. This group is also similar to Wells Fargo’s current customers, well-off, educated, professional types. The high level of personal selling and availability of mobile banking offered by Wells Fargo are benefits that this millennial target market is looking for, and with Wells Fargo actively seeking out this target market we will create lasting, mutually beneficial relationships.
Situation Analysis
Opportunity Analysis
Wells Fargos strengths include specialization in many facets of banking, including mortgage, retirement, banking, investments, and lines of credit many different countries. They benefit from a wide distribution network which allows Wells Fargo to satisfy the customers basic banking needs with high convenience. Wells Fargo has many branches and ATM’s. They are the third largest ATM owners, and number two in home equity and mutual funds. Showing the the diversity in their product line. They are also excellent at selling new products to their already existing customers. Some weaknesses Wells Fargo does have include dealing with a “bank” reputation as people are still cautious with banks since the financial troubles in 2008, they have a small international presence, and deal with some of their customers having low customer satisfaction.
Wells Fargo and their competition struggle from similar customer complaints and those are high fees and poor customer service. To build a better relationship with our target market we need to understand the Millennials are very technology driven. Millenials have responded well to mobile banking. Bank of America has a fully mobile account that never requires a visit to a branch. Capitalizing on the opportunities that technology gives Wells Fargo along with trying to go the extra mile in the customer service realm will be the best ways to really distinguish Wells Fargo form the competition. Wells Fargo can see a growing bank industry as a good sign and they have made big moves to increase market share with their acquisition of Wachovia a few years back.
Strategies
Positioning
To put Wells Fargo in a unique position to really capitalize on the Millennial target market we will utilize the theme offering a different banking experience than most millennials are used to. We will be using the tagline of “Escape the Expected.” to make it memorable and clear to our target market. The reason we choose Escape the Expected was because millennials have a fairly set view and expectation of banks and how their banking experiences will go. We wanted to show them that by banking with Wells Fargo we can offer them a different experience from other banks and create a lifelong relationship with the customer. “The millennial generation, so far, is spending money differently than previous generations, preferring to throw cash at new experiences and adventures and to reward socially responsible companies that they can connect with and that they deem as authentic” (Hunsaker).. We wanted to show that we care about more than just their business by offering them a once in a lifetime experience that would leave a positive lasting impression of Wells Fargo in their minds. The experience that we choose to give the customer was a mountain themed experience that hasn't been offered by another bank before, and never expect from a bank. We wanted to make this event personalized and exclusive because according to Matt Powell from Forbes, “They want to develop relationships with brands that deliver a personalized, customized experience” ( ). We wanted to give them a personalized. experience with the bankers from when they meet them at our booth and moving forward with Wells Fargo.
Strategies
Messaging
We wanted to get the message across that Wells Fargo is not just another bank but a company that truly cares about its customers and their well being. This is why we thought that throwing a private exclusive event like this would show millennials that we want to support them and their lifestyles.The messaging strategy that we choose to go with was to create an unexpected experience at every stage of our campaign. We will start with having bankers walking around at the three events with winter snow apparel on in the middle of summer months to attract attention and have them handing out flyers that are cut out in winter themed shapes with urging people to come to our booth. At the booth itself we will have snow machines blowing snow as well as a couple televisions playing clips of 3oh!3, our featured band as well as clips of people up at Winter Park skiing and snowboarding. Along with these things we will have a clear itinerary of the event posted at our booth as well as several Wells Fargo representatives answering questions and signing customers up for accounts.We want our message to generate a lot of excitement for the event as well as hype all of the activities that will be taking place at the event.
Objectives
Objectives-
For our campaign we have several important objectives. Our primary objective will be getting 1000 new checking account sign ups at the three different events taking place in Denver by the summer of 2015. We are targeting Millennials ages 18-30 for these checking accounts that the three events. Along with getting the 1000 new checking accounts we want to provide an unexpected experience for these new customers. The mountain experience will act as the relationship beginning experience.
Tactics
Tactics- In order to carry out our objectives and clearly get across our campaign’s message we will use the media and communication pathways that best reach our target market.
Digital-
Promotions-
Personal Selling-
Personalized Experience-
Attention grabbing strategies-
Evaluation
Evaluation-
To evaluate the effectiveness of our campaign we will measure success on several criteria. First we will measure the number of checking accounts opened against our primary goal of 1000 new checking accounts by the end of summer 2015. We also want to measure our success a little bit deeper, though. A big number that will indicate our success will be the number of people we can get at our booth, this is important because without having many people looking at our booths we won't be able to reach our primary goal. Finally the last thing we must measure success on is the level of satisfaction our “Escape the Expected event” event brings our new customers, as this can help strengthen Wells Fargo’s relationship with these new current customers. Another metric to indicate campaign success will be number of signups that will eventually attend the event, this shows how well we were able to create an exciting enough event to draw these people up to the mountain.
Budget
Sources