The World’s Greatest Marketer to Kids
Start ‘em young and you got ‘em for life!
August 2006 By Denny Hatch
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In the News
The Banks Want Your KidsFrom Mutual Funds to Debit Cards,
New Products Target Young Savers;
Financing a Pop Machine at Age 10
Banks are battling each other to get their hands on your kid’s allowance. As part of an aggressive campaign to build brand awareness among teen and preteen savers—not to mention their parents—financial-services firms are rapidly launching new services aimed at getting youngsters interested in socking away money in a bank.
—Jane J. Kim, The Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2006
The idea is to get kids used to putting money away at a very young age. Some banks make it possible to deposit as little as 10 cents. Others are giving away premiums and prizes ranging from stick-on tattoos to music downloads when they have $100 in their accounts.
My exhaustive (and exhausting!) file of news stories contains many accounts of gimlet-eyed, self-styled anti-marketing-to-kids police worried about everything from violent computer games to Oreo cookies.
Of one thing I am absolutely sure: No one before or since has marketed to kids with elegance and success of Frank O. Brock, long-time president of the First Bank of Troy, Idaho.
The Amazing Bob Hemmings
Bob Hemmings is one of the great men of direct marketing. Now close to age 90 and proprietor of the Hemmings IV Direct agency in Pasadena, Calif., Hemmings is dapper, intense, powerfully built, and immediately recognizable with his Adolph Menjou mustache and bone crusher of a handshake.
Look for Hemmings and chances are you'll find him on an airplane, either en route to taking care of a client or just returning from giving a seminar on direct marketing.
In his younger days, a friend of Hemmings was Frank O. Brock, president of the First Bank of Troy, Idaho.
Troy's population in 1960 was 514; Brock's bank had 6,000 active accounts--12 times as many people who lived in the town. He had customers in 45 states and around the world as far away as Pago Pago.
What was Brock's secret?
Know What Business You Are In
Hemmings recalled that Brock knew precisely what business he was in.
I am in the financial services business to help provide finances for my customers from the cradle to the grave.
Brock once made a loan to a man who had robbed the bank five years before. He was caught and served three years in prison. "He had learned his lesson," Brock said. "I don't hold past mistakes against him. He is a much more stable individual now."
Know Your Customers--Intimately
According to Hemmings, Brock paid personal attention to all his customers. He cared. He understood his customers and knew practically all of the them by their first names; whenever a good loan customer ran into financial difficulty, the bank carried him--without dunning notices or piling up interest charges--until he was back on his feet.
Takeaway Points to Consider:
* Like Frank O. Brock, do you know what business you’re in? For example, direct marketers aren’t in the book business or the credit card business or the catalog business or the fundraising business. They’re in the business of acquiring customers (or donors) and continually delighting them.* Do you have a product or service that would work in another market were you to skew or versionalize your promotional efforts to talk to those prospects? Example: selling banking services to children.
* Were Frank Brock alive today, would he e-mail his congratulatory messages or condolences? Or would he continue to send them in hard copy via the U.S. Postal Service? Put it this way: Would you rather have an e-mail Christmas message from the White House in your computer or a real, for-sure Christmas card on the mantel piece?
* Frank O. Brock was a master at flattering children and their parents—making them feel important. Never underestimate the power of flattery.
Web Sites Related to Today's Edition:
“What Dickens Did for Direct” by Bob Hemmingshttp://tinyurl.com/paama
Companies Mentioned:
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