Lloyds Achilles' heel seems to be its promotional material. A leaflet from produced by the bank was recently criticised as misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority. The leaflet purported to be a handwritten note, and a circular and a mailing both looked as if they had been personally redirected by a neighbour. The ASA said the leaflets for home insurance could "mislead readers" and did not make clear they were adverts. Lloyds TSB apologised, saying it had not intended to mislead people and had now stopped using the leaflets.
Lloyds TSB Bank is also active in the community, including a Welsh language scheme and Help the Hospices partnership- an annual corporate social responsibility report is published and the latest copy can be found at their website.
I believe the best way for the company to expand is via organic growth. In other words, we need to focus on attracting more deposits from new customers and work harder to keep their existing ones.
The primary targets for my campaign are students, affluent professionals and OAPs. Analysis shows that these consumers have different needs and expectations from a banking service. There is a stronger trend for the need of extras and overdrafts for students. Affluent professionals want higher interest rates and OAPs want added security measures. The market is further segregated by wealth. It is our intent to target both male and female consumers through their financial status whenever feasible.
With the target audience identified, we begin to focus on the communication objectives.
I aim to increase subscribers to Lloyds TSB services in the following ways:
- Establish Lloyd's as being a provider of exceptional and unequalled customer service.
- Communicate commitment to anti fraud policy
- Reinforce knowledge and understanding about banking
It has been shown that consumers respond in terms of a hierarchy of effects, which is the sequence of stages a prospective buyer goes through from initial awareness of a product to eventual action.
Objectives-
• Awareness. Building awareness is crucial for Lloyds success. Building awareness of 60% within the target audience is the first step.
• Interest. After awareness comes interest. It is at this stage that the customer begins to build desire for the service. Of the 60% of the consumers aware of Lloyds services, it is hoped that 40% will be interested in the service.
• Evaluation. Out of the 40% of consumers who are interested in the service, we want them to evaluate, that is compare the Lloyds TSB accounts to other accounts available, and for our product to make their list of possible choices at least 30% of the time.
• Trial. Of course, trial is the crucial purchase stage. After evaluating the service, consumers should select it over other accounts at least 20% of the time because of the unique features of each account.
• Adoption. As consumers use the service, passengers riding with them will be able to experience the product in a real-use situation. Should the consumer use the service and not have a positive experience, he or she will fail to adopt the service, which could hurt future subscriptions to Lloyds with bad word-of-mouth publicity.
To avoid this, it is the intent to build adoption of 75%, which will mean the consumer will have a positive response to the service.
Promotional Mix
I intend to promote Lloyds TSB services through advertising. I want to attract affluent middle aged individuals that will subscribe to premium credit cards, and also students as I feel it is best to gain customers when they are young to increase the chance of long term loyalty.
According to Fill every advertisement must have a message, content of the advertisement that focuses on the key benefits of the product that are important to a prospective buyer in making trial and adoption decisions. Advertising for the Lloyds accounts will have a message designed to appeal to the target consumers, middle aged individuals that will subscribe to premium credit cards, and also students and OAPs.
Different messages will be sent to the three different target markets. Each target market will be informed of the appropriate beneficial services that we provide. The middle aged will be informed of the benefits that getting a credit card will bring. The students will be offered a free iPod. Old people will benefit from life insurance.
The message will be simple and straight-forward. The ads will not contain any technical details. Otherwise, consumers will get too overwhelmed with the details and miss the main point. Also, it is important to keep the message short and simple so that the potential consumers, who may have limited time to read advertisements, can get the basic point about the Lloyds TSB account and its main personal benefit.
The advertisement’s message will be wrapped in persuasive content. Ads will have three themes in appeal:
• Sex Appeal. One theme in appeal will be sex appeal. For example, a picture of an attractive male or female pulling up outside Lloyds in a stylish Porsche. Such an ad will imply that the person who uses Lloyds services will be as attractive and look as good in his or her car as the person in the ad. [Advertising that is visual and includes a Porsche will have an additional benefit of advertising Porsche products, which partnered with Lloyds to give Porsche buyers complimentary high interest accounts (“Porsches New 911 and Lloyds Unite”). Porsche and Lloyds can share the advertising costs as well.]
• Appeal to the security conscious consumer. A second appeal will be the appeal to those concerned about online safety who will be attracted by the claim that the online Lloyds service has 128 bit encryption and is therefore resistant to hacking. Since the character in the picture will be safe from theft, these may translate to secure feelings for Lloyds TSB in general.
• Humour. The third appeal will be in humour. The attractive male or female will have a funny smile on his or her face as he or she talks to the bank cashier, which, as Fill says, will imply that the service is more fun and exciting than competitors’ offerings. . Humour will also be found in the part of the advertising having to do with “the pack.” The puppies in the pack will all be wearing earphones and have tape or CD players with cords. Indirectly, the ad in a light-hearted, gentle way, will imply that people who still use competitors are part of a mindless pack and that people who use Lloyds services are “cool” and sharper than the rest.
• Appeal to “Yuppie.” The fourth appeal will allude to the ambition that the students or young adults may want to do better, look better and be richer than other people. Therefore, the message will have a main theme, “Get Ahead of the Rest.” The people shown in the ad will be in sharp looking, shiny, new, bright, aggressive-red Porches or powerful cars, all of which symbolize financial ambition. The persuasive content will not just be in the print advertisement, but also in advertising on websites, TV, and other media that are more dynamic and use other senses such as hearing.
The first step is to build awareness by 60% among the target market. The market is subdivided into existing account holders and new/potential account holders. The objective is to make the subgroups aware of the appropriate accounts existence, its functionality, and its benefits. We shall be using various means to achieve this step. First all of, we will be printing adverts in teen university newspapers/magazines, quality newspapers and popular magazines with high readership by old people.We will also be placing ads on several billboards and bulletin boards situated near popular hangouts for college and university students and nightspots frequented by the target audience.
While print advertising provides a way to build awareness of the accounts, it is not as effective as audio/visual methods. Our most effective means of communicating with potential subscribers to a Lloyds account will be through ads on university radio and television services, radio stations and popular television shows geared toward the target audience. We will use both ITV and Channel 4. Banking websites will be an effective way to communicate with prospective account holders who may look to the internet for research purposes.
The next step is to create interest in the accounts by 40% of our target market. To do so, we will sponsor the forthcoming Rugby League World Cup which will appeal to the respective target audiences. We will also have a presence at events such as trade shows and exhibitions around the country. At the events we will garner interest with colourful signs and banners and encourage credit card signup.
The third step is evaluation. This will be accomplished by having the product directly accessible to the consumer. In developing our marketing mix, we will sponsor several concerts and participate at other events. These events will not only generate interest in our accounts but will also encourage evaluation at a target rate of 30%. Evaluation will be facilitated at the various events by having a financial expert for event participants to speak to.
The fourth step is to encourage trial by 20%. I will achieve that by providing customers with free gifts such as an iPod shuffle. Such gifts will encourage customers to believe they are getting a good deal. To encourage sales by the retailers, Apple will provide trade discounts in the form of marketing funds to encourage companies such as Best Buy to advertise and promote the complete iPod product family.
Last, we want to encourage adoption by 75%. To reach that goal, all customers who have a current account with a debit card can qualify for rewards points if they have two or more additional services with the bank. Those include products like a DVD or a CD, or services like direct deposit or online bill payment. The more services a client has, the more points he or she earns. Customers can also earn points by using their debit cards, at a rate of one point for every two pounds spent. If they already have a credit card that earns Noto points, they will automatically be merged with the points accumulated through banking.
The adoption phase is crucial to the success of the campaign as satisfied consumers who use the service are a good source of communication for new customers.
Scheduling and Implementation
The following GANTT chart provides a graphical representation of my 2008 project schedule.
I will now approximate my costs.
TV
10 X 30 second spots, 3 peak + 7 off peak £14,600
Billboard £1800
Print
5 x 10 Hotline strips £2,500
Internet
Top slot banners across The Guardian site £3,100
Sponsorship
2008 Rugby League World Cup £12,000
Total £34,000
Evaluation
The evaluation of the campaign will be based on how well we reach our target market and achieve our communication objectives.
First, I would analyze consumer response to the advertisements on the various media. Simply stated, I would want to see if the ads are effective enough to catch our target market’s attention and interest.
Second, we will be evaluating customer experience with our services. This would be accomplished through surveys at the sponsored events and through mail and telephone calls to registered account holders. In this way, we can achieve a better understanding of the effectiveness of the both the advertising and the service itself.
Sources
Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach by P.R. Smith and Jonathan Taylor
Marketing Communications: engagement, strategies and practice by Chris Fill
Language of Advertising ebook By: Goddard, Angela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6388707.stm
http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:tUBk42AVrE4J:www.adinfo-guardian.co.uk/courses/university-2007/university-2007-lr.pdf+cost+of+a+print+advert+in+the+guardian&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk
