Scott Flood

SUCCESS STORY: THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Think schools cost too much money to build? Several Indiana state legislators and the state’s governor do, and have made attempts at cutting the cost a primary part of their agenda. A trade group of architects, contractors, engineers, and others called FAIR disagree, pointing to independent sources that show school costs in the state are far from excessive.

But when the advocates for cutting costs occupy the bully pulpit of majority leadership, it can be tough for opponents to make their voices heard. Many in the media were repeating the legislators’ claims as though they were facts. Unfortunately, the story is a complicated, multi-faceted one. How could FAIR get accurate, understandable information in the hands of media, legislators, and other key stakeholders?

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SUCCESS STORY: THE NEWSLETTER NOBODY READ

Amoco Motor Club was prepared to scrap what it had once hoped would become a powerful marketing tool. The motor club contracted with more than 7,000 service stations and towing companies to provide emergency road services to its members, and the marketing team had created a bimonthly publication called Pro Tower to convey key information to those companies. The need was urgent, because changes in automotive design were affecting the way vehicles needed to be towed, and traditional towing methods could result in damage to some models.

An advertising agency had been angling for business from the motor club, and the manager threw the newsletter out as an opportunity. If the agency could find a way to make it work (especially at a lower cost), Amoco would open the door to more projects. But prospects were bleak. A telephone survey discovered that most recipients didn’t even remember seeing the publication, and those who did invariably hated it. “It’s nothing bunch of PR about who got promoted at Amoco,” one griped. When asked what he’d rather read, he explained that he was trying to stay in business and needed serious, useful advice.

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SUCCESS STORY: GAS, NOT HOT AIR

You’re the largest natural gas marketer in the state, and the people you need as clients have never heard of you. What can you do to convince them of your size and expertise?

During the early days of energy deregulation, Proliance Energy — a joint effort of two of Indiana’s largest utilities — quickly established itself by offering purchase expertise to commercial and industrial customers. Their success at keeping a cap on what those customers would have to pay for natural gas ballooned the company into the state’s biggest. But name recognition was still minimal.

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SUCCESS STORY: FRIES WITH THAT?

You’re opening your 25th bank branch in a location that isn’t very visible from the road, in an area that’s already saturated with competitors, and far from your other offices.

Still, Cragin Federal Bank wanted its grand opening to be a huge success in terms of traffic and money. The bank set up a cross-promotion agreement with a local McDonald’s franchisee. Using that tie-in, Scott Flood and Ace Art Director Mike Reiser created what became the bank’s most successful promotion, called the “Great Savor Grand Opening.”

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SUCCESS STORIES: DIRTY LAUNDRY

It’s hard to get excited about dry cleaning. So how can you convince potential customers that your approach to what they see as a commodity service is different?

Morellis Cleaners was a new chain that took dry cleaning to a new level. Forget the images of steamy, stinky roomfuls of strange machinery and employees who looked like they’d been steamed for hours. The company had attractive spaces staffed by knowledgeable employees who took time to educate customers about dry cleaning.

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BENIGN NEGLECT: A DEADLY WEAPON

Most organizations worry that they’re going to lose a customer, client, or supporter because of something they do. But my experience has taught me that more losses are caused by what they don’t do.

Sure, lousy customer service will lose a piece of business now and then. But what I call benign neglect is one of the most consistent ways a business or organization can lose people over time. They’ll slip away gradually, barely even noticed.

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SUCCESS STORIES: CHILDHOOD BANKERS

When out-of-town banks have begun to dominate the local landscape, how do you convince residents that your bank is truly part of the community’s bedrock?

Mutual Savings Bank has been serving Johnson County residents since 1890, choosing to continue its original focus of helping everyday people buy homes and save for the future while other financial institutions merged and diversified. When some of those new banks began to promote themselves as community banks, Mutual needed to find a way to remind residents that they were the real deal.

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WHEN SHOULD YOU SEND OUT YOUR NEWSLETTER?

Whether you’re distributing a regular email blast to customers or mailing a good-old-fashioned printed piece, newsletters (or whatever you choose to call a regular message to your stakeholders) are one of the best ways to stay connected with and on the minds of the people who matter to your business.

I’ve noticed that many companies agonize over one aspect of these publications: when to distribute them. And no, I don’t have a magic answer. Most of the time, exactly when you send it is far less important than the fact that you do send it. There may be a time of the week or month during which your average recipient is more receptive to your messages, so common sense would tell you that’s a good time.

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SUCCESS STORY: TURNING AMATEURS INTO INVESTORS

How do you make everyday working people feel confident enough about investing that they’re willing to put more of their hard-earned dollars into your mutual funds?

General American Insurance knew that companies have two reasons to encourage 401(k) plan participation: financially secure employees are happy employees, and larger employee contributions mean managers can park a bigger share of their own earnings in the company’s plan.

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THE POWER OF DEMONSTRATIONS

One of the most effective ways to convince your prospects of your value is to show them. While demonstrations might sound like a relic from the days when drummers peddled their wares from door to door, the technique is as powerful as ever, for everything from consumer products to business services.

When container ship line APL was trying to convince shippers of the many advantages of double-stack intermodal cars (the ones that look like a truck trailer sitting atop another), executive Don Orris kept hearing concerns about the quality of the ride within the shipping containers. Shippers worried that their delicate merchandise would be jostled and damaged during transit.

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