Wells Fargo’s marketing lagniappe gets them an ‘attaboy’
9 INCH AXIOM – Little things
‘Sometimes the littlest things can make a big difference’
I was listening to a video podcast the other day from Andrew Lock. Andrew has a weekly show called, “Help – My Business Sucks”. Its usually 7-10 minutes whereby Andrew shares his perspectives on unconventional marketing. I highly recommend subscribing to it on iTunes or having a look at his site @ http://helpmybusiness.com.
Andrew was telling a story about how he was using the drive thru at his local Wells Fargo bank. At the end of the transaction the teller asked him if he would like a sucker. Andrew was perplexed until he realized it was an offer for a lollipop. He drove away with a smile on his face. That lollipop was a small token or ‘marketing lagniappe’ from Wells Fargo. It’s a practice that goes a long way towards increasing customer satisfaction, especially when it is unexpected.
The red lollipop is one of three reasons why I believe Wells Fargo deserves an ‘attaboy’. Here are the other two:
Stagecoach - Very few banks have the heritage and storied history of Wells Fargo. The stagecoach dates back to the early days in the 186o’s.
Henry Wells and William Fargo offered banking (buying gold, and selling paper bank drafts as good as gold) and express (rapid delivery of the gold and anything else valuable). The bank earned a reputation of trust by dealing rapidly and responsibly with people’s money. In the 1860s, Wells Fargo earned everlasting fame – and its corporate symbol – with the grand adventure of the overland stagecoach line which included the western leg of the famed, but short-lived, Pony Express.
The six horse stagecoach is the signature icon of the brand. When the brand merged with rival Norwest back in 1998 they made a smart move by unifying under one brand and staying ‘on the wagon’.
80% Rule – Wells Fargo understands the importance of servicing the needs of their current customers to fuel growth. This is a quote about cross-selling from their website:
“The more you sell customers, the more you know about them. The more you know about them, the easier it is to sell them more products. The more products customers have with you, the better value they receive and the more loyal they are. The longer they stay with you, the more opportunities you have to meet even more of their financial needs. The more you sell them, the higher the profit because the added cost of selling another product to an existing customer is often only about ten percent of the cost of selling that same product to a new customer.”
That last sentence deserves repeating. IT COSTS 10 TIMES TO ACQUIRE A NEW CUSTOMER THAN IT TAKES TO UPSELL A CURRENT ONE. Nearly eighty percent of Wells Fargo revenue growth comes from selling more products to existing customers. The average Wells Fargo customer carries over 5 products which is more than two times the industry average.
Their focus on serving existing customers has two tremendous benefits:
1. It reduces attrition. Well Fargo loses less customers each year compared to its competitors.
2. It provides them with a competitive advantage against companies that only offer one or a few products.
Today’s Lagniappe (a little something extra) - Backstory on the actual stagecoach, a quote and the origin of ‘on the wagon’
Backstory on the Concord Coach – Built high and wide to handle the rough, rutted roads of a new country, the design of a classic American vehicle was perfected in Concord, New Hampshire. Carriage builder J. Stephens Abbot and master wheelwright Lewis Downing built the famed stagecoaches of Wells Fargo & Co. The curved frame of the body gave it strength, and perhaps a little extra elbow room. Perfectly formed, fitted, and balanced wheels stood up to decades of drenching mountain storms and parching desert heat. The unique feature of these coaches was the suspension. Instead of steel springs, the coach body rested on leather “thoroughbraces,” made of strips of thick bullhide. This feature spared the horses from jarring and gave the stagecoach a (sometimes) gentle rocking motion, leading Mark Twain to call it, “An imposing cradle on wheels.” (Roughing It, 1870) For the record: Concord Coaches weighed about 2,500 pounds and cost $1,100 each.
Quote – Andrew Lock has a genius quote that he shares on each and every show:
Marketing is Everything . . . and Everything is Marketing
Origin – Where does the saying, “I’m on the wagon” or “He fell off the wagon” come from? Answer in the first comment.
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Meaning ‘On the wagon’ – abstaining from alcohol. ‘Off the wagon’ – returned to drinking after an attempt to give it up.
Origin Suggested explanations of the origin of ‘on the wagon’ focus on actual wagons that were used to transport people; for example, condemned prisoners who had taken their last drink in this life and were transported to the gallows by wagon. Another story has it that Evangeline Booth, the US Salvation Army National Commander, toured the Bowery slums in a wagon picking up drunks and delivering them to sobriety. The phrase predates Booth’s work in New York, so that can’t be the origin. It isn’t far from the truth though, but, as we’ll see below, no actual wagon rides were involved. ‘On the wagon’ was coined in the USA around the turn of the 20th century. The phrase began as ‘on the water-cart’, migrated to ‘on the water-wagon’ and finally to ‘on the wagon’. The late 19th century saw the emergence of several temperance organisations, notably The Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893 and The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1874. These followed on from the work of The Abstinence Society which had encouraged millions of men to ‘take the pledge’. The Pledge wasn’t just a vague intention to avoid drink; it was a specific and absolute promise never to drink again and was taken very seriously:
“I promise to abstain from all intoxicating drinks except used medicinally and by order of a medical man, and to discountenance the cause and practice of intemperance.”
Water wagons were a commonplace sight in US cities at the time. They didn’t carry drinking water but were used to damp down dusty streets during dry weather. Those who had vowed to give up drink and were tempted to lapse said that they would drink from the water-cart rather than take strong drink.