For most financial institutions, great gifts with broad appeal create the biggest bang for the buck.  Some banks and credit unions build their brand around specific demographics.  An example of this would be a  financial institution that caters to the Hispanic market. Others focus on professionals or small businesses.

If your financial institution builds its brand by focusing on a specific demographic, then it is wise to take your brand building efforts into consideration when selecting gifts for your incentive programs. Proven incentives work in all markets, but further segmenting your gift selections to meet targeted demographics can give you the extra punch you need improve the profitability for your financial institution.  Great gift selections will support and enhance your brand.

Another example of brand building is rural vs urban financial institutions. There are many gift selections that play extremely well in rural markets.  Hunting themed items, such as binoculars or camouflaged items, are guaranteed winners.

For community banks that identify with colleges or universities, sports related items such as sports chairs, stadium seats and fleece blankets work well.

ConsumerNSight™, River Rock Marketing’s proprietary product research process, considers a multitude of factors including geography and branding when creating gift recommendations. For more information about how River Rock Marketing can provide you with the most innovative marketing gift selections, contact us today!

For most merchandise, there are two markets in which they sell: retail and special markets.  Special Markets includes incentive marketing. Keeping tabs on what’s happening in the retail market, however, can be a good indicator to the success of an item as an incentive.  How can understanding retail markets affect your incentive program? Consider this.

What’s Hot?

The appeal of an item is a powerful part of what makes a good incentive.  We can leverage the manufacturer’s and retailer’s success in marketing and selling their items by seeing how well the consumer responds to the message.  We can also pick up on trends such as color, fabric, themes (green, eco-friendly), etc.

Brand Support

Retail trends can also tell us which brands are hot.  We can also gain insight as to when they are hot.  Items that are selling well get more airtime, more marketing, more buzz, which means you get more perceived value in your marketing gift selection.

Inventory Support

Product that is doing well in retail typically has a lot of manufacturing support.  Most manufacturers have limited production capability, which means they must devote their line time to items with the most potential.  In today’s economy, many gifts go through a pilot launch, and if they don’t receive enough response, the manufacturer will discontinue the item immediately.  Picking items with good retail prospects insulates you from availability issues.

Knowing how to ride the “retail wave” can pump up the results of your incentive marketing program.  At River Rock Marketing, we constantly scour the retail markets looking for the newest and most innovative items that meet the criteria of success we have learned through the years in supporting financial institutions.

Using real people to test new incentives is a valuable tool in helping to bullet-proof gift selections. River Rock Marketing uses a proprietary product screening process called ConsumerNSight™, and product testing is one feed into that model. Let’s review how ConsumerNSight™ is used to find the best gifts for your incentive programs.

Use Data to Screen Products

River Rock reviews thousands of new items every year. Product testing is one way we sift through tons of incentive options to find those that appeal to potential customers. By first using product testing as a screen, we can include many more gifts into the process, which provides you with innovative gift options.

Gain Insight into Preference

River Rock groups all gifts into categories, such as coolers, MP3 players, or kitchen appliances. Once we have identified hot categories, we do intense research to discover all the potential items in that category. We then use testing to determine which item wins, and why it wins, whether it’s based upon brand, feature, price, etc. Product testing helps us pick the best “horse” in the race.

Know Perceived Value

One of the linchpins of a successful gifting program is perceived value. Product testing provides a great source of data to determine what value potential customers place on an item. This data is then matched against pricing to ensure our gifts outperform other incentive items, such as cash, gift cards, etc.

There are many variables that ConsumerNSight™ uses to determine which gifts will deliver the best performance in your market. Product testing provides valuable data, but that data must be interpreted. The experts at River Rock Marketing have years of experience helping financial institutions pick the right gift for their incentive promotions.

One of the best ways to foster success is learning from the past. Past gifting experience can provide great demographic and incentive information that can be used to fine tune your future incentive strategy. At River Rock Marketing, we use historical gifting data to create a profile of your target market. This helps us better understand exactly who we are trying to reach, and what gift will be most appealing to them resulting in improved promotional response rates. There are three main trends to look at when reviewing past gift performance: Pricing, Category and Seasonality.

Pricing

The pricing used on the gift can help us understand market competitiveness. Most financial institutions compete with various offers for acquiring new accounts. Reviewing program results adjusted for seasonality can help us pinpoint the value an offer must have to win in your market.

Category

At River Rock Marketing, we also review categories of incentives used. What themes deliver great results? Household? Outdoors? Electronics? Once a winning category has been identified, we can match it to retail demographic data and determine with a high degree of certainty the characteristics of people that respond to the offer. We can then use the characteristics to forecast other incentive offers that will appeal to your target audience.

Seasonality

Past gifting experience can also provide insight into the seasonality of your new account trends. For most financial institutions, their account openings have an identifiable trend of production based upon calendar months. There are many factors that contribute to seasonality, including the geography of the branch network, the weather, the age of your market, and others.

Understanding the historical performance of incentive marketing programs in your financial institution can help us put the best gift with the best price in your lineup at the right time. The result is maximum performance for minimal price!

When choosing gift selections for your bank, understanding how logistics can affect your price and delivery goes a long way to making a gifting program successful with minimal hassle. A seasoned gifting partner will consider these things for you as they are making your recommendations, but it’s still a good idea to know for yourself.

Product Size and Weight, and Carton Quantity

The size and weight of a product can have a dramatic impact on the final price. Most deliveries occur through parcel shippers, such as FedEx or UPS, and their pricing is based on weight and volume of the box. Since shippers price freight by the box, finding the right mix of weight and carton quantity can buy down the freight cost significantly. There are many “tricks of the trade” that can further reduce the freight component of the price, making the item cheaper for you. For example, many transportation providers discount freight in certain areas of the country where they have significant infrastructure investments. Keeping up with the major providers ensures that we get the price possible.

Geographic Footprint of Branch Network

The location of your branch network can make a big difference, as distance of the shipment effects price. There are several ways to reduce freight cost if you have a more remote footprint, or if your branch network is spread out.

Replenishment Strategy

Quantity and frequency of distribution is the last major freight component. Larger distributions can be done at a cheaper price, which can provide you the opportunity to buy up in product by reducing freight expense.