THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION

Lifestyle Checking?

Or

Lifestyle Free Checking?

Did they make the right decision?

Imagine you were just hired to be the credit union's new marketing person.

The first week on the job, in a series of meetings you were brought up-to-speed on a radical new checking account designed by a team headed by the outgoing marketing manager with assistance from the credit union's general media agency.

The good news is that, while close, they have yet to launch this new account.

The better news is that they have asked for your opinion on both the new account name and their marketing plans for launching it.

AN INNOVATIVE NEW CHECKING ACCOUNT

Here's what you learn about this new checking account.

• It has no minimum balance requirement.
• It has no monthly maintenance or transaction fees.
• It offers free online access and bill pay.
• It requires enrollment in online E-statements.
• It comes with a free Visa Check Card (debit card).
• It provides free Email alerts.
• It allows credit union members to customize their account by selecting from among eight additional, optional features. Optional features can be changed every 12 months. The first three are free with each additional feature costing $2 per month.
  

1. 20 free non-Liberty First ATM uses
2. 2,500 scorecard reward points
3. Free Lifestyle Checks
4. $50 opening bonus
5. $25 anniversary gift
6. 1 overdraft fee waiver a year
7. Interest on account balances
8. Free overdraft protection

Senior management has selected the name "Lifestyle Checking" for this new account.

Behind this name choice is the idea that members can select from among the list of eight additional features – and change them annually. So the members are able to create a checking account that is tailored to their lifestyle. Hence the name – Lifestyle Checking.

In addition, by studying the checking account lobby brochure and the credit union's website, you discover that the credit union already offers members a choice of five other checking accounts:

1.     Free Checking

2.     55 Plus Checking

3.     Plus Checking

4.     Member Rewards Checking

5.     High Yield Checking

"Wait a minute," you think to yourself…"they already offer free checking." And offering five checking accounts seems like too many accounts to be easily sold in the branches.

Then, all of a sudden it hits you!

You experience that "aha" moment!

Going back and reviewing the features of the new Lifestyle Checking account you realize that it, too, qualifies as a free checking account. After all, it has no minimum balance requirement and no monthly maintenance or activity fees.

"So why didn't they name it Lifestyle Free Checking," you wonder?

As the newest member of the new product team, do you "go with the flow?" Do you avoid rocking the boat? To get off on the right foot with senior management do you agree that Lifestyle Checking is the best name for this new account?

Or do you take the more risky route of putting together your rationale for why the account should be called Lifestyle Free Checking?

After all, they did ask for your opinion.

As a seasoned bank marketer and direct mail veteran, you have some expert support behind your recommendation to add the word "Free" to the account name.

THE POWER OF THE WORD "FREE"

The word "free" is one of the most powerful words in marketing…especially in direct response marketing.

The word free gets attention – in fact it demands attention – it makes a big promise, provides value, and minimizes risk in acquiring the free product.

While the word "free" is overused today, it is still a very powerful marketing word when used appropriately.

If you're like many marketers, over the years you've accumulated a lot of excellent marketing advice by jotting down notes on 3 X 5 cards and filing them alphabetically in some card box. And, like most of us, you've never gotten around to putting this treasure trove of knowledge into a computer database.

Flipping through your huge 3 X 5 card file of important marketing information, you reach the "F" tab.

Passing by cards labeled "fads," "features," "focus," "fonts," and "frequency," you arrive at your cards labeled "free."

It's here you come across a ten-year-old card bearing the sage marketing advice of Dick Benson – a legendary direct mail consultant and author of the book Secrets of Successful Direct Mail.

Benson's quote – "Free is a magic word" – appears on page 74 in Denny Hatch's 1998 resource book, 2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success.

And of course, you remembered to make a card on the word "free" as you were reading Robert W. Bly's excellent 2002 book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Direct Marketing. One of Bly's insights on the word "free" appears in the sidebar to the right.

Your next card reflects the conflicted insight of a long-time copywriter. Seeing it often misused, yet realizing its power to motivate consumers, legendary copywriter Victor O. Schwab had this to say about the word "free" in his 1962 book, How To Write A Good Advertisement, "'Free' is of course a hackneyed and moss-covered word, but there doesn't seem to be any equally strong or less blatant substitute for it."

Then there's your John Caples card. Caples, a famous ad man and copywriter, wrote the 1974 book, Tested Advertising Methods. In Chapter 13, "Thirty-two Ways to Get More Inquiries from Your Advertising," way number two recommends you "Emphasize the word 'Free.' You can increase replies by putting the word 'Free' in big print or in capital letters. In broadcast advertising and in printed advertising you can repeat the word 'free' several times."

Your oldest card was created for Claude Hopkins, author of the famous 1927 book, Scientific Advertising. David Ogilvy said of Hopkin's book, "Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life."

In Chapter 13 "Use of Samples," Hopkins sung the praise of the word "free" when he wrote: "Samples serve numerous valuable purposes. They enable one to use the word 'Free' in ads. That often multiplies readers." You can learn more about Hopkins in the sidebar.

But perhaps the strongest support for adding the word "Free" to the new checking account name was found on your Gary Bencivenga card.  A longtime freelance copywriter, Bencivenga now writes a free, online newsletter, Bencivenga Bullets.

Naming a new product was the subject of Bencivenga’s January 31, 2006 issue, “How to Name Your Product . . . including 21 examples of great names.” Bencivenga's advice: "The best product names have a benefit built right into them."

While he doesn't include an example using the word "free," it should be obvious which of these two product names below has a benefit built right into it:

Lifestyle Checking

Lifestyle Free Checking

Okay, so technically the word "Free" is a feature, not a benefit. But it's probably the only feature that needs no copy to turn it into a benefit. EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDS THE VALUE OF FREE.

THE BIG SURPRISE

Armed with the support supplied by a number of legendary marketers, at the next new product launch status meeting you are asked to go first. You present your case for why senior management should add the powerful marketing word "Free" to the Lifestyle Checking product name.

Observing the looks on their faces, you quickly realize that, while they agree with you, there's something else going on that you're not aware of.

After a minute or two of complete silence, you hear these dreaded words: "If only we had received this information a few days ago, we would have made the change. Unfortunately, we learned late yesterday from our service bureau, webmaster, and marketing agency that they are too far along with implementation to stop and make any changes if they are to meet the launch date. Perhaps we can reconsider a name change down the road."

The words momentarily stun you. Being very new to the job, you are reluctant to mount a counter-offensive. Thinking quickly, you do what most of us would have done. You reply, "Well, we should still do okay with the name Lifestyle Checking."

As the meeting progresses, you discover that the credit union was much further along on this project than you realized after only one week on the job. In fact, you learn that the first newspaper ad is scheduled to appear in the local paper in five days.

The account person from your local marketing agency is at the meeting, presenting the small space ad which appears to the right in the sidebar. Glancing at the headline, all you can think of is the magic marketing word "Free" missing from the product name. Continuing to read the body copy, you discover that nowhere in the newspaper ad is the consumer told that this is a free account.

While it's tempting to say something, you suffer in silence…knowing how much stronger the ad could have been by simply adding one word to the product name…and describing it as a free account in the body copy.

Next, it's the Web designer's turn. He shows the group both the revised home page and the new landing page promoting Lifestyle Checking. An excerpt from the landing page can be seen in the sidebar to the right.

Glancing at the headlines and first copy lines on both pages you are stunned to see this line of copy: "Finally, a free checking account that lets you decide which features you want." There's that powerful marketing word "free" used to describe the new checking account but only on the credit union's website.

By this time, all sorts of thoughts are running through your mind. Obviously, all along the original members of the new product team understood that Lifestyle Checking was a free checking account. So who made the decision not to include the word "Free" in the account name? And why?

And why wasn't it described as a free checking account in the launch newspaper ads?

After all, it's the newspaper ad that creates awareness for, and interest in, the new checking account. It's the newspaper ad that drives prospects into the branches and to the website for additional information.

Calling it Lifestyle Free Checking and reminding readers that it is a free account in the ad should dramatically strengthen the credit union's message…while significantly increasing the number of newspaper readers who ultimately make the decision to visit the branch to open their new Lifestyle Free Checking accounts.

Imagine the confusion in the branches now that the credit union employees have six checking accounts to sell with two of them being "free" accounts.

Back to our earlier question at the top of the article: Did they make the right decision?

Given what you know about the checking account market, the prevalence of free checking accounts today, and the power of the word "free," what decision would you have made?   

As a reminder, direct response veteran Dick Benson tells us that "Free is a magic word."