Latino communities have grown in size and prosperity over the last few years; some financial institutions are still trying to figure out what appeals to the market.
But this is not the case for BankCherokee™ (St. Paul, MN), which has targeted the Latino niche for years. The $275 million bank has bilingual staff in four of its six branches and in 1994 it opened a bilingual branch in a successful grocery store, becoming the first bank to do so in the state. Similarly, the New Frontier Bank (Greeley, CO) has also developed programs tailored to the Latino community, which currently makes up nearly a third of the population.
BankCherokee and New Frontier Bank have both crafted programs and messages distinctly designed to address the concerns and culture of Latino clients. BankCherokee’s Director of Marketing,
Paul Solyntjes and Joe Tennessen, senior vice president of culture enhancement for New Frontier Bank, explain how these banks reach the Latino market.
Ginny Phillips: So the Latino market has been part of your mission for more than a decade?
Paul Solyntjes: “Yes. Around 2005 we started seeing a plateau in terms of growth, though, and we were looking for ways to increase our new accounts. So we went to our staff for ideas—it’s a bilingual staff, and we knew they would be able to speak to what might work in the community. Four themes surfaced as ideas that would resonate: family, trust, ease of account opening, and ease of communication. ”
Ginny Phillips: Where did you go with those ideas?
Paul Solyntjes: “We were looking at marketing ideas specifically, and…one focus group suggested running ads on the Spanish language channel during ‘telenovelas’, (Spanish soap operas). That made a lot of sense in several different ways. It’s the only way we could afford television time, otherwise we wouldn’t have thought about it.”
Ginny Phillips: What kind of cost difference are you talking about?
Paul Solyntjes: “Although we didn’t shop the network-affiliated broadcast stations for this campaign, our partner in this campaign, ED Advertising in Minneapolis, said a 30-second spot during prime time would run us roughly $1500. For that same $1500 we got over 30 spots on Univision®; we did receive very good introductory pricing and we ultimately bought 360 spots. Roughly 25 percent of the annual marketing budget was allocated to the campaign, from ad agency direction to production of the commercials and the media costs.”
Ginny Phillips: And what did the ads feature?
Paul Solyntjes: “We developed three spots for Univision TV 13, the country’s largest network for Hispanics. It was the first time the bank had ever run commercials, and they featured employees of the bank and pillars of the Latino Community. We developed radio and print ads with the same themes, and we opened a new phone number listed on all the ads and commercials, with the line connecting to a Spanish-speaking banker who answered with ‘Hola, BankCherokee!’”
“Incidentally, we generated significant internal PR from the TV commercial as well. We hosted a roll-out party where we introduced all those involved (ad agency, director, customer stars, and all employees), debuted the spots, and enjoyed some tamales, burritos…and a Corona® or two.”
Ginny Phillips: What sort of response did you receive?
Paul Solyntjes: “The designated phone number helped us to understand the kind of concerns that were out there. We realized there were fears about immigration issues, people not knowing what was involved with having an account. Once we started getting calls, we changed the methodology of the phone calls to do more education on what documentation you needed to open an account and how easy it was to get that documentation—so that education helped.”
“People really liked the personal focus of the ads, too. Most of those people in the ads we chosen because of their reputation in the community. Some are longstanding business owners. One of the best reinforcements was when a woman called from Minneapolis because she’d recognized someone in an ad. She said, ‘If that person trusts BankCherokee, then I want to bank there.’”
Ginny Phillips: Did you get any more measurable results? The phone number seems like it made the campaign very easy to track.
Paul Solyntjes: “Yes, it did. The campaign began in December 2006, and six months later, more than 100 calls had been made to the phone number. Bankers following up on the call and dozens of new accounts have been opened. Deposits at the branch have increased, and the total number of accounts has increased by 10 percent from the same period of time the previous year.”
Ginny Phillips: So what’s different about New Frontier’s outreach efforts to the Hispanic community?
Joe Tennessen: “We’re constantly doing something new. We’re up to about 10 bilingual customer contact people, and we recently started a program which gives people with family in Mexico the ability to send money to an account there.”
Ginny Phillips: How does it work?
Joe Tennessen: “One of the big problems here is if somebody takes their check to a check-cashing place, they pay a big fee to get that check cashed. Then they go someplace else and pay a big chunk to send money home. But if they have an account here with us we’ve made it easy from their end, where [sic] they can open that account and send money to a separate account in Mexico. Customers can send money to family members without paying the multiple fees involved with check cashing businesses and money wiring services.”
Ginny Phillips: What does it require them to do?
Joe Tennessen: “All they need is a regular account here, and then we show them how they can send the money.”
