Learning Launch – Branch Marketing

CHALLENGE

I work for a bank as part of the analytics team. Analytics has historically been assisting the marketing  team with how best to place marketing banners in branches. One of the focus points is to investigate  which banners need to be present in each branch. There are many types of banners that could be  printed, but these are costly if not placed in the right branches for the right people to see them. The  objective of this project is to strategically place product banners in the right places to drive product  take up.

SELECTION

Of all design thinking tools, learning launch is the best way to go about this investigation. The use of  test and learn information can be used to develop the best banners to place in each branch. Some  banners will be placed in certain branches and this will be compared to the holdout group with no  banners. If the branches with banners lead to more take-ups of products, then the test will be  deemed successful. If not, then the test can be run again with alternative banners in place.

APPLICATION

In depth analytics is used to find all customers who could enter each branch and also each  customer’s propensity to take up products with the bank. Given all analysis and data is ready, a test  sample of branches can be selected where banners containing specific information can be placed in  the branches. Branches where it is believed customers will take up more of a certain product, will  have different banners placed in them.

The banners are very costly and instead of rolling out to all branches at one time, only a handful of  branches will be used as a test. A holdout sample of branches (comparable to those in the test set),  will also be monitored, but no banners will be placed in these branches.

The banners will be up for a period of 4 weeks and after the 4 weeks, insights will be used from each  of the test and holdout branches. If the product take up in the branches with banners of products, is  higher than where there is no banner, then the test (learning launch) has worked. If this is the case,  then all banners can be rolled out to all branches.

If the test group does not show more product take up than the holdout group, then the analytics  need to be investigated in more detail to ensure a better way of placing banners. Once this analysis  is finished and new decisions have been made, then another test and holdout group can be  investigated.

INSIGHT

This project is in initial phases of being launched, but with the learning launch, I am hoping to get  insights from the small group of branches where test banners are placed. If there is insight of this  working, then the full rollout can happen. If not, that means the analytics need more investigation  and another learning launch can kick off.

Other insight that might be valuable is to find out product take up information within the first 2  weeks of the banners being visible. Though the banners can stay up for the full 4 weeks as planned,  the plan for what next steps are, should be visible at this point – whether it indicates full rollout or a  redo of the learning launch.

APPROACH

As mentioned, the approach of test and learn in the form of a learning launch, is the best fit design  thinking tool that will drive insights. The steps include running a small test group and ensure that the  choice of banners is correct before rolling out to all branches. This approach has proved to work best  for previous marketing campaigns and that is why I believe this is the best approach to take to  ensure success without wasting expenses and with getting highest possible product take-up.

