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For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jan Dailey, SVP, Marketing Manager
972-391-6191, jan.dailey@tnbcard.com
Kristine Tanzillo, Dux Public Relations
972-889-9577, kristine@duxpr.com
TEXAS CREDIT
UNION'S PROMOTION GETS GREAT RESULTS DESPITE
MEMBERS' UPHEAVAL IN FACE OF HURRICANE RITA
DALLAS - January 17, 2006 - When a special
promotion begins just as everyone is leaving town to
escape a hurricane, it's understandable if your
expectations are low.
That's what happened at Texas Dow Employees
Credit Union (TDECU) in Lake Jackson, Texas. The
91,000-member credit union was one of the credit
unions taking part in TNB Card Services' two-month
Fall Credit Card Acquisition. It started in
mid-September 2005, and just as the direct mail
solicitations were hitting their mailboxes, TDECU's
members were hitting the highways to get out of the
path of Hurricane Rita.
"We figured with Rita, we would see no
results from this promotion at all," recalled
Stephanie Sherrodd, vice president of retail
delivery for TDECU. Yet when everyone came home,
they responded enthusiastically, and TDECU had a
standout performance among the credit unions taking
part in the promotion.
From the 2,413 TDECU members solicited, the
credit union opened 88 new credit card accounts.
That is a 3.65 percent opening rate, nearly nine
times the industry average.
Sherrodd says TDECU's members are very loyal, and
its credit card program is a good one, and that
accounts for how well the credit union did.
"We have a very strong product, with rates
as low as 4.99 percent. Having a good rate is one of
the most important aspects of promoting the
cards," she said, adding that this was the
first such promotion TDECU has run since merging
with another credit union in 2004. "That gave
us opportunities with people who weren't as aware of
the card product."
Overall, the direct mail promotion yielded well
over 1,000 new credit card accounts opened by TNB
Card Services processing client credit unions. Based
on the total number of solicitations mailed, the
rate at which new accounts were opened was 0.8
percent, or nearly twice the national average (0.44
percent) for this type of promotion.
Also a top performer was Houston Police Federal
Credit Union, another organization in the path of
the hurricane whose members were undaunted by Mother
Nature and responded well to the promotion. Houston
Police opened 80 new accounts, for a 2.31 percent
opening rate among the 3,462 members solicited.
Kenneth Winkler, vice president of member
services for Houston Police Federal Credit Union,
said the success of the promotion exceeded his
expectations. He was looking for a 1.5 percent
account-opened rate, which the credit union achieved
when it ran the promotion a year ago, but this year,
scored a stronger 2.31 percent rate.
"We have a good product, and this promotion
gave us the chance to keep putting that message out
to the membership," Winkler said. "The
simplicity of the promotion, with all the
information on one sheet, really helped. TNB did an
excellent job on the wording, keeping the points
simple and telling members what was in it for them.
That was important."
The response was helped by word of mouth among
the close-knit membership, Winkler added, as the
credit union's 24,430 members are all police
officers, their families, and civilian police
department employees.
Glen Lee, first senior vice president of TNB Card
Services, credited the promotion's success to its
simplicity and its effective targeting of potential
cardholders. The promotional mailing that
pre-approved non-cardholder members received was
customized for each credit union and used their
specific criteria and score cut ranges to select who
received the offer.
"We build a careful profile of the credit
union members who will receive these solicitations
from our clients," Lee said. "The effort
we put into targeting the right people clearly pays
off, as the strong rate of newly opened accounts
shows."
-t-t-
About TNB Card Services
TNB Card Services, owned and directed by credit
unions since 1976, provides electronic payments
processing, as well as an agent issuing solution for
credit unions nationwide. Serving more than 450
financial institutions and managing more than 1.6
million cards, Dallas-based TNB enables credit
unions to enhance member loyalty through credit
union-branded card products. For more information
about TNB, go to www.tnbcard.com or call
1-888-742-0260.
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