Rick Spitler is Featured at Marketing Symposium, Speaks on Improving Advertising Effectiveness

October 15, 2007

PHOENIX – The market impact of advertising outlays can be substantially improved by centering campaigns on high–potential markets, and then tailoring media for target customer segments, Rick Spitler told participants at the Source Media Financial Services Marketing Symposium, an annual gathering of senior marketing professionals from retail banks and other types of financial services companies.

A Managing Director in the New York offices of Novantas LLC, Spitler led a session titled "Refining the Marketing Plan for Maximum ROI." He said that blanket advertising campaigns often squander resources, both on low–potential markets and on broad initiatives that don't effectively reach target customers.

A major component in improving advertising effectiveness is developing an in–depth understanding of each local market in which the institution operates, Spitler said. Equipped with comparisons of franchise strength, market growth characteristics and media prices for each market, he said, the institution can establish spending priorities in line with the varying potential of each market that it serves.

Once local market priorities are established, Spitler said, retail banks can further refine advertising campaigns by identifying the commuting patterns of target customer groups in each micro-market, including where they live, work and shop. In turn, advertising messages can be placed in proximate media that will reach target customers most effectively, such as signs, billboards and community newspapers.

Spitler said retail banks can further refine advertising campaigns by tailoring the messages and blend of media outlets for target customer groups. Through systematic application of these principles, Spitler said, retail banks potentially can increase the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns by 15% to 20% – an especially valuable improvement in the current tight market for retail banking.

The co–presenter for the conference session was Theresa McLaughlin, Chief Marketing Officer of Citizens Financial Group, Providence, Rhode Island.

Novantas is the acknowledged leader in customer science and revenue strategy in the financial services industry. The Firm specializes in investigating and interpreting customer needs, attitudes and behaviors in ways that help companies to refine marketing decisions, customer strategies, and sales and service activities.