Case Studies
My clients’ confidentiality is extremely important to me, and with that in mind I keep their confidence close.
It is of utmost importance to me that my clients’ information is respected and remains their own, and that their intellectual property, brands, and cultures are preserved. Due to the personal nature of the discussions we have had, I choose to keep these discussions out of the public domain.
With that, I have changed client specific information within these Case Studies to protect them, just as I would protect you in our work together.
Grocery
Challenge:
Client was facing a challenge of descreased sales of in-store brand items thereby squeazing profit margins in a competative and crowded market.
Solution:
We worked with the client to develop a variable direct mail coupon program that was based upon the buying habits of the individuals per the data collected from their loyalty cards. For example, women who were buying first stage diapers, were put on a three year direct mail program to sell them baby formula, store brand diapers, baby food and a myriad of other items and the items changed based upon an assumed aging of the child.
Results:
The immediate result an increase in purchase of in-store branded items. The more significant result was the increased amount of requests for loyalty cards, which led to a larger direct mail database, increased store loyalty and higher profits.
Casino
Challenge:
A US-based tribal casino on the Canadian border was losing money because the Canadian dollar had dropped in value and Canadian patrons were no longer coming to the casino.
Solution:
We created a variable direct mail campaign that was based off the data on their player’s cards. We knew when they came down, how much time they spent at the casino, what games they played, how much they won and lost, but most importantly, we knew their birthday.
Each month, we sent out 50 000 variably printed birthday cards inviting them and their friends to come down to the casino during their birthday month. If they normally spent $50 US, we gave them a voucher for $50 Canadian = $50 US so the dollar was on par, and if they normally spent more, the offer went up. They also got a free lunch (who can resist a free lunch), and they and everyone that came with them got a free piece of birthday cake. Those who came with them also got an offer for $5 US for $5 Canadian.
Results:
We ran this campaign for three years and got an average monthly redemption rate of 45%. That means 22 500 Canadians came to the casino every single month, and brought their friends who had not been coming into the casino.
Their friends ended up getting their own player’s cards and therefore we were able to grow the mailing list by as much as 25% by the end of three years.
This also ended up with a net profit in excess of $50 million over that same three year period of time.
Manufacturing and M&A
Challenge:
A 50,000-employee manufacturer acquires an 8,000-employee company. Although the products and services dovetail, the purpose, culture, mission, vision, and values are not entirely aligned. The organization is worried about onboarding these new employees efficiently and cost-effectively and not losing institutional knowledge through attrition.
Solution:
We created an internal, private, and secure podcast that, over 24 months, introduced the new employees to the culture of the parent organization. The podcast was private and secure and focused weekly on introducing new employees to who was in the organization, clients, goals, aspirations, challenges and history.
Results:
The immediate result was a cost savings of nearly $20 million, as traditional onboarding was estimated at $3000 per employee.
Another result was a 10% lower attrition rate than senior leadership estimated, saving a further $2 million in rehiring, retraining, and dealing with disruptions along the way.
A third result was the creation of a training library that focused on a wide range of information dealing with policies, procedures, products, purpose, and culture, which had been relevant for several years.
Logistics and Safety
Challenge:
A worldwide deep water port client noticed their health and safety records were not as good as they wanted, resulting in several accidents, stoppages to investigate WorkSafe claims, and climbing insurance rates.
Solution:
We created a set of work gloves that each of the 25000 workers would use on site. On the back of the glove, by the wrist, we embroidered on the left glove, “think safety,” and on the exact location on the right glove, “act safely.”
This became part of an overall “think safety, act safely” multi-channel campaign, with incentives, that set up friendly competitions between locations regarding who could be the safest group.
Results:
The ongoing results were fewer injuries, double the number of days between shut-downs for investigations company-wide, fewer Worker Compensation claims and decreased insurance rates.
Senior leadership stated for every dollar that was spent on this campaign, they assumed a net eight dollar profit because of the results above.
Healthcare Program Awareness
Challenge:
Staff needed to implement a new IT program across the Provincial Health Authority, which required a dramatic shift in procedures and workflow and the unionized staff was hesitant to change.
Solution:
We created a swat team of product champions across departments trained in the new software that understood why and how the program made their teams more effective and how to articulate this effectively.
These people were deployed across the hospital system for 4-6 months and showed up daily in bright blue T-shirts with the program name and “Ask Me” on the back. This gave people instant access to someone they could ask if they had questions, and champions who could course correct sooner because they had eyes on the challenges in real-time.
Results:
The protocols were adopted 30-40 days sooner than estimated by senior management, and when we asked non-champion team members about the why’s and how’s of the program six months later, they communicated effectively and had adopted the protocols willingly.
This created a result of less friction between union membership and leadership, happier employees and patients and a savings of $5 million in the first year alone.