Client: Wells Fargo Bank (Portland, OR)
Client: Wells Fargo Bank (Portland, OR)
PR Team: Tom Unger, Northwest public relations manager for Wells Fargo
in Portland, OR
Campaign: Win back lost customers, introduce return to traditional
branches
Time Frame: August 1999
Budget: Less than dollars 1,000
Confession is good for the soul, they say. It’s also good for a public
relations campaign - so the Oregon division of Wells Fargo Bank has
learned.
Waves of bank mergers have infuriated customers, who see the new
megabanks as unfeeling and unfriendly. In 1996, when Wells Fargo
completed a hostile takeover of First Interstate Bank - a 10-state
(including Oregon) bank that was itself the product of several mergers -
the result was predictable.
Soon, hot-shot Wells Fargo managers encouraged long-time employees to
take early retirement, began to replace traditional branches with
in-store supermarket outlets and pulled business lenders out of the
market and nearly stopped making business loans.
In Oregon, the reaction was swift and severe. Deposits dropped from
about dollars 5 billion in 1996 to dollars 2.8 billion. Customers left
in droves.
Then, last November, Wells Fargo merged with Norwest Bank of
Minneapolis.
Norwest adopted the historic Wells Fargo name but quickly sought to
establish its own customer-service-oriented, decentralized management
style.
George Passadore, Wells Fargo’s CEO in Oregon and a third-generation
Oregonian, and Tom Unger, his public
relations lieutenant - both survivors of the merger wars - needed to get
the new story out.
Strategy
Passadore and Unger adopted the novel approach of being honest with
their public. They began by confessing earlier mistakes and admitting
that the once-popular bank had lost ground.
Unger wanted massive coverage of the local bank’s new plans. He used
personal contact, knowledge of past coverage and familiarity with
business reporters to persuade them his story was newsworthy. The
Business Journal of Greater Portland was a fairly easy sell and it did a
lead story. But The Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper, proved
much more resistant.
Unger would have to work on the reporter there.
Tactics
Unger faxed and called the reporter. He told him that Wells Fargo had
made the decision to put the business lenders back in the market. But
the reporter replied that that wasn’t a story.
Oh, yeah? Unger retorted. ’Three years ago you did a story on pulling
them out, now we are putting them back in.’ He showed the reporter, who
was new to the paper, the earlier coverage. He added that the bank was
opening up branches again, and that also became part of the campaign
mix.
The reporter went for the hard sell but The Oregonian didn’t run a piece
until two weeks after The Business Journal did.
Unger also sent out localized press releases to areas where branches
were reopening and made sure that Passadore was available for interviews
- it’s not often reporters have an opportunity to quiz a bank
president.
Results
The Associated Press soon picked up the story, which was taking on a
life of its own. In less than a month, it had been picked up in nearly
every daily paper in Oregon and was beginning to appear in weeklies.
There were more than 20 television and radio stories. At the end of
August, Northwest Cable News, which covers four states, went with the
story.
An unexpected but welcome result of the successful campaign has been an
improvement in employee morale. Plus, the bank is seeing many former
employees coming back.
It didn’t hurt Unger and Passadore that Norwest’s CEO was in Portland
the morning the story broke in the city’s paper. ’People asked me if I
timed it that way!’ Unger laughed.
Future
Unger intends to reinforce the new message in the future with major
publicity for each new opening of a traditional branch office. He will
also reassure customers that the supermarket branches will continue to
operate as well.
