TWGFS chose to springboard their financial foray as Warehouse Money by buying the previous joint venture book of customers - The Warehouse Rewards MasterCard, The Warehouse Low Interest MasterCard and The Warehouse Red Card (backed by Westpac) -  and, where possible moving them to new products. The business basically wanted to migrate these customers to new products, and retire the old card products. The challenge was how to offer key benefits that would be compelling enough to ensure behaviour was totally different. Plus, they needed to get the cards into the right hands.

Specifically, the objective was to convert former Westpac joint venture customers with:

·         varying degrees of engagement with The Warehouse brand

·         an aging profile

·         a history of low overall spend but habitual purchasing made on promotional periods alone… and turn them into an invigorated, engaged customer group. 

This was achieved by:

·         assessing an existing customer database (not everyone made the cut)

·         prioritising engagement

·         creating offers that drove action

·         managing the expectation of customers who had enjoyed the status quo

·         ensuring that new legislation changes were considered

·         keeping the lawyers happy

·         optimising an opportunity to reinvigorate a fatigued and unloved group of customers. 

All within the context of a highly competitive market place, limited resources (budget and people), and complex legacy systems inherited from the old structure.

The investment in purchasing “the book” was significant, so stakeholder expectation about migrating these customers was very high, requiring a specified percentage of customers to apply in the first 12 weeks and half of those approved (credit checked) to stay on track for acquisition.

These results were blitzed in a crowded financial services market with by far the smallest budget.