Coupons! Circulars! First Niagara Bank advertises like a retail store.

• Position: Marketing News - Brief Article

You call yourself a retail bank. And you talk about behaving more like other tail stores. Right? So how about inserting circulars with coupons in newspapers--like other retail stores?

That's what First Niagara Bank of Lockport, N.Y., started doing this spring. The bank, which has $4.9 billion in assets and 68 locations, expects to distribute 8 million circulars (also called free-standing inserts or FSIs) between April and June. The four-color, two-side circulars feature retail-style coupons and promote up to seven consumer and small-business products or services at a time.

Product offers and priority rates as well as the theme of the insert will be changed four to six times annually.

The bank says the new marketing approach is designed to build traffic, gain advertising efficiencies and position the institution as offering 'The best values and service, every day,' according to Charles D. Clark, vice president of...