Free checking/free gift.

• Author: Wachtel, George
• Position: Letter Doctor - Letter to the editor

This self-mailer flier from a Connecticut financial institution does a good job in many ways of selling a very popular product: free checking with a free gift. The overall layout is pleasing--but carries a little too much information and some structural flaws that could easily be corrected. Because the flier is large, with six panels, I will discuss it in two separate columns. I will talk about the first three panels below. In my April 2008 column, I will comment about the other panels.

(1) The images. They use many good, stock photos of people throughout the piece; but this important one on the front panel should have been more engaging, with the subject looking the reader in the eye (rather than taking their line off the page to the left). And interestingly, in their striving for "diversity," they missed a major group--Caucasian males.

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(2) Benefits. As competitor's to banks, this credit union does a good job of positioning this sales point here and on the right-hand inside panel; but they could have used the "part owner" in their headline.

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(3) Product Options. Many banks also make the same mistake of trying to list and explain the differences between all their checking account choices. Better to make this into a simpler statement of "great checking choices from traditional to ..." and leave it to the platform person to explain the benefits to the...