case study: optionshouse - vanderbilt university · optionshouse in a nutshell founded 2006 2009 no...

Case Study:

OptionsHouse

• Quick Introduction

• Background on OptionsHouse

• Stumbling Blocks to OptionsHouse Growth

• The Key Growth Factors at OptionsHouse

• Brand Building

• Transformation to Customer Centric Organization

• Efficient Digital Marketing

• Outcomes for OptionsHouse staying focused on what

Matters

What I’ll Review Today

• Graduated DePauw University, Economics

• NYC internship convinced me to move into Advertising

• Spent 2 years in Atlanta building portfolio

• Started out doing contract work in NYC, Atlanta and Bend,

OR

• Spent ~1 year with Buntin Group in Nashville, TN

• Spent ~5 years with VSA (Microsoft account) and Leo

Burnett (MillerCoors, Coca-Cola) in Chicago

• Graduated DePaul University, MBA

• Spent ~5 years at OptionsHouse (and parent company

PEAK6)

• Now back in Nashville with Advanced Network Solutions

A Little Background on Me

• PEAK6 Investments found in Chicago in 1997.

• Capital Management Firm

• Unique options strategy/early adopter of digital trading

• Utilizes proprietary trading platform

• Then one day, one of their tech people says, we could

make a lot of money if we released our platform online and

so . . . .

Brief Backstory on

OptionsHouse

• . . .OptionsHouse is born 2006 to crickets. No customers,

no one jumping at their offer to trade at a 3rd of the price of

any major competitors.

Background on

OptionsHouse

Stumbling Blocks to Growth

• OptionsHouse has a compelling offer to clients. Open a

brokerage account and you can trade for $2.95 a stock

trade and options trades were an even better deal.

• OptionsHouse was well backed financially via PEAK6, so

client money was safe.

• OptionsHouse was staffed with people who had a deep

and thorough understanding of accounts, trading, options,

financial strategy, stocks, etc . . .they know financial

services inside and out.

Here’s What OptionsHouse

Has (Elevator Pitch 2006-

2009)

• OptionsHouse stock price point is so much better than the

competition that people literally think it is a scam.

• And that awesome options price, well, it is great if you

have have :30 minutes to understand it but its too

complicated

• OptionsHouse is well backed financially, but no one

outside the industry has ever heard of PEAK6

• OptionsHouse is well staffed with people who understand

financial services via working in some of the best capital

management firms globally, but have no idea what’s

important to more novice, retail customers.

Here’s What OptionsHouse

Actual Has

• OptionsHouse has marketed itself here and there, but has

never made a significant investment in outreach.

• It’s broad competitors TDAmeritrade, Fidelity, Etrade,

Scottrade are household names. It’s closest competitors

OptionsXpress, ThinkorSwim, etc. are owned by

TDAmeritrade, Fidelity, Etrade, Scottrade.

• Their software is technologically advanced but missing one

crucial component – 24/7 uptime/stability.

And a couple other things . .

.

Key factors of Growth

Essential Early Factors to

Growth

Investment in Research/Planning

Sharpens Focus (Core KPIs)

Measurable Improvement

Process:

Bring in subject matter experts

(outside category input)

Build strategy/processes

Build teams around strategy/processes

People:

Did You Know:

Brand Building: If you stripped Coca-Cola

of every employee, factory and bottle . .

.took everything away.

The name is worth 79.2B. That’s more than

the value of all other materials combined.

Did You Know:

Customer Centric Organizations: Are

60% more profitable compared to

companies that do not leverage customer

feedback.

Did You Know:Digital Marketing: The average costs to reach 2000

people by channel . . .

Did You Know:Marketing: 44% of people begin their shopping

journey with an online search engine.

Brand Building:Product Benefit statement read as the following:

OptionsHouse provides a great value, with fast

execution, a cutting-edge platform and great

prices.

A free thinking tech brand liberating the world from beige conformity

An advocate of women’s self-esteem battling against the falsehood of media-defined beauty

An authority-defying rebel uniting a community to take back the roads

A companion on the hero’s journey constantly compelling athletes to “just do it”

Brand Building:

OptionsHouse is the ally of

active traders seeking a

competitive edge in the market.

Brand Building:

Brand Building:

Brand Building:

Becoming Customer Centric

• OptionsHouse circa 2010:

• Primary research had taken place but had not been

utilized or information been disseminated

• There were no client surveys, no metrics around call

drivers, no readout on FAQ clicks, etc.

• Our product, the platform, gave no user feedback and

had never been user tested by a third party

• Marketing was by and large cut-off from the rest of the

org and there was a bit of bad-blood in the water

Becoming Customer Centric• OptionsHouse circa 2012:

• Every employee new exactly what we gave customers.

Every employee had been thru training.

• A Customer Satisfaction team was organized with

representatives from each department – Each tasked

with resolving at least 3 customer-related initiatives

• All product enhancements were put through a brand

filter; no more “what about this?”

• Product utilized usertesting.com to improve the platform

and marketing did the same for website

• Lines of communication between MKT and key

stakeholders were created to develop financial specific

content and disseminate it outwardly.

Efficient Outreach

• Efficient Digital Marketing Starts with KNOWING

YOUR CUSTOMERS

• The biggest obstacles to effective digital

marketing is:

• Not properly utilizing website

• Lack of customer understanding/clear value

proposition to customers

• Underdeveloped business intelligence

• Trying to represent in every channel (You

can’t be everywhere immediately)

Efficient Outreach

• Email • Linkedin• Facebook • Google • Yahoo • Youtube• Display • Affiliates • Partners • Referrals • Organic

Typical B2C CR is 2.35%

X

So How’d We Do It• The company began with a clear value proposition – you

can trade for half the cost, but needed help to be heard.

• We invested heavily in understanding our target

audience:

• Where they were

• What they were interested in

• Why they chose XYZ brokerage

• Etc.

• We took these learnings to build a brand and the

direction of the company itself.

• We tracked everything and leveraged insights to improve

acquisition and marketing spend.

• Finally, we made mistakes. But we learned from them

and got better and better.

OptionsHouse in a Nutshell

Founded 2006

2009 No customers/little trading. Hired CMO to help issues.

2011 I joined mktteam as Brand Manager –charged with building Brand ID. Growing customer base, but company loosing 5-8M annually

2011-2014 Grow customer base from ~30k to ~120k, revenue by 70M

Company sells to PE firm for 200M

**2016 OptionsHouse grows customer base by ~10k, sells to Etradefor 725M.