2017

Finance Operations Research Event

INDIANOLA HIGH SCHOOL

ELLEN BRENNAN AND VANESSA

Indianola High School

1304 E. 1st Avenue

Indianola, IA 50125

Participants:

Ellen Brennan and Vanessa Gauger

February 6, 2017

Indianola DECA

Contents

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................ 1

II. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 2

III. RESEARCH METHODS USED IN THE STUDY .............................................................................. 7

IV. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY ................................................................... 11

V. PROPOSED STRATEGIC PLAN ................................................................................................ 19

VI. PROPOSED BUDGET ............................................................................................................... 27

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................... 28

VIII. APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................. 28

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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Description of Business: People’s Bank is a locally owned bank in Indianola Iowa that

was established in 1998 by Kevin Halterman. The goal of this bank was to establish a

community bank that the residents of Indianola could rely on and feel comfortable

using. People’s Bank has now spread to four other locations in central Iowa, serving

other communities as well. Because of its community-like feel, the target market for

People’s Bank is members of the community in which the bank is located. The goal of

People’s Bank is to serve its community in the best way possible, and People’s Bank is

doing just that.

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to establish a SoLoMo marketing plan for

People’s Bank. Because SoLoMo is a relatively new concept, all of the strategies will

have to be new as well because of the lack of knowledge of SoLoMo. The owner of

People’s Bank didn’t know what SoLoMo marketing was until it was explained in the

interview. By finding out more about People’s Bank and SoLoMo, it will help with the

foundation of a strong strategic plan that will include SoLoMo in People’s Bank

marketing starting in 2017.

Research Methods: The research of this project was meant to help gain a lot of

background knowledge on Indianola, People’s Bank and SoLoMo marketing. Doing

internet research was the first step. We did research on Indianola as a community to

understand it more as a whole. Next, we looked up SoLoMo and found out what kind of

marketing it was and how to use it. The last kind of internet research was to look up the

People’s Bank website and see what kind of information we could find from the

website. After gaining as much information as we could online, we moved to finding

information from primary sources. The first step we took was setting up an interview with

the owner Kevin Halterman. With this interview we found out more about the rationale

and reasoning behind starting People’s Bank. The last source we gained information

from was the customers of People’s Bank through a survey. The survey asked all kinds of

questions about People’s Bank, from the marketing to the service. To goal of this

research was to get as much information as we could so a strong and ready strategic

plan could be made to help with the marketing of People’s Bank

Findings and Conclusions: Through the research conducted we found a lot of what we

wanted. Indianola is a community that doesn’t differ too much from other towns in the

US. Indianola is an average-sized town that a community bank like People’s Bank would

be popular. Through our research we also found that the owner of People’s Bank didn’t

know what SoLoMo was. Because SoLoMo is fairly new, it would make sense as to why

it’s not more heard of. We also found out a lot about the startup and rationale behind

People’s Bank through an interview with the owner, Kevin Halterman. Through the

survey we found how the customers felt about People’s Bank.

Proposed Plan, Timeline and Budget: After concluding all the research, a plan, timeline

and budget were made. The first step in the plan is to create an e-mail blast. The next

step is to update the web page that a website designer will do. After the web page,

order a plaque for a wall to feature sponsored activities. The e-mail will be sent out after

the wall is created. After the e-mail is sent out to the customers of People’s Bank will be

able to enjoy the wall of sponsored activities because the plaque hung up as a focal

point.

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II. INTRODUCTION A. Description of the business or organization

In 1998, People’s Bank was established by Kevin Halterman in order to help the

community. The long term goal at People’s Bank is to expand their markets footprint

and advance the technology that helps their customers with their banking. Their short

term goals are to understand what the people want, to be able to identify people by

their voice and to have a community run bank.

After attending college, Kevin Halterman worked at Farm Credit. Kevin

Halterman moved from Farm Credit to People’s Bank in Waterloo. He decided to start

People’s Bank after the bank where he worked, the old People’s Bank, was bought out

by a national bank. His goal with People’s Bank is to be known like Pella Windows, in the

way that they help the community financially and support organizations in it. People’s

Bank is located on E Iowa Avenue at the north east side of Indianola.

People’s Bank has a great selection of different products that it offers to its

customers. Many of the accounts and options that People’s Bank has is helpful to the

customers. They offer five different types of checking accounts such as a V.I.P. Cash

Management Account, Interest Checking, Community Club Accounts, Peoples Classic

Checking, and New Horizons Checking. Each checking account relates to a certain

group of people. People’s Bank two saving accounts, one for people 0 to 13 years old

and one for people 14 years and older. They offer three different types of loans, each

one is fit for a member of the People’s Bank community. The loan types are consumer

loans, real estate loans, and consumer/ Ag loans. They also provide safe deposit boxes,

credit and debit cards, and the ability to pay your bills online. The variety of tangible

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and intangible goods that are sold helps to entice customers into choosing People’s

Bank.

The prices that are offered through People’s Bank are fair and reasonable. They

offer online banking as well as letting a customer go in and talk with an employee in

the bank. People choose to go to People’s Bank for their fair pricing and the way they

work alongside their customers to get what is best for them. All in all People’s Bank does

a good job of knowing what people are willing to spend and setting their pricing

accordingly.

People’s Bank's primary target market is for people that are community based

and that live near one of their banks. They want people who care about the

community they live in and the people that live in it. The community aspect that

People’s Bank strives for is reached by the types of customers that they have targeted

and reached. The secondary market that People’s Bank targets is people who take out

loans. People who take out loans make banks money from the interest that they have.

The people who take loans helps boost People’s Bank’s revenue. People’s Bank has

many different secondary target markets, people taking out loans, people who have

checking and savings accounts, and many other different markets. The overall target

market that they try to reach is pretty general but they mainly want good people who

love their community.

People’s Bank has five locations all throughout Iowa. Indianola, Pleasantville,

Carlisle, Lacona and Milo are located in the heart of the town. The Carlisle People’s

Bank is located on the outskirts of Carlisle, not by more than five minutes for its

customers. The proximity of the branches of People’s Banks to the heart of their town

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makes them easy to access which helps them to pull in more customers. The ways all of

these banks try to promote themselves is through Facebook, and their own online

websites. The different locations that all the banks have are in great spots to gain and

keep customers. The key advantage of People’s Bank is that they are locally owned

and that they only have four locations, which is helpful in bringing in a personal

relationship with their customers. In order to gain and satisfy their current customers the

bank needs to promote themselves in as many ways possible.

B. Description of the community (economic, geographic, demographic and

socioeconomic factors)

People’s Bank started off in Indianola as a community bank. Slowly, People’s

Bank has gained a few more locations in Carlisle, Pleasantville, Milo and Lacona. Kevin

Halterman had a vision for his community and made a difference. People’s Bank strives

to promote and advertise the community aspect that they have created in their bank.

The bank is proud of the work they have done that is helping the community that they

are located in.

Economic and Geographic

Indianola is located 18.5 miles south of downtown Des Moines. Holding the

county seat for Warren County is Indianola. With 11.25 square miles, Indianola has a

population density of 1,666 people per square mile. There are 15,467 residents total and

70.8% of the population is above the age of 20. Not a very diverse community,

Caucasians make up 94.2% of the population. African Americans, Hispanics, Asians,

American Indian, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander makeup 3.6% while

1.4% of the population is two or more races. The other 1% consists of other races not

listed. Since 2000, the population of Indianola has increased 17.7%. With 5,924 total

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households in Indianola, the average household size is 2.69 persons. Indianola is a great

place for families, it is affordable to live in, doesn’t have a lot of crime and has a great

school system with high average test scores.

Demographic

Indianola consists of 53.8 percent female and 46.2 percent male. The age ranges

in Indianola are also pretty diverse. 32.4% of the population is over the age of 50, 38.4%

are 20-49 and 29.2% are below the age of 19. The median resident age is 33.2. The

Indianola school system is a well-run machine that cares for all the children in the

community. The graduation rate for the high school is 96.5% which is about 16% more

than the national average. Along with a high graduation rate, the State Assessment

Proficiency is a high 91%. Within the past ten years, the community has also gotten a

new elementary school and now Indianola has four elementary schools, one middle

school and one high school.

Socioeconomic

Indianola is also a safe community considering how close it is located to Des

Moines. In Indianola, your chance of being a victim of a crime is 1:34 while in Des

Moines, your chances are 1:22. Along with being safe, Indianola has a fun and relaxed

atmosphere. Every year at the end of July and beginning of August, Indianola hosts a

hot air balloon classic that attracts many people. Along with the Balloon Classic,

Indianola has the National Balloon Museum and U.S. Ballooning Hall of Fame. Another

attraction of Indianola is Lake Ahquabi, a small and beautiful lake towards the outside

of the Indianola city limits.

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C. Overview of the business or organization’s current promotional strategies and

practices

SoLoMo is a fairly new marketing strategy that is becoming more widely used.

The So in SoLoMo stands for social marketing. This includes social networks like Twitter,

Facebook and other websites. The Lo stands for local targeting the local area of a

business. This strategy is trying to get the social aspect to the locals. The last strategy is

Mo, which stand for mobile. Because lots of people always carry their phones, mobile

marketing has become a very widespread strategy used by many businesses.

People’s Bank uses many different tactics in order to inform their customers

about their business. The most common and widely used strategy is their website. The

bank also has their own Facebook page that pushes out notifications about different

promotions that they have, such as pens, self-stick on wallet cases, and many others.

Some more ways they connect to others online is through their app that helps to

connect them to their customers. All of these different online presences help to reach

as many customers as needed through different social strategies.

In order to gain support from the people within their communities they sponsor a

variety of local clubs and teams. Many of the clubs they sponsor are similar to Indianola

DECA, school based clubs and teams. The amount of organizations in Indianola that

get a helping hand from People’s Bank is quite amazing.

People’s Bank offers online banking that makes it easier for its customers to do all

that they need to do online and not worry about the hassle of making a trip to the

bank. Online banking offers a way to pay your bills and check out what is happening in

your bank accounts. Being able to use online banking makes customers enjoy being

members of People’s Bank more and makes it more appealing to a new customer.

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III. RESEARCH METHODS USED IN THE STUDY A. Description and rationale of research methodologies selected to conduct the

research study

Research Goals

The goal of the research we conducted was to determine if People’s Bank was

using SoLoMo marketing and if so, how they were utilizing it. SoLoMo wasn’t something

the owner of People’s Bank was familiar with. Because he didn’t really know what

SoLoMo was, People’s Bank wasn’t using this marketing strategy. Researching the

different points of views, from the customers to the CEO to a third party’s view, would

end up helping us to come up with different ideas to make SoLoMo a strategy People’s

Bank could utilize. SoLoMo is a strategy that People’s Bank could benefit from

immensely. It has a local aspect to it so researching more about SoLoMo and People’s

Bank could help us to make a strategic plan. The plan would benefit the company and

the customers.

Secondary Research

Secondary Research is analyzed research that is used in order to collect data. It

is the most used source of research, it is easier to find and gather information on a topic

than primary research. The reason that secondary research was used was because it is

easy and accessible from anywhere. It only took a click of a button to find out when

and where the bank started instead of having to have a formal interview with the CEO.

The information that we gathered in our primary research was more time consuming

because it came directly from the source, while the secondary research was easier to

understand and was more factual. One way that knowledge about SoLoMo was

gathered was through a website that was all about what SoLoMo is and different

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examples of it. SoLoMo was portrayed on the website as a marketing effort that

touched base on different aspects of the marketing world. It gave examples of how a

text can be sent to a phone when it is a mile away from a location. There are many

other ways that SoLoMo can be used in order to help marketing for a business.

To gain information about the city of Indianola we went to a census website that

talked about how many people live in Indianola and many other demographic things

that were needed in the understanding of the town of People’s Bank. The website helps

to describe the city of Indianola. We also found out information out the socioeconomic

aspects of Indianola. The schools, the crime rates, attractions, and many other parts

that make Indianola unique.

In order to find facts about the economic and geographic parts of Indianola a

statistics website was used. The website contained facts about the land and the area,

how the population is spread out, and many other facts about Indianola. This site also

helped to get the knowledge about the land that the people who go to People’s Bank

and about the area that People’s Bank is located.

Another way to get information through People’s Bank is online at their website.

The website offers background about the bank, such as when it started, and why the

bank was started. The website offers online banking for its customers. People’s Bank also

offers community links to other resources located in Indianola’s People’s Banks

community. The Bank has a page on their website that tells people how to switch

accounts around and how to switch from a different bank to People’s Bank. There is an

employment tab where you can see what positions they need and where each

position is located, what bank it is located in. The website is great because it has

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different ways you can contact them and tells the different locations that are available

to go to. People’s Bank has created a website that is informational, friendly, inviting,

and easy access. This website helped us to gain more knowledge on People’s Bank

before we went to talk to the CEO, Kevin Halterman.

Primary Research

Primary research is the research one does to get information right from a source

that can answer simple questions they have. This type of research is really helpful

because if it is done correctly, you can get information right from a source that you

couldn’t get from the internet or a book. The best way to get all the information we

needed came from the direct source and starter of People’s Bank, President and CEO,

Kevin Halterman. Because People’s Bank is a local company, it was easy to set up a

time to meet Kevin Halterman and interview him. With just a couple emails, a meeting

was set up with Mr. Halterman. The Interview was aimed to gain a better basis of

knowledge for People’s Bank and the rationale behind the start of it. The interview was

also a good time to get inside information on the kind of marketing strategies that

People’s Bank is currently using. Along with an Interview with the CEO, a survey with 21

questions was sent out to the customers of People’s Bank. The questions were general

and asked about the services, advertising, sponsoring, online resources and pricing.

These different research strategies will give all the different views on how People’s Bank

operates and what the strategic plan might need to consist of. The two primary sources

helped us to see what kind of marketing People’s Bank was doing from two different

points of views. The views of the marketer to the target market is going to help

determine what needs to be improved for the strategies and what needs to be added.

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B. Process used to conduct the selected research methods

Internet Research

The first kind of internet research we conducted was to find information on the

city of Indianola. Through this research we found different statistics and facts about the

economy, geography, demographics and more. The census website and other statistic-

like sites really helped us to gain insight on how Indianola runs and what happens within

the community. This kind of background knowledge was also very useful to determine

what kind of questions to ask in the interview.

The People’s Bank website is very organized and easy to navigate through. We

clicked on all the different tabs on the People’s Bank website to figure out all the

different options they offer. On the website you can do your online banking and find

out about the different options they offer. People’s Bank’s website helped us to gain a

better background on the company and its methods before we interviewed Kevin

Halterman and made the survey.

Another website that helped us to gain more information on SoLoMo marketing

was Cision. There was an article titled “What is SoLoMo and Why Is it Important to

Marketers?” when we googled SoLoMo. This article helped us to gain knowledge on the

topic before we started to write, Interview and make a survey about it. SoLoMo is a

marketing strategy that targets “Social, Local, and Mobile” marketing.

Personal Interview

For the Personal Interview, all it took was a couple of emails to get an

appointment set up with Kevin Halterman as seen in Appendix B. A week later, a

meeting was set up and questions were prepared to ask Mr. Halterman that could help.

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In the interview, Kevin Halterman answered questions ranging from his education,

experience and why and how he started People’s Bank. He also gave insight on how

People’s Bank has established a SoLoMo presence.

Online Survey

We created an online survey located in Appendix A in order to reach out to

customers of People’s Bank. By using an online survey it made it easier to find out what

type of people go to People’s Bank and how much they know about it. The first part of

the survey is about personal information, gender, age, and how far away they live.

There was also questions that asked about how long they’d been going to People’s

Bank and why they go there. This should help to identify the main type of people that

go to People’s Bank. The survey was created through Google Forms. The form link was

posted on social media that had a caption of, if you go to People’s Bank please take

this survey. The distribution process also included asking people personally that are

known customers of People’s Bank. By creating the survey it helped to show why they

go to People’s Bank and what items do they use through the bank.

IV. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY A. Findings of the research study

Personal Interview

Our findings to our personal interview were what we had expected to hear from

Mr. Halterman. They were honest, well rounded answers that he supplied for us. Mr.

Halterman worked at Farm Credit right after college. After working at Farm Credit he

moved to a different bank and from there a large national bank bought the bank he

was working at. Mr. Halterman didn’t want to sacrifice the relationships he built while

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working at a small bank so he opened his own community bank, People’s Bank. He has

two daughters and a wife, through the bank they have flourished.

The bank started out in Indianola, from there they put a People’s Bank in Milo

and Lacona. From there they added a bank in Carlisle. Their latest location currently is

Pleasantville. Each new location that they added they did surveys throughout the town

to make sure that people would go to People’s Bank. In order to attract new customers

into their newer locations, People Bank created a website. The website helped to put

them on the map. Through the website they offer online banking which enticed a

younger population to all of their banks.

People’s Bank continues to increase their technology development. They have

online banking, and the newest one for the customers is their app. Technology is

making the process of banking easier and faster over time. Mr. Halterman told us about

Ally Bank, it is a bank that operates all online, there is no location to go visit. Kevin

Halterman and People’s Bank wants to keep the personal relationships it has and

continues to build with each of their customers.

The main thing that Mr. Halterman says that is needed in an employee is a great

attitude and a hard worker. They want good workers for their bank. The bank thinks that

it is important to have their customers feel welcome and like they are among friends.

Having an inviting presence makes customers feel like they are in a friend’s house. This is

the marketing strategy of People’s Bank. After a visit at People’s Bank they hand out

pens and credit card holder backs. Another way to keep the advertising local, they

rent out a trailer to get their name out. Their mission statement or motto is, “Service you

trust, people you trust.” People’s Bank is devoted to the community, they sponsor over

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100 different organizations in the towns where they are located. They planted roots in

each town that they have a bank, they plan to expand and grow in customers over

time.

Kevin Halterman has many goals for the future of People’s Bank. His short, one

year, goal for the bank is to create a connection with the customers of his bank, be

able to know who someone is without asking. Mr. Halterman’s long term goal for

People’s Bank is to open in different markets, expand their footprint, and increase the

availability in technology for the customers. In order to achieve these goals they have

to increase their numbers of customers. They achieve this by micro targeting. Micro

targeting is when they try to reach each potential customer individually. Also to help

gain more customers they moved locations in Indianola. They were originally located

on the west side of the town square. Kevin Halterman and his employees moved the

bank to be in the middle of town. It is now located right beside Hy-Vee and is much

more visible to current and potential clients.

Kevin Halterman is proud of what he has started. He is proud that he was and is

able to take care and give back to his own community. All of People’s Banks are

located in smaller towns. They want to help the smaller communities out there. People’s

Bank offers many different resources for their customers. They offer loan options, a

checking account, a saving account and many options that other banks offer. Some

things that they offer that many banks don’t have is the relationships that they have

made with their customers.

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Online Survey

Although there were only 17 people who took the online survey (located in

Appendix A and results in Appendix C), we received some helpful results. A majority of

the customers who took it were under the age of 20 and 58.8 percent of them were

female. Because most of the responses came from the same type of people, this could

affect how the results are perceived. This data might not be the most reliable because

the people who responded were mainly female and under 20. We found that everyone

lived less than 20 minutes away which indicates that they most likely picked a bank that

was close to home and easy to have access to. A lot of the younger customers who

took the survey have gone to People’s Bank their entire life so most likely these young

adults went to this bank because their parents set them up to go there. Another aspect

that the survey showed us about People’s Bank is that many of the customers go to

People’s Bank because it is a local bank and family or friends recommended it to them.

A few people chose People’s Bank because it has a good reputation.

Being a local bank, People’s Bank doesn’t really have the same knowledge of

social media as some big corporation banks might have. Their social media presence

isn’t really used or helpful to the customers according to our survey. No one who took

the survey uses the People’s Bank Facebook page to find more information and they

don’t have a Twitter page at all. If there were a Twitter for People’s Bank, 70.6 percent

wouldn’t use it anyway. Although the website and app are very user-friendly for

People’s Bank, most of the customers don’t use them. Less than half use the option of

online banking and less than a fourth use the app. People’s Bank tries to make a mobile

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presence with their customers but most of them either don’t know or just don’t like to

use these tools for their banking.

People’s Bank is a community bank that has a very strong local presence. In

Indianola, People’s Bank sponsors over 100 organizations. Many of the customers who

took the survey did not know this about People’s Bank. Even people within these

organizations were unaware that People’s Bank helped sponsor them. A majority of the

customers think that People’s Bank does an okay or good job advertising themselves

within in the community. With these results we found out that People’s Bank is very

supportive of its community but not everyone knows about it so they could do a better

job with their advertising. Table A shows how the survey participants think about the

advertising of People’s Bank.

Table A- Marketing and Advertising in People’s Banks

The last aspect of People’s Bank that the survey touched on was customer

service and satisfaction. Everyone who took the survey used People’s Bank for a

checking account, savings account or for their online banking. On a scale of 1-10, 88.2

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percent feel that they are treated with an 8 or above. With this data you can tell it’s a

community bank because they want all their customers to feel comfortable and at

home. In all, most everyone enjoys their experience at People’s Bank, as shown in table

B.

Table B-

Overall

Experience at

People’s Bank

Overall, the survey was really helpful to understand People’s Bank from the customers’

point of view. It was really critical to have a point of view that wasn’t from someone

who worked there or was just doing research about it from their website and the survey

allowed this.

Internet Research

Some of the internet research that was done helped to form conclusions about

the town of Indianola and helps to point out why Peoples Bank would start up in

Indianola. Indianola is home to Simpson College. Because Indianola is a college town,

many young adults live in Indianola during their years of school. Having a college town

helps bring in new customers from different areas. Along with the college town

Indianola has four elementary schools, one middle school, and a high school. Indianola

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is home to many families that send their kids to these schools. Indianola is really close to

Des Moines, a big city that offers many employment opportunities. Many people in the

town of Indianola commute to Des Moines because of this and many of the people

who commute to Des Moines do it for a better pay and more job opportunities that

Indianola doesn’t offer. Because of this, a lot of residents in Indianola work in the Des

Moines area and reside in Indianola. We also found that Indianola isn’t a very diverse

community. Most of the residents are white and in their thirties to forties. The average

household size indicates that Indianola is a more family-oriented community than the

average for the U.S. Indianola also has a very good education system and is known for

its high test scores. Overall, the census site really helped to find out the details of

Indianola so we had some background knowledge on the community itself before

going into a more specific part of the community. .

More internet research was done on the topic of SoLoMo. SoLoMo is a very new

strategy that highlights the use of social, local and mobile advertising. SoLoMo is a

good strategy to use if you’re a local-based company. This kind of marketing allows you

to use location to advertise your company or product. SoLoMo is also very new

because of the social aspect. Social media is growing bigger every day and SoLoMo

highlights taking advantage of this by marketing through social media. Many people

are dependent on their cell phones and don’t go anywhere without them, this allows

people to advertise through mobile devices. Local advertising is using these marketing

strategies to target people locally. SoLoMo would be a very good marketing plan for

People’s Bank if they were to start using this kind of advertising.

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The last kind of internet research we did was go on the People’s bank website to

gain more knowledge on their background and the kind of advertising they were

currently doing. What we did first was click through all the tabs and figure out what kind

of approach they were taking. One thing we found important was that they had a

page about the owner and why he started the bank. This page made the whole

website more personal and really brings out the community aspect. By talking about

the CEO and giving up some personal information, it makes the customers comfortable

with going to this community bank.

B. Conclusions based on the findings

Based on the research that was conducted, we concluded that People’s Bank is

a very local and involved bank in the community of Indianola. Many of the customers

enjoy going to People’s Bank due to the environment that they have created. All the

information that was gathered through the online survey, website, and the personal

interview brought insight into how the business works and how it is run.

The online survey made it easy to notice that people want a bank that is closest

to their home. From the interview with Mr. Halterman is was easy to conclude that he

just wanted to create a bank that would help out those who lived around the bank. The

website helped to get many stone hard facts out to its customers. It also helped in ways

of knowing what their organization is like by how the website is run and how much work

they put into their job. The range shown on the online survey of how long people have

been going there means that they keep their lifelong customers happy and are doing

well at increasing their new customers. Many of the new customers came from family or

a friend recommendations. The people that go there want to bring in people they care

for, meaning that they trust what People’s Bank stands for and all that it does for them.

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Although People’s Bank is doing a good job at gaining new customers and

keeping their old clients, they could be doing more. In order to have old customers feel

good with the choice that they made for their bank and for potential clients would be

creating a wall that shows all the different organizations that they sponsor. Having a

wall with all of their organizations on it will help to make the customer more aware of

the good that the bank does for them and the community that they live in. One way to

show current clients about what they offer is to create and send out an email blast.

Their current clients don’t use many of the products that they offer so by sending out an

email that is informing about those products it will boost sales in those areas. Another

way to help their lack of use on some of their products, mainly their online banking

through their website is by updating their website and making it more user friendly.

Without more promotions to help bring in new customers and make the current ones

happy, People’s Bank will never be able to expand like the CEO wants. In order to grow

the business, People’s Bank should create a plan that details new ways to inform

current and potential customers of the products and services they offer.

V. PROPOSED STRATEGIC PLAN A. Objectives and rationale of the proposed strategic plan

The proposed plan is made to get more customers aware of all the organizations

that People’s Bank sponsors and to encourage them use the online banking and app.

With the research that was conducted, we found that not many people know about all

the activities People’s Bank sponsors and they don’t utilize the website and app as

much as People’s Bank projected. One idea that we proposed is People’s Bank could

create a wall in their sitting area of all the activities they sponsor in the community. The

wall will have photos of the teams and clubs that they sponsor and a plaque. Putting

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this up will help to inform the customers about what People’s Bank is about and what all

they do for the community. To make the online banking option more popular, another

proposed idea is to revamp the look of this option. Making the online banking more

appealing and user-friendly could boost the number of people who use it. The last

proposed plan is to send out an e-mail to all customers highlighting the website and

app. Sending this out will hopefully make people more aware of what the website and

app has to offer. The customers of People’s Bank will benefit from these proposed ideas

as well as get the name of People’s Bank out to those who don’t know much about it.

B. Proposed activities and timelines

Wall of Sponsored Activities

People’s Bank takes the community bank aspect very seriously by sponsoring

over 100 local organizations. Through the survey we found that most customers didn’t

even know about how much People’s Bank does for the community. Those who did

know about what they sponsor didn’t even know if they were part of any of the clubs

that they sponsor. A lot of the customers go to People’s Bank because of the

community aspect, the customers should see it for themselves. One way for customers

to get the feel of all the organizations that People’s Bank sponsors, would be to

internally advertise the most effective way that People’s Bank could internally advertise

is by setting up a wall of sponsored activities.

The wall of sponsored activities would consist of all the logos, pictures, or

available posters of the activities People’s Bank sponsors along with a plaque above

them. Through Bob’s Custom Trophies the plaque is shown in the image below and

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would be engraved with “People’s Bank is proud to sponsor…” The wording would be in

a gold color and have big bold, easy to read font.

Plaque for the wall of sponsored activities

By putting up this wall of sponsored activities, the customers of People’s Bank

would be more aware of just how involved People’s Bank is in the community. Another

benefit of this wall is that it could potentially gain awareness for the different clubs and

activities. Not only would this wall promote the name of People’s Bank, it would also

promote the activities and clubs that it sponsors. The wall of sponsored activities will

also show how community based People’s Bank is. The wall could encourage and

inform the customers of different organizations and clubs in Indianola.

E-mail Customer Newsletter

People’s Bank offers many different intangible services and tangible goods to its

customers. Many of the customers that do go to People’s Bank don’t even know all the

services and products that they offer. By sending out an email blast to all their current

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clientele they could inform them about what all they have to offer. The e-mail will be

created through MailChimp which is a free service that lets you send e-mail blasts to a

premade list. The email blast will promote services that are hardly used or even known

about. The email will touch base on their website and what it offers such as online

banking and their app. By promoting these items it will help to get their customers into

the world of electronics. Many people when finding a bank want to be able to do

online banking and have an app to use through the bank. The survey we had

customers take showed that many people didn’t even know what they offered. The

email should be friendly, to the point, and easy to read. Customers will be most likely to

read an email that is short and easy to understand more than any other one. People

want things that don’t take up time, like the online banking that they offer or the use of

their app.

Email is a way to connect to customers through mobile devices. Most people

now have phones that have their email hooked up to it. By sending this email customers

will be able to be reached quickly through their phone. By being able to reach their

customers quickly and to a place where they are more likely to see the notification of

the email. So many people today prefer to use their phone to get things done instead

of a computer or going into the bank itself.

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First Email Promotion

When people get this email blast they will most likely be willing to see what all

they offer. They will hopefully investigate what all People's Bank actually offers. What

they find out will be useful in their everyday lives, making People’s Bank a bigger asset

to them. Without the use of the online banking and app People’s Bank would have not

been able to gain as many new customers as they did with the use of them. But the old

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customers who haven’t heard about these services and how to use them will enjoy the

opportunity to try these new services introduced to them through the email blast.

Website Update

The website for People’s Bank is very clean and user-friendly. When you click on

the online banking tab, it turns from looking nice and organized to bland and boring.

The online banking should look more like the website and they should highlight some

key parts about it. At the bottom of the online banking page the text “To see how

banking online can benefit you, please try our demo.” The text should be bolded so it

pops out to potential online banking users. By bolding this lettering or enlarging the text,

it will bring more attention to the important words. If more people clicked on this page,

these improvements would stand out to them and they would be more likely to click on

the link.

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Another way to make the online banking neater is to add more color. Right now,

the page is very dull and doesn’t look as nice as the website itself. By adding more

color to the page, it could make the online banking option more appealing to those

just visiting that page. Instead of the off-white background they should try a cream

background with a red page border. The younger bankers are much more aware of

graphics and detail. Altogether, just improving the look of the page would really help

out customers who are thinking about moving to online banking. In SoLoMo marketing,

improving the look of the website will improve their social aspect. With more people

using the website, the more engaged they are in their banking. Socially, People’s Bank

would greatly benefit from a quick website update that wouldn’t take more than three

hours.

C. Proposed metrics or key performance indicators to measure plan effectiveness

It will be easy to see if people took interest in the different promotions that we

have suggested. Once the promotions are implemented in four months People’s bank

should have people retake the survey and see how many now know what all they offer.

It will be successful if customers are aware of what all is offered and if they now use

different options that People’s Bank offers. The survey will make it easy to tell what parts

January 5, 2017

•Create an e-mail blast to send out via MailChimp

January 11, 2017

•Upadate online banking web page through Studio Fusco

January 18, 2017

•Order plaque for wall of sponsored activities from Bob's Custom Trophies

January 27, 2017

•Send out e-mail blast to customers

February 3, 2017

•Create the wall of sponsored activities in the bank

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were successful of our different promotions. If one was not very successful it will be easy

to take it away, to save money.

If the email blast does not help promote the website and app then no money

was wasted. If the email turns out to be successful then People’s Bank can create a

new one that helps promote different aspects of their bank. They can send out a new

one each and every month. The email is free to use so it will not hurt their finances if

they continue to make and send out emails. The emails should hopefully inform their

customers about what all is possible through People’s Bank.

The wall of sponsors will appeal to the community as a bank that cares about

them. The wall shows customers how much they give back to their community. Without

the wall many people, as shown in the survey, do not even know how much they give

to their community. When people realize how much they invest into the community it

will help make their prices seem more fair and easier to accept. Even if it doesn’t help

their sales at the bank, it makes their bank seem more friendly and appealing to

potential customers.

The website update is time consuming but it makes customers more enticed to

use online banking and other aspects of it. The page to start online banking is hard to

read so by making it more user friendly the customers will be more likely to try it out.

People are more likely to try something if it seems easy and helpful to them.

All in all the promotions will help to promote People’s Bank as a whole but it also

helps to make what they offer more appealing to customers. It may take time to get

used to the new changes that they have to make and to create them but in the long

run it will be rewarding.

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VI. PROPOSED BUDGET The proposed budget was created in order to see how much money it would

cost People’s Bank to try the strategies suggested. There was no money put into the

email blast. Creating and distributing an email blast is free for People’s Bank to try. Since

it is free there is no reason they should not try to create and distribute one. The amount

that it costs to update the website can vary. An experienced and good web site

designer can cost as little as $65 an hour and an even better one can cost more. For

People’s Bank a medium experienced website designer should be used since only one

page is being fixed and the base of the page is already done. The time required to fix

only one page on the website should not be long, the minimum time that was figured

out was around three hours for the designer. The maximum amount of time can be

anything. The update for the website is needed, People’s Bank should not worry about

the cost because the cost of fixing it will be less than the revenue it brings in from the

new online banking page.

The wall of sponsors will be a fairly cheap way to promote everything that

People’s Bank sponsors. The plaque is only $70 through Studio Fusco, which is not much

since all the photos that they want to hang will be free since they already sponsor them

and get one for free. In the end by doing these advertisements and updates the cost to

do them is substantially less than the revenue it could pull in for People’s Bank.

Strategy Provider Cost Website Designer Studio Fusco $195

Plaque Bob’s Custom Trophies $70

Emails MailChimp $0

Total $275

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VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bureau, US. "Search Results". Census.gov. N. p., 2016. Web. 19 Dec. 2016.

"Indianola, Iowa (IA 50125) Profile: Population, Maps, Real Estate, Averages, Homes, Statistics,

Relocation, Travel, Jobs, Hospitals, Schools, Crime, Moving, Houses, News, Sex

Offenders". City-data.com. N. p., 2016. Web. 19 Dec. 2016.

"Peoples Bank Indianola & Warren County – Business Checking, Savings, Mortgage, Loans".

Mybankpsb.com. N. p., 2016. Web. 19 Dec. 2016.

"What Is Solomo And Why Is It Important To Marketers? | Cision". Cision. N. p., 2013. Web. 19

Dec. 2016.

VIII. APPENDIX Appendix A Survey Questions

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Appendix B E-mail correspondence