At Corios we are extremely thankful for Emily.  Emily’s leading principle is “We give back because we can.” Leading with this no nonsense and 100% correct philosophy, she combines common sense and empathy, with a little bit of humor, and achieves results for those in our community (and the world) who need it most.

Today has been dubbed by the “powers-that-be” as “Giving Tuesday.”  The general idea being, that the most appropriate thing to follow the gluttony and commercialism of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is a day to focus minds (and money) on helping those who need it most.

This morning, Emily greeted our team with a little comical “truth.”

“Giving Tuesday is definitely a hokey, phony, marketing- created, event like Arbor Day or National Donut Day. But, if it gets people who normally wouldn’t think of donating to a charity to open their wallets, then I’m behind it.”

With helping firmly in mind, Emily’s message promptly focused on a few direct calls to action. In addition to calling out several big name charities such as NPR and the WWF, she also highlighted a few lesser known opportunities to give back such as Give Well and Give Directly. (Looking for somewhere to give back today? It only takes a couple minutes.)

So, with this none too subtle reminder in effect, I knew today was the perfect day to contribute to my team’s efforts to win Corios Penny Wars.  As mentioned in my previous blog post “Giving Thanks”, Penny Wars is our annual fundraiser for the Oregon Food Bank.  The idea is for each team to earn points through the contribution of pennies, while decreasing the points of other teams through the contribution of other coins and bills.

For Example:
100 Pennies = 100 points
1 Dollar Bill = -100 points

Obviously the end result = Lots of Money for Oregon Food Bank.

And so, off to the bank I went, in search of pennies (lots and lots of pennies.)

Did you know $25 of pennies come in a convenient carrying box?

For the record, I’m going to say I left the pennies in the box as a favor to Emily who counts the totals weekly.  However, in truth, I like the perceived image of my team “standing” on a first place podium.

Whether your company has sponsored a formal holiday giving project, or you just take a few minutes to visit Give Well or Give Directly, be sure to seize today’s opportunities to help out those who need it most.

Next week families and friends, in communities across the country, will gather together for good food, a few laughs, and to give thanks.

At Corios we have a lot to be thankful for, first of which is our team.  Each day we work together to solve difficult problems, and bring value to the companies we work with. Today, we gathered to enjoy Thanksgiving lunch, to thank our team for all they contribute.

Monthly team lunches are the norm at Corios, but today we embraced all that makes Thanksgiving delicious.

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, even cranberry sauce.

We might all need a nap later this afternoon.  Thank goodness it’s Friday.

Knowing how lucky we all are, today’s lunch also kicked off our Holiday giving project, our annual Penny Wars competition for the Oregon Food Bank.  Penny Wars is a fun way for our team to battle it out for lasting bragging rights, while also helping local families who need it most. Last year we raised over $1000, and our goal this year is to do even better!

From all of us, to all of you, enjoy a very Happy Thanksgiving.

The Challenge

The retail marketing group for a major bank came to Corios because they were struggling with numerous issues that were limiting their overall profitability.

Our client seeks to maximize the profitability of their campaigns by optimally aligning offerings and customers. The group executes more than 30 campaigns and hundreds of offers every month and, unfortunately, faced ongoing roadblocks with their ability to manage, track, and optimize a myriad of campaign factors including:

• multiple marketing channels
• cross-product halo effects
• over-time contact strategies
• offer cost
• product sales goals
• margin contribution
• customer response likelihood

The Solution

Corios worked with the marketing team to build a mathematical campaign optimization routine using SAS® Marketing Optimization. This solution allocated a margin-maximizing offer per client for each monthly campaign wave. After just four months of design and implementation, the bank began implementing their first optimized campaigns.

The Results

The optimized campaigns produced a net increase of $22 in gross sales per customer. In the aggregate, the profitable sales growth averaged $3.5 million in monthly incremental campaign-driven income. The bank attributed this income growth directly to increased customer response and the profits from accepted offers. As a result of the solution that Corios put in place, the bank can now execute optimized campaigns on close to 80% of their campaign lead volume, several times per month.

Interested in learning how Corios can help your organization? Contact us here.

In order to maximize the effectiveness of prospect contact strategies, you must leverage existing customer analytics, deploy a data-driven approach, and align interaction with larger business initiatives. Recently, Corios Director of Learning and Communication, Mandy Allen, had the opportunity to present this concept at the Marketing loves Sales event in Portland, OR.

If the scenario Mandy describes sounds familiar, and you want to bring harmony to your sales and marketing, let us know, we can help. Also, you can learn more about Corios Harmony here.