February 2008

Canadian Tire Petroleum uses gas
discount coupon to fuel credit card use
DM campaign with compelling visuals and call to action woos
shoppers from “aisles to pumps”. By Kalan Vuksanovich

Client: Alex Attard, Marketing manager, Canadian Tire Petroleum Campaign: “CTP/CTFS Wallet DM Campaign” Agency: Philter Communications Inc. Creative Director: Scott Reid Copywriter: Janine Flaccavento Art Director: Thomas Cullen This 5” X 4” die-cut wallet mailer is tabbed closed, with the image of a protruding five dollar bill emerging from it. Upon unfolding the piece, the consumer is confronted by a 2” X 3” replica of their Options MasterCard.

Any retailer looking to create a buzz about its customer rewards and pluses should take a page from Alex Attard, marketing manager at Canadian Tire Petroleum (CTP). Accepting that gasoline in Canada is essentially a commodity, CTP’s consummate marketer set out to convey a clear message of value to customers who may be neutral to brand names within the fuel marketplace. “Our pluses are primarily our Canadian Tire money,” he explains. “It’s one of our biggest points of difference.”

While virtually all Canadians are aware of the retail operation’s incentive currency, today’s media-saturated environment necessitates that even the best branded incentive pieces target appropriate recipients. To that end, Attard sought the help of Scott Reid, Creative director at Toronto’s Philter Communications (PC). Together, they aspired to develop a direct mail campaign that would speak instantly to CT shoppers about the pluses of visiting the iconic company’s gas stations. Since CTP hadn’t historically employed direct mail to enrich its business Reid was to help it take a leap into uncharted territory. “From a marketing perspective, the project was a bit of a test of the direct mail format,” he admits.

Gas plus
CTP is one of four main Canadian T ire units. The others are Canadian Tire Retail (CTR), Canadian Tire Financial Services (CTFS), and Mark’s Work Warehouse (MWW). CTP locations (known to consumers as Canadian Tire Gas+) provide fuel as well as various convenience products. At the same time, CTP gas bars work to fortify the business of the other CT units. “We exist, obviously, to sell gas, convenience products, and lottery, but also to drive traffic to our interrelated partners,” explains Attard.

Along with retail traffic, CTP aims to increase usage of credit cards issued by CTFS. There are over 270 Gas+ locations across Canada. “CTP stations pump more fuel than anyone else in Canada, based on population, and number of sites,” emphasizes Attard.

Business challenge
CTP’s customer demographic is largely composed of older males who have a fondness for the Canadian Tire experience. “It’s a customer who really understands, and has an affinity for Canadian Tire money,” acknowledges Alex. “They are part of the Canadian Tire family,” he adds. These clients tend to drive older vehicles, and are a little more frugal than the younger “soccer mom” or “hockey dad” client base which frequents the retail stores. As well, many of these shoppers have a particular CTFS issued credit card known as the “Options MasterCard.” By using it, cardholders build up Canadian Tire Money Rewards, (such as reward points) that can be used towards CT purchases.
For convenience alone, one would expect shoppers who are Options MasterCard holders to regularly use them at both CT retail outlets and CTP gas stations but analysis of customer behavior proved otherwise. “CTFS knows that these people have this card, that they have used it to buy gas, that they haven’t used it to buy gas at Canadian Tire Petroleum, but that they have used the card at Canadian Tire retail stores,” notes Reid. Therefore, CTP aimed to increase awareness of the benefits of using the card at CT Gas+ locations. Further, increasing card usage at gas stations would also benefit CT’s retail and financial services units.

Targeting
The CTP target audience for this campaign consisted specifically of the Options MasterCard holders who had never used their CTFS credit cards at a Canadian Tire Gas+ location. For these shoppers, the Options card had been used for many non-CT transactions, in addition to in-house retail purchases. With every single swipe of the card, regardless of the retailer, CT reward dollars are added to the card. Understandably, CT wanted to encourage these people to make purchases at as many CT owned stores as possible. To reinforce this idea, Reid and his team developed a direct mail campaign that hinged on simplicity and relevant visuals.

This campaign was launched in October 2007. Its linchpin, a single, self-standing mailer, was sent out to Options MasterCard holders who had non-CTP transaction records. The mailer was deliberately designed to illustrate the pluses of using the card at Gas+ locations. The mailing list was derived internally from CTFS. For this single wave, B2C campaign, there were approximately 120,000 client-recipients spanning both Ontario and Quebec. The mailer was printed in English and French. CTP knew who and where the target was. Philter Communications simply had to drive home the message.
The mailer itself took the shape of a 5” X 4” die-cut wallet, tabbed closed, with the image of a protruding five dollar bill. Here, the call to action: “Fill up your car. Fill up your wallet” was displayed. Under this, an offer for five dollars off the recipient’s next gas purchase was made. The offer was re-enforced by an obvious visual—the five dollar bill. But inside was where things got really interesting. Upon unfolding the piece, the consumer was confronted by a 2” X 3” replica of their Options MasterCard. This element could be detached to become the coupon for the five dollar gas rebate. Further, it could be redeemed only when used in conjunction with the recipient’s Options MasterCard at a CTP station for a 20 liter fill up. Since the offer expired months after the mail out (early December, 2007), the shopper had ample time to visit the pump. Reid recalls, “When this was going on, the gas prices were alarming.” In turn, consumers were given an extremely relevant and timely offer. But with the savvy visuals, a new meaning could be attached to the image of the Options MasterCard. Instead of associating the card with retail, people couldn’t help but think of gas as well.

Pumping up
Once the results of the 2007 campaign were thoroughly tabulated, a 2008 piece followed. (Its results are still being compiled. This piece has been—at least in part—a test of the direct mail channel itself.) That said, the 2007 campaign’s results showed an astounding response rate of 13 percent. It’s no wonder then that this campaign won the 2008 Nammu award for Best Addressed Admail piece in retail. The firm’s marketing manager summarizes the campaign’s business benefits to date.
“Once the promotion went away, we saw sustained activity from some of the customers. Over the course of a year, there was a sticky factor,” he notes and adds, “We found that the customers who have an Options MasterCard, and who shop at CTR and Canadian Tire Petroleum, are apt to spend more.”

For Reid, the key was in the combination of diligent data farming, interactivity, and the immediate signification of a relevant benefit.

“The list was highly targeted and the offer was really good. Those are the two most important things with any kind of direct mail initiative,” he emphasizes. “The third thing is that the creative has to be compelling enough for people to open it [the mailer], since there’s such an onslaught of things out there for people to look at. We needed to have something that was begging to be opened.”
Based on the results, it’s safe to say that the target audience got exactly that.

Kalan Vuksanovich is an Oakville-based freelance journalist. He can be reached at (905) 580-5159 or by e-mail at kvuksano@ryerson.ca.